We have reached the climax to Takagami Yuriko’s Tsuki to Sekai to Etoile (月と世界とエトワール). There is no one more surprised than I that I read this series to the end.

In Volume 4, Yozora has made her way through last of the befuddling “tests” of the current Etoile, Umiyuri, and came out shining. She, and her chevalier, Sekai, vow to be together forever .Everything is looking up, until she returns from the final test (which appears to have been singing in front of a combined audience of orphans and the elderly,) only to find that in the three hours she had gone Sekai broke the promise that, mind you, she made Yozora make. Sekai is suddenly, confusingly, engaged to a underclassman. Yozora is clearly fictional, so she loses her voice in shock, instead of going postal.

She runs into Kagami, the former Etoile candidate that Umiyuri destroyed, and learns that Kagami has returned to school and will continue to sing anyway. With the realization that she needs to sing  – and wants to sing with Sekai – Yozora find her chevalier and conjures up enough voice to ask her what is going on. Sekai admits that it was all another cockamamie “test”, this one by Towa, for the chevalier. Reunited, they swear their love, and presumably go on to live happily ever after with song.

There’s nothing remarkable or memorable about this series except that it made it 4 volumes. And I bought and read all 4, so I guess that is remarkable, but probably not memorable.

As bad guys, Umiyuri and Towa were tremendously unfocused. I never knew whether they actually knew what they were doing or not. The trials they created were banal and the story never seemed to know whether we were supposed to pity or dislike them, so I ended up doing neither. I hope Sekai and Yozora are better at screwing with the next “Lu Couple.” (I don’t speak French, but neither does Tagami-sensei, apparently)

Ratings:

Art- 8 Utterly moe, everyone looks 6, but also kind of weirdly elegant
Story – 7 Inconsistent, oddly paced, unbelievable, and yet I kept reading…
Characters – 5 I kept waiting for Umiyuri and Towa to be outright evil, but no.
Yuri – 5 Kisses and intense vows of eternity
Service – 1, purely moe/innocent

Overall – 6

So why did I keep reading this all the way through? I think it was because of Sekai and Yozora’s earnest earnestness. I can’t think of any other reason, so they had to appeal to me as a “Lu Couple” or I surely would have stopped reading.