English title: Moon Phase
Japanese Title: Tsukuyomi- Moon Phase
Director: Akiyuki Shinbo
Japanese Production Studio: SHAFT (Animation Production), Victor Entertainment (Production)
Type: TV series
Number of Episodes: 26
Vintage: 2004 - 2005

US Licensing Company: FUNimation
Genre: Comedy, Shounen, Supernatural

 

Reviewer: Ichirou Ohgami

 

General Summary

     When a photographer Kouhei Morioka in his early twenties is accompanied by his two colleagues and assigned to take shots of a gloomy but dreary haunted castle in Germany, he encounters a strange girl who addresses him “Onii-sama”. As she introduced herself to him as Hazuki, she tries to enslave Kouhei to her will, but to Hazuki’s surprise, he refuses to take her orders, still not knowing she is a vampire. Then Hazuki begs him to free her and he does so but not without a lot of painful effort. As he returns to Japan, he was shocked to find the vampire girl Hazuki right on his doorstep. As a matter of fact, Hazuki comes to Japan to search for her long-lost mother. She also announces to Kouhei that he is her first servant and demands servitude from him. However he still refuses. Thus begins another adventure with the two of them living together as master and servant.

Art and Animation

     This show has impressive animation. In fact, it utilizes what looks like a gothic animation style. Furthermore, the animation is fluid and flows well with the show in most of the episodes. Character designs of Hazuki, Hikaru and Kaoru are absolutely cute and adorable. Elfriede looks very mature, demure and attractive. Kouhei’s flat character design suits his own personality of a simple-minded thickhead. As does Seiji’s chiseled character design his cool, intelligent and calm personality, too. Visual effects regarding magical fights are nearly equally impressive as well.

Character Development

     Hazuki and Kouhei are the most developed characters in this show. They establish a unique master and servant relationship. They may also appear to be little sister and big brother. Hazuki insists that Kouhei is her servant. At first he stubbornly refuses to take orders from him, which infuriates her but he began to warm up to her and partially but not fully accepts her as his master . Kouhei is in early twenties and Hazuki is about eleven years old. Hazuki doesn’t get along well with Kouhei who shares her feelings mutually. But as the show progresses on, they interact with each other pretty well. Kouhei cares deeply for Hazuki. Hazuki cares deeply for Kouhei. Hazuki is a spoiled brat who still hasn’t yet matured throughout 26 episodes but she learns a lot of things from her life experiences. Because Hazuki is a vampire, she relies on her powers to mind-control humans until Kouhei gives her a hard lesson. Since then, she began to no longer see humans as mere tools. Hazuki’s three-dimensional personality is very memorable. In spite of his thick head and simple mind, or maybe rather because of it, he is as memorable as Hazuki. However, their awkward relationship still has a long way to go and it hasn’t been established that they love each other as man and woman, rather than brother and sister.

     At first Hazuki doesn’t get along very well with other pre-adolescent girls Hikaru and Kaoru who view her as a bad vampire. Hikaru and Kaoru soon became close friends with her after fully realizing she’s not evil. Hikaru is aggressive and has quite a temper while her younger sister is timid and sometimes reticent. Both seem quite not more mature than Hazuki . Hikaru fantasizes about marrying Seiji who is ten years older than her, and Kaoru has the dream of marrying Kouhei, too. In fact Hikaru and her younger sister Kaoru are fiancées of Seiji and Kouhei, as were arranged by their parents. If the two sisters who haven’t even got their first menstruation period want to marry their fiancés Kouhei and Seiji, they really need a lot of maturing to do. Hiromi’s role in this anime is minimal and we don’t learn a lot about her except that she is nice to Hazuki and has a crush on Seiji. Elfriede is quite a mysterious vampire with a sad past and a lively personality. Seiji, cousin of Kouhei, is a well-developed character who appears cool and confident but in secret is plagued by his self-doubts. Kouhei’s grandfather has a jovial sense of humor and has a feisty personality but often gets serious.

Storyline

     The show is well-paced, well-executed and has an intricate storyline. However at the end, it is still inconclusive. Why? There are two reasons why this show’s ending is not a true conclusion. First, in an episode, when a recording of Hazuki’s mother tells her that she must not bind her servant to her will, otherwise she’ll not understand love, Hazuki still wonders what her mother meant. The moment whether she understood the meaning of her mother’s final words is not shown in the series. Therefore, Hazuki and Kouhei‘s master and servant relationship isn’t fully resolved and so it is in progress. When will we see they will tell to each other about their feelings? Secondly, we still haven’t seen Hazuki’s father in the show. In fact, Kouhei and the others know Hazuki’s father and his minions will come to hunt Hazuki and they haven’t even met him. When will we see the heroes having a confrontation with Hazuki’s father? While the story is quite complex and leaves enjoyable impact on the show, it is far from finished. I hope they really make a sequel to conclude/finish the story.

Final Summary

     The 26-episode show is definitely worth watching. The story is however unfinished, even though the show has ended. It rather looks like it stopped rather than ended, though. It has wonderful and cute characters, plenty of character development, humor and action. The drama, suspense and characterization are well-done, too. Has good cliffhangers and climactic moments. You wouldn’t enjoy Kouhei and Hazuki’s complex relationship if you mind wide age gap romances between an older adult man and a younger prepubescent girl.

 

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