Tsukuyomi -Moon Phase-

Tsukuyomi -Moon Phase-

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Every now and again you find that you are fortunate enough to watch an Anime that is a well written and beautifully animated with a story that unfolds before your eyes in a truly captivating style and format that leaves you hungry for more. Tsukuyomi Moon Phase is not one of those Animes, and it's truly a shame. From the beginning to the rather lackluster conclusion, Moon Phase proves to be a not so clever collection of plot holes and an absurd over use of "Neko-mimi" or "Cat Ears". There is absolutely nothing serious about this anime, it's quite possibly best described a somewhat decent time killer that follows the basic Anime story telling formula without fail.

Story – 3/10


The series focuses primarily around a young Japanese Photographer named Kouhei who travels to Germany's mythical Black Forest to capture some spooky images for a science fiction magazine. Co-workers Hiromi and Seiji join this quest to exploit Kouhei's strange talent for taking pictures of spirits and ghosts that normally go unseen by the naked eye. However, as the young Kouhei takes photographs of a dark and depressing looking castle in the heart of the forest, he catches sight of a young girl in white sitting on the roof. Although he takes many pictures of her, he is heart broken to find his perfect model is no where to be seen on any of the developed photos.

In a desire to find out more about her, Kouhei sneaks into a castle full of strange ghosts and spirits that he, unlike everyone else, can not see. His strange ability leads him to the mysterious young girl Hazuki, who could not quite keep herself in a single state of mind. Constantly jumping from one personality to the next, Hazuki would sometimes call herself Luna, and under the light of the full moon she attempts to take Kouhei as her slave. It turns out Hazuki is a vampire, and furthermore, a Japanese vampire who lives in a castle in Germany. This was one of the first of many, many plot holes that the story could not help but trail back to time and again.

Eventually Hazuki finds her way back to Japan where she ends up living with Kouhei and his family. Once there she sinks her claws into her deep rooted and unfounded feline fetish that leads to various gags and giggles and quite possibly one really funny intro at Episode 15. But Moon Phase really sticks to the run-of-the-mill formula for Anime as it does from one primary villain to the next, with a couple of humor driven Episodes driven in-between. However, the story takes a real shot out into left field at the latter half of the 10's and never comes back. Massive story gaps leave you scratching your head and various incomplete animated fight scenes can not help but leave a bitter taste in your mouth.

By the time the series concludes you wind up with a massive amount of questions that will forever go unanswered, for at Episode 25 it's quite obvious the series is pulled and driven to cancel before any story elements could even be completed. So in the end, you can not help but feel like this Anime just did a number of on you, as it attempted to drive humor, drama, and the ever so mundane use of the typical vampire mythos all topped with a big pare of white fluffy NekoMimi Cat Ears down your throat.


Visuals - 4/10

Perhaps the best animation that this series will have to offer can only be found in the first few episodes. After that things start to slowly degrade little by little until you are simply seeing the same cells repeated over and over again just with some minor changes. You can not help but get a very dark and exotic feeling from the opening of this series as it tries to display a young vampire girl cast in the shroud of shadow, surrounded by twisted sculptures depicting dark and mutilated beings. But all of it is just a catchy little hook that fades into nothing when the real series kicks down the door as Hazuki comes to Japan.

Certainly there are some decent fighting animations; by they come as often as the full moon. Even the introduction to the anime leaves a bitter taste in your mouth as it's obviously sugar coated and tries to mock the personality of the young vampire girl. Often when the girl's personality changes, so does the introduction. Switching from a confusing intro, to an even MORE confusing intro that really gives you a head ache. Perhaps the real shining jewel is Episode 15's intro, but that doesn't really hold any real humor unless you endure the other two first or know what is happening in the story at that moment.

During some serious battles in this Anime, you can not help but notice there are some vast color changes to the character's taking part. Instead of seeing nicely painted cells, you tend to get whole characters consisting of just one or two colors. Either it is red, green, yellow, blue, or grey. This tends to get a little annoying as it happens a lot during all those major battles with major bad guys. Certainly it's a unique take, but it doesn't quite grasp the symbolism very well, and just seems to scream of budget short cuts to make a better animated fight scene at the cost of coloration. That doesn't include some moments when the sound track keeps playing, and you are simply trapped watching a repeating animation and left to wonder what is really supposed to be happening at that moment in time.

Let's not forget all those instances in this series where they repeat the same 'shocking scene' three or four times in a row before continuing things once again. It's even more of a shame that they don't even give faces to the following villains in the story, or give them much air time. They tend to just mask them behind anime helmets and never once reveal their true nature as the series comes to a close. It's a bitter reminder that budget is the life blood of any Anime, and Moon Phase obviously had none towards the end.

