Review of Tsukigakirei

TLDR; A romance realistically grounded and (sometimes painfully) true to life, Tsuki Ga Kirei stands out in a medium full of the extreme and the bombastic. This quality of realism is truly its selling point, and permeates through every facet of this anime be it the story, cast, design (maybe besides Ramon's hair), or dialogue. What you get in the end is an adorable but at times heart-wrenching tale of 2 middle schoolers falling in love that is dramatic and powerful yet you could believe actually happening in real life. Studio "feel" have pulled of an incredible achievement, props to them for this stellar originalcreation.

Tsuki Ga Kirei features Azumi Kotarou and Mizuno Akane, 2 teenagers in their last year of middle school. The boy is a writer, the girl is a runner, and they are both shy, soft-spoken, and introverted. They fall in love, and eventually end up going through all the various trials and tribulations of middle school dating. As you can see, what we are given for premise and plot are extremely simple, yet the execution of it is A+++. There is no filler, no padding, the pace might be slow at first, but it is to the point, and every scene serves to establish something.

Although TGK features a lot of idealism and innocence as befitting the teenage cast, and how things will turn out eventually is pretty much a foregone conclusion, the journey there is tough. TGK absolutely puts our leads through the grinder, but at the same time, it never gets into overly edgy or cynical territory. The ending to this tale, without spoiling anything, is MAGNIFICENT. The creators held nothing back, no twist, no sequel bait, no vague bullshit non-resolution, none of that crap. It is presented to you plain, unambiguous and definitive, which I feel is so incredibly rare these days. MAKE DAMN SURE you watch the credits.

Characters in TGK have actual distinct personalities and aren't reduced to a single trait. They act like realistic 14/15 year olds, who may be quirky (pinching a doll to calm down, boxing with your light switch when excited, you know the stuff), awkward and sometimes even selfish, irrational, or immature, but never completely childish or stupid. The thing I appreciated most is the fact that characters actually try to talk things out, and never lets issues go out of control for long stretches of multiple episodes, where misunderstandings and angst pile up endlessly till you just stop caring.

There was no character that I outright disliked, even the "rivals" were really reasonable for the most part, and if you tried looking at things from their perspective you'd genuinely pity them. All of the character acted as someone at their age level should, and your suspension of disbelief never gets stretched too far. I loved the fact that older characters would often try to put the brakes on the younger ones with really realistic advice. And yet, they are never unreasonable. Their concerns are always valid. It's almost like they are the audience surrogate. When you have that nagging thought in your head you can be sure a mother, father, or elder sister will bring it up. This is almost impossible to explain without spoiling important plot events so I can't do it unfortunately.

I'm not an expert on art, but I can tell this is the anime's weak point. Besides the aesthetics and style being either serviceable or downright jarring depending on who you asked, the use of CG is also pretty painful at times. It never got to me, but I know some couldn't stand it. Sound on the other hand is out of this world, the OSTs are marvelous like most anime these days, and there is use of proper fitting music at key moments, but where TGK really excels at is in the dialogue and voice acting.

This might seem ironic, but TGK's clever use of non-verbal dialogue, or even a complete lack of dialogue, is what makes the dialogue so great. Our leads and their interactions with each other are especially memorable. Because of their personalities, they are prone to grunting, shrugging, and gasping A LOT instead of just speaking up. Sometimes there are even long stretches where characters face each other and don't utter a single thing, just silence. While some found this annoying, I really find it genius, every one of these moments lets them get the point of the situation across while not breaking character. You know exactly how the characters feel, you can feel the tension of the situation, and they can be really powerful. These seiyuu are incredible, voices not only fit, but have "chemistry" between each other. it's just simply perfect.

I spent every single episode of this anime crying at some point. I tried to hold it in but it just didn't work, this has never happened to me before (to this extent) in years of experiencing material across different mediums of entertainment. Maybe I just haven't experienced enough, maybe at the point of this review i'm just going through a hard point in life thus am more emotional, but I truly feel what i've seen here is special. It's so ironic that such an ordinary an honest romance is the one that got to me the most. This anime moved me so much that I had to create an MAL account to write a proper glowing review for it and bump the score up closer to what I feel it deserves.

That said, TGK relies a lot on nostalgia (in a good way), and I feel the watcher needs to already have been through school life to fully appreciate it. The more imperfections that phase of your life had, and the more regrets you have now, the more this anime will probably impact and resonate with you.