Anime: Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase

Let's see...

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• Cute shoujo. BAAAAH VAMPIRE!!!! Nicely thought out idea there, I think.


• Bland shounen. BAAAAH CAN'T SEE GHOSTS TUGGING AT HIS SCALP!!! Lovin' it.

Therefore, why such a low score? Tsukuyomi - Moon Phase - did have it's moments, but I feel that it gradually became hard for me to finish because it dragged.

I want to escape...

Kouhei is the most unlucky photographer. While he takes beautiful shots, all of his pictures somehow end up with creepy orbs or other odd paranormal, phantasmic apparitions blotching the scenes.

One day, he approaches a haunted castle, completely unaware of the evil surrounding them. In it he discovers Hazuki, a cute neko-mimi girl resting on the terrace. Approaching carefully, he is enchanted by her cute appeal, completely unaware of her bloodthirsty (small pun intended) intentions.

Before I mention anything else, I want to say that this anime's humor and/or themes make absolutely no sense. It borders all the things of putridly kawaii, while hinting in on the fine points of death and vampirism. Personally, I find this concept to be unique and promising, although the results of it falter towards the middle of the series.

By that, I mean that it just drags. Yes, this anime in its prime carries out the same 5 jokes, abuses the use of completely random, large cooking materials falling from the sky and bashing people on their skulls, and takes no mercy in shredding character development to pieces with random bits of humor that get extremely obnoxious on occasion.

Oddly enough, the first 13 or so episodes are so consuming that all of my ranting is pointless. Also, the last 3-4 episodes take on a much better atmosphere as the story comes to close, so I can't complain.

I still wonder what they were trying to do with the characters...

Kouhei, as dry as he is, turns out more and more to be the more interesting character as the series progresses. Meanwhile, Hazuki, as colorful as she is, doesn't get any more interesting than what she starts out as. The entire show Hazuki's babbling and complaining wore down on my nerves, while Kouhei's much more attractive personality humored me. The addition of Elfriede, as well as the rest of Kouhei's family does absolutely nothing, since all they really can do is support the mood of the anime.

Inasmuch, with the exception of Hazuki, they do grow and develop into much more meaningful characters, which is something I appreciate very much.

Nice animation, but the sound is just...wow.

The animation has one interesting concept: sometimes it will cut off a wall of the house, so that the watchers can see everything that is going on. I liked it sometimes, but somehow it would get annoying, since it could feel like I wasn't "experiencing first-person" what was going on.

Also, a lot of times during fight scenes all of the action would be completely left out of the picture, which sometimes got frustrating. Sometimes there would be random colors appearing on the screen, decorating the environment with all these vivid shots of art, barely making out the shapes of what is animate or not. I found this concept art to be creative, but it could distract from what is going on from time to time, so I can't say it's for everyone.

The opening theme animation is undoubtedly one of the funniest, weirdest openings I've ever seen in anime. Completely random scenes of food, cute neko-mimi Hazukis, and Kouhei breaking his finger on a ball...? Seriously I would say that in addition to the funky beat "Neko Mimi Mode" put together by Dmitri From Paris, this opening is perfect for the series.

And frustrating to believe, the ending theme is really annoying. It's basically a girl with a really airy, raspy voice saying cute things, with a creepy-cute Hazuki background. Not my thing folks, sorry.

However, ignoring the ending theme I'd even say that the background music in addition to the opening theme gets really good. During the fight scenes there is lots of intense music, or moaning Japanese women trying to be "haunting and spooky." It's a little cheesy, but that just appeals it even more for the atmosphere. Altogether, all the music besides the ending theme fits like puzzle pieces into this anime.

It's a good show, just with a few discrepancies that kill it somewhat.

I think if they had stopped the random metal pans joke, it would have kept some seriousness that made the series really enticing. Also, if the series wasn't quite as long, or if they had made Kouhei a bit more interesting from the beginning, it also wouldn't have suffered from a lot of bad plot twists.

