English Dub Review: Tsukimichi -Moonlit Fantasy- “Goodbye”

Well, Tsukimichi dove right in, with Tomoe face down on the ground, with a grievous, bleeding wound somewhere. However, within about three minutes, “Goodbye” takes a step down a dark path, showing what exactly went down. Let’s dive into that a little bit, because some really deep things transpired that is well outside what Tsukimichi has been doing for the last 10 episodes.

Makoto traveled back to the demiplane, to find out what happened. A lot of violence, an explosion, and a couple deaths triggered a very dark and malevolent path for Makoto, and I am all for it. He followed the mist gate back to Tsige, to find the blonde who played the prostitute and was one of the adventurers in the ambrosia field. Comes to find out, they were raiding the Illusory City and with gusto, because they wanted everything they can get their hands on. Tomoe’s poor fragment took a death as well, and that’s what led to Makoto’s real sinister turn.

This scene was well outside what Tsukimichi has made itself out to be thus far, because Makoto has always been kind of soft, almost naive when it came to his powers and abilities. But seeing the innocents dead and injured threw him off into the deep end. I hope this type of Makoto shows up for that inevitable fight with the goddess. Because this is what we need for some closure to this season.

However, there was a bit of a production issue that needs to be addressed, and will probably be done when the home release comes out later on. In the scene where Makoto is talking to representatives demiplane, the female Alke’s voiceover sounded way below par compared to the rest of the episode to this point. I feel like it was done in a haste, because everything about her lines just sounded off. It took me out of the episode a bit, and hopefully Crunchyroll fixes it for the home release.

After Makoto makes his rounds after the attack, he goes to see Rembrandt about the storefront in Rotsguard Academy. This neutral town will be the perfect base for Makoto to set up shop due to the lack of laws for a start up. And, of course, to have the penultimate episode end in a cliffhanger, Makoto gets kidnapped by someone who I’m assuming the Goddess, and drops Makoto in front of two new (possible) adventurers. And then there’s two missing fingers on Makoto’s hand. This has been something else.

All in all, “Goodbye” has been the most out of the box episode Tsukimichi has had since the beginning. Somehow, we go from a harem-influenced Isekai, to a very dark and bloody action show. Makoto’s temporary shift in temperament was great to see, and I hope more is done with it later on. Makoto moving on from the demiplane, at least temporarily, was great as well. The reliance of the company back there gave Makoto a crutch, and cutting the cord would do Makoto a lot of good…if Makoto didn’t get jumped by these two “adventurers.”

I’m glad to see that there’s some movement all around. There’s possible progress with a future conflict between Makoto and the Goddess. We get a tease of Makoto moving on, and a mess of death and blood. Kudos, writers, this was amazing. Season finale is next week, and I am excited.