TYPE-MOON

^{"TYPE-MOON" redirects here. For the concept in Nasuverse lore, see Crimson Moon.}

TYPE-MOON (タイプムーン, Taipu Mūn^?) is a Japanese company best known for its visual novels. It is known by the name Notes Co., Ltd. (有限会社ノーツ, Yūgen gaisha Nōtsu^?) for its publishing and corporate operations. After releasing the popular visual novel Tsukihime and its related works as a doujin circle, TYPE-MOON incorporated and commercially released the immensely popular visual novel Fate/stay night. These and other TYPE-MOON works have since received several anime, manga, light novels, video games, and CD dramas that have amassed a global fanbase.

History

Doujin circle (1999–2003)

Before the founding of TYPE-MOON, starting in October 1998, writer Kinoko Nasu and illustrator Takashi Takeuchi (who have been friends since their time at junior high school) released the first five chapters of Kara no Kyoukai through their web page Takebouki (竹箒^?, The BAMBOO BROOM in English) and sold the last two at Comic Market 56 in August 1999. At that same time, the two alongside composer KATE and programmer Kiyobee (who were colleagues of Takeuchi when he worked for COMPILE^WP) formed the doujin circle known as TYPE-MOON and distributed a free floppy disk announcing the start of development for a visual novel: Tsukihime. The name "TYPE-MOON" comes from one of Nasu's previous works: Notes..

Tsukihime was initially released at Comic Market 59 in December 2000. It sold extremely well and garnered a large amount of attention because of its comprehensive and expansive storyline and Nasu's unique style of storytelling. Soon after, Sunshine Creation 10 in January 2001 saw the release of Tsukihime PLUS-DISC: an omake disc that mainly served to fix issues the first copies of Tsukihime had and which also featured bonus content. Later, at Comic Market 60 in August of the same year, the fan disc Kagetsu Tohya was released. And then, after the great response it received following the inclusion of its first four chapters in PLUS-DISC, TYPE-MOON printed a complete edition of Kara no Kyoukai split in two volumes that were sold at Comic Market 61 in December.

In December 2002, in collaboration with FRENCH-BREAD^WP (known as Watanabe Seisakujo prior to 2003), TYPE-MOON released at Comic Market 63 the fighting game and visual novel MELTY BLOOD, which serves as the third proper entry in the Tsukihime series and later received the expansion MELTY BLOOD Re-ACT in May 2004. It was very popular and widely considered amongst the best doujin 2D fighting games ever made, to the point where it went from doujin soft to getting a commercial release in the form of MELTY BLOOD Act Cadenza: an arcade port of Re-ACT that was planned alongside it but wasn't released until March 2005. It had a number of updates and rereleases, with an eventual sequel in May 2008 titled MELTY BLOOD Actress Again, which itself had years of later development.

To mark the end of activities as a doujin circle, TYPE-MOON released at Comic Revolution 33 in April 2003 Tsuki-Bako: a specially packaged three-disc set that included Tsukihime, an expanded omake disc named "PLUS+DISC", the fan disc, and a new arrangement for all BGM. Tsukihime's popularity led to the creation of merchandise and memorabilia, and even a 12-episode TV anime adaptation by J.C.STAFF^WP with the title Shingetsutan Tsukihime, which aired from October to December 2003. A manga adaptation illustrated by Sasakishonen using the same title was serialized in the magazine DENGEKI DAIOH^WP from the October 2003 to September 2010 issues, with the chapters collected in ten volumes published by ASCII MEDIA WORKS^WP.

Company

2004–2006: Fate/stay night, hollow ataraxia, and Zero

Around early 2003, the members of TYPE-MOON established the company Notes. (ノーツ, Nōtsu^?), using the name of the original doujin circle as a brand name and homage to their origins. On October 21, 2003, a demo version for its first commercial product, Fate/stay night, was included on a CD with the December issue of the magazine TECH GIAN^WP from enterbrain^WP. That same demo would also be released as a download on November 1 through TYPE-MOON's website.

