Tsuki Ga Kirei

 Tsuki Ga Kirei (月がきれい) is an original 12 episode slice of life romance by animation studio Feel.  The series originally aired over the Spring of 2017.

     Azumi Kotaro is a serious middle school student entering his final year.  He is a member of the literature club and writes seriously in secret, working to become a novelist.  He has great admiration for the Dazai Osamu and puts a lot of effort into his dreams.  The new year brings a few changes to class structure, one of those being Mizuno Akane as a new member of his classroom.  Akane is a star member of the track team and easy going.  They both begin to secretly develop feelings for the other, pushed along by their work together on the equipment team during the sports festival.  Both find it easy to communicate on Line but struggle to overcome insecurity and shyness in person.  During a class trip they decide to overcome their shyness and work towards being at least friends if not a couple.

    Hiding their relationship leads to misunderstandings with those around them while also limiting the time they can be together.  After a group trip to an amusement park the truth comes out, making them a minor topis of gossip in the school.  The continue their relationship but are faced with complicated roadblocks that they are not prepared to overcome.  As they see the end of the life in middle school their future seems uncertain, even though they don't want to be apart.  Will time and circumstance push their hearts away or will they be able to overcome the obstacles ahead of them, as they move closer to adulthood.

    This is a subtle and slow burning melodrama about uncertainty in yourself an your future.  Both characters are quite reserved, especially with Kotaro having an old soul type personality.  The series remains planted firmly in realism as the main characters navigate through their desires and struggles.  Without spoiling anything, the characters are not exactly protected by plot armor, which is a welcome change to many of the slice of life romances out there.  Many of the common tropes are also absent.  But given that it is just a serious and realistic drama it can be a bit of a chore to get through some of the story segments.  But hey, that's life too right?

    The artwork isn't bad.  The characters are plain an natural but are outlined in white to make them pop from the background.  The backgrounds are blatantly taken from real locations and make use of a muted natural palette to enhance the warm calm of the story.  It is a bit of an idealized, cleansed view of urban Japan though, just as the characters are a cleansed idealized representation of teenagers.  The biggest problem, Kotaro's obsession with Dazai Osamu...I mean sure, hes one of the greatest modern Japanese authors, but, well, lets just say his life ended in a really depressing manner.  Either way, this is a warm blanket of a romance that squishes all the feels into a tight package.

    The series is readily available streaming in North America both subbed and dubbed.