Audio - 5/10

Though the music is catchy, it's just a repeated sound track of everything you heard in Episodes one and two. It's rather fast paced, non-lyrical vocals that speed along in either high beat tones for fast paced combat, or a lonely undulations of moaning voices that could give you a sense of sadness. Ultimately if you heard it in the earlier half of the series, you will hear it again later. There isn't really much here but good ole Japanese voice acting.

Characters - 2/10

Sadly, the characters are really very shallow and repetitive. If you are seeking something unique here, you will not find it. It seems that we get the typical brand of young human hero seeking to protect a mystical girl from the evils of her world. In the back ground is the wise elder who provides skill and mentoring while indulging in the exploitation of his own gifts for his own perversion and benefit. And somewhere a long the lines a rather full lipped rival to our young hereon appears but she soon forgets her role. The villains are lacking as well, as you do not get much character development from their end, or from many of the other cast members.

On the upside this series is not Naruto, which seems to live in constant flashbacks, however, this one series could certainly use more. Perhaps offer a little more information for those new and sudden characters they toss into the mix towards the end of the series to make their presence valid and relevant. The series even fails to bring in possibly one of the most critical of all characters the entire story centers around, the great master all these villains work for. Nothing seems to be very well written as most of the characters just seem to exist and not truly have a real driving role in the overall story.

Overall - 4/10

Moon Phase has is moments, but they are too few and far between. It certainly had some potential in the grounding stages, but it's obvious none of it was exploited. It all seems run of the mill and mundane, very boring and confusing at times. It's not something you want to write home about or swear your soul to fandom. This is just one of those Animes that really offers nothing new or interesting to the field; it just tries to reuse what everyone else has done in hopes of making it somewhere. The only thing this series really does have for itself is the extreme abundance of NekoMimi. At the end of the series almost everything is wearing Cat Ears, from buildings, to mountains, monkeys, and mikos; even the villains take part in wearing those adorably cute Cat Ears for no real purpose at all.

So if you enjoy watching a LOT of pots and pans dropping on people’s heads, as well as a 350cc Overdose of NekoMimi, then this Vampire themed Anime is just for you. I can't say it's one of my personal favorites; it's just another droplet of water in the Anime wave.

Worth-While Moments

Episode's 15 Introduction.
Episode 12 reaveals a scene from Episode 21 in the form of a Manga the Grandfather is reading.

I agree with you wholeheartedly. Normally, once I downloaded something I will watch them all, however, I watched Moon Phase and it was so murderously boring, I was compelled to delete the rest of them. Not that I care about this show anyway. Pure waste of time. I feel sorry for an hour of time I have wasted watching the crap. Literally.

[BTime]

I'm going to post a counter review in a couple of days. I remember reading a message somewhere that gave a breakdown regarding the opening segments, which basically go right over our heads in the USA as most of it would require cultural knowledge most of us don't have. For those that normally skip over the OP of a show, there are a number of visual changes in key segments of the OP of every episode.

I had a good time with the show personally, and general concensus is that it's one you'll love or hate.

Examples as ganked from AnimeSuki Forums (sorry not to credit the posters, but it's stupid late and I'm tight for time);

The udon that Hazuki pops out of is tsukimi udon. Udon with an egg in it; to make it look like a full moon. Basically all the things she's in and doing are connected to the moon. I don't get the egg omlete at the end. Is it just shaped like the crescent moon or is there more to it?
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tsukinami na omelet. They were kind of stretching it there.

[kevphil]

I have been watching Moon Phase for some time on Funimation (almost the ONLY good thing about my cable provider), and I have to generally agree with most of your comments. I'm also a bit creeped-out by the apparent youth of the heroine, but I guess that's just a Japanese cultural oddity/conceit.

Something I am VERY confused about, and was glad to read you reference ("... So if you enjoy watching a LOT of pots and pans dropping on people’s heads...") are the raining washtubs.

I took them to represent a sudden moment of realization or revelation, but they become so ubiquitous, especially in later episodes, and show up even in otherwise dramatic moments, that I wanted to know your take on their symbolism.

I understand that the Japanese employ a lot of quirky humor, but when a writer/director doesn't take their own work seriously, it's hard for anyone else to. It can really spoil the mood and momentum of any story.

Again, I enjoyed your commentary very much. Thanks!

[r-18]

i have seen the wash tub gag in a few different shows