Though I tend to rate value low, this series somehow gets a better feeling from me than some animes I loved that had lower value ratings. I feel at ease being able to rewatch certain things from this show, or just to show some of my friends the eccentric opening sequence. I really thoroughly enjoyed this show, and I would definitely actually focus it more into the group who likes mahou shoujo genre. Sometimes it reminds me of a serious mix between Card Captor Sakura and Shakugan no Shana, although it gets knees deep into the water they delve into.

(Writers note: If you read this review, RATE this review. Authors thrive on feedback, whether it is a simple happy face, or an in-depth critique.)

This review is based on the fansubbed TV version. From what I've been told, the DVD version features corrected animation.

Tsukuyomi –Moon Phase- is a highly enjoyable Vampire/Comedy/Drama that is nearly ruined by budget and scheduling conflicts that take a terrible toll on the animation. The early episodes are fun enough, with heavy doses of neck biting and vampiric special powers to keep the vampire fans interested, along with plenty of screwball comedy and romantic drama. Unfortunately, the series falls apart in the middle episodes, when the animation takes a nose-dive the likes of which I have never seen.

Let me start off with some of the better elements of the series. The sound in Tsukuyomi is very well done, with a childish, yet highly addictive opening song called “Neko Mimi Mode” by Demitri from Paris. The seiyuu for Hazuki performs the few lyrics during the intro, which are mostly repetitions of “Neko Mimi! Neko Mimi Mode! Neko Mimi Mode de!”. This light-techno song plays to animation of Hazuki jumping around with her Neko-mimi ears on, acting cat-like and cute.

The ending theme is a beautiful French soft rock song by Marriane amplifier with guest singer Yuka. While the opening theme plays up the comedy of the series, the ending theme expresses the dramatic and romantic elements. Except for a few lapses in the middle episodes, the sound effects are done well. The seiyuu are appropriate for their characters, though none of them really stand out in terms of excellence. Background music is hardly noticeable, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

The story has several layers. One is the budding (though in my opinion, wholly inappropriate) romance between Hazuki, a young pureblood vampire, and Kohei, a “spiritually dead” photographer. When they first meet, Hazuki bites, or as it is often referred to in the series, “kisses” Kohei in an attempt to make him her servant. Kohei, however, is so spiritually dead (a.k.a. completely unaware of anything supernatural) that Hazuki’s kiss, as well as her Jagon (evil eye) has no effect on him. This doesn’t stop Hazuki from treating Kohei as her servant, which leads to many funny exchanges between the two.

Another layer has to do with Hazuki’s escape from her castle prison, and the vampires and minions that are trying to retrieve her. Most of the action and drama in Tsukuyomi is related to this particular plot development, with Hazuki, Kohei and friends fighting off the villains that try to kidnap Hazuki and return her to the castle.

Besides the two main characters of Hazuki and Kohei, Tsukuyomi has a fairly good supporting cast. Elfreide is a beautiful blond vampire whom, while hunting Hazuki, begins to question which side she’d rather be on. Kohei’s grandfather Anzai, as well as the family friend Seiji, are both spiritual magic users, helping Kohei fight off the vampire onslaughts. Kaoru is Hazuki’s rival, and, along with her sister, Hikari, is a spiritual magic user in training. No harem comedy would be complete without an amusing animal! In Tsukuyomi, we have Haiji, a familiar that is sometimes a cat, and sometimes a wisecracking little mini-person.

The humor in Tsukuyomi –Moon Phase- is very hit-or-miss. The random humor works pretty well, focusing mainly on the problems Hazuki has adapting to life outside the castle. On the flip side, there are a plethora of falling bedpans and teakettles in every episode. This occasionally evokes a chuckle, but more often than not, it plays as a last ditch effort when a scene is unable to evoke laughter any other way.

