Nostalgic Anime Retrospective No.33] "Gekiyo -MOON PHASE-" depicts "peaceful" daily life because it is a lie.

Akiyuki Shinbo is the general director of the theatrical anime "Hanabi, kara no shita wo mieruka? Watch from the side? will be released on the 18th of this month. The director is Nobuyuki Takeuchi.
The TV anime directed by Mr. Shinbo and visual directed by Mr. Takeuchi is "Tsukiuei -MOON PHASE-" (2004, "Tsukiuei"). The 26-episode series (only the final episode was not shown on TV), featuring a vampire girl named Hazuki and a young photographer named Kohei who is fascinated by her, is a romantic comedy with a fantastical worldview.
The series is composed of 26 episodes (only the final episode has not yet been shown on TV) and features a serious story about Hazuki's origins and a tough battle, written by veteran director Masayori Sekijima, known for "Space Knight Tekkaman Blade" (1992) and "Zegapain" (2006).

The film is a comedy set like "8 O'clock! All Together" like contrived set pieces.

Tsukihi" is a work with two sides. The heroine, Hazuki, has an alias of Luna, and right after an erotic scene in which she tries to suck Kohei's blood, she breaks into a gag line with a broken face. Anime works that combine seriousness and comedy, occultism and romance are, of course, not uncommon. What makes the duality of "Tsukiyoe" stand out is the use of different "stages.

The first episode begins with a scene in which Kohei visits the old German castle where Hazuki is imprisoned. The contrasting and mysterious background art takes up most of the screen. Kohei's cousin, Seiji, a psychic, engages in a conjuring battle, and in the second episode, the wards covering the old castle disappear with a flashy effect. At the same time, Hazuki disappears from Kohei's presence, leaving behind a mysterious line.
However, in part C, after the end credits, Kohei returns to Japan from Germany and somehow finds Hazuki at home.

This scene is a one-cut long shot, showing Kohei's house in great detail. Seiji, Kohei's grandfather Ryuhei, Hazuki, and Kohei's business partner Hiromi are sitting around a chabudai. Kohei stands in the center of the Japanese-style room in surprise. As the camera pulls back from the Japanese-style room where the five are sitting, we gradually get a general view of the house. To the left of the Japanese-style room is the kitchen, to the right is the bath, and on the second floor are Kohei's room and the veranda. This cut lasts a total of 55 seconds. During this time, although the characters continue to talk and act, the camera only tracks back and the figures become smaller and smaller. Instead, the entire house is slowly revealed.
What is surprising is that the house's floor plan is shown in full view, as if it were a stage set. It is like a "Yoshimoto Shinki Gekijou," a simple set built on the stage, or more similarly, a set for a comedy act in "8 O'clock, All Together! All Together. The old German castle at the beginning of the film is a stark contrast to the other "stage" that has appeared.

Peaceful daily life is nothing but a "stage play

The set-like house that appears in the C part of the second episode is Ryuhei's home, which also serves as an antique store, "Marumido. Kohei and Seiji are staying at the Marumido. Hazuki also moved in there. From then on, Hazuki is like a character in a comedy show at the Marumido, and she and Kohei are always cracking jokes. On the other hand, the fierce battles with vampires, who call Hazuki "Luna," always take place outside Marumido.

Many anime works depict battles with outside enemies as extraordinary and life at home as everyday life. However, in "Tsukuyomi," this common practice is reversed. In Marumido, where daily life takes place, a golden darai falls from the ceiling as if in a comedy, and the back of the house is decorated with a singer who sings, as in "8 o'clock! The back of the house is a stage for singers to sing, as in "8 O'clock!
Furthermore, the Marmido scene is a 2.5-dimensional "stage play" with only one side of the set built, so camera angles are limited. If two characters are standing side by side in a room, there is no way for the camera to go beyond the line connecting them. This is because it would be obvious that it is a set.

Even in the depiction of everyday life, "artifice" is necessary.

However, for the vampires who are part of the "ordinary" world, Marmido is not a stage of fiction.
In episode 17, one of the vampires enters Marmido. When he walks down the hallway, there is depth, and when he opens the window from the parlor, there is a small garden. In other words, the vampire, an imaginary being, is living in a realistic 3D world (subjective cuts and background animation are also used in this scene).
In the following episode (18), Hazuki escapes from the vampire's pursuit and spends a brief period of peace in the Urahonke family in Midou. The scene at the Urahonke is depicted as if it were a set, with the entire layout of the house visible, just as in the Marumido house.
Which is more realistic and realistic is, of course, the vampire-infested and danger-filled Marmido. There is no reality in the sticky, flat house, but we know it is safe because it is a theatrical space with no reality.

After burning down in episode 17, Marmidō is rebuilt as it was in episode 25 (the final episode on the air), when the battle is over. The characters need a fictional house that looks like a set, like a halibut, in order to regain their peaceful daily lives. It is precisely in order to depict the banality of nothingness that a fictional stage is required - because in animated expression, where everything must be drawn by hand, there is no such thing as a random state of "taking things as they are". Even the depiction of everyday life, in which nothing happens, is subject to intention and artifice. If this is the case, then let's just dismiss everything as a fictitious story and create it in an overly artificial way. Don't you feel the wisdom and ingenuity of anime in such a bold attempt of "Tsukiyoe"?

(Text by Keisuke Hirota)
(C) 2004 Keitaro Arima / Wani Books, Victor Entertainment