Sleeping Moon

Background: As a hardcore yaoi fan (when I first picked up this work,) I never paid any interest to mangas with a main focus on the storyline rather than the sex/relationship (i.e. this manga precisely.) But as soon as I started, I was amazed with the creativity and immediately got sucked into the plot. When I finished, the only thing I could do was sit back and slowly clap while smiling, "Miyamoto Kano, you've done it again." STORY: Nemueru Tsuki is about a young man who revisits an old, family-owned home to solve the mystery as to why the men of his family are cursed todie at a young age. As our hero is the next in line and nears his late twenties, he struggles with his male cousin to solve this mystery and finally put a stop to it--even if they have to fight up against the supernatural. Seems like a familiar/overused plot, right? Wrong. I have no idea how she does it, but Miyamoto Kano took an ordinary family curse and turned it into a deeper mystery that involved just the tiiiiniest bit of horror. As I mentioned in the "background," this manga focuses more on the intriguing plotline than the actual yaoi (which is 100000% fine by me, because it's a unique change, even though the sex was still freaking hot) but as a result of me fighting my biased-ness and realizing that a manga categorized as "yaoi" that did not have enough "yaoi" wouldn't exactly be everyone's "cup of tea," I'm going to give the story a 9/10. (P.S.: A bit of advice, the story is a lot more interesting if you read it at night^^) ART: What can I say? It's Miyamoto Kano. I fcking LOVE Miyamoto Kano's art, and it's not because the boys are "super sexy" or "the perfect bishies." It's because Miyamoto Kano's art style is straight up TIMELESS. You can't tell whether she made a work in 1998 or 2012. They look exactly the same and have a kind of "relatable" feel to them (plus she's mastered the side profile and the three-quarters profile.) It's definitely not the BEST art you've ever seen, but there are definitely no complaints and it's completely enjoyable to a point where you fall in love. 9/10 CHARACTER: Akihiko is our main character. He's an average man that get's twindled up by a family curse that may or may not kill him in a couple years. His cousin, Ren, may also suffer the same fate. (A few minor characters come into play, but since I'm trying to do a spoil-free review, I'm going to disregard them in this segment.) The only complaint I have about the character development is that the main couple seemed a bit "forced" to be together. Maybe it was just me. 8/10 ENJOYMENT: Like I said, reading this manga at night is probably the best decision you can make. It's perfect--it sets an eerie scene, the tone is dark and chilly, and it stimulates the plot in your head. My point is: Maybe /I/ enjoyed this manga so much partially because I read it on cold creepy nights and could relate to the dark atmosphere. OVERALL: To be completely honest, at one point of reading this manga, I felt like I was watching a movie. Seriously, I think Miyamoto Kano should put this on the big screen. It would be a big hit, and I would throw all of my money at her. Regardless of whether you like yaoi or not, this manga can be appealing to anybody out there looking for a mature, haunting, and intriguing mystery.