In the Clear Moonlit Dusk

Episode 10

Welcome back, class! I'm glad to see most of you made it here safely after our previous encounter. I've often threatened to fight people in a Denny's parking lot, but I never expected to actually be battling the anti-woke squad in one! Let's have a moment of silence for Makayla and Andrew. They'll be okay, the greasy food just didn't agree with their stomachs. Vegans, you know?

So pull up a chair to a desk – there's lots of seating in this Ikea office showroom, after all! Sure, the fluorescent lights are a little harsh, but you can't have everything, after all. I'm just glad that this labyrinth has lots of escape routes. Does everyone have the escape route memorized? Yes? Excellent. Let's move on.

I must confess that in my frustration this week, I turned to a fellow professor, the esteemed Rebecca Silverman. I said to her, “In the Clear Moonlit Dusk once again has me wondering if I'm missing something, or if it really is as misogynistic and contradictory as I think it is.” She responded, “I've been trying to figure that out since I first picked up the manga.”

Discussion question: Seriously though, is it?

I know, Grace, “misogynistic” is a strong word for a story written by a woman aimed at an audience of teenage girls. There are hundreds of stories about men literally enslaving women where the women thank them for the privilege. However, women are not immune from misogyny, and even feminist-minded writers can unconsciously push it in their stories.

Take this week's episode, in which Ouji and Yoi go on their promised trip to the mall to shop for a gift for his little sister. The two are clearly at ease in one another's company, chit-chatting about their interests and having a grand old time in a sports supply store. After picking up some merchandise for themselves, they end up looking up a gift guide for preteen girls. Yoi at that age wanted a water bowel or face towel for karate, but NORMAL GIRLS want hair ties and trinkets!

Discussion questions: When shopping for others, do you consult gift guides or try to individualize your selection? What assumptions are wrapped up in using guides? On the other hand, what advantages do they confer?

Yoi and Ouji wrap up their outing with a trip to a crepe stand. As the two walk along the river, we are treated to an extensive flashback of Ouji's adolescence. Tall and handsome, he quickly attracted the attention of his female classmates, but felt uncomfortable around them. While alone with them, he couldn't think of anything to talk about with them, because they were uninterested in the topics he usually chatted with his male friends about: club activities, manga, and games.

In lighter news: I actually really liked Yoi and Ichimura's scene together at the beginning of the episode. The dialogue was light and free-flowing, and you could see how they both have a better understanding of one another's expectations in the relationship than they did before. It's wonderful to see them making actual progress rather than going in circles for ten episodes.

Mia, you keep looking over your shoulder at the model bedroom. Is something… Ah. Phase one, everyone.

Okay, we're in the living room everyone. Scootch over, make some room on the couch. Caleb, stop manspreading, there's room for at least one more person on that loveseat. Jackson and Alexis, make a barricade out of those ottomans, please. Ottomen?

Discussion questions: What is the plural of “ottoman”? Also consider “titmouse” and “mongoose.”

Anyway. To me, these sound like perfectly normal topics for people of any gender to converse in, and yet the girls he talked to were disinterested. They were only interested in him because he was tall and hot. While there are certainly decent men who have lacked female friendships in adolescence – my husband is among them – there is a continuity between Ouji and Ichimura's experiences that speak to a sense that Yoi is not like other girls. She is not shallow, and she likes things that boys like.

And yet, she does embody certain classical ideas about how girls should be. She is demure and shy, innocent to the idea that when Ouji asks her out, he has romantic designs for her. She's dutiful to her family. She loves eating sweets, but she's still slender. In the first episode we saw her assert herself against a would-be robber, but she is powerless to resist when Ichimura oversteps her boundaries. She's never the pursuer, always the one being pursued, with no desires of her own other than the nebulous concept of being seen as a girl. Most appealing of all is her desire to be seen as feminine and be treated as a girl, rather than as an equal or a human.

These contradictions are nothing new to shoujo manga – scholars in both Japan and in the US have debated how it represents girlhood for decades, and the medium's relationship to femininity has shifted and evolved over time as well. In the Clear Moonlit Dusk's contrasting of Yoi and the other girls who have pursued Ichimura and Ouji send a message that girls these days are shallow golddiggers. If any of the other female characters showed a degree of interiority, things would be different, but even Yoi's friends only exist to gasp over how great it is that she's acting girlier thanks to Ichimura's attentions.

Indeed, Yoi's lack of meaningful relationships undercut much of the basic premise. In his theory of deconstructionism, Derrida outlined how meaning is only understood through contrast of what is excluded. How can we understand what it means when Yoi says Ichimura treats her like a girl when we barely have a sense of what it's like for her not to be treated like a girl? All we see is boys remarking on how tall she is, or girls going gaga over her princeliness. Is that really all? To be treated as a girl is to be considered beautiful. To be considered dateable by boys and not dateable by other girls. 

Discussion question: In the Clear Moonlit Dusk operates within a highly heteronormative framework. How might the story look different if it broke outside those boundaries?

Oh god they're coming through the shortcut. Those things are so well-concealed, I forgot they were there! Everyone, skip to Phase D of the plan! Move! Move! Move!

Okay, we made it to the food court. Good thinking grabbing that security guard's taser, Savannah; now we'll have something to fend our pursuers off. Grab some knives from the kitchen, Mason. I don't want things to get ugly but if they cut off our escape route, we'll do what we have to do. At least we'll have plenty of meatballs and lingonberry jame to eat if they resort to siege warfare. Avery, would you pass me a slice of that princess cake?

Okay everyone, gather round. We're watching When Harry Met Sally, because it will be germane to next week's lecture. Yes, seriously.

Rating:

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In the Clear Moonlit Dusk is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.