Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase

Director
Akiyuki Shinbo
Production
Shaft, TV Tokyo, Victor Entertainment
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
25 episodes
Year
2004

Tsukuyomi ~Moon Phase~

By Stephen Lerch
23rd Apr 06

Tsukuyomi ~Moon Phase~ is a 25 episode TV series (26 episodes including the DVD only episode) that originally aired on TV Tokyo from October 4, 2004 until March 28, 2005 in Japan.

Tsukuyomi began its Region 2 Japanese DVD release, which this review covers, on January 21, 2005 and ended its DVD run on February 22, 2006. The release schedule was one DVD a month for the first 12 volumes, and a two month span between disc 12 and 13 as disc 13 was pushed back, perhaps to finish work on the DVD exclusive episode.

There were two editions available for each release, the regular edition and the limited edition. I will cover the limited edition items in the Extras section.

Names are in the Japanese format, family name followed by given name.

Synopsis may contain spoilers.

Short Synopsis:

A young “professional” photographer by the name of Morioka Kouhei is visiting Germany to take pictures of a castle rumored to be haunted. Kouhei is a bit unique in this respect, as it seems whenever he clicks the shutter he takes pictures of ghost, whilst before his eyes he sees nothing. This is a pretty common theme throughout the show, as there are plenty instances of the clueless nature associated with Kouhei’s inability to spot the danger before him coming into play.

While Kouhei is snapping pictures outside the castle one evening, he spots a young girl outfitted in a white gothic style dress. Kouhei is instantly captured by her beauty and spends the rest of the following day obsessing over whether he can capture this girl with his camera.

The following evening Kouhei takes the next step and enters the castle, while his friends Anzai Hiromi and Midou Seiji watch on.

Inside the castle we learn that the girl Kouhei is obsessing over, Hazuki, is actually a vampire who bites Kouhei in an attempt to make him her servant and free her from the castle which has basically become her prison. Kouhei’s nature also grants him the ability to not be affected by the vampire’s kiss and does not have to abide by her will. He does wind up saving her from the castle and spends the rest of the series watching after a spoiled Hazuki who turns up to live with Kouhei and his grandfather, Ryuhei, at their house in Japan. It also turns out one of the conditions of her staying in the house is that she has to cook, clean and mind the store... while wearing nekomimi (cat ears).

Can Kouhei protect Hazuki from her enemies and still keep himself from becoming Hazuki’s unwilling slave?

Video:

The video is presented in the format in which it originally aired, widescreen 16x9 and is anamorphic. The video is interlaced on the disc, not progressive.

Being a show which recently aired, the video quality is high, with no compression blocking readily apparent nor any other video anomalies appearing. This is a very clean, high quality video transfer.

The animation is smooth and colorful and really well done.

It should be noted that the opening animation changes on nearly every episode, sometimes in a big way, sometimes in a barely perceptible way.

Also of interest for those that followed the original TV release, the DVD release has several scenes which have been reanimated for added detail not originally present.

Audio:

The audio on these 13 discs is presented in uncompressed 48 Khz LPCM Japanese stereo. There is no English language option (either spoken or subtitled) available.

For me, the voice actors are perfectly suited for their roles and play them with the fire and emotion that helps the viewer really connect with them and begin to feel for them. Saito Chiwa’s Hazuki is perfectly cute and perfectly suited for Hazuki’s irascible bully-like nature when things don’t go her way.

Extras:

Video extras include interviews with the Japanese vocal cast and non-credit versions of all of the openings and endings. Also included with each volume are line art collections and character design sketches in video format.

Another video extra included only on the DVD release is on volume 13. Originally Tsukuyomi was a 25 episode TV series. The 13th DVD includes an exclusive full length episode 26 which is high in comedic value and continues with the same high quality every other episode has.

Pack in extras with the limited editions include:

Vol. 1- empty art box to hold the first seven discs in the series and a Hazuki mini statue
Vol. 2- mini binder to hold post cards included in every first press DVD
Vol. 3- Hazuki plastic Omusubi Kororin (basically a plastic mold for rice balls)
Vol. 4- cardboard cut out Nekomimi. No LE DVD version made
Vol. 5- Mini OST
Vol. 6- Drama CD – Nekomimi Hour 1
Vol. 7- Drama CD – Nekomimi Hour 2
Vol. 8- empty artbox for last 6 DVD volumes and a Haiji UFO Catcher (stuffed doll)
Vol. 9- Ryuhei's house/shop in a carboard pop-up format. No LE DVD version made
Vol. 10- CD - Tsukiyomi Radio made specifically for DVD release
Vol. 11- CD – Radio Drama and Hazuki voice clips
Vol. 12- a "create-a-cube" 2006 calendar. No LE DVD release.
Vol. 13- Hazuki and Elfreide bookmarks illustrated by the original Manga artist Arima Keitaro. No LE version made

Also included with the first press editions of every disc were two limited edition postcards. There is also a limited edition mini art book to be released for those that collected and sent in the “stamps” included in each volume.

Packaging:

Every DVD cover includes the always cute Nekomimi goddess, Hazuki, prominently displayed, with later volumes also including several of the other females in the series alongside Hazuki.

Each DVD is silk screened with a two color rendition of the front cover. Also included with every volume is a copy of Forest Mini Magazine. The mini magazine includes interviews with voice actors, directors and character artwork.

Final Analysis:

I love this series. This is easily one of my top 5 series of all time.

I missed the first 4 DVDs as they were being released, but purchased all 4 LEs blindly in the April of 2005. Every month after was a painful wait for the next volume to arrive at my door, with the final two month wait for the last volume a near killer.

Hazuki’s attitude, going from cute and innocent to spoiled brat, works perfectly. It is nearly impossible to hate her and with the attitudes and demeanor of all of the other main characters, especially Art, leaving you with the same kind of impression.

The series has the perfect amount of character interaction and development, a fantastic presentation, action, comedy and romantic comedy to hook nearly any Anime fan in its claws. Series of this type are what keep me an Anime fan and so long as these types of shows are created, I’ll remain an Anime fan.

I dare say there is something for nearly every type of Anime fan in this series.

The only caveat being that if someone is looking for violent vampires for main characters, they would be well advised to look elsewhere.

I cannot recommend this series enough.

-- Stephen Lerch 23rd Apr 06

Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase Images