And now, on to the animation. The big question is: How bad IS the animation? Well, in the early episodes, it is spectacular, with fluid movements, beautifully rendered backgrounds, and attractive (though heavily lolita-ish) character designs. Hazuki in particular is extremely cute in her Neko-mimi outfit. The magic in the series is on the level of Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto (Someday’s Dreamer), with beautiful CGI taking over for most of the spells.

Around the midpoint of the series, the animation suddenly drops to a level below that of Aishiteruze Baby, one of the hallmarks of bad animation. This occurs at the worst possible moment, during a pivotal fight between the main characters and one of the series’ villains. Instead of seeing the good, fluid fighting and magic that, up until episode 12, had been a staple of Tsukuyomi, the fighting devolves into still frame land, with (I’m not kidding) most of the fight focusing on a still frame of an unrelated portrait hanging on a wall, while the sounds of the fighting continue unabated. This is done so sloppily, that the sound doesn’t even match up with the events occurring on screen, with the sounds occurring either too early or too late.

At the same time that this is occurring, the editing style takes a noticeable nose-dive as well, probably to cover up the fact that barely half of the necessary animation was finished on schedule. Characters are “heard” fighting, while the screen shows nothing more than a painting. Then there is a shot of the characters running down a hallway to a doorway, supposedly escaping. Move to another shot of the painting, and suddenly they’re fighting again. Many scenes, especially in episode 12, are noticeably out of sequence, enough that I nearly quit the series outright.

From episode 12 to around episode 16, Tsukuyomi –Moon Phase- goes completely crazy with regards to still frames. Episode 13 and 14 barely move at all, preferring excruciatingly long panning shots of still frames, and often times frames recognizable from previous episodes.

The animation perks back up in the final episodes, up until yet another pivotal fight in episode 24. Yet again, the screen focuses on a painting or a random still frame, while the sounds of fighting and yelling continue, implying that there is some incredible ass-beating going on, which would be visible if only the camera would stop panning over this irrelevant staircase! The animation horrors end with a scene in episode 24 where it is quite obvious the animators skipped a couple of steps in the animation process. A couple of characters are interacting, but the polish has not been applied, leaving their movements fluid, but jerky, looking like a bad rough draft.

I am a fan of vampires, and as such, it takes an awful lot of mistakes before a vampire movie or series stops working for me. Tsukuyomi –Moon Phase- while it has some good dramatic moments, suffers from lackluster comedy, and animation that all but destroys the series’ flow, ruining some of the most pivotal moments with poor editing and badly timed still frames. If Tsukuyomi’s story was as strong as Aishiteruze Baby’s, the poor animation would not have been such a detriment. Sadly, Tsukuyomi –Moon Phase- has more style than substance. I would recommend this series only to the most die-hard vampire fans. If you’re not a fan of vampires, however, stay away. Far far away.

Every now and again you find that you are fortunate enough to watch an Anime that is a well written and beautifully animated with a story that unfolds before your eyes in a truly captivating style and format that leaves you hungry for more. Tsukuyomi Moon Phase is not one of those Animes, and it's truly a shame. From the beginning to the rather lackluster conclusion, Moon Phase proves to be a not so clever collection of plot holes and an absurd over use of "Neko-mimi" or "Cat Ears". There is absolutely nothing serious about this anime, it's quite possibly best described a somewhat decent time killer that follows the basic Anime story telling formula without fail.

Story – 3/10


The series focuses primarily around a young Japanese Photographer named Kouhei who travels to Germany's mythical Black Forest to capture some spooky images for a science fiction magazine. Co-workers Hiromi and Seiji join this quest to exploit Kouhei's strange talent for taking pictures of spirits and ghosts that normally go unseen by the naked eye. However, as the young Kouhei takes photographs of a dark and depressing looking castle in the heart of the forest, he catches sight of a young girl in white sitting on the roof. Although he takes many pictures of her, he is heart broken to find his perfect model is no where to be seen on any of the developed photos.

