I personally have never watched the anime adaption of Tsukuyomi Moonphase even though many anime fans (almost completely pure anime watchers) have recommended it to me as I have mentioned that I like moe lolis. I believe it is largely due to the fact that I’ve sampled the manga first.

It was another one of those impulse buys where I bought the book based on the knowledge that it was Seinen, and that the cover design was interesting. After reading through 6 volumes of the manga, it is possible to summarise it in 3 words: catgirl loli fetish. There is some ongoing storyline, but it isn’t actually a good idea to purchase it based on the storyline which honestly I find rather subpar.

Although the mangaka (Arima Keitaro or 有馬 啓太郎) has proven that he is proficient at drawing those blushing catgirl scenes and innotating them with humour, he only truly impressed me when I opened up vol. 6 of the manga:

The first thing I thought when I saw the still was, Mona Lisa. It is a picture of Haruki taken by the main male protogonist by letting light enter the camera set at extremely low shutter speed for 2 hours. Now, Haruki is a vampire, so this is supposedly no problem for her.

I find it amazing that Arima Keitaro is capable of replicating this picture so realistically, so much that it actually looks like a photo with 3 dimensional connotations. It actually gave me a shock when I first saw it, and when I re-read volume 6 sometime close to midnight, it gave me the chills as well.

I also do not believe that any anime artist is capable of replicating this scene in animation. I’m not sure whether the first season of Moonphase covered volume 6 (most likely not), but if any animation studio attempts to do so, my expectations will be really high.

Speaking of loli catgirls, where is volume 5 of my Strawberry Marshmellow, Tokyopop? Sheesh.