(CR) Tsuki ga Kirei (The Moon is Beautiful)

[bastek66]

Why is this thread tagged "shoujo"? There is no shoujo manga Tsuki ga Kirei nor it's a genre.

[FredFriendly]

Originally Posted by Boukenxha

My bad, I don't know why I had wrongly assumed Hira to be a senpei at club lol

Maybe because he actually looks older. The first time I saw him at the track practice in episode 1 I thought he was their club adviser and a young teacher.

And I thought you meant her classmates, like BWTraveller said, those other girls are likely never friendly with Akane in the first place.

Who knows, they could be jealous of the attention Hira (popular sports guy at school) giving to her, nothing she does will be right in their eyes.

I have no idea what BWTraveller said as he is the sole person on my Ignore list, but I did mean her classmate friends who seem gung-ho on pairing Akane up with Hira, but not her track friends. Altough they, too, seem gung-ho on pairing her up with Hira, they have been friends on the track team for two years, and seem less likely (especially Chinatsu) to ridicule Akane's decision.

Spoiler for episode 5 preview with English subs and screenshots:

Spoiler for speculation based on preview and screenshots...:

Well, we have confirmation that Akane actually agreed to go out with Kotarou, though, as expected, they are keeping their relationship a secret.

Akane's classmate friends do not look happy with her, and my guess is that Hira confessed to Akane and she rejected him and they disapprove.

It also looks like Kotarou might be getting himself in very hot water with his girlfriend if he continues to get along like a house on fire with Chinatsu. Looks like he may be spending more quality time with her than he is with Akane. And what the hell is he doing, walking home with her? The boy seriously needs to learn some dating etiquette. Since you like reading books so much, get yourself a damn "Dummys Guide on How to Treat Your Girlfriend."

To top it all off, Setsuko is thinking about breaking up with Nagahara. Good choice!

[Diluc]

Ep 5
I was afraid things getting uglier they dating this early surprisingly their relationship defined in actual awkward dating where the both naive Akane and Koutaro find hardship in maintain their secret dating which i am taking to enjoy.
lol at Akane sister boyfriend part, i am understand the father feeling, any real dad would not give his daughter easily to random man but he got defeated by the money at end "tsk"
I see MC best friend, Ogawara(the fatty boy) get his screen time too. pitifully without pairing. I actually was shipping him with Miu but sadly she has boyfriend, hopefully she will broke up with him (from their scene their appear didn't get chemistry very well ) and will go out with fat boy,

[BWTraveller]

Please, tell me I'm not the only one who doesn't think Kotarou and Chinatsu "get along" that well. I mean seriously, give me a transcript of his side of his conversations with her! He hardly says anything but "uh..." or "yeah" unless he absolutely has to say more to answer a question. And after she left this episode he looked simply TIRED. He doesn't seem to hate her for sure, probably thinks she'd be a good friend, maybe even thinks she's cute, but I can't see him having any real interest in her. And yet he's smart enough (thank God) to realize that he's in a bad situation and at the least Akane thinks they're good together. So now we've got what I think I'd call a "love cup". Can't exactly call it a "square" since there's nothing really between Hira and Chinatsu, so one piece missing there, making a cup. At least we aren't talking about something like another recent series, where we had two long chains that were basically built so that nothing good could come from them. Here it's just two lovers who each have a single admirer. But seriously, I thought better of Chinatsu. I could tell she was interested but from the way she knew he was trying to reach Akane I figured she'd realize what was going on. Here's hoping that Akane just up and sets the record straight. Chinatsu will probably be a little upset that her friend's dating her crush, but still it'll be easier than letting things go, have him show up to a bunch of meets and let Chinatsu think he's trying to be closer to her as well, then let her just sort of run into the two of them and have her heart broken. That sort of cliché is just kind of cruel. It's really an act of kindness to just come out and stake her claim, just as it'd be kind to Hira to let him know it's not going to happen (at least not for a good while).

