Manga Review | Tail of the Moon | Rinko Ueda
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Rating: 5 out of 5
Genre: Manga, 5 Stars
People who should read this: If you love romance, comedy, and a lot of fun action.
Let the antics ensue!
I complained last time that Absolute Boyfriend wasn’t long enough,so you’d think a 16 volume series would be just right… well it wasn’t. I still want more Usagi and Hanzo.
The two of them are seriously the cutest. At first, Hanzo is a cold fish, refusing to even consider marrying Usagi, all of which makes sense when you read the prequel (make sure to save it until the end though). However, Usagi never gives up. She pushes herself to become a qualified ninja in hopes that it will gain Hanzo’s respect. It was her inability to qualify as a ninja that sent her on the crazy assignment of marrying Hanzo to begin with. When war looms on the horizon though, Usagi becomes a bigger help than everyone expected.
Let me just bask in all the brooding Hanzo art that I can… It’s Darcy all over again.
*comes back hours later*
Okay, I’m ready to continue talking about the series.
Between the antics and the crazy back and forth about Usagi’s ineptitude as a ninja and all the things that stand in the way of Hanzo accepting her marriage proposal, the series starts out all over the place. I get that the main plot was the marriage, but I didn’t want another Demon Love Spell where the issue was stretched out because it was the only thing carrying the story. Trust me, that’s not what happens here. All of the craziness is a setup for the second half of the series when things begin to take shape. Eventually the push back becomes believable and a good backstory can lend to a better story arc.
I’ll just say that when I got to the agonizing bit, it was that much harder to survive. Luckily, my friend told me that she was only having me read happy stories, so I knew that in the end, things would come out okay. I’m giving you that same hope as a survival mechanism. Trust me, that part is a doozy.
With a few series under my belt, I feel that I can finally comment on the art. And Tail of the Moon is my favorite so far. I really appreciated the differences each character was given. There’s excellent detail in each moment that I’m upset I read the series so quickly - there were moments where I just needed to know what was going to happen next. I guess that means that I need to do a reread. How long will my friend let me keep the series?
Should I find out???
I almost worry that I won’t be able to find another series like Tail of the Moon. It’s a fun unique story that had me laughing while also crying. I fell in love with all of the characters. I fell in love with the world. I fell in love with Japanese history. It was the series that had me fall in love with Manga. I also fell in love with brooding Hanzo. I would gobble the series up in anime form.
Happy Reading
Love Kait
Reading Challenge: 130/175