Apr 8, 2024
Kimi wa Tsukiyo ni Hikarikagayaku (You Shine in the Moonlight) short review
Language read: Thai (official translation, licensed by Piccolo Publishing; original Japanese publisher: Kadokawa)
You Shine in the Moonlight falls into another guilty pleasure narrative trope of mine: the main character falling in love with a terminally ill girl. In contrast with its contemporaries such as 'I Want to Eat Your Pancreas' (novel by Yoru Sumino) and 'Second Summer, Never See You Again' (light novel by Hirotaka Akagi), this time the heroine, Mamizu, suffers from "luminescence disease" (a condition in which the moonlight causes her body to brightly glow) and the protagonist, Takuya, agrees to fulfil
...
her wishlist of things she wants to do before her inevitable death.
One aspect of the novel I particularly enjoy is no other than the interactions between the two leads, Takuya and Mamizu. Their playful dialogue are great to read through but so do their bitter disagreements that stem from Mamizu's condition (the latter nicely humanizing these characters as less than perfect). The novel also engages in themes you normally expect from this type of story: the inevitability of death, the value of life, etc., but there is one particular theme the novel tackles quite well: the prolonged grief and trauma of losing a loved one. The author does a fantastic job showing how the death of Takuya's sister, Meiko, affect him and his relationship with Mamizu as the story progresses. Other characters also have subplots that involve this theme and reinforce it nicely. Another part of the novel that I am fond of is in how believable a lot of characters' actions and motivations are, no matter how seemingly weird or nonsensical they can get. This part is quite difficult to explain without going into heavy spoiler territory, so I will just say that that was how I felt reading the novel.
Overall, I recommend the novel, especially if you already enjoy similar tragic romance works like Pancreas or Second Summer. The interactions between the two leads are great, the themes are well-delivered, and the characters' actions feel strongly believable. Furtherore, I'm looking forward to read the sequel novel ('Kimi wa Tsukiyo ni Hikarikagayaku +Fragments', not in MAL database) sometime in the near future (I've bought it along with this novel).
Final score: 8.5/10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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