Tsuki ga Kirei

Tsuki ga Kirei, whose title is often rendered in English as As the Moon, So Beautiful, is a 2017 original anime produced by studio feel. and directed by Seiji Kishi, with series composition by Yuko Kakihara. Set in the city of Kawagoe in Saitama Prefecture, it follows two shy third-year middle-school students who are placed in the same class for the first time. Kotaro Azumi is a quiet, introspective boy who loves reading and dreams of becoming a writer, often quoting the novelist Osamu Dazai, while Akane Mizuno is an earnest, easily flustered girl who runs on the school track team. Their accidental encounters gradually grow into something neither of them can quite name.

Much of the series unfolds through small, true-to-life moments rather than grand dramatic turns. Kotaro and Akane are too timid to speak openly at first, so a great deal of their relationship plays out over nervous text messages exchanged on the LINE messaging app, where they can be braver than they manage to be face to face. The show pays close attention to the awkwardness of adolescence, the pressure of looming high-school entrance exams, the watchful presence of friends and classmates, and the quiet anxiety of liking someone and not knowing whether the feeling is returned. Rival admirers, well-meaning friends, and the simple difficulty of finding time alone all complicate the pair's hesitant courtship.

Praised for its restraint, naturalistic dialogue, and gentle realism, Tsuki ga Kirei is widely regarded as a standout pure-romance and coming-of-age title. It avoids melodrama in favor of a tender, closely observed portrait of first love, and its ending sequences each pair the characters with a different musical group, underscoring the series' delicate, music-driven mood. The result is a wholesome, emotionally honest story about two young people learning to be brave for each other.