Mika Yamamori has proven over the course of her English-released series that you can't predict where her romances are going to go. Write off purportedly no-chance rivals at your peril and make assumptions about the trajectory of the story at your own risk; Yamamori isn't afraid to buck the basic conventions of shoujo romance in her works. But In the Clear Moonlit Dusk doesn't feel like it's willing to take the sort of chances we saw in Daytime Shooting Star or Tsubaki-chō Lonely Planet. That doesn't mean that it isn't good, but it also feels like the sort of series I ought to be enjoying more than I am, which is an awkward position to be in.

After volume one introduced protagonists Yoi and Ichimura and made steps towards getting them together, volumes two on up focus on the actual work of being in a relationship. This is something Ichimura has a lot of practice with…on a certain level. That means that he's dated a lot, but as he admits around the volume six mark, his typical relationships are pretty firmly based in the physical. So he's had a fair amount of sex for a boy his age (second year in high school), but that doesn't mean that he knows how to navigate an emotional relationship. This is one of the defining traits of his character, because Yoi is the first girl he's dated for whom he has feelings. To say that this throws him is both an overstatement and an understatement, because he's not particularly good at feelings. He has them, but he's used to covering them up due to his family situation, which we learn more about as the series progresses, culminating in volume eight's brief visit to his family home.

This is, I would say, probably his most defining moment. Many of his other actions can feel performative, even though they're coming from a very real place. Ichimura is fully aware that other people see him as privileged, both in the sense that he's very attractive and that he comes from a wealthy family. But what most people are unaware of is that he comes from a difficult home – volume eight not only reaffirms that he felt inferior to his brother, but that his father actively prefers (or preferred; I'm beginning to suspect that his brother may no longer be around) his elder son. Ichimura grew up never being “good enough,” which likely led him to his early sexual activities. Dating (and sleeping with) women gave him a sense of belonging and worth. It's only now that he's gotten to know Yoi that he realizes that sex alone does not make a healthy, loving relationship. He wants to sleep with Yoi, but that's because he genuinely likes her, not because it's “what you do” when dating someone. (Or at least, that's where he's gotten to by the end of volume eight.) Yoi has, in some ways, given him a stability that he's never had.

That's an interesting statement, because being with Ichimura has in many ways destabilized Yoi. She's not used to being seen as feminine and desirable, and she's also not comfortable with dating him – even though she really does like him and wants to. But it's forcing her to reorganize her entire belief system as relates to herself, and that's…kind of typical for this sort of romance. To be clear, there's nothing wrong with it, and Yamamori does it well, but I've come to expect a bit more from her series. Yoi is the most typical and least emotionally strong of Yamamori's (English translated) heroines, and that does bring the series down a bit. It's rewarding to watch her come to understand that she truly does like Ichimura and to want to stop hiding it from everyone in school, but it's also not as interesting as it could be.

In fact, the secondary romance introduced in volumes seven and eight is rather more enticing than all seven of these volumes of Ichimura and Yoi. Nobara, Yoi's otaku/fujoshi friend, finds herself falling for Ichimura's friend Shun, who may or may not be returning the interest. She's awkward and he's oblivious, and the two of them are very entertaining together in a way that the main couple just isn't. There's just not quite enough tension in the main relationship, which is something the secondary couple provides in spades as they flail around each other.

Fortunately, Yamamori's art is lovely. It's refined itself from her earlier works, and there's a quiet beauty to Yoi specifically that absolutely enhances the reading experience. Panels smoothly flow into each other, and Yamamori does an excellent job with the physical yearning that both Ichimura and Yoi begin to feel (and show) in the later volumes.

Despite its shortcomings, In the Clear Moonlit Dusk is a good series. Mika Yamamori is too good a creator for it to be anything but, and it absolutely gets better as it goes on. Being not as innovative as Daytime Shooting Star isn't really something that ought to be held against it, especially since it's still ongoing, and the glimpse into just how difficult Ichimura's home life is stands to really increase the intensity. It's a solid romance series for fans of the creator and others looking for a good high school romance.