Overview

Kohaku (琥珀, Kohaku, lit. Amber) is a maid of the Tohno household and Hisui's twin sister. Her trademark is the large blue ribbon tied at the back of her head. She is one of the heroines of the far side route of Tsukihime.

She is bright and cheerful on the surface, but behind that she hides something dark and murky.

Her job is mainly to manage the finances of the mansion and take care of the cooking and garden. Her work is flawless, but on the other hand, she is devastatingly bad at tidying up and cleaning. This area is made manageable by the complementary relationship she shares with her younger sister, Hisui, that's what twins are for!

However, while tending to her garden, she also grows ornamental plants, but head of the household, Akiha, seems to disapprove of them because they look too bad. Is it so strange that the plants in the garden moves around and breathes fire and gas?

On pixiv, art of Kohaku is tagged as Kohaku-san (琥珀さん, Kohaku-san).

Background

She is an orphaned child of a family with Synchronization abilities, and originally comes from a branch of the Fojou clan, which produces many Fojous. She was taken in by the Tohno family with Hisui around the same time as Shiki Tohno.

In fact, the sisters were taken in by the Tohno family because their Synchronization abilities were needed to control the outbursts of Makihisa Tohno, the head of the family at the time. Makihisa intended to "use" both sisters, but because Kohaku protected her sister, no harm was done to Hisui. Instead, Kohaku was left alone to suffer humiliation (since the most effective way to transmit Synchronization abilities is through bodily fluids), beatings, kicking, and other assaults from the violent Makihisa, who suffered from the urge to reverse his actions. In addition to not being very good at expressing her emotions, Kohaku has been conscious of becoming an emotionless doll in order to survive the hellish days, and as a result, she has lost sight of what it means to be a human being.

This is further confirmed when she is asked by Makihisa to take care of the inverted SHIKI Tohno, and is subjected to the same assault by him. In order to be conscious of the fact that she is human, she decides to take revenge against the whole Tohno's family, following the logic that if she were human, she would take revenge after being treated so badly. She puts on a mask of a smile and plays a vivacious character like her former sister, but behind the scenes, she is secretly scheming to get SHIKI to kill Makihisa and control Akiha as well by persuading her to lie. However, Kohaku's revenge takes a different turn when Shiki returns, a person who is related to the love she has harbored since her childhood.

Also, at the time of Tsukihime, Akiha was aware of Makihisa's actions and Kohaku's revenge plan, but she was watching it quietly. If Kohaku wanted revenge, she had no choice but to accept it. This may be the reason why he is so lenient towards her pranks after Kagetsu Tohya.

Development

Surprisingly, the original plan was for her to have no exclusive route.

By order from Takashi Takeuchi, who saw her popularity in the Tsukihime trial version and felt the need for her, Kinoko Nasu had to write the scenario in about a week (a.k.a. Seven Days of Fire (炎の七日間).

Nasu was apparently opposed to the idea, saying it was impossible, but when he decided to make a certain character an enemy, he was able to make it work.

The Kohaku route was originally a hidden route, but due to a bug, it was accessible from the beginning. Nasu, who created it with the intention of hiding it with all his might, was, according to Takeuchi, "more furious than I have ever seen him before".

The bug originated from a flaw in the flowchart, which was also caused by Nasu, who was responsible for creating and maintaining the flowchart.

This flowchart bug has been corrected in reprint pressings released after February 2001. As a result, the pre-fixed (first edition pressing) now sometimes commanded a higher premium price than the reprint pressing. Also, the disc's color differs between the first and second editions: the former is blue and the latter is reddish purple.

Appearance

fig. 1 Doujin Version, fig. 2 Remake Version.

Kohaku as the same short red hair and pale skin tone as Hisui making them hard to tell apart. Kohaku had used this to her advantage by using colored contacts over her golden eyes during an event in Tsukihime. She usually wears a blue ribbon tied to the back of her hair and a brown kimono and white apron. In the remake her kimono was switched to a black one.

It is difficult to notice when playing the game, but while Hisui looks expressionless in Tsukihime, in fact has many subtle facial expression differences in her standing sprites. Kohaku's facial expressions change dramatically, but in fact have few differences.

Both Hisui and Kohaku's age is unknown, but from the description in Tsukihime, it can be judged that they are the same age as Shiki or about one year older. However, Kohaku's family register was altered to allow her to become a pharmacist, and her age on the document is considerably older than Shiki.

In Tsukihime's main story, she goes out in plain clothes,, but her pitch-black, mourning-like turtleneck gives a dark impression for her. Those who could deduce from this that Kohaku's smile is fake are quite intuitive.

Kappogi Mention

What she is wearing is not a kappogi. To be precise, it is a kimono with an apron. A kappogi is a smock used to prevent the kimono from getting dirty (some may understand it as a Japanese school lunch uniform), so it is meaningless if the sleeves are sticking out.

The original artist has stated, "It's very late, so don't bother me anymore. I am in pain as well.".

Personality

In the Tohno household, Kohaku is the only one who has a television in her room. There is also a video game system, but it is hidden away because Akiha would throw it away if she finds it. She is a very skilled player because of her obsessive nature.

Whether it is because of this setting or as a result of the author's taste, in Koha-Ace she possesses an unusually maniacal knowledge of games, and she is obsessed with the Fukubukuro corner (a common name for the pages that used to exist in Comptiq magazine, where adult games were introduced in bags as part of the zoning system).

As for the Sega mania in particular, it is not hard to see the similarity in the fact that in Melty Blood her own Mech-Hisui had armaments derived from Sega's Phantasy Star Online.

Curry is never served at meals in the Tohno household. They can be usually made, but the reason is that Kohaku does not recognize curry as a dish. Naturally, Ciel and I would never get along.

Related Illustrations

Related Articles

Magical Amber　Mr. Chin　Kohaku (Tsukihime)　Hisui-chan　Akiha Tohno　HisuKoha　Tohno Household　Koha-Ace

External Links

English

Kohaku | TYPE-MOON Wiki | Fandom

Kohaku | TYPE-MOON Wiki | Fandom

Kohaku | TMdict

Japanese

琥珀 - TYPE-MOON Wiki

Chinese

琥珀（游戏《月姬》及其衍生作品中的角色）_百度百科

Article in Other Languages

琥珀さん