Moonlight Lady

Moonlight Lady, or 顔のない月 (Kao no Nai Tsuki), is a five-episode Hentai anime based on an Eroge of the same name by ROOT with art done by Carnelian, who also did the art for Touka Gettan and Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito.

The story follows Koichi Hayama, a mysterious man who enters the Kuraki mansion as the fiance of Suzuna Kuraki. Suzuna is a priestess preparing for the Expecting Moon Ceremony, a ritual meant to welcome new clergywomen. Koichi also meets two maids, the obediently loyal Tomomi Harukawa and the cheerful Sayaka Kurihara, who both hide a strange past. Not everything is at it seems though, as something starts to cause people to act in odd ways.

The series' plot is a bit hard to follow (due to Compressed Adaptation and cutting out extra information), and has a Mind Screw ending.

Tropes used in Moonlight Lady include:

• Achey Scars: While going completely unexplained (see Noodle Implements below), Koichi's scar reacts when Mizuna interferes with Yuriko's plans in episode 4. The scar is completely healed after Suzuna's final orgasm during the ceremony in episode 5.
  • Gohei also has tons of scars on his body, not that we needed to know either!
• All Just a Dream: Played with in episode 1. After their romp in the shower room, Suzuna wakes up in bed the next day. When Suzuna confronts Tomomi about what happened, Tomomi is quick to convince her that she had actually passed out from the heat of the shower, and that their intimate goings-on never actually happened. The trope is invoked again in episode 3, though in a much more subtle way.
• All There in the Manual: Backstories for some of the characters is only present within the Eroge.
• Ambiguously Gay: Io Azuma, Suzuna's cousin. Lampshaded when Suzuna mentions that she was set to marry Io, only "he turned out to be a total pretty-boy instead of a hunk!"
  • He's probably more Ambiguously Bi than anything since he likes Tomomi.
• Anything That Moves: Tomomi and Koichi.
• Arranged Marriage: Between Suzuna and Koichi.
• Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other: Suzuna and Koichi. Unfortunate Implications abound, however: it's never clear if Suzuna and Koichi are really falling for each other, or they're being conditioned into it. The ending leans toward the latter being true.
• Back from the Dead: Yuriko pretty much hijacks the Expecting Moon Ceremony for this purpose.
• Big Fancy House: Kuraki Manor is nothing if not this. Not only is it large, it has a massive garden, a nearby waterfall, a hot spring, walk-in showers, and a basement furnished with chains for those special occasions.
• Bishounen: Io is so feminine for a boy that both Motoyama and Koichi sometimes have a hard time believing he is one. Koichi even wonders if Io was accidentally born with the wrong gender!
• Blind Without'Em: Tomomi, which is lampshaded in the fifth episode.
• Brainwashed: Sayaka. Her true persona, Ruri Yamato, breaks through occasionally, though by episode four Sayaka has taken total control. The series also implies Tomomi went through the same thing.
• Brother Chuck: Io disappears by episode 3, and Chikako disappears during episode 4.
  • Most specifically, Chikako is literally swallowed by the Earth.
• Break the Cutie: Sayaka.
• Calling Your Orgasms: Strangely, only present in the fifth episode.
• Compressed Adaptation: Leading to a number of plot holes and little, if any, explanation for anything that's going on.
• Cool Shades: Chikako wears some.
• Christmas Cake: Yuriko certainly qualifies.
• Coitus Uninterruptus: Between Koichi and Tomomi in the second episode. They both know Suzuna and Chikako are watching, but thanks to the camellia flowers' influence, they don't really care.
• Curtains Match the Window: Averted. The curtains match the carpets, though, and we're not talking about Kuraki Manor!
• Cute Mute: Mizuna.
• Cute Shotaro Boy: Io Azuma, much to Suzuna's annoyance.
• Dead All Along: Yuriko.
• Depraved Bisexual: Tomomi
• Deus Sex Machina: Pretty much the entire point of the Expecting Moon Ceremony.
• Dirty Old Man: Gohei and Motoyama.
• Disappeared Dad: Suzuna's father is mentioned in the first episode as having either gone missing or having died; in either case, it's part of Yuriko's justification for moving forward with the Arranged Marriage that sets the rest of the series into motion.
• Double Standard Rape (Female on Female): Present whenever Tomomi gets her hands on Suzuna. Also present when Sayaka gets her turn with Suzuna.
• Double Standard Rape (Female on Male): There are heavy tones of this trope when Tomomi forces herself upon Io, in stark contrast to when Koichi forces himself upon Suzuna. The fact that Io might be gay makes this worse.
