Tsuki ni Yorisou Otome no Sahou (月に寄りそう乙女の作法) is a visual novel developed by Navel and released in 2012. Due to the immense popularity of this first title, it spawned multiple sequels and spin-offs that continued for nearly a decade. After completing the previous visual novel, I decided this would be my next target (I already started it a few months ago, but never managed to complete it until now).

The story follows the life of Ookura Yuusei, a child born into a prestigious family. However, as an illegitimate son, he was ostracized by everyone and forced to live hidden from the public for his entire life. Due to this, his dream has always been to live the life of a commoner. He also has a deep interest in clothing design and always wanted to study more in that area.

Thanks to his sister Resona, he manages to get a job that would grant both his wishes! Unfortunately, it is a job to become a live-in maid for an extremely talented girl currently studying at the Filia Girls' School. This implies he would need to cross-dress and remain completely undetected by everyone (including his new master) for multiple years.

Crazy? True. But then again, when is he going to get another chance to study at a school that seems to be financed by Jean-Pierre Stanley (his most admired designer)? Therefore, he decides to go with it and try to fool everyone, changing his name to Asahi and proposing himself as a maid.

The story, therefore, becomes his journey to try and get an education as a fashion designer while being completely undetected as a male on the grounds. The school is the stereotypical "all-girls school," which means lots of high-class ladies with lots of money and not much brainpower.

Yuusei, right from the first scene of the visual novel, seemed to have gone through a particularly traumatic event with someone assaulting the mansion where he was secluded. However, that isn't touched on much at all in the common route, and I am guessing it is something that will come up more later in the specific routes.

The main heroines are:

Sakurakouji Luna

Asahi's master and a highly talented fashion designer. She behaves coldly toward anyone around her and has an extremely sharp tongue. She does, however, care about her friends a lot and is ready to do whatever it takes when it comes to protecting them, even if it means using her own family name (which she despises doing). She has long white hair and red eyes and is generally... quite flat, to the point even Asahi looks bigger.

Hananomiya Mizuho

A standard Japanese beauty. She has that classic design that makes you go into full déjà vu mode thinking, "I have totally seen her before..." She is afraid of men due to some childhood trauma and is generally a very sheltered girl who doesn't know much about society, making her very easy to deceive.

Ursule Fleur Jeanmaire (often called Yuushe)

Luna's childhood friend and self-declared rival. She is quite talented and has a noble background, but she is extremely naive and innocent. This causes her to be very easily deceived by Luna's tricks, putting her into embarrassing situations. She is probably the biggest source of comedy in the series and is genuinely a sweet girl.

Yanagase Minato

Luna's friend and Yuusei's childhood friend. She has had a crush on Yuusei since her childhood days and is still pursuing him to this day. She is actively trying to become more feminine to be the ideal girl for him. She initially doubts Asahi due to her similarity to Yuusei (well, they are the same person, haha).

I am honestly conflicted about choosing my favorite character here because none of the four heroines really match my ideal character type. The two that are closest are Luna and Yuushe. Luna mostly because of her cool voice and looks, while Yuushe is the source of so much comedy in the series.

So far I read the Common Route (which is roughly 20 hours long) and Minato's Route (which is quite short at 6-ish hours). The Common Route was quite entertaining with a balanced amount of comedy and developments without ever delving too deep into drama. You get to know the quirks of all the characters and their aspirations.

On the other hand, I wasn't a huge fan of Minato's Route. It centers around Minato's family falling from grace after some odious classmates target her family to try and force her to leave the school. Asahi comes out as Yuusei to support her and, well, he leaves the school altogether. Even the extremely entertaining maid Nanami Nanai (who hates the protagonist for being way too close to Minato) kind of gets declawed and slowly disappears into the ether.

It just lacked the punch that got me interested in the series and felt like a side story of sorts. I pursued her first mainly because of how much I liked Nanami as a character, so I was kind of disappointed. Next, I am likely going to try Yuushe, and I will definitely leave the titular main heroine Luna (who apparently has two endings for herself) for last.

I am going to keep playing this and, as usual, make a post once I complete one of the routes. Let's see where the series will lead us.