This is the two hundred forty-sixth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our two hundred forty-sixth random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is about to meet some dragons. It’s Moon Child & Sun Knight, by sakevisual (AKA Ayu Sakata), and its tagline in the bundle reads:

A novel about dragons, magic, and finding yourself.

Man… dragons…

While sakevisual appears to mostly make visual novels, Moon Child & Sun Knight is a regular novel. Or rather, it’s a light novel, the second to appear in Scratching That Itch. Back when I wrote about the first, My Friends And I Were Granted Three Wishes By A Cat Goddess And I Swear I Got Distracted When My Turn Came Around, I didn’t even know what a light novel was. I assumed it was like a novella. Since then, I’ve learned that light novels are a specific type of novel in Japan, often serialized, usually with young adult themes, short length, small form factors, some manga-style illustrations, and fast publishing schedules. Moon Child & Sun Knight checks all of these boxes. Our protagonist, Cally, is 14 years old and chafes at her duties as a member of the royal family of House Ars. But soon, tragic events set her on a path she never could have anticipated.

Very soon. Ayu Sakata wastes no time getting the adventure started, writing with such a pace that I initially found it hard to keep up. Despite having learned more about light novels, I still wasn’t prepared for just how fast this story moves, and how little time it has for extraneous detail. Descriptive prose is almost entirely absent. When characters stumble upon the scene of a murder, Sakata writes: “It was impossible to tell what had killed her, but it was clear that she was dead.” That’s it!? Where’s the description of the body, the examination of the wounds? Surely there are clues left at the scene that could give us some leads? But no, those are my expectations from Western detective media. This is a light novel, and the murder isn’t the point, it’s just the springboard for what happens next.

Moon Child & Sun Knight is 392 pages long, but they’re small e-reader size pages (it’s offered in .epub and PDF formats). The itch.io page says the whole thing is just under 50,000 words. Even so, it manages no less than 66 chapters, each readable in less than a minute. “Light”, indeed! And for all the tragic events moving the story forward, the tone is light as well. For each mysterious enemy there is a new loyal friend. There are a lot of hugs. Cally slowly learns some self-confidence. There’s also a lot of queer representation, something I don’t believe is common in Japanese light novels (or most other Japanese media, for that matter). Despite the brevity of the writing, this isn’t rushed; often, I’d only learn a character was queer after following their story for dozens of chapters. Their queerness is an important part of who they are, but it doesn’t define them.

I appreciated that. I enjoyed much of the story, too. There are several clever twists, and even time for some meaningful relationships to build between the main cast, despite the fast pacing and brevity of the writing. But I did struggle to adjust to the writing style. Most characters get only the briefest of backstories, if they get a backstory at all, and I often felt that the tale would be enhanced if it took the time to sit with these people for a while. But there is no spare time in Moon Child & Sun Knight. Something is always happening, at every moment; the closest Sakata comes to skipping time is to briefly summarize a training session or a morning spent dealing with bureaucrats. There are no dull days here, and barely time for reflection. We follow Cally at breakneck speed, only getting a rest when she, herself, catches an all too brief night’s sleep.

Similarly, I felt that the world of Moon Child & Sun Knight could stand to be fleshed out more. We hear about kingdoms, but learn almost nothing about them. One of them believes in diplomacy above all, another is founded on principles of justice, but that’s all we get. I wanted to know more: I wanted to know how long they’d ruled, where they’re located, what their culture is like. Moon Child & Sun Knight isn’t interested in these details, it just wants to get into the politics and maneuvering of the royal families. We barely get a glimpse of what life is like for the rest of the people. This made it harder to really care about the unfolding story. It’s a world of high-level ideas, with nothing underneath.

It’s possible that more of those details will come. True to light novel tradition, Moon Child & Sun Knight is clearly the first entry in a longer narrative, with a conclusion of sorts that leaves many loose threads to set up a sequel. In the comments on the itch.io page, Ayu Sakata mentions that a first draft of the sequel is complete, but that was six years ago and I can’t find any evidence that it was actually published. That’s a shame, because there are enough interesting ideas here to make for an entertaining series. I hope that will appear someday, but for now this is a fine first entry, provided you’re prepared for the light novel style that keeps things moving with a minimum of fuss. If that sounds intriguing to you, and you missed it in the bundle, Moon Child & Sun Knight is sold for a minimum price of $8.99, including both .PDF and .epub formats.

That’s 246 down, and only 1495 to go!