Fate/stay night released on January 30, 2004. It quickly became a huge success, spawning numerous related products, and later received the sequel known as Fate/hollow ataraxia on October 28, 2005. Fate/stay night would later be turned into a 24-episode TV anime by Studio DEEN^WP, airing from January 7 to June 17, 2006. A manga series to promote the anime started publication on December 26, 2005 in Kadokawa Shoten^WP's magazine Shōnen Ace^WP, which had its conclusion on October 26, 2012 with 20 volumes released.

In a collaboration between TYPE-MOON and Nitro+^WP, writer Gen Urobuchi penned a light novel prequel to Fate/stay night titled Fate/Zero, which Nasu supervised and Takeuchi illustrated. Its first volume released on December 29, 2006; the second on March 31, 2007; the third on July 27, 2007; and the fourth and final on December 29, 2007 along with the image soundtrack Return to Zero produced by ZIZZ STUDIO^WP. As it was a great hit, Fate/Zero was adapted into a CD drama, with the first volume coming out on August 22, 2008 and the fourth and final on January 22, 2010.

2007–　

At Comiket 72 in 2007 they released the "All Around TYPE-MOON drama CD".

On August 30, 2019, TYPE-MOON announced the creation of a game studio subsidiary named “TYPE-MOON studio BB” (as a reference to the character BB from Fate/EXTRA CCC). The goal of this subsidiary is to develop mid to high-scale 3D games in collaboration with third party game developers, as well as small-scale 2D games in-house. The studio director is Kazuya Niinou, who was credited as a producer on Fate/EXTRA, characters and game supervisor on Fate/EXTRA CCC, and worked on Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and the Dragon Quest Builders series for Square Enix.

Staff

Current

• Takashi Takeuchi - Representative company director and producer. In charge of character design and original pictures.
• Kinoko Nasu - Representative company director. In charge of scenario.
• Kiyobee (清兵衛^?) - Company director. In charge of programming.
• KATE - In charge of sound.
• Okashige (OKSG^?) - In charge of mobile home page.
• Koyama Hirokazu - Graphics chief. In charge of original pictures and graphics.
• BLACK - In charge of graphics, direction and script.
• Takao Aotuki - In charge of original pictures and graphics.
• Nori (徳^?) - In charge of sales and public relations.
• Tsukuri Monoji (つくりものじ^WP?) - In charge of direction and script.
• Meteo Hoshizora - In charge of scenario.
• Shimokoshi - In charge of graphics.
• Nokitsu (のきつ^?) - In charge of copyright management and event management.
• Sunadorineko - In charge of 3D modeling and graphics.
• Azanashi (アザナシ^?) - In charge of programming.
• Shimaudon - In charge of graphics.
• Urushinohara (漆之原^?) - In charge of script.

Former

• AZ-UME - In charge of programming.
• MORIYA - In charge of graphics.
• James Harris - In charge of sound.
• hil - In charge of sound.

Releases

Type-Moon have developed and produced the following:

Novels

• Kara no Kyoukai, novel, originally released in October 1998 and reprinted in 2004.
• Tsuki no Sango, novel released in December 21, 2010.
• Fire Girl, a light novel written by Meteo Hoshizora.

Tsukihime

• Tsukihime, PC-based eroge visual novel game, originally released in December 2000.
• Tsukihime PLUS-DISC, released in January 2001.
• Kagetsu Tohya, PC-based Tsukihime sequel, released in August 2001.
• Tsuki-Bako, a specially packaged three-disk set that included Tsukihime, PLUS-DISC and Kagetsu Tohya and a remixed soundtrack for both games and more multimedia, released in April 2003.

