In the last quarter of the moon
In the last quarter of the moon ( Japanese 下弦 の 月 Kagen no Tsuki ) is a manga series by Ai Yazawa . It appeared from 1998 to 1999 in about 500 pages. The manga was originally drawn primarily for teenage girls and can therefore be assigned to the Shōjo genre.
action
19-year-old Mizuki leaves her family to live with street musician Adam from England in a dilapidated villa. She doesn't get along with her family and breaks up with her boyfriend after he cheats on her with her best friend. Adam, on the other hand, mourns his late Japanese girlfriend who was one of the reasons he came to Japan. Mizuki looks like his deceased friend in his eyes. One day he disappeared without a trace. However, three days later he gets in touch and they both set up a meeting point. On the way there, Mizuki is unexpectedly approached by her ex on a pedestrian crossing. Mizuki therefore does not pay attention to the traffic and is hit by a car.
A little later she stands in the fog in front of a very long fence and doesn't know where to go. Suddenly a girl appears looking for his runaway Siamese cat. Mizuki shows her the way to the cat, the girl thanks her and has disappeared.
Hotaru is released from the hospital. The fifth grader was hit by a car looking for her missing Siamese cat and was seriously injured in the hospital for three weeks. However, what she can remember most is an unusual recurring dream about a very long fence and a lonely girl. Released from the hospital, she is still looking for her cat. Finally she thinks she has found her and follows her to an abandoned mansion. But it's not her cat, but she finds the girl from her dream in the villa. She can remember Hotaru, but she doesn't know her name, only that she is looking for someone named Adam. Hotaru brings her friends into the house, but they cannot see the girl. They realize that the girl is a ghost trapped in this house. You decide to help the girl. But to redeem them, they must find Adam.
As they continue their research, Hotaru and her friends eventually find out the girl's real name. They discover that Mizuki is not dead, but has been in a coma in the hospital since her accident. The friends now want to do everything to ensure that Mizuki's soul returns to her body and are looking for Adam. Mizuki's mind keeps getting more and more memories of her past life, but these memories don't match her real life. Finally, by chance, they receive a reference to Adam, because the only album of his group is being re-released on CD. Therefore, when they do research on the Internet, they realize that Adam died 19 years ago. And Mizuki is haunted by the memories of Adam's girlfriend at the time.
Further research finally reveals that Adam's then girlfriend Sayaka Kamijo died of an illness and that Adam followed her into death. Mizuki turns out to be Sayaka's rebirth. To bring Mizuki back into her body, Hotaru and her friends decide to tell her the truth. Faced with the fact that Adam died a long time ago, Mizuki's soul loses its vitality. Mizuki / Sayaka wants to follow Adam. Her soul weakens, and with it the condition of Mizuki's body in the hospital deteriorates drastically. Mizuki's soul finally gets to the fence, but Adam, who stands behind the fence, realizes that Mizuki still has her life ahead of him and sends her back, even though she is the reincarnation of his girlfriend. Mizuki eventually wakes up in the hospital, but cannot remember what happened. She doesn't recognize Hotaru and her friends either.
Hotaru decides to bury the notes they made in the dilapidated house and not bring the notebook back to the light of day until they are 19, the age Sayako died and Mizuki was when she had the accident .
Publications
In the last quarter of the moon in Japan from 1998 to 1999 it was published in individual chapters in the manga magazine Ribon . The Shūeisha publishing house then published these chapters in the magazine in three edited volumes. In 2004 a new two-volume edition was published by the same publisher.
Egmont Manga & Anime published a German translation of the anthologies from August 2007 to January 2008.
filming
In 2004, a live-action version of the comic was released in Japanese cinemas under the title Kagen no Tsuki - Last Quarter . The main roles were played by Chiaki Kuriyama and Hyde .