Shangri-La Frontier is a Japanese web novel series that has an ongoing anime adaptation. The first season aired in fall 2023-winter 2024 and the current second season is in the midst of its fall 2024-winter 2025 run. The show follows many characters as they play a fully immersive virtual reality game in a slightly-future version of modern Japan called Shangri-La Frontier (see my brief discussion of the first season in my 2024 anime review). This brief introduction will suffice because this article is not a review of the anime nor is it one of my patented anime hair color studies. Instead – I will write about the appearance of the phrase Tsuki ga kirei in the show’s 35th episode (part of the second season), which aired on December 15, 2024.
Back in 2021, I wrote an article about the Japanese phrase tsuki ga kirei, desune, which I understand from reading people who are fluent in Japanese translates to something to the effect of the Moon is beautiful, isn’t it? The quote is often attributed to Japanese author Natsume Soseki. The story goes that Soseki was asked how to translate I love you from English to Japanese and he came up with Tsuki ga kirei desune. I conducted a survey of English-language sources in my 2021 research article and concluded based on those sources that the Soseki anecdote is almost certainly apocryphal, but it is pretty nonetheless. I encourage those of you who are interested in digging into the story and its background to read my essay on the subject. For the purpose of our instant article, it is important to know that the story behind the phrase exists in Japan, although I do not have the frame of reference to opine on how commonly known it is.
(Note on “spoilers”: I am only discussing a very short scene in a single episode of Shangri-Li Frontier and providing just enough context about the two characters in the scene to explain the Tsuki ga kirei reference. People who are watching the show and not yet up to the 35th episode may opt to bookmark my post because the scene features two characters working together who have taken a while to find themselves in the same place – but I think the scene is spoiler free for all practical intents and purposes.)
The scene in question features two characters – Sunraku, who appears in the game as a shirtless man (not by choice) with a bird mask (by choice) and Psyger-0, a hulking heavily-armored character who happens to be (A) a girl and (B) an admirer of Sunraku. While Psyger-0 is trying to reorient herself, Sunraku looks up at the in-game sky and specifically the Moon. He admires the level of detail that the developers of Shangri-La Frontier have put into the game’s visuals. He gazes up to the Moon and mutters to himself:
The moon is so beautiful.
Sunraku
Psyger-0 hears Sunraku talking to himself and is immediately flustered.
W-Why did you say that?
Psyger-0
Sunraku is surprised – having no idea what Psyger-0 is talking about (note in addition to not having commented on the Moon with any intent, he has no idea that Psyger-0 is an admirer). Psyger-0, caught in her own mental loop, makes reference to the tsuki ga kirei story almost certainly being a story:
O-Of course, they say that the quote is apocryphal and Natsume Soseki never really said it…
Psyger-0
Psyger-0 continues stammering before Sunraku expresses his befuddlement:
Huh? Why are you talking about Natsume Soseki?
Sunraku
At that moment, their conversation is broken up by some unexpected in-game action, and the misunderstanding about the beautiful Moon falls by the wayside.
Psyger-0 had immediately thought of the Soseki anecdote when she heard Sunraku comment on the Moon. Moreover, her stammering revealed that she was aware that the most common view is that Soseki never actually translated I love you as Tsuki ga kirei. For his part, Sunraku has no idea what Psyger-0 is talking about. It is possible that Sunraku never heard the Soseki-Tsuki ga kirei story – some of my sources in my research article suggested that the phrase is not universally known in Japan (I would defer to people who have lived in Japan on that issue). However, there is an alternative possibility. Sunraku commented on the Moon to himself while admiring how realistic the in-game visuals were in the in-world Shangri-La Frontier game. Moreover, Sunraku was wholly unaware of Psyger-0’s feelings for him – only knowing that Psyger-0 recognized him as a strong in-game player. Taken together, we cannot rule out that Sunraku may have heard the Soseki story before but did not understand what Psyger-0 was getting at in the context of the situation. Alas, their humorous miscommunication is quickly broken up and there is no time for further clarity.