Additionally, I thought from the moment Fred said it that Akane's friends didn't look in any way angry or unhappy, just serious or confused. And sure enough, they were just trying to figure out her reaction.

Anyway, this seems to be pretty standard stuff for first-time couples, at least in fiction. Neither one of them really knows what to do so they're floundering all over the place. They get too nervous and focus on outside guidebooks instead of looking at each other because they can't trust their own judgments, and as a result you wind up with them doing stupid stuff like marking the time while conversing rather than just paying attention to the conversation. Seriously, I have zero romantic experience and even I know that this is not the way to go. Just be yourself and pay attention to the other person. Take some advice from outside and maybe start out just a little reserved, but again pay attention first and foremost to the other guy. I mean, I seriously doubt Kotarou, or any guy for that matter, would be upset to have his girlfriend respond quickly in an active conversation.

[FredFriendly]

Well, chapter 5 brought back 2 things: Dazai quotes and Mr. Potato Head. I was hoping that we'd seen the last of both.

I don't get why Akane and Kotarou want to keep their relationship secret. Of course they're young and inexperienced, and probably feel like it would be embarrassing if other people knew (not about who they are dating, but the mere fact that they are). But, as Akane just found out, keeping their relationship a secret is going to cause big problems for them.

Frankly, I'm surprised that Hira didn't confess, I felt sure he was going to. I didn't get what that whole scene of them walking home together was about other than to take up a minute of time. Perhaps it was just a reminder that Hira is still in the picture and presents another obstacle to Akane and Kotarou's relationship.

And that alone time for the lovebirds was so sweet, especially Kotarou taking the initiative to hold Akane's hand. Even my heart started to flutter. Too bad Akane didn't heed the advice she sought out and immediately responded to a text message instead of continuing to hold Kotarou's hand.

It will be interesting to see how Akane deals with Chinatsu. Surely, the best thing to do would be to tell her that she and Kotarou are already dating, but I get the feeling that that isn't in the cards just yet and, instead, we'll get to see a bit more of that Green-eyed Monster dwelling within Akane.

[Funkatron]

Loved that last post credit scene with Akane's parents and her sister's boyfriend.
"I don't approve!"

[FlareKnight]

Well I'm just glad there was some enjoyable progress for the main pair. As extremely awkward as they are, progressing to hand holding is a moon launch level event .

The love rivals are what they are. You just can't escape them. And I do feel bad for frankly both of them. They are the frustrating obstacle that exists in the story. Both seem like decent people, but I'm going to dislike them both by the end of this just because of their role in this.

The show is doing a pretty good job of having both leads basically have no response to the growing feelings of Hira and Chinatsu. Azumi doesn't have many or any reactions to her. Though part of his silence is that he's a quiet person in general. But while he can talk to her and they've had moments of interaction, he hasn't shown much of any romantic interest. He isn't conflicted here. He likes Akane and is focusing on that route. The most active we see him is when he's basically rolling around in glee while texting her.

The same goes for Akane. I'm sure she's starting to clue in that Hira has some interest. Especially since everyone keeps asking her if she's dating him. But we've seen nothing on her side. Heck she seems surprised that he's at all bothered that they won't be able to run together any longer. A lot of expressions of "what?" on her face with moments like him suggesting (and then running away without waiting for confirmation) about talking on their way back. She is also not at all conflicted here. She likes Kotarou and that's that.

At least the conflicts seem believable. Chinatsu has a crush on Kotarou, but that is a one-sided thing and can happen without him doing anything. The conflict is Akane realizing this is a thing.

So far, so good with this show.

[FredFriendly]

I think we should keep in mind this sentence about Chinatsu from the character details posted on animenewsnetwork which is a near verbatim translation of the original Japanese from the Tsuki ga Kirei website:

"Sometimes she wants things that other people have, but never with any ill will, and at most only with a playful envy."

So, Chinatsu has most likely confirmed that Akane likes Kotarou in that way via that library scene and has decided that, since he's good enough for Akane, he'll do just fine for herself, as well. It's a personality quirk of hers to want what others already have, kinda like kids in the kindergarten class grabbing someone else's toy because they want it now. Granted, she might have fallen for him even if Akane didn't know him, but she probably wouldn't have been interested in him to begin with if Akane hadn't told her that he was cool.

