Review of Tsukigakirei

Plot: The plot does an excellent job of depicting a middle school relationship. It was actually so accurate, that I found myself drawing many comparisons from my own middle school relationships. However, I think that the plot itself was just too bland and basic. The beginning is very slow, as it takes a long time for the relationship to progress. When the relationship finally does get rolling, nothing interesting really ever happens. It all seems to go so swimmingly. There are a few moments where conflict introduced for the sake of switching the tone, and it never felt quite earned. The conflicts that occur arealso resolved pretty much out of the blue with no effort from either main character. The plot also seems to completely prioritize the main characters. This is fine on its own, but it feels very forced when every side character is only introduced for the purpose of directing the plot in one way or another. No other side character introduced is given any additional context or anything except when it's related to the main characters, making them feel entirely unauthentic.

Characters:

The main characters are incredibly boring, and each show very little personality at all besides being quiet, awkward, and passionate about their respective club. Is this realistic and are their plenty of middle school students like this? Absolutely. Is it entertaining to watch. Not really. There's some development between their interactions with each other, but their personalities don't really change or branch out. The side characters are all far more lively than them, but none of them are given enough screen time to show anything memorable, or if they are given screen time its only for the purposes of the plot, and not developing them at all. Overall, I'd have to say Tsuki ga Kirei has some of the most two-dimensional, bland, and unentertaining characters I've ever watched in anime.

Art:

The art for the show is decent. It has a vibe that everything is very positive and organized. It looks good, but sometimes it doesn't depict whats actually happening. For instance, there will be points in which characters will make a comment about someones appearance, but it doesn't look like that at all on the character model. The art style is also inconsistent because sometimes they will use CG and realistic models, which often looks awkward and out of place. However, most of the time, it look of very high quality.

Sound/Music:

The music and sound are probably the best thing out of the show. Tsuki ga Kirei does a great job of not using music all the time to convey emotion, and instead simply using silence. This a very welcome change and makes the show feel far more realistic because its not having some magic love song play every time the characters are alone. There's also a good variety of tracks. I never felt like I was hearing the same song repeatedly. The sound effects were also well done. There was a point where a train quietly rolled by and I legitimately thought that it was right behind me. Overall, I was very impressed with the sound.

Enjoyment:

While I found this anime to be grounded and an incredibly accurate depiction of these types of relationships at this point in an individuals life, I couldn't help be feel that it was too bland. I just never felt anything for this show because I didn't feel anything unique or interesting coming from it, other than the realism.

Final Thoughts:

Regardless of my feelings about how bland most of the show feels, I can't deny that there are some people who will enjoy this. There aren't too many romance anime this well grounded in reality. If a very by the book middle school romance sounds like your thing, then you should probably check out this anime.