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animehouse-moe · 1 year

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Blade of The Moon Princess Volume 1: An Incredible Look Into Endou's Vision

Rather imprudent of me to title this after the artist rather than the art itself, but it's very hard not to. When your most recent work is your greatest hit, and one of the largest out of nowhere successes in a good while, it's hard to relate everything to that feat.

Regardless, what we have here is Endou's last serialized work before Spy x Family. There's a trio of one-shots bridging the gap, but all three (I Spy in particular, of course) contribute a significant amount to what it is that Endou distills into Spy x Family. Of course, you get borrowings from Tista, and most certainly from Blade of The Moon Princess. Because of those ties, I'd love to explain the connections (and quality) of Blade of The Moon Princess in relation to Endou's Magnum Opus.

Let's get the story out of the way: there are people living on the moon. All Feudal Japan-like but with fancy technology and unimaginable power. Kaguya, the young girl on the cover, is the next-in-line princess to succeed her mother and rise from princess to empress of the moon. Of course, not everyone likes that, as the branch family that was disgraced by the actions of the prior empress that originated from their family has stained their history. Desperate to claw back the power they had lost, they attempt to murder Kaguya's mother and steal away the symbol of her power, a sword passed down from empress to empress that's meant to protect the people of the moon. The coup-meets-assassination fails, and Kaguya is able to flee to the tainted planet (Earth) with the sword and evade the branch family, if only briefly.

Surprisingly well put together, yeah? I thought so too. Where Tista lacks a clear cut vision as to the reason behind Tista's story, Endou rectifies that hole here by providing viewers with the idea that Kaguya's goal is to return to the moon as its empress and usurp the branch family that has wrestled control away from her.

Moving on though, there's quite a few pieces that will catch the attention of readers. The moon, Kaguya, bamboo and Japan. It's Endou's version of The Story of Princess Kaguya. And I think that's really cool. They stretch the fabric of the original story so thin that you can shine a light through it, and Endou uses that light to illuminate the details that he's added. Kaguya does not appear to an old man in a stalk of bamboo. Rather, she appears in a space ship shaped like bamboo.

Much like Endou's marriage of sci-fi and fantasy with Blade of The Moon Princess, they form a transitional period in their storytelling between Tista and Spy x Family. Not quite as humorous as Spy x Family, and not quite as dark as Tista, Kaguya helms a story that straddles the middle of Endou's mind through this first volume. And I think that's something that will be immediately apparent to readers throughout the whole volume.

Though I say 'whole volume', there's two things that will immediately clue readers in: Anya and perspective. Now no, Anya does not appear in this first volume really. But I mean, just look at Kaguya's expressions, they exude the simplicity and laziness of Anya. While Ashe from the referentially titled Rengoku No Ashe might have been the inspiration for Anya's design, Kaguya represents a good portion of her soul.

Similarly, though in the opposite direction, is Endou's use of perspective. While it still exists in Spy x Family, it's to a far lesser degree than something like Tista. In his early days, he very much so had a penchant for blown perspective and the depiction of characters with small and narrow frames. Blade of The Moon Princess continues this trend, though perhaps on a lesser scale than before. The latter example in particular feels like it was pulled directly from Tista.

Anyways, let's refocus on the story to close things out. We know what Endou wants to do, we know where we're going and where it wants to end. It's a very confident series in that regard, which in turns provides me with confidence that it'll be a solid ride through its five volume run. It won't rush to fit it into two volumes, and it won't barely make it a story through one, it'll take its ideals about Kaguya's character, and take the time Endou needs to probably mold and shape it. It's the most promising exercise in Endou's storytelling prior to Spy x Family, and that has me very intrigued. A hot headed girl, stranded so far away from home, stuck with feelings of inadequacy and rage. But a girl that must nonetheless learn how to harness those feelings for the better, and use them to protect the people that form her kingdom. It's a well put and traditional approach with all the right twists and turns inserted by Endou. I'm very curious to see where it goes.