Kariya starts as just about the nicest guy in the world. He leaves the Matou family since they're a bunch of dicks, happily watches the love of his life get married to another dude, and then loves her children as if they were his own. I have a thing for parent or parental figure characters but this being Fate/Zero, Kariya isn't handled in the typical way. He agrees to become the Matou family's master in order to save Sakura from having a terrible life.
whoops
If he actually succeeded, I think I would like him a lot more but he just fails all the time. The scenes where he chokes Aoi and his death were among the most depressing in the show. But having read F/SN first, you know right away that while he has good intentions, it's not going to matter by the end.
poor guy
-- Mr. All Days Off MILLIONS OF POSTS, MILLIONS OF POSTS The Primetime Posting Hours Players MILLIONS OF POSTS
Anyway, Berserker is really badass. His ability to turn anything into a noble phantasm is conceptually one of the coolest abilities ever. Unfortunately, this mostly stays conceptual as he's just kind of disappointing. His introduction was awesome where he makes Gate of Babylon look like nothing. Then he just didn't really do much. Then he rode a freaking fighter jet which is pretty much totally nonsensical but god is it badass. Sadly, it doesn't last that long. Anyway, I heard they cut out a lot of his final fight against Saber so it should be cool to see that when the BD comes out, assuming they add it.
But there's really so much they could have done with "anything can be a noble phantasm" and well, yeah.
whoops
-- Mr. All Days Off MILLIONS OF POSTS, MILLIONS OF POSTS The Primetime Posting Hours Players MILLIONS OF POSTS
Here we have our favorite anemic migraine-after-migraine protagonist. As a character he doesn't have many personality traits that interest me, but he DOES have his moments here and there. The main problem is that Tsukihime doesn't exactly make you care much about Shiki. In every route the focus is either on the heroine and/or the villain, and despite seeing the events through Shiki's eyes and seeing him do some badass things, it usually doesn't come off as memorable save for a few exceptions during the climaxes of each route. It's hard to define his character and his anemic/headache fits can get pretty annoying. I am glad though that Nasu actually wrote a decent backstory for him, but it doesn't appeal to me that much. The split personality aspect of him admittedly did not make me care more for him that much, but did serve to make him stand up to the enemies in the story.
So what I do like about him are said moments during the routes' climaxes, where he becomes a demonic killer that can even scare the likes of Arcueid. The fact that he's frail but deadly is also pretty cool. He also introduced me to one of my favorite powers in fantasy, the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. I mean, literally cutting existence. That's just great.
And really with moments like THIS CHAIR THIS CHAIR THIS CHAIR how can you not appreciate the quality of writing that went into Tohno Shiki?
When she's not getting owned by pretty much everything, Caster plays a pretty good antagonistic figure (aka UBW). The way she and her master worked together was awesome, and it really showed how different the Caster class can be from all the other servants. One of my favorite things about F/SN and F/Z are the servant character designs, and imo Caster is no exception to that. I think she should have gotten more screentime showing more of her capabilities, but alas, she mostly just jobs in Fate and HF.
Speaking of capabilities, it was really neat to see a servant so different from the rest, how she's basically a typical master in servant form, seeing as how she summoned Assassin and killed her first master. She also possessed Rule Breaker, which is an awesome noble phantasm and its usage in Heaven's Feel is a really amazing moment. My favorite moment involving her though, has to be the Shirou and Rin vs. Caster and Souichirou fight. But really it's not actually Caster that's shining there. :) As an antagonist she was of course most effective when she took Taiga hostage and negated Shirou's contract with Saber. That was pretty unexpected development, and the despair it put me through was great.
Berserker doesn't have as much personality as most characters but he's completely insane so what do you expect. He's really intimidating though, especially in Fate. He's actually kind of a disappointment in the other two routes since he gets totally wrecked by Gil and then Shirou. Haha remember when this dude was unstoppable and it took Shirou, Saber, Rin, AND Archer a ton of work and Archer's life to kill him? Good times man. But yeah, in Fate he's really intimidating and that's the incarnation I remember the most. He also has a tendency to die in awesome ways. He's also literally Hercules.
-- Mr. All Days Off MILLIONS OF POSTS, MILLIONS OF POSTS The Primetime Posting Hours Players MILLIONS OF POSTS
Sacchan makes my list for several reasons. She plays that lovable, childhood friend type-ish character (who isn't really a childhood friend) whom the main is completely oblivious to when it comes to her feelings. Since her character design is pretty decent too, she becomes one of the immediately likable characters in Tsukihime. Her integration into the main plot doesn't really make its true impact until the Far Side routes, where she's directly involved in the first amazing moment that proved to me that I should expect greater things from the Far Side than the Near Side.
Seeing good-hearted characters get corrupted is a really great story-telling device in making us root for the protagonist against the antagonists. This is made even better when Shiki has to actually kill her after all the conversation that they have for her own sake and for the city's. She's definitely a pity character, and who knows how much higher she could have been if her route actually came out with the game (let's go Tsukihime remake).
But for starring in one of the most memorable moments in Tsukihime, Sacchan makes my list, even though that moment was about how much of a terrible situation she was in. Isn't it sad, Sacchin?
-- hey I'm not a stalker I just want to be bros - literally zea ~KF~
I'll get the bad out of the way first. I'm not really fond of Arc's character design (honestly she looks too old to be Shiki's love interest). Her personality isn't anything to write home about, but as the icon and mascot of Tsukihime (and arguably Type Moon in general) she has enough importance to stand out.
Her cheerful, curious, and vibrant personality make her pretty cute. This contrasts heavily with how much she is actually capable of, which makes her sincerity and innocence all the more admirable. The way she's portrayed as a foreign entity is great, as can be seen in her dates with Shiki and her perceptions of his world. She's a strong, dependable, and honest figure that still manages to feel light and cheery due to her demeanor. It's an interesting take on really powerful characters, especially since she's not oblivious to how powerful she really is. Pretty much all of what I like about her stems from how much I respect her, and I respect her a good bunch.