[germanturkey]

ahhh!! is the innocence about to end?! i hope not. the awkward silence and "i have no idea what to do in this situation" is far too adorable to end. also because i can relate to it so much.. haha

[Enternal]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

The show is doing a pretty good job of having both leads basically have no response to the growing feelings of Hira and Chinatsu. Azumi doesn't have many or any reactions to her. Though part of his silence is that he's a quiet person in general. But while he can talk to her and they've had moments of interaction, he hasn't shown much of any romantic interest. He isn't conflicted here. He likes Akane and is focusing on that route. The most active we see him is when he's basically rolling around in glee while texting her.

The same goes for Akane. I'm sure she's starting to clue in that Hira has some interest. Especially since everyone keeps asking her if she's dating him. But we've seen nothing on her side. Heck she seems surprised that he's at all bothered that they won't be able to run together any longer. A lot of expressions of "what?" on her face with moments like him suggesting (and then running away without waiting for confirmation) about talking on their way back. She is also not at all conflicted here. She likes Kotarou and that's that.

At least the conflicts seem believable. Chinatsu has a crush on Kotarou, but that is a one-sided thing and can happen without him doing anything. The conflict is Akane realizing this is a thing.

So far, so good with this show.

That's the thing I like about these two so far. They are shy, introverts, and awkward but as far as I can see, they are quite decisive with who they like. They don't let others around them influence their feelings and instead, are simply focused on finding out how to make their relationship work. Azumi has been and may continued to complained by othersas being such a "beta" (personally I never really like the whole labeling of beta and alpha) but it's pretty clear that he's simply a shy person but is decisive and capable when it really matters such as asking her out and proactively holding her hands when she was having some doubts. Initially I was really worried about this pairing because between the two, Akane isn't as proactive as Azumi is. Fortunately, that missing characteristic is found in Azumi. If he too was missing the proactive characteristic, I would be afraid their relationship are doomed for failure as none of them would be able to take the required steps to forward their relationship.

What I'm looking forward to is now that Chinatsu, Akane's friend, is clearly showing her interest in Azumi (whether it's real or not), and had clearly told Akane about her feelings, how will Akane react and what will she do to try to maintain and forward the relationship she has with Azumi at the moment. Furthermore, I want to see how she reacts as Hira starts to become more agressive in pursuing a relationship with her. Basically she's being "attacked" by two sides, a friend who is interested in her love-interest and a team member who is interested in her.

Anyways... I'm loving this. It's soo sugary AF and I'm loving every moment of it.

[FredFriendly]

Originally Posted by Enternal

What I'm looking forward to is now that Chinatsu, Akane's friend, is clearly showing her interest in Azumi (whether it's real or not), and had clearly told Akane about her feelings, how will Akane react and what will she do to try to maintain and forward the relationship she has with Azumi at the moment. Furthermore, I want to see how she reacts as Hira starts to become more agressive in pursuing a relationship with her. Basically she's being "attacked" by two sides, a friend who is interested in her love-interest and a team member who is interested in her.

Well, if this goes the typical route, Chinatsu will make a pact with the devil, er, Hira, whereby they join forces to break up the two lovebirds so that they both can end up with their crushes respectively.

Chinatsu could also start a rumor that Akane is going out with Kotarou, banking on Akane denying it when confronted by her classmate friends (just like how she was so ready to deny that she had intended to meet Kotarou in the library). This would leave Chinatsu free to openly pursue Kotarou without any public hindrance from Akane.

I just hope that Akane doesn't blame Kotarou for Chinatsu's crush, and think that he's just playing around. She sure is quick to jump to conclusions and get extremely jealous. Kotarou needs to be more proactive and clearly state to Akane that he is only interested in her and her alone, and what, if anything, Chinatsu feels for him is completely one-sided.

