Blade of the Moon Princess is a manga written by Tatsuya Endo who is better known for his work Spy x Family. Blade of the Moon Princess originally ran from May of 2010 to January of 2012, but has never gotten an official english translation until recently. Starting on September 5th 2023, Viz media released the first volume of the series in english which continued until October 1st 2024 when the final volume was released. The story takes major influences from the Japanese myth about Princess Kaguya. It makes different allusions and references to the myth, but Blade of the Moon Princess doesn’t really follow the same story as the myth. For instance it actually starts out on the moon compared to the myth starting out on earth.

Blade of the Moon Princess is about Kaguya, who is a headstrong and defiant young girl who doesn’t fit into the prim and proper archetype of a princess that the silver court wants. When her mother’s condition worsens and enemies start closing in, her mother performs the ascension ceremony to pass on the torch to Kaguya. But the ceremony is attacked, leading to Kaguya being sent to the Tainted World (Earth). From there Kaguya must learn how to master the sword that has been passed down to her and learn what is needed to be the empress of the moon while avoiding assaination attempts from her enemies.

Blade of the moon princess is overall a good story and it does a good job of telling the story of a girl maturing and accepting her responsibilities. Although I feel that the story is a little rushed at the ending and that the final obstacle feels like it didn’t have enough build up and thus came out of nowhere. I also think that there should have been a little more attention given to the Ume branch because the mother switching sides felt random and not built up well to me. It’s based around how Izumiya is acting similar to Empress Hatoya but we don’t know a lot about what Hatoya was like for most of the story other than she was a tyrant and had killed a lot of people. Later on we do learn more about what she was like and how she is similar to Izumiya but it still feels random how the mom switched sides. There are some scenes that show her getting disturbed but it feels like there was a lot that was missing. The Ume branch as a whole feels underdeveloped as antagonists since they were mainly in the background for most of the story and had little time to shine on their own. A lot of my complaints that I have can most likely be explained by the series getting canceled due to a lack of viewership. You can kind of see where this happened within the story because it goes from a somewhat slow pace to all of a sudden speeding up to reach the final battle with the Ume. But even with all of this I still think it is a good story.

The best aspect of this series is 100% the relationship between Kaguya and Izumiya. They are foils of each other and even through the rushed ending it shows their differences really well. While Kaguya is brash, impulsive, and mischievous, Izumiya is calm, collected, and cunning. They are the opposite of each other in every aspect from personalities to public perception to morals to family dynamics. They are opposites in so many ways, yet also similar in one key aspect. Both have never really had true friends. The kids that surround them only being around them because of their royal status. Both were lonely growing up, yet the reason why they are so different is because  of the love they could receive. Kaguya always had someone that she could rely on and who would give her a safe place. Izumiya never had that, the love she received was a distant and worship-esc love. Kaguya was lonely due to a lack of friends but had someone she could always go to, but Izumiya was alone in every sense of the word. The only love she received was distant and cold. Where Kaguya is emotional and immature, Izumiya is distant and mature. Where Kaguya is kind, Izumiya is cruel. And where Kaguya is loved and surrounded by warmth, Izumiya is worshiped and surrounded by nothing but the cold. The thing that makes them work so well together is that they are complete opposites yet still both lonely girls who wish for something more.

To really talk about what makes this dynamic and the ending work really well, I need to talk about some spoilers so skip this next part if you don’t want to be spoiled. (Click here)

 From the moment Izumiya was born she couldn’t be touched by others due to a condition with her powers or halo that makes it so a barrier prevents other people from coming into contact with her. So for her entire life she had never known a human’s warmth. That was until she accidentally killed two kids and for the first time she felt human warmth for a fleeting moment. The only way she could feel the warmth of another person was when they were dying. Izumiya is a broken girl who never felt the warmth nor love of another human being, she was driven to insanity by the conditions of her birth. Her broken mind craves for the silver throne, the position closest to the gods, in order to justify her suffering. If her condition was not a gift from the gods so she can sit on that throne, then what was her worth? To her it was the only way she could bear this pain. So I think how Kaguya defeated her was the best way to end her character arc. She wasn’t defeated by Kaguya’s sword nor through any sort of weapon, but by a hug. Kaguya with the help of her allies is able to break through Izumiya’s barrier and instead of attacking her she hugs her. For the first time in Izumiya’s life she is hugged by another person. For the first time in her life she was loved. For the first time in her life she was truly alive. This moment also shows Kaguya’s strongest attribute, her kindness. She understands that Izumiya is broken and needs help more than anything else. This moment is the climax of Kaguya’s character arc and shows all of her growth since the beginning of the story. She shows more compassion and understanding she doesn’t recklessly fight Izumiya nor does she solely rely on her strength. It works for a great climax for her arc.

 Blade of the Moon Princess’ greatest strength is its characters. Each major character feels fleshed out and different from the rest. I will say that there are definitely some missing aspects of the other characters like the other matsu princess but since they were introduced towards the end of the series their moments were probably cut in order to finish the series. But beyond that each of the characters, even the antagonists were handled well and the characters often made up for the lack of narrative within the series. 

While I am not the best at judging art, I think that the artstyle within Blade of the Moon Princess makes the story and characters even better. Tatsuya Endo does a good job of drawing expressions and it really helps with the tension and mood of the story and makes the characters feel more alive. I personally have no real problems with the character designs for the Blade of the Moon Princess, but I also do not know a lot about the intricacies of character design. So from the perspective of a non-artist I think that Endo did a good job at designing the characters. Along with that Endo did a great job at the backgrounds of the series which definitely gave more atmosphere to the panels.

Blade of the Moon Princess while having its own flaws is overall a good series with interesting characters and beautiful paneling that enhances the story and characters even more. It is a good and short series to sit down and read. The story is chalk full of different references to the original story of Princess Kaguya and has some pretty good symbolism throughout it’s story. The series works well as a good introduction to manga if you or any of your friends want to get into it. Its length makes it easier to read and adjust to the different style of reading and the artstyle is beautiful and improves the experience of reading the manga.