Fate

Mainline

• Fate/stay night, PC-based eroge visual novel game, released on January 30, 2004. A DVD version was released on March 29, 2006, and a non-ero PS2 port entitled Fate/stay night Realta Nua has been released in 2007.
• Fate/hollow ataraxia, PC-based Fate/stay night sequel, released on October 28, 2005.
• Fate/Zero, a novel-based Fate/stay night prequel, released on December 12, 2006 with its first volume, and ended with its fourth and final volume released on December 29, 2007.
• Fate/unlimited codes, a fighting game planned by Cavia^WP, developed by Eighting^WP and published by Capcom^WP, based upon Fate/stay night. It was released for the arcades in Japan on June 11, 2008 and for the PlayStation 2 in Japan on December 18. An enhanced port for the PlayStation Portable was released via download from the PlayStation Store on June 18, 2009, followed by a digital release in North America and Europe on September 3 and September 10, 2009 respectively.
• Fate/tiger colosseum, a 3D fighting game based on Fate/stay night, released for the PlayStation Portable by Capcom and cavia, inc. in cooperation with TYPE-MOON. A continuation of the same game was made called Fate/tiger colosseum UPPER, which takes place after the events of Fate/tiger colosseum.
• Fate/stay night Comic Battle, an anthology series collecting a number of Fate/stay night related doujins from various authors published by Kadokawa Shoten.

Prototype

• Fate/Prototype, an animated short by Studio Lerche, distributed with the third home release of Carnival Phantasm on December 2011. Based around the Second Tokyo Holy Grail War, it is the original concept of Kinoko Nasu's for Fate/stay night. It has yet to be adapted as a full series, with only a short animated feature and production notes detailing the story.
• Fate/Prototype: Fragments of Sky Silver, a story detailing the First Tokyo Holy Grail War written by Hikaru Sakurai and illustrated by Nakahara. It is the prequel light novel series to Fate/Prototype and drama CDs have also been made using the same voice actors from the OVA.

Fate/EX

• Fate/EXTRA, a Japanese Dungeon Role Playing Game for PlayStation Portable created by Type-Moon and Image Epoch^WP, published by Marvelous Entertainment^WP. It released in Japan in 2010 and worldwide in 2011. The game is a part of Marvelous Entertainment's TYPE-MOON×RPG PROJECT.
• Fate/EXTRA CCC, a Role Playing Game for PlayStation Portable and a sequel and companion game to Fate/EXTRA. As with its predecessor, the game was developed by Image Epoch in collaboration with TYPE-MOON. The scenario was written by Kinoko Nasu, with Takashi Takeuchi as the character designer and Arco Wada as the illustrator. It was released in Japan on March 28, 2013.
• Fate/EXTRA CCC Fox Tail, an ongoing manga by Seijin Takenoko. The story is based on Fate/EXTRA CCC it is an alternate route to Fate/EXTRA CCC that focuses on Caster as Hakuno Kishinami's Servant. It will explain the background between Tamamo-no-Mae and Amaterasu, and the plot includes planned elements for CCC that were cut from the game.
• Fate/EXTELLA, a video game by Marvelous^WP for PlayStation 4^WP, PlayStation Vita^WP, PC and Nintendo Switch^WP. It takes place in the Fate/EXTRA and Fate/EXTRA CCC world. It was released in Japan on November 10, 2016 and in North America on January 17, 2017. The game was later re-released on Nintendo Switch on July 20, 2017 in Japan and in North America on July 25, 2017.
• Fate/EXTELLA LINK, a video game by Marvelous^WP. It was released on 31 January 2019 in Japan, China and South Korea, and 19 March 2019 in the United States and Europe. It is the sequel to Fate/EXTELLA.
• Fate/EXTRA Last Encore, an anime produced by Shaft^WP that started airing January 27, 2018 on TV in Japan. It started streaming January 31, 2018 on Netflix Japan and June 30, 2018 worldwide on Netflix.

