In Volume 4, a number of loose ends are suddenly untangled. Kanon decides to participate in her school festival fully, and Saki helps Ayano see that her behavior was not as awful as she had told herself it was. Now, in The Moon On A Rainy Night, Volume 5, the stage is set…mostly…for Kanon to release herself from the chrysalis she had built around herself as a protective measure.

Kanon hasn’t had a fun summer since she became hard of hearing, finding herself equally isolated in crowds and by herself. Having decided to participate in both the class’s school festival events, Kanon finds herself shocked that she hasn’t had time to feel isolated this summer – and of course…there’s Saki. Saki always holds a hand out so they can do things together. As a result, Kanon is feeling more confident and less afraid to try new things. It’s a whole new world. Literally, as Tanabe-san introduces them to cosplay for their class maid cafe.

This volume also takes time to give us Kanon’s mother’s perspective, and a foil in their teacher, who brings his daughter over to ask about piano lessons. These pages are an emotional reminder that the family of a person with a disability, or that has suffered the loss of a family member, also have their own stories and burdens. I’ll spoil a little here – this does come back again in later volumes, because every character is given some time to grow. Including Tomita, the girl I referred to as a bully in early volumes. It turns out that Tomita has a story of her own, as well. And her situation offers Kanon another chance to grow.

And then there is Saki,who has complicated feelings that have been seen and recognized by an adult,  and has been an incredible friend but doesn’t ask much for herself, except to be able to spend time with Kanon. What is Kanon to her? That will definitely need to be addressed.

Twice now this story has provided an antagonist with…not redemption, so much as humanity. That is just one of the many wonderful things about this series. Characters learning to rely on each other, working within their limitations but learning to expand those limits, friends supporting each other, and reaching past misunderstandings. What an extraordinary series. I feel like I’m learning when I read it not just about accommodations for the people around me – and myself – but also how to just provide useful support, rather than prioritizing what I think they need.

This is absolutely a masterwork by Kuzushiro-sensei, and a must-read manga for everyone.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9 (But wait…there’s more!)
Characters – 9
Service – 0
Yuri – 4

Overall – 9

 I’ve started to need a wheelchair at times and I’m so thankful for them when I do, but it is always apparent to me, even when I am fully mobile, how many barriers there are in public places. So – especially when I am fully mobile – I will comment to event runners about the inequities they allow in their set-up. It’s important for able and healthy people to advocate for people who need accommodation, because, in the best of scenarios, we will all become old and need accommodations ourselves.

In Volume 3, Saki found herself seen in ways that were both complicatedly affirming and deeply confusing. Now that she knows Kanon’s history, her one comment is that barriers are meant to be blown away completely – a line that changes everything for Kanon.

Think about a moment when you believed you could do – something, anything – before someone told you, you could not take flying lessons, or whatever that thing might have been. Kanon, whose whole life was pretty much striving in musical endeavor, had a life change that made her think she could never have that back. She won’t be able to regain what she had, but now she can see that she can create something new.

In The Moon On A Rainy Night, Volume 4, Kanon decides to reclaim that feeling for herself,

To an American audience, the song that Saki ends up choosing for her class may seem simple, cheesy, banal even, but the text here explicitly asks you to consider the meaning behind the song – what it was originally mean to represent and how it can mean even more in this specific context. I ask you to consider who Stevie Wonder is, as well  – a man blind from birth who has shaped global music in innumerable ways, and Paul McCartney, a man from humble beginnings who also changed music on a global scale. So, yes, we may hear “Ebony and Ivory,” and think of it as a bland pop song – but, in this context, it means so much.

“You shouldn’t have to get over any barriers! They should be knocked down to begin with!”  Saki’s words have not stopped resonating with me since I first read this volume in Japanese in 2022. In every way I can, I am committed to removing barriers.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Service – 0
Yuri – 4, LGBTQ – 6

Overall – 9

This year we have a bounty of charming, empowering and delightful Yuri – we have been seen – and it feels great.

Do you remember Morinaga Milk’s series Girl Friends? It was an incredibly popular and influential Yuri manga in the early 2010s, so more than a decade ago. The story followed an introverted girl, Mari, who becomes friendly with an extroverted girl, Akiko. Akiko is Mari’s first real girl friend. And, then, they start to fall in love with one another.  I bring this up because a number of Yuri series begin in a similar emotional space – someone has not previously had a close friend and then their feelings begin to change. Saki and Kanon have both had a close friend before. They both know how friendship feels. They both know how it feels to feel betrayed, or lost when that friendship cracks.

In Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 6 (雨夜の月) a whole lot of things happen that remind us that this story is absolutely not handwaving *anything.* This is a remarkably profound story that is not at all taking shortcuts, even when we might expect it to.

First, in the wake of telling Kanon how she feels,  Saki has decided that it’s time to speak to Akira, the hair stylist whose “friend’s” story of first love with another girl seemed awfully personal. It’s an important conversation for Saki, because she starts to accept her feelings for Kanon. She has no clue where she is going with them yet, but she she’s starting to understand that this is who she is. Secondly, Kanon is also wondering what to do with her emotions. She’s got no name for this maelstrom she’s feeling ask Saki asks her a favor under the bright lights of a fireworks display.

Whether or not they become a couple is entirely irrelevant to me. Watching them work through complicated feelings about other people and with other people to talk to, is very much the crux of the matter. But, this volume isn’t leaning back on just this one piece of the story, either. Saki meets up with Ayano and once again offers comfort and a way to move forward for the other girl and Tomita comes back to school, openly admitting her disability, and apologizing to her ignored friends in a touching scene.

Yeas ago, I was reading a comic that cleared the low bar of the Bechdel-Wallace Test but inspired me to create the Friedman Addendum to the Bechdel-Wallace Test, which includes these three criteria:

Does female character have agency?
Does she have society?
Does she have personality?

In Amayo no Tsuki, Saki has society. Her friendship has helped Kanon to build the same for herself… and that is what makes this volume so amazing. If these two fall in love, it won’t be because they are sheltered in a world of two, blocked from the rest of society. It will be because they want to face that world together.  In the meantime, Kanon is not only finding her own ways to make friends and be part of her class’ activities, she’s also finding her own individual voice as a writer.

The final story follow Kanon’s sister Rinne and how she learns to be braver about openly displaying empathy for others with help from her sister’s experience.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Service –  Saki and Kanon in yukata is also a form of service ^_^
Yuri – 5

Overall – 10

This was a fabulous volume of a series that is already carved out a permanent place in my heart.  I recently did an interview with a media platform in which I was asked where I saw the future of Yuri. The answer is – this. This intersectionality with disability, gender, race, mental health – these crossroads where we explore with it is to be a human with a body and mind that is not always under our control or are othered by people who are not us. This is where I see Yuri going right now and I really like it.

This series is available in English, as The Moon On A Rainy Night from Kodansha,  Volumes 1-3 are out and I have, of course, reviewed them here on Okazu. ^_^