NOTE: Before going any further, I just want to disclose that I'm not the biggest fan of SoL, especially when comedy is sparse. So just remember that this is from a perspective of someone who generally tends to avoid these types of shows. Also, I'll be diving into spoilers, as I don't think I'll be able to convey why I just couldn't stuff last 2 episodes otherwise. So, with that said, let's get this over with.
Story: 1/10
Now, I could write something generic here, like "well, truly, there is no story" or something along the lines of "whatever little story there is, it sucks", but the problem with Tsuki ga Kirei runs much, much deeper when it comes to the general narrative. Not only is it pretty cliche in terms of where plot points begin, how they climax and where they end, but it is absolutely ruined by its snail-slow pace. Now, again, this is one of the reasons why I tend to dislike SoLs in the first place: lack of forthcoming narrative. I believe that all stories should have, well, a story. It doesn't have to be epic. It doesn't have to invoke thunder-like emotions. But, it has to have a story. Otherwise, it's just a string of sketches, and it has no point. And that's the problem with Tsuki ga Kirei: it has no point.
For an example, first 2 episodes (~40 minutes), have about 5 minutes of material in the terms of narrative. Which is why nearly every new scene has like 15 establishing shots for no reason. 5 minutes of narrative, with absolutely no comedy worth a dime, stretched to 40 minutes run time. I don't understand. What's the point? Is this supposed to convey some deeper meaning I'm missing? Is it about how life is truly mundane and how little to nothing happens in our daily lives? Perhaps. Maybe that was the intention. However, there are better ways to convey this, and stretching it to 40 minutes certainly isn't a way. Maybe there's even more to it, but I'm not seeing it. I just kept trying to fill in the blanks with my own imagination, but I don't feel like it was supposed to go that way.
From episode 2 onward, this speeds up somewhat, but the whole narrative is so bare bones that nothing of true consequence happens. First and foremost, what's even the point of this story? It can't be coming of age story, as characters aren't old enough for that. It can't be relaxing romance because it's boring. It can't be comedy because it's not. It can't be melodrama because it has no drama. Is it really just 'daily lives of middle school kids who kinda like each other for some reason and decide to date'? If you ever took classes on storytelling, the very first thing you'll learn is to avoid cliches. Second is that your story generally needs to have a threefold structure: incisive beginning, cumulative climax and natural ending. Whether it's in the terms of the entire narrative or just short arcs within it, if you decide to stray from this formula, you better have dozens of years of experience when it comes to writing, or whatever you do will amount to nothing. Which is the case here.
In terms of romance here, I don't get it. Ayame and Azuki have no chemistry. They are just awkward teens that kind of decide to date. And I mean really 'awkward' of the 'awkward' kind. They're both shy, indecisive, reclusive, silent. These couples are some of the worst to write about because they have nothing captivating about them. Who will ever say that Ayame or Azuki, as individuals, are great, or even memorable, characters? No one. This isn't the case of two terribles making something great, just enhancing their template terribleness even further. All the moments they share are stuffed to shit with silence and awkward glances. I get it. That's how teens are. However, it's not interesting. Whenever we reminiscence of teen days, we don't talk about awkward relationships where nothing of consequence happened because even we forgot about it. And that's another problem here: nothing is memorable.
They don't have a moment together where you go 'haaah I'll remember that for good while'. Even their 'kiss' scene is cluttered with 'artsy' foreground and background to the point that the focus of the entire scene is indiscernible. I get what the show was going for, I really do. It aimed to convey the awkward days, the innocence of youth, but there's a reason why every other show that does this adds more to it: it's because that concept can't stand on its own. Hell, even in movie form, it can't stand on its own, let alone for 12 episodes. As someone who generally hates 'drama for the sake of drama' in shows, I was PRAYING for something to happen, anything. But even when it did, the show played it so safe I wondered what the hell was the point.
Okay, I feel like I rattled on about the story for a bit too long. I'll probably get back to it when I get to the characters, but, for the time being, let's move on.
Art: 5/10
Art has two sides: good and bad. Whenever there are only a few characters on screen, it's pretty decent. The pointless white highlights on every character were unnecessary and distracting, but it was okay. The show does have some decent moments (my favorite scene is actually the opening scene as it pans over rather interesting architecture), and bolsters some pretty decent background work.
However, it all falls apart whenever we see a group of people. CG people. It clashes with background far too much, it's amateurish, it's absolutely ugly, and even people casually watching it will notice. And, as the show loves to have 26 establishing shots for every scene, you can bet your sweet ass that those CG monstrosities will be showing up in every episode. I know it's expensive to animate such scenes, but at least put some effort into CG. If you can't handle it, don't try to go for the 'impressive' perspective to awe the viewer when details ruin the entire scene.
In terms of animation, it's similar to art. It has some competent animation, especially when it comes to running/dancing, but outside of it it's pretty basic. There were several atrocious scenes when people were running outside of track, but animation is salvaged somewhat with the aforementioned background work, as I oftentimes just ignored the characters altogether and looked for details in the scenery around them.
Sound: 9/10
By far the best part of the entire anime. Even if exclude those random 2 music videos that show up because, well, episodes gotta be 20 minutes and holy shit how else are we gonna make that happen, sound on the whole was good. Music accompanied the scenes properly and it set the mood the show was going for. To be honest, most scenes that should otherwise be completely terrible were oftentimes salvaged by the music alone. It may be just me, but I generally tend to like slow piano pieces, which this show has plenty of, so it sat with me well. Not much else to say, really.
