Romance is one of my favorite anime genres. Has been one for a while. And while my favorites list may not be as reflective of this as it was a few months ago, that doesn't change the fact that I'm still a sucker for some good old romance. I recently watched 'Tsuki ga Kirei', and it's the exact type of show I love. Here's why.
This show is like meat, rice and maize, which is my favorite dish. There's no extra spices, no condiments to mess up the taste, it's just meat, rice and maize. And that's exactly what I love about 'Tsuki ga Kirei'. The story and plot of the show is quite basic. A guy who likes writing falls in love with a girl who likes running, and the love is reciprocated. There's not much else to it, there's some drama between main guy and his parents, a few other people have their eyes on the main characters, but that's about it. Apart from those few things, it stays basic and nice.
Now, it's by no means my favorite romance, but then again I don't really think anything is going to top 'Momokuri' for me. Maybe KareKano will, though I don't really plan on watching that anytime soon. Whether it beats out 'Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun' or 'Toradora' is a bit more difficult to decide, although the CG crowds basically made it impossible for me to consider it even near the quality of those two. Yeah. So about the CG-crowds...
They look like complete trash. Not that I was a huge fan of the shows art direction from the start, half the faces are covered in some blinding light disguised as shading, the backgrounds look a bit too realistic compared to the look the character designs were going for but oh my god those CG-crowds. I can ignore CG-crowds most of the time if they don't show up too much, or if the show has a lot of other things I like. In 'Citrus' for example, they don't show up too much. But in 'Tsuki ga Kirei'... first of all, the walk cycle. They barely even move their legs, the walk way too slowly to the point where it looks un-natural, and they are EVERYWHERE.
They're like some virus, a bug which has infested this great show to drag it down from greatness. The animation was never stellar to begin with, but this is a TV anime so expecting something like that can only mean that you're looking for it in the wrong medium. But the thing is, I can tolerate bad animation. I can even tolerate the fact that the stills don't look too detailed or great, but this? This ain't a romcom, this a pure high school romance. And I just can't take it seriously when these... things show up for half the runtime of each episode. Okay, it's not that bad but they still look horrible.
This show is kind of like 'Boku no Hero Academia' in a way. Hero Aca is a typical, yet great battle shonen, and 'Tsuki ga Kirei' is a typical, yet great romance. I was really leaning between a 7 and an 8 for this show, with the CG being the thing that drew it down the most, but ultimately, it ended up being an 8 for me. Whether I cry at the end of a romance show is kind of how I decide whether I liked it or not, and while it doesn't make me tear up everytime I listen to the ED like with Toradora (that's not even a joke), and I don't think I'll be re-visiting often like with 'Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun' or 'Momokuri', it's still a show I enjoyed and one I definetely am glad to have experienced. It's also one I can reccomend wholeheartedly to any fan of the genre, so if you haven't watched it yet, do yourself a favor and check it out. Who knows, you might even love it even more than I did.'
As always, check me out on Twitter (@tes_star) and check out my book 'The Crimson Wayfarers' on Wattpad (@starmantes). Sayonara!