Speaking of jealousy, I wonder what Akane's reaction would have been if she knew that Kotarou walked Chinatsu home from the cram school?! No doubt she would, once again, be green with envy. How ironic that she doesn't see the parallel of her walking home with Hira and how Kotarou would feel if he found out..

[BWTraveller]

Originally Posted by FredFriendly

Well, if this goes the typical route, Chinatsu will make a pact with the devil, er, Hira, whereby they join forces to break up the two lovebirds so that they both can end up with their crushes respectively.

Chinatsu could also start a rumor that Akane is going out with Kotarou, banking on Akane denying it when confronted by her classmate friends (just like how she was so ready to deny that she had intended to meet Kotarou in the library). This would leave Chinatsu free to openly pursue Kotarou without any public hindrance from Akane.

I just hope that Akane doesn't blame Kotarou for Chinatsu's crush, and think that he's just playing around. She sure is quick to jump to conclusions and get extremely jealous. Kotarou needs to be more proactive and clearly state to Akane that he is only interested in her and her alone, and what, if anything, Chinatsu feels for him is completely one-sided.

Speaking of jealousy, I wonder what Akane's reaction would have been if she knew that Kotarou walked Chinatsu home from the cram school?! No doubt she would, once again, be green with envy. How ironic that she doesn't see the parallel of her walking home with Hira and how Kotarou would feel if he found out..

Well... That could happen, but I'm somewhat doubting it. Chinatsu just seems too sweet and seriously doesn't seem like the kind of girl that would try to sabotage Akane and Kotarou. Of course I could be wrong; I've seen sweeter, more innocent-seeming girls reveal some really bad dark sides. But for now she seems like the sort that would be understanding, at least if Akane does the smart and kind thing and just tells Chinatsu about their relationship. My biggest dread, which I believe is also quite common, is for Akane to keep quiet and Kotarou to continue to "get along great" with her, along with him going to meets and the like without clearly explaining what's happening, letting her think more and more that he's actually interested in her until finally she finds out the truth. I find it just a little dubious for Chinatsu's crush to, right now, be big enough for her to do something like spread rumors or deliberately mess them up, but if she gets her hopes up and then sees the two of them holding hands or something, then I could much more see her taking some mean action.

I just hope they put a little more meat onto Hira and Chinatsu's abilities in this battle. Right now, all Chinatsu has is that she talks a lot more freely to Kotarou (though the conversation is really one-sided), and all Hira has is that he's also a runner. They both have enough to make a slight conflict, but seriously not that much. As I said before about Hira, if they don't put a little more ammunition on him, all he's going to have is some variant on the argument that a runner would be better off with another runner or that being with a novelist would somehow slow her down and hinder her progress (might use her dropping times as evidence). While having shared interests is good for Hira, lacking this is not in any way a demerit for Kotarou and if that cliché is the best they can come up with it'll be a disappointing conflict. I tire of both rivals who claim a love interest holds a MC back and love interests who feel that about themselves. And the result is almost always the same: the MC proves to the unconfident love interest that their love is great enough to overcome any such obstacle.

[Itlandm]

I find it hard to believe that Chinatsu is not already aware that the two are interested in each other, although she might not know that they consider themselves to be dating. What I wonder is whether she is pretending to be interested in him so as to make Akane admit her interest in Kotaro, and also for Akane to tell him about her feelings if she has not already.

Or is Chinatsu really interested in Kotaro, and if so, is it because of Akane? Does the fact that Akane likes him, mean that Chinatsu is more interested? This is not uncommon in women, that they find a man more interesting once he is in a relationship. Basically that means he already has a woman's seal of approval, so he can't be all that bad.

[FredFriendly]

Originally Posted by Itlandm

I find it hard to believe that Chinatsu is not already aware that the two are interested in each other, although she might not know that they consider themselves to be dating. What I wonder is whether she is pretending to be interested in him so as to make Akane admit her interest in Kotaro, and also for Akane to tell him about her feelings if she has not already.

