#tsukimichi -moonlit fantasy spoilers

[jenn-the-mostly-harmless]

I think Tsukimichi Moonlit Fantasy is probably one of my favorite ongoing anime right now. I've been reading the light novel and I just keep having feels about it.

It's easy to dismiss it as just another isekai or harem show but it has a habit of surprising me. A lot of isekai anime are just regurgitations of tropes in new slightly different configurations, but unlike those stories, the author of Tsukimichi (Kei Azumi) seems to have something to say. There are obvious themes and explorations on beauty, power, responsibility, mental illness, and the power of familial love.

I don't know if the author intended it or not, but I think it's really interesting that Makoto has trouble connecting to feelings besides anger and embarrassment, that his decisions only take him and his friends into consideration, that he feels nothing when he kills a person he doesn't know, and that he can be destructive and impulsive on a national level without realizing how others will perceive it. To me personally, he comes across as someone with a severe mental illness who grew up in the best environment possible and learned to cope with most of his issues in healthy ways.

He would be a totally different character if his environment and connection to other characters were taken away, and the story plays with that constantly. The anime hasn't gotten there yet (super light spoiler warning for details that are not as far as I know, important to the larger plot), but at some point he's granted dreams of true alternate realities of his path and they are all incredibly dark. In those other realities he was left alone with his fear and anger and became a terrifying destructive force.

In his own timeline, multiple side characters realize that he has no qualms about killing (even if he only ever does it to save or avenge friends, a classic hero trope) and decide that he's scary and needs watching. When one of his closest companions starts to worry about him falling victim to bloodlust, another close friend tells her that Makoto will never love killing because life means nothing to him.

But my favorite part of this reading is that Makoto is a kind, thoughtful boy, who treats his friends well, treats every new person he meets with respect, helps any random little girl that is in danger around him, and generally bends over backwards not to hurt anyone who isn't actively attacking him or his allies. The people who love him know he has some dangerous faults and love him totally and completely anyway and without fear.

I haven't finished the series quite yet, so I hope this doesn't slap me in the face, but it feels like a really nuanced, positive depiction of a mentally ill protagonist and I love it.

[questioningespecialy]

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION]

Spoilers for Berserk’s Golden Age Arc, Tsukimichi episode 11, and Attack on Titan season 4 episode 4.

A rectangular image bearing three characters on the bottom and a white title over a black background on the top. The title reads: The "he had no choice" starter pack.

The characters are, from left to right...

1) Femto (aka: Griffith) from the anime Berserk stands ominously with head tilted partially down and eyes forward to the audience. He bears a purple skin-tight bird-like armor that only reveals his eyes and mouth areas respectively. Behind him are monstrous creatures bearing large teeth and eyes.

2) Makoto from the anime Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy walks forward with dead eyes directed at the audience. His hair is black and neck-length with bangs reaching just past his eyelids while the center one passes his eyes completely. His expression is cold with unknown intention. He wears blue dapper buttoned-up clothes of a merchant. All around him is darkness and a strange mist.

3) Eren from the anime Attack on Titan stands in front of an orange brick building while staring forward at the audience with a look of conviction. His left eye and forehead are covered with bandages while his dark brown neck-length hair covers half of that side of his face and flows far past his right eye, which is mostly visible. He wears a tan colored top of some sort.

All three characters either already have done something evil, have already decided to, or both.

[END IMAGE DESCRIPTION]

Image Sauce:

Berserk Eclipse : Berserk Eclipse Modus Und Zusatzangriffe (...) —Admin | Mei 20, 2021 (image)

Tsuki ga Michibiku Isekai Douchuu – 11 —FlareKnight | September 15, 2021 at 11:03 pm (image)

Eren Yeager season 4 —Mr sharingan (image)

[moontheoretist]

This gives me so many Veldora and Rimuru vibes xD

[someawesomeamvs]

Warning: Lots of flashing lights, violence, potential spoilers

Title: Regret It

Editor: Anime MV Sensei

Song: Regret It

Artist: T-Mass, Krysta Youngs

Anime: To aru Majutsu no Index, Milgram (music video), Bleach, Bungou Stray Dogs, Fate series, League of Legends (music videos), Pertubator (music video?), Steins;Gate 0, Gleipnir, Death Parade, Kimetsu no Yaiba, Blades of the Guardians, Doujin Otome (games?), Chainsaw Man, Jujutsu Kaisen, Engraving(?), Bite the Bullet, Guilty Crown, Tsukihime, Takt Op. Destiny, Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy, Fire Force, Yoshitoshi Shinomiya (MAD), Boku no Hero Academia, Lyrcoris Recoil, Akame ga Kill, Date a Bullet (film), The Detective is Already Dead, One Piece, Soloist in a Cage, Tokyo Revengers, My Dress-Up Darling, Sword Art Online: Alicization - War of Underworld (film), Black Lagoon, The Promised Neverland, Shuo Feng - Po Zhen Zi, Berserk, Mirai no Mirai, Sk8 the Infinity, Vivy - Fluorite Eye's Song, Majo no Tabitabi, 86, Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky, Black Clover, Shingeki no Kyojin, Naruto Shippuden

Category: Action

[moontheoretist]

Wasted potential of fantasy races

I really like TSUKIMICHI anime, but I have one huge issue with the portrayal of the fantasy races there, which doesn’t let me enjoy the anime fully. For the record, I have a similar issue with Tensura anime.

This is male Orc:

This is female Orc:

The author used literally two different species, pigs and boars, to establish the gender dimorphism of Orc species. The issue I have with it is not only that it’s not true, because both of those animals are completely different, on top of the fact that regular pigs also have hair and not all are squeaky clean like a baby’s ass, but also that it conveys a sexist idea that women cannot be hairy to be seen as attractive by men. In the story, all female Orcs are hairless, not counting the hair on their heads, and are also very cute and portrayed as pretty. They basically are forced to adhere to the beauty standard of human women despite being pigs simply because the author decided so, and it bothers me so much.

