Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase

Freelance photographer Kouhei Morioka is traveling to a castle in to take photos of paranormal activity for his friend Hiromi Anzai, editor of an occult magazine. Upon entering the castle, he's confronted by a young girl in a white dress and cat ears who calls herself Hazuki. She takes a keen interest in Kouhei and offers him a kiss, but she instead reveals herself to be a vampire, sucks his blood, and turns him into her slave.

Much to Hazuki's dismay, however, Kouhei is unaffected by her bite. Hoping to escape the castle and her possessive butler Vigo, Hazuki instead forces Kouhei to help her. With the help of his powerful exorcist cousin Seiji Midou, the two make it out safely. Finally free, Hazuki flees to Japan in search of her mother. Not long after Kouhei returns home, he discovers Hazuki has nested in his home, where he reluctantly allows her to stay. Meanwhile, other vampires set out to find the missing Hazuki.

Equal parts gothic and adorable, Tsukuyomi: Moonphase is a charming and mystical story where two unlikely allies form a unique bond in an attempt to defy a society of immortals.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Hazuki Main

Saitou, Chiwa Japanese

Morioka, Kouhei Main

Kamiya, Hiroshi Japanese

Artemis ing

Ishige, Sawa Japanese

Haiji ing

Yamazaki, Vanilla Japanese

Elfriede ing

Kakazu, Yumi Japanese

Midou, Seiji ing

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Midou, Hikaru ing

Kadowaki, Mai Japanese

Editor in Chief ing

Iijima, Hajime Japanese

Midou, Koharu ing

Maruyama, Hiroko Japanese

Frieze ing

Nagahori, Miho Japanese

Clinkenbeard, Colleen Producer, Script, ADR Director

Cook, Justin Producer

Kubota, Mitsutoshi Producer

Yoshida, Hiroshi Producer

Reviews

Aug 31, 2008

Dorcas_Aurelia

Recommended

This series is for those who prefer their vampires to be cute as kittens more often than they are dark and brooding. The mood of the series, like Hazuki's personalities, tend to alternate between the two, although it generally works better when emphasizing the moe aspects, which it does a lot. That said, people with an aversion to cat-eared girls and little-sister types are advised to stay far away.


The plot tends to switch between stretches of seriousness and levity: the first two episodes deal with Hazuki meeting Kohei and escaping the castle, then settling into a silly daily routine before dealing with more villains a ... few episodes later. The story has some difficulty balancing character and relationship developments with plot progression unless it separates such things into different episodes. Perhaps this is why, despite several of the tragedies that various characters suffer, there is little emotional draw to them. Also, as with many adaptations of unfinished manga, a number of plot threads are left untied with the series conclusion, although the series does conclude solidly enough.


The cast are entertaining, although some people may find a number of the younger females straddle the line between adorable and irritating. Hazuki starts off as a stubborn and slightly spoiled little girl, but grows into more of a kinder, caring person over the course of the series. Kohei is the typical kind-hearted and honest but unimpressive boy with an unusual ability/curse that you've seen in so many other series. The ing cast brings a bit of liveliness to the show. Haiji brings a bit of humor as Hazuki's cat-like pet, frequently scolding her master's servant Kohei. Seiji brings a bit of class as the cool-looking and talented relative of Kohei. The best characters, though, are probably Ryuhei and Elfriede, who regularly tease the lead characters, but also connect to each other on a deeper level and share some of the most tender moments in the series.


One can't really talk about Moon Phase without mentioning it's stylistic quirks. As with pretty much any work directed by Akiyuki Shinbo, one should expect interesting and different uses of light and color in many scenes throughout. The typical depiction of the house were much of the story occurs is also diplayed much like a dollhouse, opened up so as to see in all the rooms at once. Also, infamously, yellow washpans are known to come crashing down on various characters for comedic effect.

Designs for the characters are crisp, and backgrounds are appropriately detailed. Action scenes may not be breath-taking, but they are more than adequate for the task they mean to achieve. While the initial television episodes did have a few problems during important scenes, these were all rectified in the DVD release.


Voice work for both languages is well done, although Monica Rial can't quite match the level of cuteness that Chiwa Saito attained playing Hazuki (a minor issue). Background music for the episodes is chosen appropriately for the scene, although it is at times a little overbearing. The dark scenes are ed by haunting and gothic-sounding tones, while the cheery moments are punctuated by spunky and playful tunes. The most catchy song (for good or bad) is absolutely the opening theme, "Neko Mimi Mode De". It's particularly surprising when it drastically interrupts the gloomy introductory scene of the first episode with it's bubbly, sugary tune, simplistic lyrics, and bright colors. The song is devastatingly appropriate for the show. A couple of episodes have an alternate opening song, "Tsukuyomi Mode", that is less syrupy and not so overly energetic, but similar. The closer, on the other hand, is slightly melancholy and more subdued, but leaves little lasting impression.


Moon Phase sets out to be a vampire series built around the concept of "moe", and it largely succeeds. At times, it tries to be something a little more, and it is less definitive in its achievement when attempting this, but rarely strays far from its strength. In all, the series is an entertaining diversion for those looking for something just a little different.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Aug 5, 2008

mlluu92

Mixed Feelings

Intro: Boy's job is to take pictures of the supernatural. Boy's job leads him to castle to meet girl. Girl has multiple personalities and is a vampire. Boy brings girl home. Story unravels there.

