Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase

Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase (月詠) is a manga series by Keitarō Arima about a young vampire girl named Hazuki and a Japanese freelance photographer Kouhei Morioka whom Hazuki attempts to make into her servant.

The manga was adapted into a 25 episode TV anime series by the Shaft studio and aired late night on TV Tokyo from October 4, 2004 to March 28, 2005, followed by an additional 26th episode released only on DVD on February 22, 2006 which featured Art from Type-Moon. The OVA storyline has very little to do with the original series outside of having some of the same characters, and has a completely different storyline which does not fit into anything which came before it.

Tokyopop publishes an English language version of the manga while Funimation released the English language version of the anime under the name Moon Phase. The first season is currently available via the Sony PlayStation 3 video store, Hulu, Joost, Funimation's YouTube account and the iTunes Store.

Plot synopsis
The story is about the relationship between freelance photographer Kouhei Morioka and Hazuki, a teenager who descends from a royal vampire lineage. At the beginning of the story, Kouhei travels to a castle in Germany to take photographs of paranormal phenomena for his friend Hiromi, who is the editor of an occult magazine. At the castle, Kouhei meets Hazuki, who feeds on Kouhei's blood and claims him as her unwilling servant. Although this "blood pact" is supposed to bind Kouhei to Hazuki as her obedient slave, her act has no effect on Kouhei. Following an action-packed sorcerers' battle in which Kouhei and his cousin manage to free Hazuki from her captivity in the dreary castle, Hazuki travels to Tokyo, and takes up residence with Kouhei in his grandfather's house in Japan. Hazuki claims that, because she fed on his blood, Kouhei is now her servant, but Kouhei continually refuses to obey her, especially when he thinks her requests are unreasonable. Despite their fighting, the relationship between the duo progresses over time — even in the face of repeated attacks by opposing vampires — until Kouhei becomes determined to protect Hazuki from the vampire servants of her family, who are determined to retrieve her by whatever means necessary.

Characters

 * Hazuki (葉月) / Luna (ルナ)


 * A 14-year-old selfish but adorable vampire, Hazuki was separated from her mother and restrained in a castle in Germany. She escapes the castle with Kouhei's help and flees to Japan in search of her mother. A vampire's "kiss", the act of drawing blood from a mortal, normally turns the mortal into the feeding vampire's unwilling servant, but Hazuki's attempt on Kouhei fails. According to the storyline, Kouhei is narrated as the "Vampire Lover", and therefore is immune to the binding power of Hazuki's vampiric "kiss". Despite her continuous claims that Kouhei is her slave and must obey her every command, Kouhei refuses to do so. Her family is desperate to retrieve her because she is actually a "daywalker", a vampire who, unlike others of her kind, can withstand sunlight. She is plagued by an alternate personality named Luna that was forced upon her by her vampire relatives to keep her under control.


 * Kouhei Morioka (森丘 耕平)


 * Kouhei is a photographer who, due to an accident involving paranormal forces in his early childhood, is oblivious to spirits and the supernatural (which he specializes in photographing). He is an "Ama Lamia" (Vampire Lover), meaning no vampire can make him their servant. Furthermore, vampires who feed on him have their servitude ties with their masters broken, making of him a threat to the vampire society structure. Later, it is revealed that he possesses great spiritual powers which were sealed by his family to allow him to live a normal life, as they were too strong for him to control. In the anime, he once again seals away his Jyougan so that it doesn't affect his relationship with Hazuki. In the manga, he has not sealed away his Jyougan and is currently training to perfect his powers. From their first meeting, he and Hazuki have a tempestuous but affectionate relationship that eventually turns into romance. In the manga, Kouhei's surname is Midou.


 * Ryuuhei Mido (御堂 竜平)


 * Ryuuhei is Kouhei's grandfather and a powerful spiritualist and exorcist. Kouhei lives in his household, which is located in an antique shop. He agrees to take Hazuki in out of kindness, though he appears to have other motives for it as well; such as ascertaining the whereabouts of his daughter Shizuru and Kouhei's mother. Later in the tale, Ryuuhei develops a relationship with Elfriede.


 * Seiji Mido (御堂 成児)


 * Kouhei's cousin and a powerful exorcist in his own right. Later in the series it is revealed that despite training his entire life, his powers are no match for Kouhei's latent potential. Apparently, Kouhei is a Jyougan, or a psychic that can see and interact with spirits, and will them to go away by claiming that there is no spirit. His family sealed off his psychic abilities, so he couldn't see the spirits. Because of this, he is slightly jealous of Kouhei. Seiji Mido (御堂 晴爾) is his writer's name.