I cannot shake the feeling that this world would be far more entertaining and creative if Orc species was basically all species of pig-like animals from our world with all possible gender variants in all of them, to create a species which is as diverse as humans are with their phenotype (skin tone, hair/eye color etc.).

The second race I have issue with are Alke. I loved their design before they were forced to assume humanoid form for the sake of posing as cute anime characters, as much as Tomoe and Mio do after their contract was established and their abandoned their monstrous forms due to being weaker than MC.

(Please, keep in mind that whitewashing happened here).

In Tomoe and Mio’s cases, (even though I didn’t like it on the meta level, because I literally dig every monster creature ever, and I would want them to say monsters forever), it at least made sense on the story level, as it would be hard to travel and interact with humans if your attendants were huge ass dragon and a monstrous spider (though they still could go with the idea that they assume those forms only when humans are around and stay monsters in between). With Alke it doesn't make sense at all. They never interact with the outside world, so why should they stay in their humanoid forms even in the Demiplane, even tho nobody there cares how they look, because they’re all monsters? On meta level, it just looks like forced humanization of the creatures which could be great and likable even without resembling humans, so it is literally purely author's own preference and that preference says volumes about how authors fear to make stories about monsters. It also seems kinda sad because they made those designs for those monsters so that they could just ditch them right away. What was the point of even designing them then if you wanted to abandon it?

The third race I have issue with are Tomoe’s servants, the Mist Lizards. I didn’t see ANY female lizard among them, and I don’t know WHY. Like why there is no female Mist Lizards? What happened to them? How does this species even reproduce? Do they reproduce by cloning themselves and laying eggs? What is going on with this species? Also, why most of them only wears pants which look as if they were modeled upon Tarzan’s? I have so many questions. I also don’t understand why Alke have to become “more human” while Lizards are basically let off the hook, because they, what exactly? Don't have the additional pair of legs? Bullshit.

If you want to force one race to be more human, you obviously would have to force the other one as well, because that is a rule in your world. I am happy that they’re not forced into assuming humanoid forms, but I am still unhappy that they all look like made from the same form. There is barely any distinction between them.

(That one in green clothes could be a woman, but it could also be just a young boy if we consider the boy standing just next to them).

The same issue applies to dwarves. I didn't see even one female dwarf and that bothers me, because it implies that women do not do heavy manual labor, don't make weapons, are not blacksmiths and alchemists, because they simply don't exist. Women dwarves didn’t make the cut as far as author is concerned.

That’s just lazy world building. All those races have so much potential, and it hurts to look at them and see how wasted it is.

When it comes to humans, I still didn’t see anybody who wouldn’t be white or at least fair skinned Asian (basing it on the fact that one of the characters looked exactly like the girl from MC’s original world, so it would make her Asian). People of color don't exist in this world as well. And I wonder WHY they don’t. And the only reason I can come up with is author’s bias cultivated in Japanese society. (Yes, Japan is very much racist. Black people and other people of color who are not as whitish as it is humanly possible face racism in Japan. Japan is also very much sexist and misogynistic, so women are held to impossible standards and treated like trophy wives by men).

[moontheoretist]

Lol, this is truly an unexpected start to an isekai anime. "Hello, your parents are actually from another world, and you have to fulfil their debt with a goddess. I already disposed of all your dirty mangas, please come with me".

It kinda feels as if they were making a joke about Tensei Shitara, because not disposing of his porn was Rimuru’s greatest worry when he was dying xD

[moontheoretist]

UTSUKUSHII! She is the prettiest pig I ever saw! (sorry Miss Piggy).

[moontheoretist]

Ouch. This goddess is really mean! Also, why does she look like some kind of dominatrix from a Red-Light District? Her clothes are so revealing! She isn’t in black and leather, but the general design and personality kinda evokes it!

The Cooling-Off Rule gives you three days to cancel certain sales made at your home, workplace, or dormitory, or at a seller's temporary location, like a hotel or motel room, convention center, fairground, or restaurant.

What the heck, Goddess?! Also, how dare you insult orcs and goblins? I will see to it that Rimuru-sama will come to you to talk about this atrocity! Speaking of which, it’s not how genetics work! Putting aside the fact that it’s cruel to laugh at someone’s looks and that his looks are not actually that important, considering that his parents were beauties, there is a high chance he will pass those genes along. BTW THEY actually carried the genes which they gave Makoto! So shut it you mean biologically inaccurate goddess and leave Makoto alone!

She is a stereotypical bitch character, I suppose.

Not really a great way to introduce an audience to the women in this world, but maybe there are better women there. I hope there are, because damn, it looks nice, and I wouldn’t want to get angry at pointless sexism. I mean, the difference and the stark dissonance between the Goddess and Tsukuyomi already is a huge sign of meta message here being like “women are cruel bitches”, so if this continues I will be really, really, really disappointed in this series.

Edit: I am a little further into the episode and I love both Emma and Shen! You two are saving the grace of women in this isekai world!

The monster girls are superior girls, Goddess!

[moontheoretist]

They’re all really great and all, I love the designs, the orc ladies are very cute, but I kinda hate the level of dimorphism between them. All male ones are huge, bulky, hairy and muscly and all female ones are smol and cutesy and don’t have any hair on their skin at all. It reminds me about Aura dimorphism.

It looks like there are some hairy female ogres. I am guessing from some of the hairy ones wearing long clothes, like a dress and standing in a “feminine way” kinda, not that there is a feminine way to stand, but it just looks different than the male ones around them, so there is hope I suppose?

They weren’t shown, tho. Camera avoids them.