Cuteness with some dark themes. Sound pretty good to me. I like both things.
I think I'll copy the grandfather when I get older.... "(Grand)Son, if you bring a girl home. Give her this.
*Holds the ears and hand it to him*" ^_^'
Tsukuyomi Moon Phase tv Review
Kouhei Morioka is a freelance photographer working for a supernatural magazine with the gift (some would call it a "curse") of having spirits show up in nearly every photo he takes. His colleague, Hiromi Anzai, and their editor, Seiji Midou, take Kouhei to investigate a haunted castle in Germany. There he spots a mysterious girl sitting on one of the parapets who poses for him. He takes several shots, but she does not show up in any of the photos!
They go back to investigate and break into the castle, freeing the vampire princess Hazuki, the girl who posed on the parapet for Kouhei. Afterwards she disappears and they all head back to Japan... only to discover that Hazuki has followed them there and is staying at Kouhei's house!
Written by Question.
Story & Characters
I must admit, the idea behind TMP is fairly original. Up to the point I've seen (17 episodes in), I think I'm starting to understand the actual plot. Maybe. Earlier episodes hinted at a larger plot and had smaller subplots, but none of them really ever stuck.
Tsukuyomi ~moon phase~ features Hazuki (the uber cute cat-ear wearing vampire girl), Kouhei (the uber-dense photographer male lead), The Grandfather, and a smattering of other smaller characters. Hazuki has escaped from a haunted castle in Germany with the assistance of Kouhei and is now living with him and his grandfather. The Grandfather demands that the only condition he has for Hazuki's stay is that she must wear cat ears (hence the neko-mimi mode). It's kind of an odd condition, if you ask me. I'll admit, she is pretty cute with them.
Several forces in the Universe want to bring Hazuki back to the castle. Fortunately, Hazuki doesn't want to go back. If she did, there wouldn't be much of a series. While she stays in Japan, various other vampires come back and try to capture her and cause all sorts of pain to Kouhei and friends. Completely contrary to the opening theme (more on that later), the series is quite dark.
Rating:
Art
TMP takes place mostly at night (as implied by the presence of vampires). The artwork matches this but isn't stunning or better (or worse) than other series I've seen. The character designs are about average, but the female characters are all uber cute. Scenes that take place inside the house are brightly lit and almost pastel in color. The rooms seem almost two dimensional without any sort of depth.
One thing I do like about the visuals is the scene transitions between different rooms of the house. The "camera" slides between rooms and shows the walls in between. Also, scenes where action happens at different parts of the house involve a full cutaway of all the rooms. Rooms that are in use are lit, rooms that don't have any action are dark.
Rating:
Sound
The most notable thing about the music in this scene is the opening theme. Neko-mimi Mode is by far the cutest, energetic, and bouncy song I've ever heard. It truly ~is~ death by cuteness. It should come with a warning sticker that says “large doses can induce brain damage, coma, or death.� In stark contrast, the rest of soundtrack switches between dark and ominous to jazzy and upbeat. The music fits in with the series, but doesn't really doesn't have much potential to stand by itself. Some tracks would even be proper elevator music.
Rating:
Presentation
This is definately a fun series to watch. It has a little bit of everything: drama, humor, goth, action, loli, and cuteness. It isn't the best things I've seen, but I am definitely entertained by it. It has its high points and some episodes have heart wrenching moments but these are somewhat infrequent. The characters are all lovable in their own ways (Haiji has a slightly annoying voice, but it's annoying in the cute sort of way... if that makes sense). There is also some hint of a love story, but part of me says the romance shouldn't even happen.
Given I've only seen a part of the series, I'm very interested in finding out how the story will wrap up. I see a lot of potential for the story to end well, however I can also see ways that the series won't end at all. Once the series wraps up, I'll probably write an updated review.
I highly recommend this series to those who have an extremely high cuteness threshold. If you like darker series but abhor insane levels of cute, you could probably just fast forward through the opening and watch the show itself. People who shouldn't watch this are fans of cute who only like cute. There really isn't enough cute for those people. Those people could, however, loop the opening theme song until someone comes over and tells them to stop.
Rating:
Final Verdict
6.5000 (above average)
Reviewed by kawaiiguy, Jun 03, 2005
Comments
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Vinitachi Jun 04, 2005
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Lana3007 Jun 05, 2005
I must say I agree with you hands down on this! It really is a very dark series disguised in cuteness. When I started watching it I was expecting lots of fillers with frilly cuteness, but I yet to encounter any of those (I am only on episode 10 right now). Good job on the review, it really summarizes the series well!
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echidnaboy726 Jul 06, 2005
"It truly ~is~ death by cuteness. It should come with a warning sticker that says “large doses can induce brain damage, coma, or death.
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UberDog Mar 23, 2015
Not a bad simple review, could use some details but still a good start to a review however.
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