rmthunter's Full Review: Tale of the Waning Moon 1
Hyouta Fujiyam's Tale of the Waning Moon is a radical departure from the yaoi by her I've seen to date: those have been largely "school-boy romances" with a couple of forays into stories about grown men. This one is a cockeyed fantasy with some bizarre characters and even more bizarre events.
Ryuka's sweetheart has been stolen by a millionaire from the next village, and, as seems to be the practice among the Japanese in these stories, he decides to drown his sorrows at the local tavern. While in his cups, he hits on a plan: he will go to a nearby hill, called the Wishing Hill, and pray to the moon for someone who will love him truly and forever. This he does. His entreaty is heard by Ixto, the Spirit of the Waning Moon, who appears with a fistful of the Cards of Fate, each bearing the picture of one who can truly and steadfastly love Ryuka. Ryuka sees one problem right off the bat: they're all men. Ryuka rejects them out of hand. Ixto, after having his way with Ryuka, tells him that he will be Ryuka's lover, but first Ryuka must learn to let his heart follow his body. He must embark on a journey to find his true love. Ixto then gives him one of his helpers, the moon-cat Coon, to be his companion.
This is volume one of a series, so we don't have a resolution yet, but we can see where it's leading: during his travels, Ryuka meets, one by one, all the men portrayed in the Cards of Fate, and, one by one, spurns their advances. In part it's because he's still determined to find the woman of his dreams, but it becomes more and more apparent that he's also thinking of Ixto, as much as he hates the idea. Ixto, in the meantime, is observing events, but he can't interfere directly unless Ryuka calls on him by name -- even the moon has rules -- although he does, once or twice, send Cymric, his other moon-cat, to bail the hapless duo out of deep water.
Looking back at previous works by Fujiyama, I realize that she always displayed a fine sense of the ridiculous, although in most of her stories it's been muted. One only need look, however, at the situations -- and personalities -- in Ordinary Crush or Sunflower to realize that Tale of the Waning Moon is, perhaps, not so much of a departure as I had at first supposed. Coon, for example, strongly recalls Kawahara from Sunflower in full airhead mode. He even looks like him. Ixto, tall, dark and somewhat saturnine, has echoes of Noze or Heiji -- there are currents underneath that we can sense but don't see. Ryuka, on the other hand, seems to be nearly unique: he doesn't quite fit Fujiyama's usual uke portrayals -- he's somewhat softer and more introspective.
The drawing is both a major plus and -- well, not a detraction, but a disappointment. This is full-blown Fujiyama, as good as Sunflower or Pure Heart, but Yen Press publishes in a smaller format than June, which has released most of Fujiyama's work in English. Consequently, the pages have been compressed to fit the format, losing some of the leanness and openness that I love about her work, although I must point out that the character renderings are superb.
The story doesn't have the depth of characterization that is one of Fujiyama's strong points, but since it's a comedy, and a somewhat wacky one at that, I'll make allowances. And there's still volume two coming, so maybe that will snap everything into place. I'm knocking it just off a firm 4, though, pending.
After a night of serious boozing, a jilted young man named Ryuka speaks his wish for true love atop a starlit hill. His words reach the ears of Ixto, ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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