Tsukuyomi Moon Phase

Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase (月詠 Tsukuyomi?) is a manga series by Keitarō Arima about a young vampire girl named Hazuki and a Japanese freelance photographer Kouhei Morioka whom Hazuki attempts to make into her servant.

The manga was adapted into a 25 episode anime TV series by the Shaft studio and aired late night on TV Tokyo from October 4, 2004 to March 28, 2005, followed by an additional 26th episode released only on DVD on February 22, 2006 which featured Art from Type-Moon. The OVA storyline has very little to do with the original series outside of having some of the same characters, and has a completely different storyline which does not fit into anything which came before it.[1]

Tokyopop publishes an English-language version of the manga[2] while Funimation released the English-language version of the anime under the name Moon Phase.[3]

Plot
Main article: List of Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase characters

The story is about the relationship between freelance photographer Kouhei Morioka and Hazuki, a young girl who descends from a royal vampire lineage. At the beginning of the story, Kouhei travels to a castle in Germany to take photographs of paranormal phenomena for his friend Hiromi, who is the editor of an occult magazine. At the castle, Kouhei meets Hazuki, who feeds on Kouhei's blood and claims him as her unwilling servant. Although this "blood pact" is supposed to bind Kouhei to Hazuki as her obedient slave, her act has no effect on Kouhei. Following an action-packed sorcerers' battle in which Kouhei and his cousin manage to free Hazuki from her captivity in the dreary castle, Hazuki travels to Tokyo, and takes up residence with Kouhei in his grandfather's house in Japan. Hazuki claims that, because she fed on his blood, Kouhei is now her servant, but Kouhei continually refuses to  obey her, especially when he thinks her requests are unreasonable. Despite their fighting, the relationship between the duo progresses over time — even in the face of repeated attacks by opposing vampires — until Kouhei becomes determined to protect Hazuki from the vampire servants of her family, who are determined to retrieve her by whatever means necessary.

Manga
Tsukuyomi Moon Phase was written by Keitarō Arima, and originally published by Wani Books. Starting with volume one in March 2000, the series has 16 volumes with the last being released in March 2009 in Japan. Tokyopop and Madman Entertainment both had English releases for the manga but due to financial trouble, Tokyopop postponed some of the dates. The manga is licensed in Taiwan by Sharp Point Press.[4] On May 31, 2011 Tokyopop announced that all of their licensed titles would revert to their Japanese owners leaving the series incomplete.

Episodes
The English title listed here are official episode titles and may be different from original Japanese title. Each episode ends with still image drawn by illustrators and listed below as endcards. The series consists of 25 episodes and one OVA.

Theme music
See also: Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase CD collections
 * Opening
 * 1) "Neko Mimi Mode" by Dimitri from Paris (eps 1–8, 10–13, 15–24)
 * 2) "Tsuku Yomi Mode" by Dimitri from Paris (eps 9, 14)
 * Ending
 * 1) "Kanashii Yokan"
 * 2) * Lyrics, Composition, and Arrangement: Yukari Hashimoto
 * 3) * Vocals: Marianne Amplifier, featuring Yuka
 * 4) "Nami no Toriko ni naru you ni" (ep 7)
 * 5) * Lyrics: Kenzō Saeki
 * 6) * Composition and Arrangement: Naruyoshi Kikuchi
 * 7) * Vocals: Noriko Ogawa
 * 8) "Pressentiment triste" by Marianne Amplifier featuring Yuka (ep 19)
 * 9) "Neko Mimi Mode" by Dimitri From Paris (ep 25)

Reception
Hyper commends the anime for its "character design and animation which are uniformly quite good and the series boasts some very nice Gothic background art". The scripting is criticised for being "too cluttered to allow any immersion".[7]