Or is Chinatsu really interested in Kotaro, and if so, is it because of Akane? Does the fact that Akane likes him, mean that Chinatsu is more interested? This is not uncommon in women, that they find a man more interesting once he is in a relationship. Basically that means he already has a woman's seal of approval, so he can't be all that bad.

Well, Chinatsu certainly knew that Kotarou was interested in Akane, and that Akane, at the very least, thought Kotarou was cool, but she does not know that the two are actually dating, which is still a secret between Akane and Kotarou.

Presumably, as indicated by her character bio, Chinatsu became interested in Kotarou initially because of Akane's interest in him, but after spending time with him, she seems to have come to genuinely like him. It doesn't seem to me that Chinatsu is trying to push Akane to do anything, rather, her text seemed more of a declaration of, "I am now your rival for Kotarou's affections."

One thing I fear, if Chinatsu really does go to the same cram school as Kotarou (which she obviously would only do to get closer to him), is that she will, in fact, become a wedge between Akane and Kotarou, spending more of Kotarou's free time with him than his girlfriend will actually be able to. Chinatsu will, no doubt, take advantage of the situation and end up walking to and from the cram school with Kotarou to which he will not object since, after all, he is a gentleman. As a result, they will become more and more friendly with each other which will not go down well with the Green-eyed Monster...

[FredFriendly]

For 2 weeks in a row now Tsuki Ga Kirei is still at the top of the Anime Trending TOP 10 TEN ANIME OF THE WEEK chart:

Spoiler for large chart:

[SeaDoor]

Each week I watch the episode kind of holding my breath on the fear that the production staff will lose it's light touch with this series. So far, so good however. Keeping my fingers crossed.

[Haak]

Originally Posted by Itlandm

I find it hard to believe that Chinatsu is not already aware that the two are interested in each other, although she might not know that they consider themselves to be dating. What I wonder is whether she is pretending to be interested in him so as to make Akane admit her interest in Kotaro, and also for Akane to tell him about her feelings if she has not already.

Or is Chinatsu really interested in Kotaro, and if so, is it because of Akane? Does the fact that Akane likes him, mean that Chinatsu is more interested? This is not uncommon in women, that they find a man more interesting once he is in a relationship. Basically that means he already has a woman's seal of approval, so he can't be all that bad.

I think this is a factor but I think it's a bit more complicated than that. It's true that Chinatsu only became interested in Kotaro because of Akane but it still takes genuine affection to go from interest to actual crush and I think that's the case with Chinatsu. The defining moment came when Chinatsu and Kotaro were walking back home together and Kotaro did a very gentlemanly thing and shifted himself to the other side so Chinatsu was less exposed to traffic. To me her expression at that moment was saying "I think I like this guy after all".

As for why she sent that text, I think she did it to reduce the drama rather than increase it. She already knows that Akane and Kotaro like each other (though whether she knows that they're "dating" is another matter if that distinction is even important) but she doesn't see her crush as a big deal, nor does she want Akane to think so either so she lets Akane know over a simple text message.

Chinatsu is a a sweet girl; I don't think there's any malice in her intentions though I do find it amusing how the writers have left that door ever so slightly ajar. I think they're just trying to pointedly avert it but still. The Dazai quote at the end said only humans keep secrets and then Chinatsu pointedly doesn't keep her crush a secret, implying that she isn't human. Deliberate or accidental?

[Verso Sciolto]

Dissociate

[FredFriendly]

Originally Posted by Verso Sciolto

Update: Restarting the clock...
Another Twitter alert went out to inform us that the preview video for Episode 6 had been uploaded to the Flying Dog Youtube channel.

Spoiler for video:

Thanks for the updates! Unfortunately, some of us can't view the new preview...

It will be interesting to see how the title of episode 6 actually ties into how the story plays out. Although I haven't read Dazai's story, I did read the synopsis on wikipedia, and it makes me wonder if one of my original speculations might actually come to pass...

EDIT: episode 6 preview for non-Japanese audiences can be found here

[Verso Sciolto]

Dissociate