• Double Standard Rape (Male on Male): Averted with a vengeance for Io, who gets drunk upon Koichi's will before entering a threesome with Tomomi, where he has anal sex on two occasions. Also, during the Expected Moon Ceremony, he is also forced into anal sex by the men from the village helping with the ceremony.
• Dream Sequence: Suzuna has a number of these in early episodes.
• Ear Cleaning: Tomomi does this for Hayama in one episode, much to Io's dislike.
• Everybody Has Lots of Sex
• Expository Hairstyle Change: When the series starts, Tomomi has twintails. Once she's fully under the power of whatever magic is flying around, she lets her hair down. This also means trouble for Suzuna and some fun for Kouichi.
  • In the Eroge, Tomomi has a similar image change, and begins wearing contacts with her new hairstyle to impress Koichi.
  • Also done with Sayaka: we normally see her with her short, Mahoro-style, but before she was kidnapped and raped, it was longer.
• Fate Worse Than Death: To anyone outside the Kuraki manor, it would seem as though Ruri Yamato had simply gone missing. To the people at the manor, however, it's as though Ruri Yamato simply never existed.
• Fetish Fuel: Aside from the brainwashing, Koichi and the series in general pays a lot of attention towards Tomomi's and Suzuna's breasts (a point lampshaded by Chikako in the second episode). Episode 5 throws several fetishes at the viewer in quick succession: blindfolds, bondage, threesomes, and orgies.
• First-Name Basis: Suzuna initially calls Koichi by his last name "Hayama", until after admitting their feelings for each other and consummating at the end of episode 4. Io and Tomomi go through a similar procedure in the Io sub-route of the visual novel.
• Foot Focus: Between Suzuna and Mizuna, a surprising amount of attention is paid to their feet.
• Fridge Brilliance: Suzuna and Mizuna are supposed to be twins, however, there are two big differences between them. This sounds like Fridge Logic, until you learn via That Other Wiki that Hayama suffers from prosopagnosia.^[1] The Kuraki sibling's difference in bust helps him tell them apart!
• Fridge Logic: Possibly due to a Wiki induced plot hole, so if anyone has the background information, feel free to correct things, but according to The Other Wiki, Mizuna Kuraki is the monozygotic twin sister of Suzuna, and was the shrine maiden. However, she was cast away when Suzuna was born. But, if she was the twin sister, wouldn't they both have been born at about the same time?
  • According to an expansion comic released in Japan, they weren't separated until a few years after birth; having spent so much time away from her sister is part of what made Suzuna distant from other people.
• Gag Boobs: Tomomi. Lampshaded by Koichi, no less. --> Koichi: Your breasts could drive any man crazy!
• Gag Penis: Kouichi grows a giant shadow-penis during the Expecting Moon Ceremony, strong enough (and long enough) to lift Suzuna clear over his head. Thankfully, no distension is involved...
• Gaiden Game: The visual novel, Kao no Nai Tsuki, was given one in the form of Suzuna's Diary, which detailed what daily life between Suzuna and Koichi was like. Apparently, Kouichi really likes cosplay.
• Gainax Ending: Many of the endings in both the anime and the visual novel end this way. Although the anime is somewhat Lighter and Softer, it's still a total Mind Screw.
  • Tomomi's good ending follows this trope hands-down. Chikako periodically warns Koichi not to get close to Tomomi because she may not be what she seems, and eventually tries to kill him to save everyone. Tomomi, however, saves Koichi and also shoots Chikako while smiling throughout the whole thing as if nothing happened. Chikako makes a Last Stand to push Koichi into the well, where he hears the real Tomomi tell him that she was the embodiment of lust who gained her own body. Time Skip forward and Koichi finds himself in Tomomi's Stripperiffic clad lap where she tells him she's happy to be with him because she doesn't know unhappiness.
  • Bittersweet Ending: In Yuriko's ending, Koichi saves Yuriko, who was Dead All Along, from being possessed when she starts Fighting From the Inside. Unfortunately, after having a last sexual encounter, she Dies In His Arms Tonight. Years later, Io has grown up and is now the head of the Kuraki household (retitled the Azuma household) while Koichi finds a camellia flower, Yuriko's favorite flower, growing in the garden.
