First things first, I’m not going to cover Moonrise. Not in the conventional sense, anyway. Nothing to do with its relative merits, but an 18-episode full series dump just makes it pointless. I will watch it, if it commands my attention (and the first two eps were very good so I think that’s distinctly possible). Maybe do some sort of series review post when I finish it, if my interest holds out that long. But while I have done more or less weekly episodes (or multi-) coverage of Netflix dump series, the length of this one renders that a waste of time. Goc, I hate this distribution style.
Fortunately I don’t hate Moonrise by a longshot. Not after two eps, and likely never – I may lose interest but it doesn’t seem like a “hate” sort of series. The production committee did a good job keeping a lid on the project, given that it was announced in 2022 and then bupkis was said about it until about two weeks before the season. Obviously all 18 episodes were in the can before that airing – not that uncommon with Netflix-produced anime, where schedules tend to be more sane than usual for anime.
Going into spring there were three big-ticket wild card shows with power players behind them – Lazarus (CN, Watanabe), Gundam GQUUUUUUX (Khara, Anno/Tsurumaki/Enokido), and Moonrise. While it had probably the least star power, Moonrise thus far is my pick of the three. It’s glitzy and about as far from indie as you can get, but seemingly genuine. The biggest name behind it is probably scenario developer Ubukata Tow, but it also has Shingeki no Kyoujin director Koizuka Masashi (handling series composition for the first time) and Wit’s prestige. George Wada said it was created as a staff passion project, and Koizuka was the one who pushed it in the direction of a shounen space opera. He was also the one who got Arakawa Hiromu to do character designs (I was wondering why everyone looked so familiar).
I can only vouch for where the story is after two episodes, but I’m interested. A young rich kid named Jacob Shadow is a bit of a gadabout, seemingly more interested in partying than responsibility. His parents (adoptive as it turns out) seem to run the company that’s about to launch a new series of orbital elevators, making transport to and from from the moon much easier. An A.I. called Sapienta is overall running things, and there’s an insurgency on the moon stemming from perceived (likely real) maltreatment by Earth authorities. The leader of this “moonrise” is one Bob Skylum, calling for lunar independence by any means necessary.
Those means will, as it turns out, include a massive terrorist attack on the night of the orbital shafts’ grand opening. Jack escapes with his life thanks to the help of his friends (his parents don’t seem as lucky), but comes under suspicion for aiding and abetting the terrorists. Through a series of flashbacks we learn that he was raised by Skylum on the moon, alongside his best friend (and possibly more) Phil Ashe. Ashe seemingly died when that went to hell, as the boys learned that what they thought was their lunar home was a space battleship, and that at least some of them were androids. Phil apparently died getting Jack to an escape pod, but on the night of the attacks he appeared before Jack and appealed for his help on the moon.
All this ends a year later, with Jack and his friends sent on a mission as “VC3” to assassinate Bob Skylum. There’s a lot we don’t know here obviously (for me the series is only 11% complete) but I thoroughly enjoyed these two episodes. As you would expect with Wit they look fantastic, and part of the credit has to go to Studio Easter (one of the very best in the business) for the backgrounds. Star Wars and Space Battleship Yamato were cited as influences here, and you can sure as hell see why. This is indeed space opera, and there’s little that’s intimate about it, but it’s a genre that suits anime very well in the right hands.
Are these the right hands? Well, Ubukata has always struck me as more of a craftsman than an artist. And as I said, Koizuka has never been the lead writer on a show before. If you’re talking about a series with political themes and the AoT director yeah, I’ma worry about that a little. But Moonrise certainly delivers the goods out of the gate – for me more than Lazarus or GQUUUUUUX, as I said. I also couldn’t help but ROFL at the inclusion of “Moon River” given Japan’s colossal obsession with Audrey Hepburn (IYKYK). If the series continues to click, I’ll pop back in again once I finish it – though when that might be I wouldn’t even dare to guess.
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