Ranked #996

Tsukuyomi -MOON PHASE-

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 REMEMBER 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" read more

This won't be your typical review. There are already plenty of those. Instead I just wanted to share my final thoughts about something usually overlooked about Moonphase. Moonphase/Tsukuyomi is a very strange show. I don't just say that because of its reputation for loli level moe. What I mean is, the series as a whole is hard to summarize. Moonphase is easily the kind of show that can give the somewhat misleading impression of "typical". By no means is it some amazing original masterpiece, but the point I'm going to make isn't meant to slam it or demonize it either. In fact, the sole purpose of this "review" is merely to elaborate on the one thing I did find interesting about it. For the most part Moonphase is a very average show in every way. It's not very exciting but it can be very amusing and endearing (or uncomfortable) depending on your tastes. Mostly it's the ending portion of the show that I think deserves some credible mention.

The show starts off generically enough. Annoying/cute young female character, awkward/clumsy older male character, and fairly familiar supporting character archetypes. The first 13 episodes adhere pretty closely to a story about watching the daily antics of a boy/girl and human/vampire relationship. This is where the show brandishes most of its cuteness and comedy (whether you find any of it funny or cute is another matter). Along the way a plot gradually develops with the climax involving defeating the first major villain. This all develops very slowly mind you, so you should not be watching Moonphase if you are expecting fast paced (or a lot of) vampire action.

Everything about the show is still only slightly interesting and mostly mediocre up to this point. Nothing's unforgivably terrible, but there's also nothing new or noteworthy. If you didn't like the show at the beginning, you wouldn't like it any better yet either. It's somewhere after this though, particularly around episode 17, where things really start to change. Like really change. It doesn't become a completely different show or throw in some crazy plot twist, but the overall atmosphere takes a complete change in course.

The setting changes, for one. The previous situations and conditions you may have grown used to change as well. Even the general tones and styles change. Ending themes get new animation, comedy gags get a little more bizarre and random and characters interact in a more straightforward and developmental way. If you liked the show as it was, this is probably the point in the show where you didn't like it the same anymore. The cuteness theme is toned down and the story gets a little more serious. Or perhaps I should say a lot more serious? Where as the first half of the series was very laid back and casual, the latter arc starts to resemble an actual dedicated plot. New villains are introduced and the regular cast adopt more meaningful roles. The story progresses steadily and is now at the forefront of the show instead of in the background. So the whole look and feel of the last third of the show is significantly different than the rest. By the end it is obvious that there is still more story that could be told but everything that could be wrapped up neatly is, and that's really all one can ask for. I thought the show was actually genuinely funnier and more entertaining, so much that it made me wonder if some new director took over halfway through it.

The funny thing about Moonphase is that I originally watched it because I had very, very low expectations and wanted to bear witness to just how creepy or moe it really was. Although elements of both were present that were a little weird/disturbing, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had been led to believe. So like I said before, it's not really awful, but it is awfully average. It's a shame because I kind of liked what the show had become, so if the whole series began the way it ended Moonphase would've probably been much more well received.

There were some interesting artistic choices, like the whole dollhouse point of view, and the dubbing was good for what they had to work with. The opening/ending themes grow on you, if you can bring yourself to watch more than a few eps. Definitely not for everyone, and I wouldn't recommend to anyone who doesn't really like overly cutesy or silly anime, but there are worse things you could watch... read more