  • Doomed Moral Victor: In Sayaka's good ending, she finally elopes the mansion with her manager, Urushibara, despite not fully remembering her true self, but Gohei catches them in the act. Koichi tries to help them escape, but Gohei won't go down easily even when both Urushibara and Sayaka threaten him with a gun. When Urushibara actually does shoot Gohei twice, Sayaka has an epiphany and takes the third bullet, which instantly kills her. What kind of good ending is this. Subverted after the Pan-Up-To-The-Sky Ending and Time Skip that occurs shortly afterwards, where Sayaka/Ruri is giving her acceptance speech on winning an acting award, but it really depends on whether you think Sayaka recovered from her injuries or not.
  • Downer Ending: Present in many of the endings in the game and also the ending to the anime adaptation, if the Expecting Moon Ceremony is carried out, everyone except for Koichi and Suzuna are spirited away. Suzuna, who has become more frequently Brainwashed upon the coming ceremony, will never return to her original self and the beast inside of Koichi (who is probably Brainwashed as well) is revealed. There are some variants of what goes on depending on what route you take, including ominous-looking vortex opening above the mansion, but all you need to know is that the whole shebang is either an Apocalypse Wow or a Dystopia.
  • Home, Sweet Home: In Tomomi and Io's ending in the game, Koichi escapes the mansion and lives Happily Ever After with Tomomi and Io moving in with him. However, when you consider what happens to Suzuna, Yuriko, and everyone else, you really wonder if it was worth it.
  • Only the Leads Get a Happy Ending: Suzuna's normal ending. Yuriko disappears, nothing is said of the servants at the mansion... while Koichi and Suzuna lead a relatively normal life.
  • Or Was It a Dream?: In all of Tomomi's bad endings in the game, including the alternate sub-route, Koichi will end up either being poisoned by Ippei and left to die or stabbed by Chikako. He will then wake up in a hospital room, believing it was All Just a Dream until he hears some of the medical staff discussing his memory loss.
• Gainaxing: Goes without saying—this is an ero-OVA.
• Genki Girl: Sayaka.
• Have We Met?: Apparently, Koichi met Yuriko 12 years ago, and that's when he first became possessed with the demon.
• Hot Mom: Yuriko.
• Hey, It's That Voice!!: The Japanese dub. Oh, God, where to start...
  • Koichi is voiced by Akira Ishida, who also voiced Athrun Zala, Kaworu, and a lot of other people.
  • Suzuna's seiyuu also has an extensive back-list, most notably, the titular character from Madlax.
    • Curiously, the fifth episode has Suzuna voiced by Lingling.
  • Fans of My-Otome might recognize Tomomi's voice as Miyu's.
  • Android 18's voice actress, Miki Itou, was Yuriko.
  • Megumi Reinard? Meet Sayaka—you're both voiced by Naoko Takano.
  • This also spreads into the English dub, in a minor form—Yuriko's voice actress previously was Di Gi Charat.
• Hime Cut: The women of the Kuraki family all have this hairstyle.
• Ho Yay: Koichi enjoys teasing Io, while Io often blushes around him. Koichi briefly scores with him in the game during a threesome with Tomomi.
• I Banged Your Mom: Koichi has sex with Yuriko in episode four after being hypnotized yet again, but snaps out of it in the middle of it.
• Identity Amnesia: Sayaka cannot remember anything from before her residence at the manor, though this is only ever really mentioned in the preview for episode 2 and never brought up in the series itself.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The title of each episode is named for a type of flower that really doesn't explain anything the episodes themselves.
• I Kiss Your Foot: Tomomi does this to Suzuna in episode 3, and mentions that Yuriko also likes it when Tomomi does this.
• If It's You It's Okay: Averted. Io is apparently good friends with Tomomi, but he wasn't too comfortable when Tomomi made her move on him.
• I'm a Man, I Can't Help It: In episode five, as part of the final preparations for the Ceremony, Koichi has to have sex with Tomomi, Sayaka, and several other women. Contrast that with Suzuna, who must be left alone and resorts to helping herself.
• Insistent Terminology: A variant; Suzuna hates when Io refers to her as "Suzuna-chan".
• Incest Is Relative: Present by a technicality: according to Suzuna, she was arranged to get married to Io, who is her cousin. That was shot down when Io grew up to be a "pretty-boy" instead of a "hunk". In the game, Io is forced to have sex with Suzuna during the Expecting Moon Ceremony.
• Incest Subtext: Io was originally Suzuna's fiance although they are cousins, and both of them deny attraction to the other, yet Io and Suzuna have sex during the Expecting Moon Ceremony. Similarly, Mizuna is Suzuna's twin sister and they, too, do it in the game.
