Watch or Drop? Is Tsukimichi – Moonlit Fantasy Worth Watching?

First Impressions of Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy

Honestly, I was intrigued by the promotional image of Tsukimichi – Moonlit Fantasy (or Tsuki ga Michibiku Isekai Douchuu) with the protagonist aiming a flaming arrow toward the audience, a busty samurai girl, the dark magic user and then the two glowing figures in the back. I also just loved the way the title was written but that’s one of the weird things I tend to notice about anime sometimes and doesn’t really indicate whether the story will be any good.

And MAL did have this Tsukimichi tagged as a comedy which usually makes me think twice.

With the Summer 2021 season already putting in a plethora of isekai titles and my already being committed to My Next Life as a Villainess, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Seirei Gensouki and How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, I wasn’t entirely sure whether I needed another fantasy, isekai in my life.

Yet I still dove into this one as soon as there were 3 episodes to try.

While the humour for the comedy seems to be either of the overly-exaggerated or overly obvious type, the first three episodes of Tsukimichi were actually pretty charming and they seem to be doing a decent enough job of set-up even if there was nothing particularly remarkable about them.

There’s also been a nice mix of character introductions, attempts at humour, some actual world building and action sequences so far so again, while nothing is really standing out there’s little to really complain about.

Except perhaps that protagonist Makoto Misumi is a trained archer and he does at one or two points create a magical arrow but doesn’t use this ability anywhere near often enough. Though that is probably just me and my ongoing obsession with anime archers.

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Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy Series Positives:

Honestly, if you like isekai stories and don’t mind if they aren’t taking themselves overly seriously, you could do worse than these opening episodes of Tsukimichi – Moonlit Fantasy.

Each of the characters we’ve been introduced to so far has left enough of an impression so even if Makoto is really rocking standard isekai protagonist mode the god and goddess he met during his transition to the isekai world both made their personalities felt and the dragon girl and spider girl have so far proved a decent enough combination.

The world building is pretty standard fantasy fare but I did like the fact that because the Goddess rejected Misumi based on his face we never really found out what the threat was that she was summoning heroes to beat. The usual exposition that explains what is happening in the world and what the threat is was entirely skipped over and instead Misumi is more or less just dealing with whatever comes his way.

Also, while Tsukimichi isn’t exactly a thrill ride to watch, nothing seems to be dragging as we swiftly move from summoning, to meeting characters, into a conflict, before we do some world building and then back into conflict and it all just kind of flows along nicely with no particularly sequence outstaying its welcome (at least not so far).

Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy Series Negatives:

About the only absolute negative for Tsukimichi in the first three episodes is kind of the feeling of deja-vu that rolls over the viewer. Admittedly, I watch tons of isekai stories and one of the pitfalls is that they do all start looking a little similar after awhile, but Tsukimichi is really struggling to find its own identity right at the moment and yet it also feels like it might if given a little longer.

I particularly found the scene where the dragon girl and spider girl insisted that Misumi give them a name very much felt like I was back watching the early episodes of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and Misumi’s basic instruction that the various races don’t fight each other in his village that’s forming did little to break away from that impression.

While all of the characters work here and the combination is actually pretty solid, all of them feel like they could have been borrowed straight out of other isekai titles.

Tsukimichi will hopefully overcome this as it more firmly establishes its own story and world building but the opening act had little that really stood out. Of course if it is walking over familiar paths it is at least doing so competently so how much of a negative a lack of ordinality is will depend on individual viewers.

Verdict?

Tsukimichi – Moonlit Fantasy is not going to be a super high-priority for me but I’ll probably enjoy it quite enough when it is finished and being able to binge the rest of this story.

My expectations aren’t high but I expect it will continue to be an enjoyable enough isekai story and all things considered it has so far been fun enough.

I’d love to know your thoughts on these opening episodes so if you’ve tried Tsukimichi – Moonlit Fantasy be sure to leave me a comment below.

Images from: Tsukimichi – Moonlit Fantasy. Dir. S Ishihira. C2C. 2021

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Karandi James

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