MoonPhase

Full Title: MoonPhase
Genres: Action, Comedy, Romance, Supernatural
Episodes: 26
Uploaded By: Mavrik
My Age Rating: PG (Mild Language, Violence)

Kohei Morioka is a photographer having a hard time making ends meet. It's not so much that he's not good at what he does, he's actually very good. The problem resides in the fact that every picture he takes seems to have a supernatural entity somewhere within it. This allows him to get some work with magazines devoted to the occult, but everyone else turns him down. One day while out in Germany doing photography for the occult, he spies a girl on the roof of an abandoned castle in the distance, he goes into the castle hoping to catch the perfect shot. Instead he meets a young vampire by the name of Hazuki, who attempts to enslave Kohei by biting him. Although Kohei mysteriously does not succumb to her will, he does manage to set her free of the castle. With no where else to go and convinced that Kohei is her slave, Hazuki follows him back home to Japan and proceeds to move in with him and his family.

I was fully expecting to not be completely satisfied with the plot of this story, so it didn't catch me off guard when it wasn't top notch. The comedy this series possesses, however, greatly exceeded my expectations. The list of cartoons that have managed to draw an audible laugh out of me are few indeed, and MoonPhase is on that list. The humor is just... wacky, and oddly varied. It catches the viewer off guard and just seems to be all around well written. The next best part of this anime is the intimate scenes between the two main characters. Those scenes so greatly contrast the way the two treat each other in every other sequence that it's quite touching. Although what appears to be a grown man lovingly embracing what appears to be a teenage girl might seem a bit creepy to you, their age differences are actually not that great... (the one thing I think is creepy is this anime's obsession with kitty ears...)

Production wise, this anime definitely takes shortcuts, but nothing extremely noticeable. The character designs are nothing new, and the story would make more sense in a different order. Sometimes the mouth animation is also a little sloppy, but all that aside, the musical score is quite good. The opening sequence is really unusual. It fits the anime, however, and I recommend watching through it at least once. The ending sequence is average. One of the stronger points is the voice acting, it's nothing sensational, but it more than gets the job done and never goes over the top as many other comedies do. For, at the end of the day, that's what MoonPhase is, a comedy. Watch this one for laughs, and maybe for the interesting relationship, but don't expect revelations of massive meaning or great depth. In no way ground breaking, but an all around good view... (The last episode is more of an OVA, and I really didn't enjoy it all that much myself, but eh, you might...)

My Rating: 7.1/10 (Very Good)