• "It's Not Rape If You Enjoyed It": Particularly present in the third episode, when Tomomi forces herself upon Io. Also present when Tomomi forces herself on Suzuna.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Tomomi makes a number of advances on Suzuna, hoping she'll reciprocate. As Suzuna grows closer with Koichi, Tomomi eventually settles for being friends.
• Les Yay: Plenty between Suzuna and Tomomi, and a bit between Suzuna and Sayaka.
• Lie Back and Think of England: Suzuna is never shown actively involved in any sex scenes; she basically just lies back and lets her partner do all the work.
• Look Behind You!: Whenever someone asks nosy questions or starts smelling a rat, Yuriko and the maids are quick to point people towards the camellia tree that's in the garden.
• Lethal Chef: Suzuna can't even cut a radish correctly.
• Love Dodecahedron: Koichi and Suzuna are engaged, yet Tomomi loves Suzuna and Io loves Tomomi (though it seems so until Tomomi points out that Io likes Koichi).
• Male Gaze: In the fifth episode, Koichi can't help but have his eyes wander between Sayaka, Tomomi, and Suzuna's cleavage after a rainstorm gets everyone wet.
  • Lampshaded when Suzuna is focused upon. --> Suzuna: "What are you looking at?"
• Manipulative Bastard: Gohei, by spades, when you realize that he's not really taking care of Sayaka/Ruri each time she has a fainting spell, but continues to hypnotize her into thinking she is Sayaka Kurihara and that he saved her life. In addition to that, he repeatedly makes her "return the favor" by forcing her into having sex with him. Though, it really depends on what route you decide to undergo because he does help you out in Tomomi's route and kills Ippei when he tries to hurt you.
• Marshmallow Hell: Inflicted accidentally upon a very lucky stray kitten in the first episode by Tomomi. Koichi helps himself to some in the second episode (See the Gag Boobs entry). Even Suzuna engages in this briefly in episode four, and inadvertently causes this (combined with Funbag Airbag) with Sayaka in episode 2.
• Mass Hypnosis: Pretty much everyone living in the Kuraki household is hypnotized sooner or later.
• Meaningful Echo: In episode 2, Sayaka briefly breaks free of her brainwashing and, upon being found by Suzuna, repeats her dialogue exactly as she had when she was first discovered by Suzuna in episode 1 as Ruri Yamato. By this point though, Suzuna has no idea what Sayaka is talking about due to being brainwashed herself.
• Meganekko: Tomomi, though she trades them for contacts later on.
• Meido: Tomomi and Sayaka. As for what "job" the maid really entails...
• Mental Affair: Played somewhat literally; early in episode 3 Suzuna is hypnotized by her mother, and she later imagines Koichi having his way with her, only for him to suddenly stop and run right back to Tomomi. Suzuna would later forbid Koichi from seeing Tomomi if he ever needed anything.
• Mind Control Eyes: Several characters sport them while under the control of Yuriko or the camellia flowers. Suzuna sports them at the very end of the fifth episode.
• Mind Screw: The ending of the series.
  • Similarly, the Bad Endings of the game essentially qualify for this trope.
• Moral Dissonance: You'll actually get the bad endings to the game if you do things like stopping Gohei while he is raping Sayaka.
• Never Bring A Knife To A Fight Against Someone Who Is Likely Being Possessed By Dark Powers Fueled By Lust: Chikako learns this lesson, the hard way.
• No Export for You: The original eroge, Kao No Ni Tsuki; a shame, since a lot of key plot elements are explained in there.
• Noodle Implements: Don't expect to learn how Kouichi got that scar on his chest.
• Of Corsets Sexy: Both Tomomi and Sayaka wear them, but Sayaka dons one even in her sex scenes, probably to make up for her lack of bust.
• Otaku: Io, justified in the fact that he's a scholar and is constantly in the mansion's library studying. Motoyama, on the other hand, is a better version of this trope.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Yuriko probably qualifies as a type 6.
• Petite Pride: Sayaka has the smallest chest of the entire cast, but it doesn't bother her at all.
• Pettanko: Again, Sayaka, especially when compared to the rest of the female cast.
• Raging Stiffie: Two variants occur in the fifth episode. The first, played for comedy, has Tomomi and Sayaka servicing Koichi after they find him with morning wood. The second variant occurs during the Expecting Moon Ceremony, which can best be described as being induced through magical Viagra.
