~Moonshine~The Story Of Dependence, And Letting Go

This is a review of the al|together 2008 4th release Moonshine. This is an extensive (I believe) review, and will contain spoilers so you have been warned from here on out.




(Summary. Everything in this summary will be explained in the analysis, so please bear with me)
Moonshine starts with a boy referred to as "Onii-chan" throughout the story by Mai. He has been working in an advertising firm, and is diagnosed with "myotonic dystrophy", which, if my "research" is correct, similar to muscular dystrophy. Basically, your muscles will waste away (I think). Because he has been diagnosed to no longer be fit physically, he is coldly fired from the company.

From there, he works at what is called a "half" bar. He meets a 'girl' there named Mai, and starts to develop a relationship with 'her'. Mai invites him to go out one day, and he obliges.

They go for a day on the town, and they run into a karaoke event. Onii-chan signs up and urges Mai to sign up also, but she is very downcast through the entire event. After he finishes singing, she is quite sad, and wishes to leave. The boy is puzzled to why she won't sing, but they then leave. Hamburgers, movies, and a jeweler later, they end up in the park where they met up. From there, it is revealed Mai was unable to sign up for the karaoke because someone knew her as a 'girl' and said they couldn't let her on stage.

Mai is in tears and dismay at this point, so onii-chan takes her back home to relax. From there, they develop a habit of going to his home and going out on their days off. It is then told that Mai used to live with another person, but left because "It felt like our place was a sanctuary, and not a home." As Mai was living with that boy, she put off her own dream of becoming a jeweler, and knew she had to leave.

After the narrator is told this, Mai comes to his house, but stays alone more often. At their final meeting, she tells him she's going overseas in order to work under her grandfather, who is a jeweler. Onii-chan is naturally overwhelmed, and doesn't wish for her to go. It is a very painful parting, and they part their ways.

Onii-chan moves back with his sisters, and time passes by. At the end, it is then shown that Mai's dream had finally come true, because one of her works had earned a prestigious reward.


(Analysis)
The narrator has been cursed with this disability that has been "given" to him. In the Japanese culture (I believe. Please correct me if I am wrong) a company worker's job is their life. It sometimes even takes precedence over their own families. The culture usually calls for someone to be employed for life at a company, and being fired from that company is a terrible prospect, as it becomes very hard to find another job after that. Those who can't work as much as a "normal" person are perceived to be dead weight within this world. Luckily, he finds a job working at a 'half' bar.

Someone who is a 'half' is literally a boy caught between the genders of the boy and the girl. The workers are referred to as 'girls' and are stated to fall into two different categories:
Guys opting for partial or full gender reassignment surgery
Guys born with their "looks" and opt for some makeup and wigs to fit the girl image
These 'girls' can not be called guys, but can not be called girls either. 'Girls' fall then under the same category as the LGBT community can be considered. These 'girls' are shunned by the community, and thus find work in these bars for entertaining their "customers" and such. This "new half", as it's called, is rising within the world, but is still not accepted by the general public.

Mai is a 'girl' who is born with the looks of a girl, and uses little, if any, makeup to support his image. Mai is treated as a girl by the narrator, but knows very well he is a 'girl', but doesn't care too much about it. Mai invites the narrator to go out with him, but is very concerned by the prospect of actually being with him in public. In the narrator's words, he states "...I realized--even though she never let on to it, there was some part deep down inside her that felt inferior about being a 'girl'. " The public is able to spot a 'girl', and both of them know very well it will not look good as a image if a guy going out with a 'girl'. Nevertheless they go.
(Skip the date part, because it's not really that important.)

At the park, Mai reveals why she was unable to sing. "You know how I'm a 'girl', right? Well, there was someone there at the reception who knew me and said I 'wasn't suitable' for the festival. They said they couldn't let me up on stage." These 'girls' are being criticized against for being born 'girls', or opting that path. "You know, I can never be a girl, and yet, I'm not a boy, either. I wonder just what I am...?" Where do transvestites and halfs fall under the gender spectrum?

Mai starts coming to the narrator's home, but then slowly realizes it too is becoming like "a sanctuary, and not a home." Thus, she breaks off from the narrator and says goodbye, in order to fulfill her dream.

This is a story if everyone living in a society where they are neither accepted by anyone, and can only find a place to belong within the people who are just like them. Born with a disability, the narrator has no choice but to work at a place whose workers have circumstances that particularly rivals or even takes over the hardships of the narrator. Because neither of them are normal, they can only find a place to belong with people who are also not accepted by society. Mai is one of these people, who has been torn with his dreams. He has great trouble with being a 'girl' as is apparent by the karaoke incident. However, he knows deep inside that is who he really is, but no one else in the public is able to accept that, and therefore opt to toss him aside as not normal.

People place emphasis on being accepted by society, and working in their dreams, so they won't regret life. Sadly enough, acceptance and the dream do not always come hand in hand. Mai has been living with people who understand her situation, and are able to help her because they know her hardships. However, being comfortable with living fogs the image of one's true dream. Being accepted by people who understand you is an amazing experience that you don't want to lose, yet those people in the end must give it up. If one does not give that feeling up, they become dependent on each other, and they end up crushing their very own dreams that set them apart. Mai is terrified by this prospect, and wishes to not live in a sanctuary, but a home. A sanctuary is where one can feel at ease, and relax. But one can't stay in a sanctuary for very long, and everyone has to find a home. A place where they and only they can truly belong. And the sad truth is, no one can have the same home. We all belong in different places. Thus Mai leaves the narrator, and in crying, the narrator asks Mai "Are you really happy to exist inside a memory?" They both part ways, and in doing so, they both being to slowly just live, in only their memories.

It is a crushing story about living outside the box. No, living in one's own world where the box doesn't exist. The box that begs you to come to, the society of the world. Yet, when the box doesn't exist in your own world, you realize you can never be a part of this society. We live and we find people we are comfortable being around, and we think every waking moment of the day. Whether is be a girl, a guy, or even a 'girl', we grow on them. Yet, we must rip ourselves off the dependence on other people, and forge our own paths. Sanctuary's are amazing places, but nothing beats home.

We all meet friends like us, and friends quite opposite to us. In the end we have to say goodbye to everyone, and go forward. We must learn to change, in this society where change is inevitable within everyone. Mai realized that, and the narrator is painfully forced to make that decision. We must change with the tides of our own dreams, and must not be swept away by the island. The island of rest, where it seems you can stay forever. But, we must swim for our dreams and progress.

We must change and move forward. I say this to all my friends I know and will leave behind one day...
"Moving forward doesn't mean I'm facing the direction you are."

This is a story of all of those living in the interstices of society, and in the sanctuary's of their friends and family. Everyone will cry when they must change, for it is nothing they ever want to accept. But Mai realized it had to be done, or else their dreams wither away and so will they.
"What happens to a dream deferred?"
"...Nothing happens to the dream, but the person, ultimately, dies."

(Final Word)
Moonshine is the prime diamond in the rough for visual novels. It speaks of the issues that cripple many, and yet are ignored. That is why this visual novel has had varying review from disgust, to understanding. It speaks of the truth, and the hardships the people face. Not the public, but the people who are living their lives under some disability or so. I would read this over and over again, and still be touched by this novel. It did not touch my heart, but it instead touched my soul.

10/10