Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase

Freelance photographer Kouhei Morioka is traveling to a castle in Germany 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]

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Adaptation:	Tsukiyomi
Side story:	Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase Special

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Characters & Voice Actors

Hazuki

Main

Saitou, Chiwa
Japanese

Morioka, Kouhei

Main

Kamiya, Hiroshi
Japanese

Artemis

Supporting

Ishige, Sawa
Japanese

Haiji

Supporting

Yamazaki, Vanilla
Japanese

Elfriede

Supporting

Kakazu, Yumi
Japanese

Midou, Seiji

Supporting

Sakurai, Takahiro
Japanese

Midou, Hikaru

Supporting

Kadowaki, Mai
Japanese

Vargas

Supporting

Saizen, Tadahisa
Japanese

Midou, Ryuuhei

Supporting

Mugihito
Japanese

Jeda

Supporting

More staff

Staff

Clinkenbeard, Colleen

Producer, Script, ADR Director

Cook, Justin

Producer

Kubota, Mitsutoshi

Producer

Shinbou, Akiyuki

Director, Storyboard, Animation Check

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Opening Theme

	1: "Neko Mimi Mode" by Dimitri From Paris (eps 1-8,10-13,15-24)
	2: "Tsuku Yomi Mode" by Dimitri from Paris (eps 9,14)

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Ending Theme

	1: "Pressentiment triste" by marianne Amplifier feat. yuka (eps 1-2,9,14,19)
	2: "Kanashii Yokan (悲しい予感)" by marianne Amplifier feat. yuka (eps 3-6,8,10-13,15-16,18,20-24)
	3: "Nami no Toriko ni Naru You ni (波のトリコになるように)" by Noriko Ogawa (eps 7)
	4: "Just for my love" by Mai Kadowaki & Miyu Matsuki (DVD ep 19)
	5: "Neko Mimi Mode" by Chiwa Saito played Hazuki (eps 25)

Reviews

Aug 21, 2014

bearvarine

Recommended

I really enjoyed this series. It is one of the few I have actually watched twice.

The thing about this series is that it is almost more interesting as a survey of the Japanese Occult than for the story itself.

The story is about Kohei Morioka who is a photographer for hire. He investigates a castle in Germany but while there, becomes ensnared with Hazuki, a young vampiress. She bites him and tries to make Kohei her slave, but something goes wrong with her magic and she cannot control him, a fact that enfuriates her. In fact, he takes pity on her and ...

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Oct 9, 2015

ggultra2764

Mixed Feelings

Moon Phase seemed like a series that wasn't sure what kind of story it wanted to tell, mixing rom-com and vampire drama in its focus on male lead Kouhei's interactions with 14-year old vampire gal Hozuki, though both elements are still lackluster. The comedy and drama to the series comes from Hozuki adjusting to living life outside her castle while Kouhei puts up with her antics and Kouhei's family trying to protect her from other vampires trying to drive her back to the castle. The comedy was mostly lackluster for me since it relied on many of the same gags such as Hozuki's obnoxious tsundere ... character and waterpans randomly falling on the cast for whatever reason during both mundane and serious moments. It also occasionally gets in the rather annoying habit of pandering to the audience as some scenes in the series only serve to feature the younger cast members of Moon Phase striking cute poses, having their idiosyncrasies and wearing various clothes or costumes.

The drama to the series is just as underwhelming. It does offer a decent amount of character development with Hozuki and Kouhei with the former learning to better interact socially with others while searching for her mother and Kouhei wanting to protect her from vampire threats, though the majority of secondary characters and villains don't get as much fleshing out limiting how much one could care for them. There is emphasis on strategizing against vampire threats with Kouhei's family as they are spiritualists, but these are mostly pointless as each vampire threat gets conveniently dealt with through whatever random power upgrade that Hozuki or Kouhei gain. The romance that Moon Phase also tries to play up between Hozuki and Kouhei (along with his two younger female cousins) may make some viewers uneasy considering their younger age as Kouhei is a young adult and the girls in question are barely teenagers, with their character designs making them look even younger. Even when not factoring this possibly uncomfortable fact, I am not a fan of our two leads as a pairing due to Hozuki's rather obnoxious tsundere character.

Visually, Moon Phase is rather average for a mid-2000s title. Scenery and character designs have a good amount of detail and shading to them. The animation isn't too heavy on fluid movements like KURAU Phantom Memory or Paranoia Agent, but depicts enough to move the anime along. Shaft fans may be surprised to know that this is one of the acclaimed studio's earlier works they did without having a joint production with other animation studios, considering the studio's rep in recent years for creating highly detailed and avant-garde visuals with works like the Monogatari franchise, Madoka Magica and the two TV anime adaptations of ef.

Nonetheless, I wouldn't really find myself recommending Moon Phase due to having a number of flaws to its comedy and drama, as well as seeming like it was trying too hard at points to pander to its audience. Either stick to the studio's more recent works or if you want a vampire series, try hunting down more better quality titles like Blood+ or Hellsing Ultimate.

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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.

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Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase

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Morioka, Kouhei

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Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase

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