In a desire to find out more about her, Kouhei sneaks into a castle full of strange ghosts and spirits that he, unlike everyone else, can not see. His strange ability leads him to the mysterious young girl Hazuki, who could not quite keep herself in a single state of mind. Constantly jumping from one personality to the next, Hazuki would sometimes call herself Luna, and under the light of the full moon she attempts to take Kouhei as her slave. It turns out Hazuki is a vampire, and furthermore, a Japanese vampire who lives in a castle in Germany. This was one of the first of many, many plot holes that the story could not help but trail back to time and again.

Eventually Hazuki finds her way back to Japan where she ends up living with Kouhei and his family. Once there she sinks her teeth into her deep rooted and unfounded feline fetish that leads to various gags and giggles and quite possibly one really funny intro at Episode 15. But Moon Phase really sticks to the run-of-the-mill formula for Anime as it does from one primary villain to the next, with a couple of humor driven Episodes driven in-between. However, the story takes a real shot out into left field at the latter half of the 10's and never comes back. Massive story gaps leave you scratching your head and various incomplete animated fight scenes can not help but leave a bitter taste in your mouth.

By the time the series concludes you wind up with a massive amount of questions that will forever go unanswered, for at Episode 25 it's quite obvious the series is pulled and driven to cancel before any story elements could even be completed. So in the end, you can not help but feel like this Anime just did a number of on you, as it attempted to drive humor, drama, and the ever so mundane use of the typical vampire mythos all topped with a big pare of white fluffy NekoMimi Cat Ears down your throat.


Visuals - 4/10

Perhaps the best animation that this series will have to offer can only be found in the first few episodes. After that things start to slowly degrade little by little until you are simply seeing the same cells repeated over and over again just with some minor changes. You can not help but get a very dark and exotic feeling from the opening of this series as it tries to display a young vampire girl cast in the shroud of shadow, surrounded by twisted sculptures depicting dark and mutilated beings. But all of it is just a catchy little hook that fades into nothing when the real series kicks down the door as Hazuki comes to Japan.

Certainly there are some decent fighting animations; by they come as often as the full moon. Even the introduction to the anime leaves a bitter taste in your mouth as it's obviously sugar coated and tries to mock the personality of the young vampire girl. Often when the girl's personality changes, so does the introduction. Switching from a confusing intro, to an even MORE confusing intro that really gives you a head ache. Perhaps the real shining jewel is Episode 15's intro, but that doesn't really hold any real humor unless you endure the other two first or know what is happening in the story at that moment.

During some serious battles in this Anime, you can not help but notice there are some vast color changes to the character's taking part. Instead of seeing nicely painted cells, you tend to get whole characters consisting of just one or two colors. Either it is red, green, yellow, blue, or grey. This tends to get a little annoying as it happens a lot during all those major battles with major bad guys. Certainly it's a unique take, but it doesn't quite grasp the symbolism very well, and just seems to scream of budget short cuts to make a better animated fight scene at the cost of coloration. That doesn't include some moments when the sound track keeps playing, and you are simply trapped watching a repeating animation and left to wonder what is really supposed to be happening at that moment in time.

Let's not forget all those instances in this series where they repeat the same 'shocking scene' three or four times in a row before continuing things once again. It's even more of a shame that they don't even give faces to the following villains in the story, or give them much air time. They tend to just mask them behind animal helmets and never once reveal their true nature as the series comes to a close. It's a bitter reminder that budget is the life blood of any Anime, and Moon Phase obviously had none towards the end.

Audio - 5/10

Though the music is catchy, it's just a repeated sound track of everything you heard in Episodes one and two. It's rather fast paced, non-lyrical vocals that speed along in either high beat tones for fast paced combat, or a lonely undulations of moaning voices that could give you a sense of sadness. Ultimately if you heard it in the earlier half of the series, you will hear it again later. There isn't really much here but good ole Japanese voice acting.

