Tail of the Moon by Ueda Rinko is a series I could not put down! I had originally read this manga way back in either middle school or high school and loved it enough to reread in recent months. This is a charming manga, depicted in the Tensho era of Japan, is about ninjas. Momochi Usagi is the great-granddaughter of the head of the Momochi clan, an elite family of ninja, but despite this fact, she’s still doesn’t have her qualification to be a ninja. Her great-grandfather, Momochi Tanba, sends her off on her first assignment, to marry Hattori Hanzo, one of the highest ranking ninjas in Iga and the handsomest man as well, and bear his children!
(SPOILER WARNING! START)
On Usagi's way to Segachi, the village of the Hattori's, she meets a handsome stranger who helps her after she falls down. Immediately she falls in love with him, love at first sight, and proclaims she wasn't going to marry Hanzo but the handsome stranger instead. An envoy comes to retrieve her and Mamezo, her foster child, and she proclaims her decision to the envoy, but they are having none of that. They sweep her up and bring her to Segachi, preparing the wedding banquet and then await for the young master to get home. All of this happens very quickly and soon enough comes home Hanzo, who well enough was the handsome stranger! He rejects her completely and declares that he has no intention of getting married and for her to have the child by herself. Then comes the truth that she is still not qualified to be a ninja. Everyone was in despair, and Hanzo permits her to stay to gain her qualification through training.
Soon after, a new prosperous bride arrives for Hanzo, Fujibayashi Yuri, who is extremely talented at being a kunoichi, a female ninja, but then we find out she isn't qualified either! Hanzo then proposes an ultimatum: if you get your qualification by the end of the year, I will consider to marry you. Thus, both prosperous brides train to become qualified and considered for marriage to Hanzo.
Goemon, Usagi's ex-fiance, shows up, stirring some trouble. He had called off their wedding previously but is still in love with her. The reason for calling it off is much later exposed in the manga, near the end. He tries to get Usagi to love him, but it fails, many times because she is utterly in love with Hanzo, since their first meeting. Usagi also ends up meeting Hanzou, Hanzo's cousin. Many men in the Hattori family end up with some variation of the name Hanzo, as is tradition. Hanzou tries to help her with Hanzo but Hanzo, it turns out, is in love with Sara-hime, the daughter of Oda Nobunaga, who absolutely hates ninja! Sara-hime, herself, is a kunoichi, one of the best, and she is dating Hanzou. Hanzou asks Hanzo to keep Sara-hime with him to protect her because her life is in danger and many people are after her. This puts Usagi in a bit of a bind because Hanzo loves Sara-hime, she is his type: pretty, has long hair, and is a strong kunoichi.
Hanzou and Sara-hime get into a fight and Usagi tries to patch things up between them, which landed her in Hamamachi, where Hanzou's father is. She tries to convince him that Hanzou and Sara-hime are truly in love and should be allowed to be together, but the lord Bearded Hanzo works for, Tokugawa Ieyasu, only releases Hanzou if they gave him Usagi. Before they arrived in Hamamachi, they incidentally met the lord and he was impressed with Usagi's herbalist skills and Hanzou was locked away in a cell to keep him from Sara-hime. Hanzo gives her up to Ieyasu, deciding it to be the best for her since he does not think she will ever qualify to be a ninja, and takes everyone back to Segachi, including Mamezo.
During this arc, Usagi is living in Hamamachi treating patients and expands her skills as an herbalist under the guide of Yukimaru, the head herbalist of Ieyasu. They mistake each other's gender, Yuki thinking Usagi is a man and Usagi thinking Yuki is a woman. Yuki has an innate fear of women and will not treat them unless it's an order from his lord, so Usagi ends up treating all of them. We soon find out the real reason Ieyasu wanted Usagi at his castle, to help Yuki create an elixir of eternal youth. Usagi goes on a journey with Yuki to find such an elixir with the help of Mamezo, Goemon, and incidentally Yuri. They find the hermit of Momochi village, who is rumored to be 200 years old, and obtain the elixir but Yuki burns it, not wanting Usagi to return to Segachi. Ieyasu had made a deal with her that if she could procure the elixir for him, he would allow her to return to Hanzo. They end up with the elixir of eternal life instead, which is actually a sex stimulant, to have children and pass down your life stories and to live on in them.
They head back and Ieyasu is upset about the elixir, but in the end allows Usagi to go back to Hanzo. On her way home with Mamezo though, she gets kidnapped by a ninja from the Kouga region, Hikaru. It is because Kouga is short on herbalists and they needed help treating their wounded.
After some more events occur, Hanzo chooses Usagi to be his bride, but still only after she is qualified. She ends up training a lot with Mamezo by her side. Then, Hanzo's older sister appears, Suzume. She disapproves of Usagi being Hanzo's wife and makes life difficult for her...
(SPOILER WARNING! END)
I'm actually getting too much into the story, I apologize I didn't mean to ramble so much about the story itself. This is how I talk to my husband when he asks me about what I'm reading and what it's about so I guess it became a habit. I'm going to stop right there instead of continuing in case any of you want to actually read the series for yourself. The series is 15 volumes long with a prequel manga, making in totality 16 volumes. The prequel volume delves into Hanzou and Sara-hime's relationship.
There are sad parts to this series, there is some tragedy considering the time period, but things all work out in the end. It truly is a very heartfelt series, there are many characters you will feel for and the cast is huge in and of itself! There really is no way for me to talk about key points in the plot and with the characters without rambling on even more, so I'm going to leave you guys off with this. I hope you'll come back for my next post! Until next week!
Tell how you felt about this post, please! Comment down below! Should I condense myself some more and not talk too much about the story line or do you not mind it? Or do you want more depth without spoilers? Thank you!
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