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Moon Phase - Phase 2 Vol. 1 episodes 1-5
01/03/2008 . Source: Phil Jones 
Region2 DVD: pub: Revelation Films. FUN72801. 1 DVD 130 minutes 5 episodes plus extras. Price: £15.99 (UK) Also available in starter set which includes vol 2 and collectors box. £21.99 (UK). Buy Moon Phase in the USA - or Buy Moon Phase in the UK  check out website: www.revfilms.com and www.moonphrase.tv
What do you get if you get if you cross a young cute girl, a Germanic castle and photographer who can take pictures of spirits and vampires. Not that difficult really, the anime' Moon Phase', which is based on the manga of the same name. Most anime which features vampires tends to be of a similar style. 'Moon Phase', though, breaks this cast with a darkly cute and humorous series with a slight ting of fan service.
Kouhei, a young photographer is enthusiastic but has a problem. All the pictures he takes include ghosts and spirits. He himself, though, due to his total lack of spirit awareness or as his grandfather refers, dense, cannot see any of them. He works for a magazine that features the supernatural as this is the only work he seems to be able to hold down. While on a shoot to an old German castle for the magazine, he stumbles on a young girl who introduces herself as Hazuki. Kouhei, because of his total lack of senses when it comes to the supernatural, which in effect is why he could enter the castle unharmed, does not realise that Hazuki is a vampire and has been trapped in the castle for a long time.
Hazuki sees Kouhei as the perfect vampiric slave and perhaps a means to escape the castle. She sinks her teeth into his neck after charming him with her cutie-ish girl-like ways after hypnosis but even after the blood pact it doesn't quite go to plan. He is well pretty much unchanged, not the slave Hazuki wanted, much to her annoyance.
A battle ensues and Hazuki and Kouhei return to Japan. Hazuki's quest, now that she has escaped the castle, is to find her mother and why she was left in the castle. Kouhei sympathises with Hazuki but is not impressed when his grandfather takes her in. Kouhei's grandfather is clued up on the supernatural and spiritual and is more than aware of what Hazuki is. He finds amusement in the fact that Kouhei will not follow Hazuki's demands and the whole slave thing hasn't worked on him.
Over the first few episodes, Hazuki's character changes rapidly. Sometimes being cute and just a bit bolshy to extremely dark. There are hints that there is another darker character underneath. Kouhei ends up trying to help Hazuki find out about her mother and her past. In the last episode here, Hazuki is confronted by Elfriede who is trying to return her to the castle and with this ensuing battle we get hints that there is more going on.
Overall, after the first episode we're well and truly in the realms of cute urban comedy. There are dark moments along with some truly awful jokes. If your looking for high action, OK, there is some but not a lot. It's mainly the interaction and scenes that play out between Hazuki and Kouhei. His simple nature is the kingpin of a lot of the humour in this series, so far at least. It's enjoyable and with enough potential depth to keep you ticking over. It could get a bit too cute for some. Like most Funmation stuff, the English dub deviates from the original and Hazuki's voice could become a bit grating, but you can always resort to the Japanese soundtrack with sub-titles. The first few episodes do have a tendency to swing from the serious to the cute very rapidly. Hopefully, the series will settle down as it goes on for the rest of the twenty-five or so episodes.
Phil Jones
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