Title: Fly Me to the Moon Vol. 27
Author: Kenjiro Hata
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 197
Genre: Slice of Life, Romance, Comedy, Science Fiction
Publication Date: February 11, 2025
The Story
We open up this volume of Fly Me to the Moon with a bit of a history lesson. We see Mao who viewed Tsukasa as an angel. He hates school and wants to drop out of university. He asks Tsukasa if there is a way to memorize all 80,000 scriptures and she tells him of an ancient Buddhist technique that would require him to head into the mountains and chant something 1 million times. He hates university so much that he does it.
We head back to the present day where Nasa is watching a documentary on Mao and what became of him. He then begins to study for his exam battle against Asimo by taking all of the past Tokyo University mock exams!
On the other side of things, Asimo feels confident that he can beat Nasa because the exam is going to be multiple-choice instead of essay-based. He feels he could either tie or do better than him based on probability alone. Meanwhile, we get a smaller piece of Kosaka’s history along with a glimpse of how she came across Tsukasa in the past. Tsukasa, on the other hand, isn’t going to let Asimo be the only one making a bet on this exam battle as she has one to make of her own! The battle still looms on the horizon!
Characters
A lot of attention was placed on Mao, a character that didn’t really have that much of an effect on the story outside of transitioning to the modern day and providing a bit of an epilogue to one of Tsukasa’s stories from the late 700s. Possibly as a future plot point, Tsukasa asked Nasa if he wanted to go visit Mao (his tomb) one day. The character started off rebellious; however, his situation became quite emotional towards the end. Obviously, he’s not going to be alive 1,400 years in the future but the fact that he became something famous enough to warrant a public display of his tomb shows that even side characters can leave a lasting impact upon the world.
We spent a little more time with Kosaka and learned about how she came to live with Sanae. In addition, we see the moment she ran into Tsukasa in the past and why she strongly feels as if she had seen her from somewhere before. Outside of that, there isn’t much that’s new with her… she’s still having a difficult time admitting that she loves Asimo, though which is cute.
Asimo’s confidence in this battle is all over the place. The fact that he was relieved when he found out the test was in multiple-choice shows he’s more worried about going out with Kosaka than he is about beating Nasa. He even admitted that he wouldn’t have stood a chance if the questions were essay-based. The fact that Kosaka is on the line for him shows just how much he cares about her and that something as simple as a battle of wits would cause him so much despair and worry.
Final Thoughts
While the history lesson was nice, it kind of overstayed its welcome. Yes, Mao’s ending was a bit emotional but to go through all of that just to set up a transition to the present day and plant a seed for a possible future chapter where they visit him was a bit much. I know… world-building and all of that but it’s another example of the series furthering an interesting storyline (Kosaka recognizing Tsukasa and the mock exam battle) and artificially extending it by taking detours every volume. It kind of hurts the pacing a bit and takes some of the excitement away. History lessons are nice and all that because we do get to see Tsukasa’s journey over the past 1,400 years, but can’t they be filled in between arcs rather than interruptions in the middle of an arc?
At least we end the volume on the possibility that the mock exam battle is next. I thought it would have been in this volume but I was mistaken. Perhaps I will be mistaken again? All I know is that I want to see it go down after the past few volumes hyped it up. I want to see the eventual ship of Asimo and Kosaka… and plus, I would like to see how Sanae feels about all of this happening. We still need to get around to finish decoding the message Tokiko left and learn about what it all meant. Was there a true cure for Tsukasa’s immortality? If there is, will Nasa pull the trigger? So many questions left unanswered!
Still a good volume but it could have been better had the story progression been a bit more aggressive.
You can also check out other The Outerhaven reviews on your favorite social media networks:
Subscribe to us on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/theouterhaven.net
Subscribe to us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheOuterHaven
Subscribe to us on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/theouterhavennet
This item was provided for review by VIZ Media.
