I was never into anime growing up.

Don’t get me wrong–like any 90’s kid I watched Digimon on Saturday mornings. My parents took my siblings and I to see the Pokemon movie in theaters. And while I had no idea how to play the actual game, I also walked around with a deck of Yugioh cards at recess. Just to show the other kids how cool I was and that I, too, trusted in the heart of the cards. 🙂

But towards middle and high school I noticed that kids who were into Bleach and Naruto started doing weird things. These were the kids who bought creepy contact lenses and ran down the hallways at a 90 degree angle. Arms splayed out behind them as though they were trying to be airplanes. 

I took one look at that, and decided anime wasn’t for me.

Fast forward to 2016 and I was doing my student teaching in Japan. I lived with a family who was big into One Piece. Even though I was still very much anti-anime, I read the first manga and and ended up getting hooked. And to this day, I’m still a huge One Piece fan.

After I got back from Japan, I started watching anime with my cousins every Sunday night. It was a great way to end the week, especially since I was going through a lot at the time. We kept this up all the way until I left Hawaii in 2020. Some shows ended up having a big impact in decisions I made for Shadowed By Moonlight. Others I tried to squeeze in because I was so into them, but they just ended up not panning out. 

Anyway, for all my fellow anime lovers, here are three anime Easter eggs hidden in Shadowed By Moonlight. Fair warning, one of these will contain spoilers, but I’ll give you a heads up before we get to that part. 

1) Demon Slayer

As an author, I paid a lot of attention to this show because of the sibling dynamic. At the time, I knew I wanted to write a book about siblings. But I hadn’t really fleshed out what kind of relationship they would have, or how that would change over time. 

Watching Demon Slayer, I was fascinated at the idea of a noble brother protecting his demonic sister. When I had a better idea for the story, I kept Tanjiro’s character as a sort of ideal for my protagonist, Toa, to work towards. I knew Toa wouldn’t start out nearly as selfless as Tanjiro, and started to plot the story to help him become like that. 

To reference the impact that Demon Slayer had on Shadowed By Moonlight, not only do we have the theme of older brothers protecting their sisters, but there’s another little Easter egg, as well. In Chapter 3, one of the characters affectionately calls Masina a demon slayer after she saves the village from a demon attack. 

2) Attack On Titan

This was an anime I reeeeeeally wanted to squeeze into Shadowed By Moonlight, but I couldn’t pull it off. While it was dark and grittier than One Piece, I loved the worldbuilding in AOT. Especially the concept of ODM gear. I know–of all the Easter eggs I could’ve used, I had to try recreate this super complex technology created for the sole purpose of killing titans.

I thought it would be so cool to have my characters swinging from the masts as they fought demons on open waters. But in the end, it was an idea that just couldn’t work. In AOT, the characters need ODM because it helps them to fight these giant monsters. But in Shadowed By Moonlight, demons attack by crawling up from the water onto the boat. Under those circumstances, a harness system just didn’t make sense.

Yes, ladies and gents. For some misguided reason I thought it would be a good idea to have people swinging AOT style from this here canoe. Not my brightest moment.

So, while it broke my weeb-loving heart to do it, I ultimately scrapped the idea. One tiny Easter egg I was able to leave behind, though, were extra ropes tied to the top of the canoe mast. The characters use these to swing from one end of the canoe to the other during a fight scene, but that’s about as close to ODM as we get.

Someday I would love to have something ODM-inspired in one of my stories. But for now that’s still on the drawing board.

3) Boku no Hero

*WARNING! This section has major spoilers for Shadowed by Moonlight. If you haven’t read the book all the way through, I highly encourage you to put a pause right here. Go find your copy (or buy one here), finish reading it, and then hop back on. Lest you risk spoiling some major plot twists. 

And if you have finished the book, then let’s keep going!*

When I first started watching BNH, I thought Midoriya would be the most like Toa. They both feel like their dreams were stolen from them, and struggle to see how they can contribute to society.

But, as it turns out, All Might had more in common with Toa than anyone else in the show. Both go from muscle to skeleton form. Both miss their days of unrivaled strength. And both can give away their powers. Those concepts ended up shaping Shadowed By Moonlight more than I thought they would. Ultimately, that ended up changing the way Toa’s powers worked in the story.

Before watching this show, I wasn’t sure how Toa ended up so skinny. I knew he needed to be that way, and he needed to be jealous of Masina. But I needed his character to have more depth than that. I also knew I wanted him to end up with powers, but couldn’t connect those points together.

Art by the amazing TawshLav. Be sure to check out her work!

A few episodes into Boku no Hero the concept just clicked. I remember thinking, “What if Masina’s strong because Toa gave her his powers?” That explained everything: Masina’s strength, how Toa got skinny, and why Masina was so attached to him. It gave Toa’s jealousy depth and opened the door to new possibilities. It also introduced two new questions. One, could Toa become strong again? And why couldn’t Masina heal people the way Toa could? 

I don’t know if anyone asked themselves those questions while reading. But having those concepts in the background helped me establish some of the bigger reveals in Shadowed By Moonlight. So as far as an anime that helped me to write, I’d say BNH went beyond plus ultra. 

Future Anime Easter Eggs

That about wraps it up for three anime Easter eggs in Shadowed By Moonlight. For anyone wondering, I do plan to sneak more Easter eggs like these into future works. In fact one of my current projects, the Tattered Cloth saga, is inspired by my time in Japan and is practically begging for anime references like this. So I’m looking forward to that. 🙂

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