Lord El-Melloi

• The Case Files of Lord El-Melloi II, a novel series written by Sanda Makoto and illustrated by Mineji Sakamoto.
• The Adventures of Lord El-Melloi II, a sequel novel series to Lord El-Melloi II Case Files written by Makoto Sanda. It is set a few years after both Case Files and Fate/stay night.

KOHA-ACE/type Redline

• Fate/KOHA-ACE, a sub-story of Koha-Ace serialized in 2015 featuring the Imperial Capital Holy Grail Strange Story.
• Fate/type Redline, a revised manga adaptation of the Fate/KOHA-ACE storyline debuting on TYPE-MOON Comic Ace December 20, 2019.

Apocrypha

• Fate/Apocrypha, a light novel written by Yuuichirou Higashide with illustrations by Ototsugu Konoe and supervised by Kinoko Nasu who planned and wrote majority of the story elements for Apocrypha characters and the plot. The first volume was released on December 29, 2012 at Comiket 83. The second volume was released on August 16, 2013. The third volume was released on December 29, 2013. The fourth volume was released on May 30, 2014. The fifth and final volume was released on December 30, 2014.
• Fate/Labyrinth, a series written by Hikaru Sakurai and illustrated by Nakahara. It acts as a side story to Fate/Prototype: Fragments of Sky Silver.

Other

• Fate/strange Fake, an ongoing light novel (and manga adaptation) created by Ryohgo Narita, started in 2015 and illustrated by Shidzuki Morii. It expands on the setting of an April Fool's joke published by Narita on his website in 2008 and its short story adaptation in Type-Moon Ace 2 magazine in 2009.
• Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA, a Fate/stay night alternate universe spin-off manga by Hiroshi Hiroyama. An anime adaptation of the first manga series and the first half of the second manga series - 2wei - were produced by Silver Link. An adaptation of the second half of 2weistarted airing on July 25, 2015 and finished airing on September 26, 2015 called Prisma Illya 2wei Herz!. An adaptation of the first part of 3rei aired from July 6, 2016 to September 21, 2016, and the final episode announced a movie adapting the next part of 3rei. An anime sequel is later announced.
• Fate/Requiem, an ongoing novel series written by Meteo Hoshizora and illustrated by NOCO.
• Fate/Grand Order, a mobile “gacha” RPG game for Android and IOS, developed by Delightworks, published by Aniplex and licensed by TYPE-MOON.

Melty Blood

Act sub-series

• Melty Blood, PC-based fighting game, in association with French-Bread, released in December 2002.
• Melty Blood ReACT, PC-based expansion to Melty Blood, released in May 2004.
  • Melty Blood ReACT Final Tuned, update patch to Melty Blood ReACT, released as a free download.
• Melty Blood: Act Cadenza, arcade port to Melty Blood, released on the PS2 platform in 2006.
  • Melty Blood: Act Cadenza Version B, the updated PC port of Act Cadenza, was released on July 27, 2007.
• Melty Blood Actress Again, another game in the series and the final game ported in PS2.
  • Melty Blood: Actress Again - Current Code, the update version of Melty Blood Actress Again, ported to PC, and the final arcade game.

Remake

• Melty Blood: Type Lumina, an HD remake depicted in a reboot timeline, acting as prequel to Tsukihime -A piece of blue glass moon-, to be first released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch in 2021.

Mahoutsukai no Yoru

• Mahoutsukai no Yoru, PC-based visual novel game, originally released on April 12, 2012.

Others

Trajectory of TYPE-MOON (TYPE-MOONの軌跡, TYPE-MOON no kiseki^?) is a book written by Sakagami Shusei and published by Seikaisha Shinsho in November 25, 2017.

External links

• TYPE-MOON Official Web Site
  • TYPE-MOON OFFICIAL HOME PAGE (doujin circle's web page)
• TYPE-MOON studio BB Official Site
• Takashi Takeuchi & Kinoko Nasu's WEB PAGE ”The BAMBOO BROOM”