The Spring 2024 Manga Guide

A Beast's Love Is Like the Moon

What's It About? 

Tired of the fast-paced city life, Izuki has agreed to take care of his uncle's house in the mountains, which are said to be "visited by yokai."

Izuki, dismissive of the superstition, goes exploring — only to be attacked by a yokai in the woods. He's saved by a beautiful man named Haku, who claims to be the incarnation of a komainu guardian dog. He pledges himself to Izuki and begs him to be his master. Izuki refuses at first, wanting to return to the city as quickly as possible, but is swayed by Haku's lonely eyes, which brings him back to the house. Gradually, he falls into a comfortable rhythm with the pushy but devoted Haku while living under the same roof, and Izuki wonders if he wants to return to the city as he thought.

However, Haku harbors a secret that could put Izuki's life at risk. Will Izuki and Haku come together in the end, or will Haku succumb to the loneliness that he's held at bay for centuries...?

A Beast's Love Is Like the Moon has art and story by Guri Nojiro. Christine Dashiell translated this volume, and Vibrraant Publishing Studio lettered and retouched it. Published by‎ Tokyopop's LoveLove imprint (May 7, 2024).

Content Warning: This book contains mature themes and explicit sexual content, including situations involving dubious consent. It is not intended for anyone under 18 years of age.

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Is It Worth Reading?

MrAJCosplay
Rating:

Have you ever read a story where you think that it would be better if the sex scenes were taken out? That's how I felt about A Beast's Love Is Like the Moon. What we have here is a story about the desperation of loneliness. Some people seek to be alone by choice or to run away from something, while others are forced to be alone. Regardless of the reason, loneliness can eventually eat away at you both physically and emotionally, leading you to a point where you might end up hurting others.

A Beast's Love Is Like the Moon is predicated on that not-so-subtle concept, with one of the leads being a spirit constantly on the verge of giving into demonic instincts should he continue to suffer the loneliness. Getting to what I alluded to at the beginning, unfortunately, that desperation manifests in some sex scenes that feel a lot less justified than the story makes them out to be. Some lines regarding consent and understanding are crossed when trying to mend that loneliness. While it's understandable in the moment, the fact that it's not adequately discussed does leave a bad taste in my mouth. It also doesn't help that other physical threats are at play with transforming into a demon, which offers more than enough stakes for the emotional narrative.

Some scenes in the story feel obligatory despite having a relatively solid foundation for individual character growth and a blossoming romance. Our two leads understand what they're missing out on in life, and finding it in each other was cute. I also credit the narrative for how it wraps up the story threads by the end. When we finally reached that point, I was admittedly emotional. This doesn't excuse the stories' more rough patches, but if you can look past that, then I think there is a solid romance here.

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Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

This could have probably been a better, more effective story if it were told across at least one more volume, but after that ending, I'm not sure I would want that. Quite possibly this is because, while I can appreciate bittersweet endings, I also don't particularly like them, and this came entirely too close to New York, New York's finale. It's lovely and sweet but also achingly sad. If you think about it, that's impressive because most of the rest of the book felt a tad underbaked. Izuki and Haku are cute together – or as cute together as a relationship that starts with either a non-or-dub-con encounter can be – but we only get the barest sense of them as characters. Izuki has moved out to the countryside for unspecified reasons, while Haku is the last remaining guardian of a crumbling shrine, the embodiment of a komainu statue. They meet when Izuki stumbles upon the shrine and is kind to Haku's statue, and then Haku declares himself Izuki's for life.

It's a premise that has worked in other titles, and it isn't terrible here. Haku is the more understandable of the two, struggling to maintain his mind and form after three hundred years of solitude. Izuki is the first being, person or otherwise, who has shown him any attention at all, and it makes sense that he'd latch onto that. His immediate urge to have sex with Izumi? It is less understandable or good, and that goes double for his insistence that Izuki “invited him” to do so, which smacks too much of telling him he was asking for it. But his loneliness touches Izumi, and it doesn't take them long to strike up a more lasting relationship, even if Haku is haunted by the possibility of Izumi wanting to return to the city.

A Beast's Love Is Like the Moon seems to want to be a quiet exploration of grief and a tale of two lonely people finding each other. It manages that, although its brevity and consent issues do undermine things. Mostly, it's the lack of character development that hurts it; we never get a good sense of who Izumi is or why he tries so hard to put on an act around other people, nor is the relationship between him and Haku ever taken quite far enough. It looks more like codependence than romance, and that's not great.

And yet, despite that, the ending still got me. If Guri Nojiro were ever to create a longer series, it would be amazing because provoking an emotional reaction after skimming the surface for 180 pages is not easy. I may not have loved this book, but I'll keep an eye out for more by the same creator.

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Lauren Orsini
Rating:

Are you attracted to the idea of a man who you so enamored that he can't control himself? A love interest who is more beast than man? So strong and mysterious that he might even be dangerous? That's what A Beast's Love Is Like the Moon has to offer: a supernatural romance with Twilight vibes, where the love interest is an ancient and unknowable creature who perplexingly wants nothing more than the first young ingenue to show up at his doorstep.

The story begins as an escapist fantasy relatable to any city dweller who wants to leave it all behind. Izuki has allegedly arrived at his uncle's country house to look after it, but personally to take a breather from his life in general. Izuki's uncle introduces him to the house while repeatedly flattering Izuki's looks, competence, and charm—apparently so readers don't forget how desirable he is even as he opens up about his problems. In search of a cell phone signal, Izuki wanders into the woods, where he happens upon a dilapidated shrine. It's here that his first encounter with the shrine dog statue turned supernatural hunk Haku occurs, and there is no gray area about it—the ensuing sex scene is not consensual.

Later, Haku asks for permission to enter Izuki's home, and Izuki justifiably retorts, why are you asking for permission now when you raped me earlier? Haku replies, “You allowed me to do that,” suggesting some secret part of Izuki did want it—But you can't fool me! Dress it up with a plot excuse later, but this romance is built on a rape fantasy. As Haku and Izuki grow ever closer, Izuki's safety remains tenuous because it's uncertain whether Haku can control the demonic impulses that built up over his centuries of loneliness. Even as the story grows sweeter and gentler, an element of this danger remains.

Though the themes border on harsh, the art style is soft with a scribbly, doujinshi-style aesthetic. There's a cute kitty-ish yokai mascot whose mischievous streak lightens the mood. Haku has floppy puppy ears, which can conveniently disappear when they're in public, emphasizing the illusion of a paramour who can be whoever Izuki needs him to be. Like with fanfic, it's important to mind the tags, which here would be something like “noncon,” “dog ears,” “soulmates,” and “fluff.” It's a perfectly serviceable supernatural romance escapist fantasy, but your enjoyment of this story will depend on whether it matches up with your kinks or not.