English Dub Review: In the Clear Moonlit Dusk “Prince and Prince”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Yoi Takiguchi is known as “The Prince” for her deep voice and chivalrous nature, but she finds herself at wit’s end when Kohaku Ichimura, a boy who coincidentally is also nicknamed “The Prince” takes a sudden and strong interest in her.

OUR TAKE

We have another romance story on our hands, which seems appropriate going into February. When I first saw the artwork for this series, my first assumption was that it would actually be a Yaoi, or romance between two men. I’ve reviewed those before, so that wouldn’t exactly be an issue, but it seems I played right into the trap of the premise, as this is actually a STRAIGHT romance! How revolutionary and subversive! Haha okay, I’m not gonna penalize the show right out of the gate for whether or not it’s gay, although the hook basically being “masculine seeming girl suddenly enjoying being flirted with by smooth talker guy” could certainly go some eyebrow raising ways, but I’ll give that the benefit of the doubt for now. As the start of the story, it sets the tone pretty well, with easy on the eyes colors and a pleasant tone. We’re pretty much just seeing things from Yoi’s perspective at the moment, so Kohaku is a bit of an enigma, but that’s likely by design. We are meant to start with Yoi in her regular life, showing that while she probably likes the adoration and respect to a degree, she doesn’t really want to just be seen as the most dude like girl among the girls. Like she even gets girls crushing on her because they see her as a man. Throw an actual lesbian in there and it would be chaos, though in a fun way.

Thus, when Kohaku starts approaching her like any other girl, this is a new experience for her. Her first reaction is understandably confusion and a bit of panic, but as she gets to know this new guy, who apparently has a similar reputation as her, she may end up actually liking the extra attention. I mean, if she doesn’t, this suddenly becomes a very different and much more serious story, so I’m gonna assume she’s probably into it, but I could be wrong. Hopefully we learn more about Kohaku soon enough as well, so that he can be more of a character than being a function of the plot needing to happen. For now, all we can do is wait and see (unless we want to check out the manga and read ahead to see where this first season stops at by the twelfth episode), but so far it looks like we’re in for a pretty pleasant time for the next few months. Also what the hell does this title mean?