English Dub Review: Tsukimichi -Moonlit Fantasy- – “Guided by the Moon…”

You really get no rest when it comes to Tsukimichi, do you? There was no recap, we got right into “Guided by the Moon…”, and it doesn’t disappoint. This is how you do a finale with two distinct halves doing two completely different things. “Guided by the Moon” is everything what Skeleton Knight…‘s finale wants to be.

There was a fantastic fight between Makoto and the duo who cut his fingers off last week, Sofia Bulga and the greater dragon Mitsurugi. The choreography was top notch, and it felt like there were actual stakes for the first time in the series. Here’s the deal though. The kid who knows nothing about how mana or magic works just dumps his everything, and decimates the battlefield he was dropped onto by the goddess. There’s the problem.

The fight goes to show what happens when Makoto can cut loose completely. We got to see his new armor, and that saved his life. What got me, though, was what happened when he took the rings off. The absolute insanity that was his power, and the explosion that came from it, was unfathomable at first. And the fact that his powers turned that crater into a giant lake was almost fitting.

Just like with this week’s Skeleton Knight… we fall into a “the main character is too powerful for the actual series” problem. What makes it worse, is that there was nothing even hinted at during the second half of the episode. “Guided by the Moon…” was…mild by comparison. There was a lot of setup for the second season, but nothing to really set the table for a great finale. It was like there’s going to be a 13th episode next week.

However, unlike what happened with Skeleton Knight… this week, the building towards season two made a lot more sense. Like, we finally got to see the shop open! That was something like six episodes in the making. Rembrandt made a couple appearances, and seemed rather impressed with what Makoto did. Also, Tomoe made another fragment, and it’s so cute! The Illusory City is prospering after the attack last week, but there was no mention of the Goddess. Ultimately, Makoto ended the episode with deciding to put his search for information on his family on hold to actually live life.

Overall, “Guided by the Moon…” was slightly a mixed bag. I thoroughly enjoyed the fight between Makoto and Mitsurugi. I thoroughly enjoyed how the fight ended and the possible consequences to come of it. I’m okay with the finale feeling like less of a finale and more of just another episode as long as the feeling is for a good reason. Indirectly, “Guided by the Moon…” set the table for a lot of things going forward.