Story: The story was actually decent in my mind. It was creative and it included everything one would ask for in an anime. DRAMA, ROMANCE, ACTION, and COMEDY. It although, lacked a decent ending and left a minor amount of questions un-answered, the story fell into place and connected to the next scene of the story. I have nothing really to complain with the story.

Art: The art was the noteworthy thing about ... this anime. The art was detailed yet cute. The characters were nicely drawn. Well, the girls anyway. The guy characters were plain and dull while the girls stood out. The art for the characters however, in my opinion started to go downwards. Either the artist felt lazy or tired, they just stop putting in the effort they did in the beginning. The characters ALL started to look dull. But the scenery and backgrounds, i felt, were very good.

Sound: Nothing really to complain about, yet nothing worthy of an overall compliment. The music and voices of the characters were decent. The theme song started out odd, unique, and annoying but as the anime went on, got catchy. [Well, at least to me anyway. I was singing it.] Again, nothing to complain about and nothing too great to mention.

Characters: Ah, i felt they lacked character growth. I mean, the characters had a history and they grew physically, but it didn't show the depth of what it could of been. The male character is just like any other romance/comedy guy character. It's generic. He's a clutz, weak, and nerdy guy who becomes a total hunk for the girl. The female lead was annoying yet cute, but really annoying in my opinion. she was the main focus of the whole thing, and she just didn't attract me. I felt like she should've spoken lesss. haha. just my opinion. of course, most could feel different. The other characters didn't get much. They were there as people who stood with the mains.

Enjoyment: I started off enjoying this quite a bit. But as it went on, i started to feel annoyed and just all together, found the anime tedious. Usually, as any anime watcher should know, an anime should leave you wanting more and/or thinking: wow, perfect/great ending. I don't even the ending of this anime. And when i found out there was a special, i didn't even want to watch it. I did enjoy the comedy and the action part. I'll give it that.

Overall: If you're looking for an anime that is alright enough to keep you busy, this is it. You may end up loving it and you may end up like me, disappointed. We all have different opinions. I've given mine. I'd only say that this anime just was forgettable. Don't expect to be "WOWed"

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jul 29, 2019

PankiePea

Not Recommended

Despite the bad score I gave this show, I don't think it's completely irredeemable. I actually really enjoyed some episodes individually, but as an overall experience though from start to finish I'm not sure I can recommend it.

The first thing we see in episode 1 is a gothic castle, shrouded in mist that really sets a creepy, atmospheric tone that I found pretty enchanting. By the 3rd episode the tone completely shifts and we're getting cutesy arguments between the tsundere main vampire girl, Hazuki, and Kouhei, her unlikely rescuer. It's actually hard to believe it's even the same show at that point, and the ... series continues to flip-flop between these two tones. The episodes vary greatly: comedy, drama, slice-of-life, romance, and action.

The plot of the show tends to come to a stand-still when the show is tackling more lighthearted themes, but I think these are actually probably the best episodes. These are the episodes where we see Hazuki and Kouhei develop as characters the most, and they were the ones I found myself the most emotionally invested in. The side characters are mostly good too, with Hazuki's guardian spirit, Haiji, stealing the show (though I'm sure some people will find her extremely annoying). None of the side-characters are ever developed very much though, unfortunately, and because of that I found myself massively preferring the episodes that centered on Hazuki and Kouhei.

The "plot" episodes tend to be more focused on action and are... not so good. There is very little explanation of how magic works in this universe, so the viewer is mostly left in the dark on what the hell is actually happening in any given fight scene. The show also has some problems with consistency. Characters randomly gain and lose abilities, and rules that are made early on for combat are later broken. The story is pretty nonsensical in general though, certain plot elements are never explained properly, and it was hard for me to get invested in it.

As far as romance goes, there is VERY little. Hazuki and Kouhei mostly have an older brother/younger sister type relationship. Though they do toe the line on a couple instances. It's a bit awkward since Kouhei is older and Hazuki is like 14.

The comedy is hit-or-miss. There are a couple of pretty funny moments, but it massively overuses random objects (usually wash-bins) falling on characters heads.

The worst part of this show is after episode 16/17 though. The last 8 episodes are extremely bad. Characters make decisions that border on nonsensical, villains randomly appear and then disappear, and there is a whole lot of extremely forced drama. The ending is extremely unsatisfying and leaves massive plot holes and unanswered questions. There are also none of the lighthearted episodes we previously saw in the series in this last batch. I actually wish I had skipped these ones because they left a bad taste in my mouth about the series overall.

The art is pretty okay for an anime from this time period, and I massively prefer the art-style of the anime to the manga. The music is actually pretty great. It's suitably creepy when the atmosphere demands it, and whimsical when something comedic is happening. The opening, "Nekomimi Mode," will probably be hit-or-miss for most people. I personally don't like it but it is extremely memorable at the very least.

Overall, it's an OK show, but I'm not sure I can recommend it. If you do watch it, I strongly advise you don't watch the last 8-ish episodes, due to the severe drop in quality.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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