On one such night, as Engekibu is reading the classic Japanese folktale of Hachikazuki (the Bowl-Bearing Princess) on the roof of the Iwasaki ramen shop, the tale’s protagonist suddenly jumps out of the page and accidentally hits Gekko in the face with the giant bowl that’s stuck on her head, with the side-effect of imprinting the mark of the moon onto his face. Hot on her trail is one of her sisters-in-law, transformed into a monster by the light of the blue moon. After working with Gekko to defeat her sister-in-law, Hachikazuki explains that every time the light of the blue moon hits an open fairy tale or folk story, characters bathed in said light go berserk and rampage through both the story and the human worlds (this event is called getting 'moonstruck'). To combat this, an executor from the human world is chosen to bear the task of working with an emissary from the story world to execute the Gekkō Jōrei (lit. Moonlight Act or Regulation), and Hachikazuki has unintentionally marked Gekko as an executor. Ever reluctant to admit he wants to help and encouraged by Engekibu, Gekko begins his adventure as the executor.
So begins Moonlight Act, a fairytale-themed Urban Fantasy manga by Kazuhiro Fujita which ran in Shonen Sunday from 2008 to 2014. While the series is not as well-known as Ushio and Tora or Karakuri Circus, it stands on its own merit as an action-oriented Fractured Fairy Tale Free For All, notable for highlighting some lesser-known tales from both Japan and other regions of the world. It also alternates between arcs focusing on Japanese and non-Japanese tales, which creates a nice balance of cultures represented as well as a refreshing pace of meeting characters from all sorts of stories from all around the world.
Moonlight Act provides examples of:
- Action Girl: As expected from the mangaka. Any female character that gets moonstruck becomes this, though they tend to also become The Berserker.
- Special mention goes to Hachikazuki, who can kick copious amounts of ass even without transforming into a weapon, as Gekko learned when he originally refused to wield her because she's a woman.
- Batman Gambit: Sometimes Gekko and Hachi's execution efforts take this shape. See how they dealt with the scissor sparrows for a perfect example!
- The Berserker: Any moonstruck character almost always turns to this, and being hit by the mark of the moon that's on Hachikazuki's bowl (and Gekko's face) returns them back to normal.
- Blow You Away: True to form, The Big Bad Wolf literally does this to various human buildings when he's moonstruck.
- Book Dumb: Both Gekko and Engekibu are this, which doesn't help since they meet many fairy tale characters and they have no idea who it is they're up against.
- Breather Episode: One-chapter Acts tend to be placed between long and emotionally-intense Acts. The earliest example is Act 3, which is a Slice of Life episode that follows Hachikazuki attempting to get a steady job in the human world. This Act comes between Act 2 (where the largest-scale destruction to the human world is seen) and Act 4 (one of the series's longest arcs).
- Carry a Big Stick: Hachikazuki's default weapon form is an enlarged Oni mace.
- Cat Folk: The real appearance of Idea from Splash, as the Puss in Boots.
- Cerebus Rollercoaster: Thanks to the series's penchant for switching between long, multi-chapter Acts and Breather Episodes, it can often read like one of these (for better or worse).
- Childhood Friends: Gekko and Engekibu have known each other since they were kids. If Engekibu had her way, they would be in a Childhood Friend Romance instead.
- Creator Cameo: Kazuhiro Fujita makes an appearance in the final chapter when Gekko’s friends barge into his studio begging him to make another series based on Gekko’s adventures in order to bring him back to our world after he performed his Heroic Sacrifice which is the series you are reading right now.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Kudo starts off as cold and annoyed at Gekko and Engekibu's antics, but eventually warms to the group after her own experiences with Tsukuyomi opened her eyes to the treatment of moonstruck characters.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Despite having an actual personal name (unlike Engekibu), Kudo is almost exclusively referred to as 'Miss Librarian' by Gekko and Engekibu.
- The Faceless: Hachikazuki, on account of having a gigantic rice bowl stuck on her head. No, it can't be taken off and peeking into it will only give you darkness.
- Fairy Tale Free-for-All: Characters from all sorts of fairy and folktales appear in the series, most often as antagonists and some as supporting characters.
- Fiery Redhead: Engekibu, an energetic and literally theatrical redhead.
- Fractured Fairy Tale: The basic premise of the manga. The blue moon's light fractures the world's fairy tales, and it's up to the executor to defeat any rampaging fairy tale character and send them back to their stories.
