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SPOILERS!

Very rarely do I stumble on anything quite like Tsuki ga Kirei. The tropes and cliches of typical school romance anime are thrown out the window. It remains among my top romance anime of all time. There are only 2 rated higher than it. Everything else pales in comparison to this masterpiece.

Story: 10/10

It portrays a very complex, yet wholesome, relationship between two characters. Their relationship isn't just wholesome, they have their faults and their own struggles. And yet, it doesn't detract from their relationship one bit, rather, it makes me wish them greater happiness. The story succeeds in creating realistic conflicts and moving the plot ... forward in ways that I really loved. Overall, the story was amazing and nothing much else can be said about it, other than making me feel so nervous my stomach was in knots, wanting the two to live a happy life together.


Art: 7/10

The art of Tsuki ga Kirei is mostly good, but nothing to write home about. It's animated in 3D and there isn't much either positive or negative about it. There is some beautiful scenery, which manages to keep the overall experience positive and the art and animation aren't utterly horrible overall. The 3D background characters are quite frankly...bad. I do wish this was animated in a traditional 2D style, since that would likely have made this easier, but who am I to judge that? The art and animation work, however, and allows everything else to work to full effect.

Sound: 10/10

The musical choices are perfect. It is mostly a quiet, yet captivating experience. It fits with the themes and aesthetic of the anime itself. It also matches the characteristics of the main protagonists and what you would expect for them. It's beautiful, heart-touching and makes you wish the best for them. The ending theme is absolutely perfect. It combines a feeling of vivid hope, happiness, and melancholy together in such a perfect bow that it makes you feel every emotion that it is presenting in a slow and moving piece that symbolizes the relationship between the two leads and their love.

Character: 9/10

Besides my issues with a few of the side-characters, for which I had to downgrade the score from 10 to 9, the leads were perfect. Their faults and flaws, emphasizing their innocence and youth, were perfect. They feel like real human beings, rather than the cardboard cut-outs of personality types you find in some anime. They have their own distinct goals and don't feel like they were *made* to love each other or fall in love. Rather, that came about on its own, without any prodding from the side or unnatural fanservice-y situations. It felt very natural and they felt very realistic. The show, by showing their failures as well as their successes, manages to portray their lack of experience.

They don't have comical misunderstandings. The misunderstandings they *do* have are understandable and are based on their personalities and their youth. They do not fall prey to many anime tropes, rather keeping true to the setting and situations they are presented with. They don't have a beach episode nor a pool episode to show themselves off, which is perfect, in my opinion.

Enjoyment: 10/10

Personally, I was able to enjoy almost all the aspects of this anime. It is very close to perfect in almost every way.

Overall: 10/10

The first season was quite good.

I loved the complexity of Kiriyama's past and his families, both real and adoptive. I also like that Rei is not treated as just another sympathetic character with a tragic backstory. Yes, some of that is present in the show, but he himself made mistakes, distanced himself from his adoptive family, and caused some problems for himself by isolating himself. And he does it more whenever he feels melancholy, which just makes it worse, having to deal with his emotions himself.

I also like that, while Kiriyama is extremely good at Shogi, he isn't perfect and doesn't win to ... anyone and everyone. That is what I expected going in, that he was a prodigy once who had lost his way and was getting back to where he was. But no, he himself is a good player who isn't a God-level prodigy. His losses were surprising and afforded a wealth of development for him and the person playing against him. This is better with the off-screen losses, because it doesn't treat a loss like it's the end of the world.

The Kawamoto family is adorable. And the contrast between the warmth of the Kawamoto family and the cold isolation of Rei and his adoptive family is very interesting and was very intentional. It makes me yearn to see him visit them because he feels at home with them and they see him as family. And the music used during these warm or touching scenes is beautiful. The Kawamoto sisters aren't as heavily used in this season as they are in Season 2, but that just makes Season 2 all the better, especially when it begins to give them more character development.