Reviews in Brief: Makoto Tateno's Steal Moon

Makoto Tateno creates BL manga that are also good action/adventure stories. (And think about that for a minute: shoujo action/adventures. Makes her somewhat unique.) Steal Moon is one of her latest.

This one moves into the territory of science fiction, set in a near future in which, we learn, computers and the Internet are not completely positive forces.

Nozomi Amada is a young man who picks up extra cash by street fighting, and so far is undefeated. After his latest victory, he declares, somewhat foolishly, that he will become the willing servant of the man who can defeat him. It just so happens that there is a stranger in the crowd to takes him up on it, and of course, defeats him handily, although Nozomi resists until knocked unconscious. He wakes up in naked, in bed, in a strange room, and discovers, as a man who calls himself "Hermes" informs him, that he is now part of an Internet peep site: Coyote, the man who bested him in the fight, sold him to Hermes and Nozomi can buy his freedom as soon as he pays off his purchase price of 500 million yen -- at 100 yen per peep.

However, it seems that Nozomi, as well as two other "residents" of the facility, Soma and Gyokuto, are special: they are able to access a moon-based computer known as "Isis," and Hermes has plans for Isis. (It wasn't by chance, as it turns out, that Coyote happened across Nozomi and challenged him.)

Steal Moon is a two-volume spin-off from the beginning of a prior series, Blue Sheep Reverie, and the main characters there, Lahti Bara and Kai, as well as Lahti's sister, Bihaan/Maria, appear here in secondary roles, although both become very important in Volume 2. As usual with Tateno, very little is as it's presented, and the bad guys can't be counted on to stay bad. The story gets really twisty in Volume 2, while Volume 1 is pretty much set-up leading to the first betrayal. (Yes, of course there are betrayals and turn-abouts here, otherwise it wouldn't be Tateno.)

My one gripe is that Coyote and Nozomi move into their declarations of love with very little grounding and even less preparation. (In the back seat of a car, no less.) By the time we get to Volume 2, however, it's a done deal, although the basis for the fierce protectiveness that each displays toward the other is still kind of shaky.

Aside from that, it's pretty good. As always, Tateno's action sequences are very well done, very active and clear, and the visual flow is shoujo standard. It may just be that I'm getting better at deciphering Tateno's style, but character differentiations seem clearer than in the past, also. And characterization in general is a little more subtle than it has been -- Coyote, in particular, reveals depths I hadn't expected. the relationship between Lahti and Kai in Blue Sheep Reverie was to my mind her strongest depiction to date, and the strength of that relationship is evident here. (And a happy note: Tateno says in her afterword that she's working on Volume 2 of that series, so I'm hyped. Update: I just checked, and it's out. I'm double hyped.)

Another from Juné. (And note that Juná has changed their presentation, I'm sure as a cost-cutting measure. They no longer do the monochrome covers with wrap-around jackets, but now do only a simple cover. The layout ha also changed, as you can see from the illustrations above. I think it's better looking, actually.)