In a move that’s sure to please both weebs and comic book fans alike, Hell’s Paradise Jigokuraku and Ayashimon mangaka Yuji Kaku has officially made Marvel Comics debut, having contributed a new original story and character to the upcoming fourth issue of the Phases of the Moon Knight series.
A four-issue anthology series, each issue of Phases of Moon Knight enlists a different team of creators to tell stories about their own unique variants of the white-clad hero.
And in the third issue, Kaku deviated from his fellow Khonshu-inspired creators and took a more ‘anime’-styled approach to his story Moon Knight-chan, therein introducing the eponymous Lunatic Angel Moon Knight-chan to the Marvel Universe proper.
Having experienced a turbulent past and facing a likewise future, the story of Moon Knight-chan kicks off with a flashback depicting the Buddha of the Moon, Candraprabha, granting the titular character and their brother, Mika, the power to take down the pair’s abusive father.
Jumping forward to the present day, Moon Knight-chan, equipped with both bunny ears and a katana, and Mika, armed with a pair of drill arms, make their violent debut by decapitating a man who was attempting to solicit a prostitute in Kabukicho Park and shredding his friend who stepped in to defend him.
But after slicing them down, much to both Moon Knight-chan and Mika’s dismay, the man and his friend reveal that rather than genuine humans, they are just two parts of a massive, homonculi-esque kaiju.
However, just as the beast turns his lustful attentions to the knocked-out hero, it soon discovers that Moon Knight-chan is not a girl, but rather a young man.
As explained in a subsequent flashback, right before Candraprabha granted the siblings their powers, their brother Michiru, in a last ditch effort to save them all from further physical abuse, sets himself on fire and flings himself at their father, in doing so sacrificing himself to take out their tormentor.
From there, the story reaches its climax, therein revealing that Moon Knight-chan is not one individual, but rather a sort of ‘shared form’ for all three siblings, each of which displays a different power when in charge of their body.
Following this twist, Michiru takes control of the Moon Knight system and swings her moon-shaped kusari-fundo (a Japanese weapon which usually consists of a single chain with weights on each end) at the kaiju, killing him instantly and securing victory for the ‘team’.
A genuine breath of fresh creative air at a time when the Western comic book industry could desperately use it, Kaku’s story makes its debut, as noted above, in Phases of the Moon Knight Vol. 1 #3, which is on sale now.