- Genki Girl: Engekibu's default existence.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Gekko perform this when he seals himself along with the final big bad in order to prevent him from destroying both the fairy tale world and our world but fortunately, he just returned to our world when his friends forced the mangaka Kazuhiro Fujita to make another series based on his adventures which is Moonlight Act.
- Hot Librarian: Kudo is an actual librarian and is very popular for both her smarts and her looks.
- Human Weapon: Hachikazuki can swallow objects and transform into a version of it that is (by her own admission) ten times more effective. In the beginning of the story she swallowed an Oni's mace and thus it's her default weapon form for Gekko to wield.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The series is built on strictly-defined story arcs called Acts, which can range from 1 to nearly 20 chapters. A multi-chapter Act has each chapter labeled as 'parts', and the longer an Act's chapter count, the more likely it is to be a serious and darker story.
- Japanese Delinquents: Tendo and his crew are a street racing variety.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Gekko is actually a really kind person who wants to help everyone, but since he can't ever bring himself to admit this, he puts up a jerkish facade over it. No one is fooled by it though (even another guy who was interested in Engekibu came to learn this about Gekko).
- Kuudere: Describes Kudo to a T.
- Lunacy: Blue lunacy!
- Musical Assassin: The four Town Musicians of Bremen weaponize their singing as a terribly effective sonic attack.
- The Napoleon: Issun-Boshi, naturally.
- Noodle Incident: Due to their longstanding friendship, Engekibu knows every embarrassing thing Gekko has ever done, and will use the threat of telling these to his grandfather to get him to do her bidding.
- No Ontological Inertia: This is an actual (and important!) plot point: any change or damage done by a rampaging fairy tale character is immediately undone upon being hit with the Gekkō Jōrei execution. This is one of the main reasons an executor's work is so important, perfectly demonstrated when early in the story a rampaging Oni mace nearly causes nuclear winter (!) just by hitting the surface of the Earth so damn hard repeatedly!
- Oblivious to Love: Everyone can see that despite her legions of boyfriends, Engekibu really only ever has eyes for Gekko (it's even all but stated that the reason she keeps dating different guys is really to get Gekko's attention). And yet Gekko never seems to notice it, nor any interest from anyone else (such as Kudo).
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Engeki-bu (演劇部) translates to Drama Club, and that's the only thing everyone calls her. Translations generally go with Lady Teatro.
- Operation: Jealousy: When offered to temporarily play the part of Cinderella (as the real one was busy street racing at the time) by the Prince Charming, Engekibu leaps upon the opportunity partly to practice her acting, and partly to get Gekko jealous. It sorta works (without Gekko really realizing it).
- Really Gets Around: Downplayed: Engekibu has a reputation for changing boyfriends almost on a weekly basis, which has the side effect of her always having some weird new hobby (that her boyfriend of the week is into) every other arc as a Running Gag.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Several of the moonstruck fairy tale characters go on a rampage due to how they were mistreated by other characters in their tales, though for some reason they tend to take it out on the human world. There is, however, a case of a moonstruck character taking revenge for a human reader they had come to bond with.
- School Idol: Engekibu, who is wildly popular with both the guys and the girls for being an incredibly friendly and spunky gal. Interestingly for the trope, she's unpopular with the teachers because she often goes out at night (usually to spend time with her boyfriend of the week) which creates some rather unflattering rumors about her. She doesn't seem to care, though.
- Those Two Guys: Issun-boshi and Tendo form an Odd Friendship over their mutual dislike of Gekko.
- Tongue Trauma: One arc focuses on the Sparrow with the Split Tongue
, but a whole flock of them carrying gigantic scissor-like things in their beaks. Their goal? To cut off the tongues of every human, especially those of old women! The manga even fully shows the main characters (minus Gekko and Hachikazuki) with their tongues cut horizontally! Thankfully no blood is shown and everything went back to normal after their defeat, but still... Ouch! - Use Your Head: Since Gekko's face has been (accidentally) marked with the moon's mark from Hachikazuki, he can slam his face onto any rampaging fairy tale character and it'll work just as well as if he was wielding Hachikazuki.
- Visual Pun: The blue moonlight is what causes fairy tale characters to rampage, and according to Hachikazuki these series of events happen every few decades. In other words, it happens once in a blue moon.
- Yamato Nadeshiko: Hachikazuki is a Spirited Young Lady version of this, since her original tale focuses on her becoming a full-on Yamato Nadeshiko, but her position as an emissary of the story world relies on her being able to kick ass and take names.