I'd love to comment on VA's, but I bet half their scripts read 'uh' 'ah' 'umm' 'eh', so why even bother?
Characters: 5/10
As is the norm with these half-assed attempts at making romance of generic teens appealing, the show focuses on the 2 least interesting characters of its entire cast. Why? Why do these shows do this? Why focus on literally the most boring aspect of your narrative? I don't know. Maybe, again, it's some metaphor that reflects our own lives, maybe it's just something I don't get because I can't relate to it, but I was far more intrigued with everything else except our leading duo.
Azumi is defined like this: shy guy who writes.
Akame is defined like this: shy girl who runs.
There. That's the characterization. There's no depth to them and, whatever depth there appears to be, is just teen angst rearing its ugly face. They are defined by their hobbies and their base characteristic. Relationships between two shy people are AMAZING for two shy people, but they're some of the most boring relationships to look at as the third party, especially when you have to stretch it over 12 episodes.
Again, it may be me missing some deeper narrative, but I highly doubt it. I don't think it's me missing deeper narrative, but it's simply not a show meant for me. I get that. I'm not 14 anymore and, if I'm being frank, I hate my 14y old self. I'm pretty much full-fledged adult at this point, and these 'cutesy' 'coming of age' stories just don't do it for me anymore, especially if they're so lacking in comedy. I enjoy seeing relationships, not awkward attempts at them. I enjoy seeing characters that brim with 'character', not two stick-dolls who can barely hit 'audible' in terms of volume of their voices. I enjoy narrative with a point, not attempt at basic pandering.
I don't understand why this show is rated so highly. I don't understand why its characters and narrative and 'message' are so praised. They're basic. Take every 'awkward couple' of every romance anime, and you have it. Honestly, I even found Kimi no Todoke less boring, and it's not like Kimi no Todoke is epitome of even passable narrative. The reason I found it less boring is because it had comedy. Its characters bounced off of each other to create the comedic narrative because it was lacking elsewhere. However, Tsuki ga Kirei doesn't have that. I think I chuckled maybe once during their interactions. Was that the point? Maybe. I'm generally not the type to say 'oh, it's fine as long as you enjoyed it', as that statement encourages more of the same. I want aggressive, challenging stories. I want characters with depth, and I want to see them tackle issues in accordance to their character. There's none of that here.
Even though I've been shitting on our main couple, it's not like side characters are any better if I'm being honest. This mainly stems from the fact that we don't see them often enough. I don't get it, though. Pretty much every episode has at least 3-4 minutes of establishing shots, so why not just use it to give your side characters SOMETHING? Those post-credit bits aren't enough. It's like the creators realized that the story lacked that comedic narrative, and just slapped some randomly irrelevant comedic bits in the end and said 'great, let's do it like this'.
When that Chizu whatever best friend asked our MG 'can I confess to your boyfriend', I was honestly looking forward to their fallout. Not because 'I choose my 1week BF over my BFF', but because that's just not something you do as BFF. But nope. Why have SOMETHING interesting happen, when we can have 83 establishing shots of pointless scenes instead?
Tsuki ga Kirei is jam packed with nothing. It's a string of mundane events that offer no depth. It's an attempt at 'ordinary coming of age story' that fails to understand that ordinary doesn't equal boring and uninteresting. I spent most of my summer vacation at home, and I had way more fun than any of these characters. And that's just fucking sad.
Enjoyment: 5/10
I didn't enjoy the show, far from it, but I'd lie if I said there isn't any merit to it. Young people nowadays lack shows like this, and I appreciate that about the show. Doesn't mean I excuse all its shortcomings, but still, it's something. It's a show that tells young people that it's okay to be boring and ordinary. And, even if I disagree with that, I can see its point. At least it's better than your generic harem and echii crap, so if you're gonna watch something, at least watch this over that.
I don't know how the show ends. I'll probably never find out. I've been skipping scenes since episode 4, and stuffing through 40 more minutes is just not something I can do (well, 50 more minutes, as I just quit halfway through ep. 10). Whether it ends in a happy, sad or bittersweet fashion, I don't care because I don't care for the main characters. Whether their dreams come true or not, I don't care. They're 14. What the fuck are they thinking is going to happen? I don't know.
That pretty much summarizes my 'thoughts about the show': I don't know. I don't know whether there's some deeper narrative that I'm missing because I'm not the target audience (both in terms of the genres and in terms of the characters). I don't know if there's deeper meaning to the show's lack of any form of narrative. I don't know whether CG people are supposed to represent how our society is robotic, or whether it's just cheaper to make it that way. I don't know whether I'm dead inside, or it's just the show. I just... don't know.
Overall: 4/10
Whichever it may be, I know this isn't a show I'd recommend to anyone. Perhaps, if I was 14, I might have enjoyed the show more. But, I doubt it. I was very much different when I was 14 than our main duo, or even any other side character present here. It may be just me, and the show is truly a masterpiece that I'll never get, but at least from the technical standpoint of the writing, the show is not good. It has terrible pace. It lacks proper narrative. It uses bare bone foreshadowing (ep. 3 oh, we might be moving to Chiba = it's gonna be a major plot point for the couple later on. Whoever missed this... eh, whatever), it's stuffed with nothing, it doesn't have decently written characters, and myriad of other things that I'm probably forgetting, because I'm already forgetting the show itself. I don't think it's as bad as, say, Your Lie in April, but it's definitely far more boring than it.
That's really all I wanted to say. Maybe I'm truly turning into an old man... I just... don't know.
