Fly Me to the Moon Volume 1 Review (Tonikaku Cawaii)
Tonikaku Kawaii Fly Me to the Moon Vol. 1

Despite not being happy with the way Hayate the Combat Butler ended (to say nothing of how Viz is crapping on their release of the manga), I still wanted to try this manga. And I’ve been chapter blogging it ever since. And though I’ve loved the manga so far, that didn’t mean Viz wouldn’t screw it up.

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The Story in Brief

The story of the eight chapters of Fly Me to the Moon Volume 1 starts with a junior high student named YUZAKI Nasa. He encounters and falls in love with a teenage girl. Unfortunately, he is distracted and gets hit by a truck. However, the girl manages to save him and leaves. Nasa is desperate for her not to go, so despite his injury, he tracks her down. She is no longer injured and provides his with some additional care. He confesses to her. She agrees to go out with him providing he marries her. He immediately agrees and passes out.

Nasa goes through rehab and studies hard, but ends up dropping out of school and not attending high school. He gets a small apartment over an old store. After he turns 18, the girl he’d previously met shows up to marry him. She introduces herself as Tsukasa and provides the marriage form. The two take it to the night registrar’s office to make it legal.

With that, the couple go out to make some late night purchases so allow Tsukasa to sleep in Nasa’s apartment. They spend a night together, in separate beds, then have their first breakfast together.

Story Thoughts

Since I’ve already reviewed the story of ly Me to the Moon Volume 1 before, I’ll just say that I really did enjoy going through this journey a second time of Nasa and Tsukasa starting their life together. Japan is multiple volumes ahead of us, so I already know where things are going. But taking the journey again will not be an issue for me, providing I have time to do it. 😅 I just hope Viz doesn’t help kill the series by slowing down the releases.

I also like the little references to Hayate the Combat Butler. We now know what happened to Klaus. And the name “Tachibana” for the store should ring a bell as well.

Tankoubon Modifications

One thing that immediately stood out to me was the marriage registration in Fly Me to the Moon Volume 1. In the original magazine run, it is a single page and only covers the actual marriage part. Viz apparently got tired or trying to recreate the form and just half-assed it, but that’s another issue. Viz did have two pages, which weren’t present when the chapter was originally published.

Indeed, Hata-sensei changed things so that on page 74, the exterior shot is a large panel whereas it was half that size in the original publication. And Hata-sensei adds a whole additional page to cover Nasa’s reaction to the situation.

I did a scan and Hata-sensei made several minor modifications here and there from the original publication to the tankoubon release. I would have liked to have gone through page by page to see all of the changes, but sadly, I don’t have the time.

Viz Adaptation

As long time readers of my blog will know, I’m a hardcore believer in retaining all Japanese honorifics. Thankfully, Viz’s adaptation does appear to use them all. The term Danna-sama (to address one’s husband) is translated, but I’m fine with that.

On the whole, there are no real translation issues. Initially, I was confused by the use of “low-resilience” instead of “memory foam”, but since Tsukasa didn’t know the term “memory foam”, that made sense. So no issue there.

The original manga names “Sendou-kun” from Slam Dunk as a reference. Viz dropped the character’s name and adds a direct reference to Slam Dunk. I would have preferred the name be left in as “Sendou-kun from Slam Dunk” so that we understand where the character comes from.

While I didn’t have time to go deep on a comparison, I did have a problem with how they had Tsukasa agree to marry Nasa. Viz accurately has Nasa asking Tsukasa out. In the Japanese, her response is that she’d go out with Nasa if he married her. While I agree that this is a bizarre saying, there actually is a story reason for it that will be revealed later.

Unfortunately, Viz decided to change this to Tsukasa agreeing to be with Nasa rather than agreeing go out with him. Yes, this change may read better in English, but this is a case where localizing something to try to fit a Western sensibility will come back and bite Viz in a future volume.

Finally, Viz lists Chitose’s age as in her 40s rather than 14. I don’t know if that’s a mistake or not.

Omake

There are eight chapters plus omake in Fly Me to the Moon Volume 1. The first omake is a brief manga chapter, whereby Hata-sensei gets to proclaim his love of Fate/Grand Order (and the Fate franchise in general). This is accomplished by Nasa pretending to be stabbed with Saber’s sword Excalibur so that Tsukasa can act horrified.

The second omake manga chapter is a bit more ecchi. Nasa finds one of Tsukasa’s scrunchies. He’s disappointed it isn’t her panties, but sniffs it anyway. Naturally, Tsukasa catches him doing it.

Next, Hata-sensei provides notes on Tsukasa, Nasa, and Nasa’s apartment above the Tachibana store. After this are a couple of 4-koma comic strips, followed by a one-page manga special, with the goddess Orumuzuto Nadja from Kami-sama ni Rocket Punch and Hayate the Combat Butler making an appearance.

Finally, there’s a Q&A where Nasa and Tsukasa answer questions. I really needed my glasses to read this bit. 😅

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In the end, Fly Me to the Moon Volume 1 is an enjoyable manga of a young married couple getting to know one another. Viz’s adaptation was mostly fine. But as I said, time will tell on whether Viz will help harm sales of the manga by reducing the publication to a craw, the way they did with Hayate the Combat Butler.