• Rape Is Love
• Recap Episode: Due to the long stretch between episodes four and five (See the Uncancelled entry), a recap-OVA was released some time before the fifth episode.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: This is a sign that someone's under hypnosis.
• Red String of Fate: In a rare non-romantic example, Mizuna, Suzuna's twin sister: she's tied to a shrine under Mount Kuraki by a long, red ribbon.
• Rich Bitch: Suzuna has some elements of this at first, seeing as she doesn't really mingle with other students, as well as some of her attitude with Koichi.
• Right Through His Pants:
  • Kouichi doesn't seem to need to take his pants off for intercourse, although this is mostly due to the sudden nature of his nightly ventures, what with the camellia flowers and all that.
  • Yuriko manages both of her exploits right through her robes.
  • Tomomi invokes a classic example of Right Through Her Skirt in the second episode.
• Scenery Porn: In the games, especially. Even Koichi's nightmare scenes had a fitting ambience.
• Sexual Extortion: In the Io sub-route of Tomomi's route, right after Koichi discovers that Io has been jacking off to videos of Tomomi, he makes Io come clean with his feelings for Tomomi ? or more like sexual desire, as he repeatedly makes Io have sex with Tomomi by threatening to tell Suzuna.
• Shrinking Violet: Tomomi normally acts like this. When she's affected by the camellias, however, she pulls a '180'.
• Shower of Angst: Invoked for entirely different reasons by Suzuna in episodes 1 and 4. In episode 1, this quickly leads to Shower of Love between Suzuna and Tomomi.
• Slap Slap Kiss: Suzuna and Koichi.
• Smoking Hot Sex: Curiously averted, considering Kouichi smokes.
• Spank the Cutie
• Spin-Off: Touka Gettan; during development, one of the planned titles was Moonlight Lady 2
• Stepford Smiler: "Sayaka Kurihara" was actually a role that the actress, Ruri Yamato, was going to play in an upcoming film. The character was nothing like her. Somehow, however, Ruri got lost in the forest around the Kuraki estate, and was subsequently kidnapped, raped, and set to work as a maid. She eventually hid her 'true' self behind the 'Sayaka' persona.
  • Also, Tomomi is actually a physical manifestation of lust and is more dangerous than she appears to be.
• The Faceless: Present in the form of a hoard of men clad in fundoshi (traditional Japanese loincloths) and Oni-masks. They help out with the Expecting Moon Ceremony.
• The Gadfly: Sayaka takes joy in teasing Suzuna.
• The Immodest Orgasm: Suzuna, all the time, most notably in the final episode. It even creates shockwaves.
• The Modest Orgasm: Oddly enough, from Tomomi, when she's in the garden with Kouichi.
• Threesome Subtext: Koichi, Io, and Tomomi in the one of the good endings route, if you choose Tomomi's route and complete Io's sub-route.
• Torture Cellar: What with the chains and cell bars, Kuraki Manor's basement evokes this mood very well. As for what goes on in there...
• Tsundere: Suzuna.
• Twincest: Averted in the anime, but played straight in the visual novel.
• Uncanceled: When the series was first released, the fourth episode was originally cited as being the final episode, released in 2002. After just over a year, episode five was finally released.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Yuriko and Goei are standing around in the garden, talking about the Moon. Meanwhile, with all of the subtlety and quietness of a jet engine, Kouichi is raping Suzuna not too far away.
• Updated Rerelease: The Kao no Nai Tsuki visual novel was re-released several times, adding in additional plotlines for Chikako and Yuriko. Eventually, the whole smack was re-released as one game in 2005.
• Wall-Bang Her:
  • Or rather, "Tree Bang Her"—with Yuriko between Koichi and the tree.
  • Suzuna goes through a Window-Banger in the first episode.
• We Named the Monkey "Jack": Suzuna's stuffed teddy bear is named Mizuna, though Suzuna doesn't realize it's also the name of her twin sister.
• Weird Moon: Averted. The moon visibly grows larger over the course of the five episodes, leading up to the Expecting Moon Ceremony.
• What Exactly Is His Job?: It turns out, Chikako is a professor of psychology, possibly at Nogoya University.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: Yuriko plays this role for all it's worth, although she's not above sleeping with someone in order to further her goals.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair: A lot of characters have weird-colored hair.
• Vapor Wear: the ceremonial outfit Suzuna wears when she first meets Koichi, and wears again in episode 4.
• Zettai Ryouiki: Suzuna is a Grade B, at least when she's wearing her casual clothes.

1. ↑ i.e., he has difficulty recognizing people's faces--women, in his case