Amayo no Tsuki
The Moon on a Rainy Night

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Day 11/30 of the Yurithon:
I'm genuinely lost for words. It's perfect; "The Moon on a Rainy Night" is perfect. There are no jokes here, no claims that this is peak purely due to X or Y; this yuri was completely and utterly spectacular. The art is simply beautiful. Every panel is a painting and every face expression perfectly suits the tones of the scenes. This manga is the slow-burn to end all slow-burns, but not a single chapter is wasted; each chapter builds the chemistry between Saki and Kanon at a steady pace. These characters are the best-written characters in any of the yuri's I've ... read so far, and it's not just the main characters who are great. Rinne, Miura, Ayano, Akira, Tomita; all the side characters felt like they were more than just characters. Every single character felt human; everyone had a part to play in the story and their side plots and character arcs always caught my attention. The way the author used disabilities and tragedies to help form characters and their attitudes felt real, and the social commentary never felt forced. The author literally consulted specific organisations to ensure that they were painting the full picture; I have nothing but respect for them. Seeing the changes in the characters of Saki, Kanon and a bunch of other characters touched my heart like no other yuri, or any other media for that matter, has accomplished. Please, if you take anything away from this joke of a challenge named "the Yurithon", just read "The Moon on a Rainy Night". I might be lost for words, but here are a couple that I know are certain: "I loved this manga, and I desperately need more".

The moon on a rainy night is so far an amazing read (23 chapters). It takes place in high school and is pretty standard when it comes to manga but with a twist, one of the characters, Kanon, has a disability, namely she’s deaf and there are certain things in a normal day to day life that is much more difficult for someone with a hearing disability. The other girl, Saki, is pretty much from the beginning hinted at being gay but without stating it. This makes for a pretty interesting plot when these two find each other. Kanon who is struggling with getting by ... in class cuz of her hearing disability and Saki who’s feelings for Kanon grows to be more than friendly. Saki is also an avid learner of the piano so there are some themes around that as well as themes surrounding equality vs fairness which is just great to read.

The cast of The moon on a rainy night is quite colourful, it starts off mostly focusing on the two girls as they grow closer but the mangaka does a good job of introducing more and more characters, without losing sight of the main characters, and giving them depth. There’s even an older (older than our main character, so not very old) lesbian woman who becomes a part of the story and works like a “mentor” sort of for mc when she’s struggling with lgbtq issues. Also shoutout to great parents in this story!


If you like a story with focus on diversity, disability, lgbtq, piano and maybe a tad philosophy then give this amazing story a read. Would recommend with all my heart. Also the girls are just so darn cute I just cannot!!!

9/10 as of now, might become a favourite in the future if I like it as much as now to the end, might even become a 10/10 if they can stick the landing.

The main thing for me with this manga was how fast the story was progressing and it felt like never really committed to its subject matter. It's very bizarre in a lot of ways, how at the same time it tries desperately to find ways to mitigate the disability of the main lead (she can fully speak, has a special outfitted room so she can hear, is perfect at reading lips), but also introduce problems in how her disability affects her life that seem entirely arbitrary. Like the fact she has to "read the bus display" to know when to get out (which I think ... everybody does) or she doesn't want to eat with others, because she can't read their lips while they eat. Somehow nobody really thinks of the way to just talk when their mouth isn't full of food. Or how she can't tell when cars are coming at night, as if they didn't have headlights. In general there is a big focus on how she fears to leave the house at night, because of how dark it is, as if street lights didn't exist either. There are certainly problems that people with a hearing impairment face, but this selection of issues feels extremely shallow.

I feel like it's never fully about a hearing impairment and how it affects people, as it constantly finds way to make it a non issue between the main characters, but when the story needs it to be relevant, they just come up with a weird problem. When I've read the premise of it being a romance involving a deaf girl, I was hoping they would go the extra mile, because deaf/mute characters, especially leads, are difficult characters to write and make compelling for many writers. In a manga, that's a much more visual of a format than a light novel, I hoped for more visual storytelling to overcome that hurdle of the character having to use non verbal ways to communicate, but alas, they just find a way to make her not-so-deaf. It's not like I want to diminish the existence of such people, but I just wish the manga would commit to that fully, to give a more unique experience.

On the other hand, it also wants to be a story about invisible disabilities and how people make assumptions about a person. It also strikes me as an odd choice to choose something that's very prominent and noticeable to be the stand-in for the invisible disability. Again, it's not that I'm against this point, but I just wish the manga would commit more to it, with something that's a even less visible, but affects someone just as greatly, if it wants to be a story about that, like autism for example. I dunno if Im projecting a bit too much of what I personally would've wanted, but I just felt like they never fully committed with the premise of the story and it stands at a crossroads and can't go into either direction.

There's also this underlining theme of abuse, and how others see Kanon as lesser and only aim to be perceived better by helping the disabled girl, making themselves this martyr worthy of praise. It is a very interesting subject to tackle, but I feel like ultimately it feels a bit undermined by the fact that the story would flip between her being perfectly capable and not wanting to be treated specially and needing to be babysat by Saki (like the bus display thing or being unable to see cars at night) whenever the story calls for it. In the end it kinda just serves to paint Saki as this angel to Kanon with no ulterior motive, which kinda is exactly what the manga seemed to want to oppose. Often the story would have her have those "Im sorry for existing, it's so insensitive of me" moments with her and I'm not sure what they are supposed to mean, as they never seem to make a point of them especially not about "not wanting to get special treatment". There seems to be this weird double standard for her, and the characters even acknowledge it by saying stuff like "Its not so bad to be babied" or "I don't mind when she does it". It makes me see the main subject matter as even more contrived.

There's also this little part where there's one bully who also loses hearing in her right ear. Again, such a weird choice. I get the whole karma implication, but on the other hand it does feel straight out of a Dhar Mann "Mean girl bullies classmate for being deaf. Instantly regrets it" video. Rather than "Be a decent person, because there are different people and basic human decency is cool" its more so of a "You never know if it might happen to you!". It kinda rubbed me the wrong way, even if it was earnest.
There was also this scene where they run a Maid Cafe for a school festival and Kanon has to ask a client to show her what she wants to order on the menu. Despite looking directly at the client and her saying that she wants two coffees and two biscuits. It normally wouldn't be jarring and would be a totally normal thing for such a story, if her main skill wasn't that she can flawlessly read lips of everybody and she was looking directly at the client. That chapter in general seemed to forget they gave her this ability just so they could give Kanon feelings of inferiority for one chapter. Rather than make an actual point about disabilities, it often feels like the manga treats it entirely as a gimmick that can be switched on and off depending on what the story needs in the current chapter.

But as a romance story, it's fairly standard. The leads are not overly interesting and it progresses surprisingly quickly. That being said, it's one of these yuri where "we don't openly talk about our feelings and its all implied we're just special to each other but never explicitly romantically", which Im honestly just tired of. It's your standard share of "awkward girls being awkward" that's meant to be endearing, but if you've seen enough of it, you just become desensitized to it.

I really tried to enjoy this manga, because of how many good things Ive heard about it, but I simply couldn't find much to enjoy other than the artwork. Truly a shame, because the premise seemed so fascinating!