Moon Phase - Phase 1 Starter Set
The broadcast seriesMoon Phase(2004) combines elements from several anime genres: magical girl, vampire, supernatural, andkawaii(ultra cute). Kouhei is a teenage photographer with a talent for shooting the supernatural. At a haunted castle in Germany, he meets Hazuki, an adorable girl who is actually a powerful vampire. Kouhei is so "spiritually retarded" that charms, spells, and vampire bites have no effect on him. With some help from his exorcist cousin Seiji, he frees Hazuki from the castle's spell. Hoping to find her long-lost mother, Hazuki flies to Japan and moves in with Kouhei, Seiji, and their sorcerer-grandfather. It's a familiar anime set-up: a household that brings together a dense but good-hearted guy with a pretty but powerful girl. Although Kouhei is sympathetic enough, Hazuki isn't very likeable. She fusses, throws tantrums, and keeps trying to enslave Kouhei. The results are decidedly odd, and less than the sum of the parts. The Starter Set comes with a box and a special album forMoon Phasetrading cards. (Rated 13 and older: violence, brief nudity, toilet humor)--Charles Solomon