Characters - 2/10

Sadly, the characters are really very shallow and repetitive. If you are seeking something unique here, you will not find it. It seems that we get the typical brand of young human hero seeking to protect a mystical girl from the evils of her world. In the back ground is the wise elder who provides skill and mentoring while indulging in the exploitation of his own gifts for his own perversion and benefit. And somewhere a long the lines a rather full lipped rival to our young hereon appears but she soon forgets her role. The villains are lacking as well, as you do not get much character development from their end, or from many of the other cast members.

On the upside this series is not Naruto, which seems to live in constant flashbacks, however, this one series could certainly use more. Perhaps offer a little more information for those new and sudden characters they toss into the mix towards the end of the series to make their presence valid and relevant. The series even fails to bring in possibly one of the most critical of all characters the entire story centers around, the great master all these villains work for. Nothing seems to be very well written as most of the characters just seem to exist and not truly have a real driving role in the overall story.

Overall - 4/10

Moon Phase has is moments, but they are too few and far between. It certainly had some potential in the grounding stages, but it's obvious none of it was exploited. It all seems run of the mill and mundane, very boring and confusing at times. It's not something you want to write home about or swear your soul to fandom. This is just one of those Animes that really offers nothing new or interesting to the field; it just tries to reuse what everyone else has done in hopes of making it somewhere. The only thing this series really does have for itself is the extreme abundance of NekoMimi. At the end of the series almost everything is wearing Cat Ears, from buildings, to mountains, monkeys, and mikos; even the villains take part in wearing those adorably cute Cat Ears for no real purpose at all.

So if you enjoy watching a LOT of pots and pans dropping on people’s heads, as well as a 350cc Overdose of NekoMimi, then this Vampire themed Anime is just for you. I can't say it's one of my personal favorites; it's just another droplet of water in the Anime wave.

Worth-While Moments

Episode's 15 Introduction.
Episode 12 reaveals a scene from Episode 21 in the form of a Manga the Grandfather is reading.

First of all i would like to say that this anime was quite enjoyablble, however it does have its flaws.

=Animation=
Quite nicely done. This anime uses various styles. You have the very cheerfull and colourfull setting and at some time the mysterious and darker setting which blend quite nicely. The animation is fluid all the time and the series hardly reuses frames.

=Sound=
Ehhh. I didnt quite notice it the most of the time i guess looking back. There is off course the OP and ED. I skipped those all the time. The OP is a bit funky with really kawai shots of Hazuki, the vampire princess. In the first episodes it really doesnt suit the overal setting of the anime. It better suits the later episodes. The ED is a sort of soft pop song with a wispering kind of singing showing Hazuki in a more delicate pose. Overall the music was as it should be: supporting the anime without being overly present

=Story=
The story could have been great. A vampire princess, rivaling vampires, (hidden) super powers...
The first few episodes promise a complete different anime then the eventual outcome: a lovestory. A nice one at that but while taking all the cluess given in the anime in account and looking back at it in the end one can feels disappointent nevertheless.
-Minor spoilers-:
Where are there mothers, what happened to them, what did Hazuki's mothers words mean at the lake, where is his father?
Most likely this series is leaving these issues unresolved to have material for a second season. Which i will most definately watch as it comes out :-)

=Character=
There is Hazuki, the vampire princess. She is obnoctious, noisy and arrogant yet sweet, loving and overly kawaii. A lovable character, but a bit to young to be a girlfriend to Kohei, the male lead. A thickheaded good guy with (of course ) trouble expressing his feelings. And there is an array of side characters of which most have hardly any background.
The main leads could have also developed even more if the makers would have tied up al the lose ends as you mentioned before.
-minor spoiler allert-
Another thing I personally found annoying is the fact that dead people imo should remain dead. If they are to be revived this should be explained and have a specific purpose. I found neither in this case.

=Value=
I wouldn't rewatch this series witout the airing of a second season. The storyline wasn't appealing enough on its own. It needed a few more episodes or a whole new season to mature.

=Enjoyment=
This is where I mostly seem to contradict myself. Although al the (minor an major) flaws portraid above I really enjoyed this series and came to love the characters as most likely you will as I am sure.