Tohno-chan

Tohno-chan (tohno-chan.org) is a long-standing niche imageboard dedicated to the works of Type-Moon, specifically the visual novel Tsukihime and its fighting game spin-off Melty Blood. It is one of the older surviving “specialty” boards in the Western anime fandom.

1. Key Dates and Registration

• Domain Registration: The current domain tohno-chan.org was registered on August 25, 2011.
• First Wayback Machine Capture: The Internet Archive first crawled the .org domain on August 29, 2011.
• Earlier History: The site actually predates its current domain. It originally existed as tohno-chan.com, which was active as far back as 2007. The community migrated to the .org domain in 2011 due to administrative changes and domain ownership shifts common in early imageboard history.
• Launch: The community solidified around 2007–2008, during the peak era of early Type-Moon fan translations.

2. What is the site?

Tohno-chan is an anonymous imageboard that serves as a dedicated hub for fans of the Nasuverse (the shared universe created by Kinoko Nasu).

• Core Subject Matter: While it has boards for general anime and games, its heart is /tm/ (Type-Moon), where users discuss Tsukihime, Fate/stay night, Kara no Kyoukai, and Mahoutsukai no Yoru.
• Community Vibe: It is often described as a “comfy” alternative to 4chan’s /a/ (Anime & Manga) or /v/ (Video Games) boards. Because it is smaller, the discussions tend to be more focused on lore, technical visual novel troubleshooting, and niche fan art.
• The “Old Web” Feel: The site uses a very traditional Futaba-style interface (specifically the Kusaba or Tinyboard variants) and has intentionally avoided modernizing its layout to preserve its late-2000s aesthetic.

3. What does the name mean?

The name is derived from the central characters of the visual novel Tsukihime:

• Tohno: This is the surname of the protagonist (Shiki Tohno) and his sister (Akiha Tohno). The Tohno family and their mansion are the primary setting for the original Tsukihime story.
• Chan: The standard suffix for “channel” or “imageboard.”
• Tohno-chan: Effectively translates to “The Tohno Family Imageboard.” Using the protagonist’s name was a common way for early “shrine” or niche boards to signal exactly which fandom they belonged to.

4. History and Community Context

Tohno-chan is historically significant because it was the primary English-speaking hub for Melty Blood (a fighting game) for many years before specialized fighting game discord servers became the norm. It acted as a bridge for Western fans to access Japanese patches, fan-translations, and competitive “tech” for Type-Moon games during an era when these titles had no official Western releases.

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