 * Haiji (ハイジ)


 * Haiji is Hazuki's guardian spirit. Haiji originally belonged to Kouhei's mother Shizuru, but the spirit guardian lost most of her memories of Kouhei's mother when she was reassigned to Hazuki. Her name was "Akuda" and she had the form of a cat when she belonged to Shizuru.


 * Count Heinrich von Kinkell (ハインリヒ·フォン·キンケル)


 * One of the minions of Hazuki's family, Count Kinkell tries to kill Kouhei and retrieve Hazuki, but is defeated by them with Elfriede's help. He is able to control and bend light which allows him to create illusions and walk under daylight.


 * Elfriede (エルフリーデ)


 * Elfriede is Kinkell's daughter and servant. She is also a Ludo, a human who was converted into a vampire. His control over her was nullified when she fed on Kouhei's blood, and since then she joined his and Hazuki's side. She is able to summon creatures and monsters.


 * Hiromi Anzai (安西 ひろみ)


 * Hiromi is a childhood friend and co-worker of Kouhei's, assigning various photo jobs to him. Has a notable crush on Seiji. She is also a horrible driver. Her relationship with Hazuki is much like a doting older sister.


 * Hikaru Mido (御堂 光) and Kaoru Mido (御堂 薫)
 * Hikaru
 * Kaoru


 * Hikaru and Kaoru are two girls who, despite being younger than Hazuki, are pledged by their parents to marry Seiji and Kouhei respectively when they grow up. Hikaru is more outgoing and is the one who constantly picks fights with Hazuki, which she usually wins because Kouhei takes her side. While Hikaru is engaged to Seiji, Kaoru is engaged to Kouhei. Kaoru is more quiet and shy and can be a crybaby at times. Despite her shyness, she can also be quite mean to Hazuki, but this might be possibly that she is jealous of Hazuki due to the fact that she lives with Kouhei.


 * Yayoi Mido (御堂 弥生)


 * Yayoi is a powerful exorcist from the Midō family. He becomes Kouhei's sensei when Kouhei decides to become an exorcist like his relatives in order to be able to protect Hazuki.


 * Artemis ("Arte")


 * Hazuki's younger sister, Artemis envies her because of the attention their family dedicates to her older sister, and because of it Arte is determined to deprive Hazuki of everything and everyone she truly cares for, taking by force or destroying completely. In the series finale, she is taken into Morioka's family after the death of her guardian and grandfather, Fargus. Kouhei manages to reach out to her and convinces her to open up to a new life with caring friends and family. She is a Shadow User. This means she can use her shadow, and turn it into a scythe, or a replica of her, etc. In the manga, she has been forcefully rejected by her father and taken into the care of Kouhei's father to act as a "replacement" in Hazuki's absence.

Manga
Tsukuyomi Moon Phase was written by Keitarō Arima, and originally published by Wani Books. Starting with volume one in March 2000, the series has 16 volumes with the last being released in March 2009 in Japan. Tokyopop and Madman Entertainment both had English releases for the manga but due to financial trouble, Tokyopop postponed some of the dates. The manga is licensed in Taiwan by Sharp Point Press.

Anime

 * Staff:
 * Original Story: Keitarō Arima
 * Director: Akiyuki Shinbō
 * Series Supervisor: Mayori Sekijima
 * Character Design: Masahiro Aizawa
 * Visual Director: Nobuyuki Takeuchi
 * Art Director: Satoru Kuwabara
 * Editor: Kazuhiko Seki
 * Sound Director: Toshiki Kameyama
 * Music: Daisaku Kume
 * Animation Production: Shaft
 * Produced by: Victor Entertainment

Episodes
The English title listed here are official episode titles and may be different from original Japanese title. Each episode ends with still image drawn by illustrators and listed below as endcards. The series consists of 25 episodes and one OVA.

Theme music

 * Opening
 * 1) "Neko Mimi Mode" by Dimitri from Paris (eps 1–8, 10–13, 15–24)
 * 2) "Tsuku Yomi Mode" by Dimitri from Paris (eps 9, 14)


 * Ending
 * 1) "Kanashii Yokan"
 * 2) *Lyrics, Composition, and Arrangement: Yukari Hashimoto
 * 3) *Vocals: Marianne Amplifier, featuring yuka
 * 4) "Nami no Toriko ni naru you ni" (ep 7)
 * 5) *Lyrics: Kenzō Saeki
 * 6) *Composition and Arrangement: Naruyoshi Kikuchi
 * 7) *Vocals: Noriko Ogawa
 * 8) "Pressentiment triste" by Marianne Amplifier featuring Yuka (ep 19)
 * 9) "Neko Mimi Mode" by Dimitri From Paris (ep 25)

Reception
Hyper commends the anime for its "character design and animation which are uniformly quite good and the series boasts some very nice Gothic background art". The scripting is criticised for being "too cluttered to allow any immersion".