Gekka no Kimi is a manga by Shimaki Ako, published by Shougakukan (Flower comics, serialized in the Chesse magazine). It’s 7 volumes long, book 7 being the end.

Gekka no Kimi is another version of Genji Monogatari, the Tales of Genji, the famous novel of the 11th century, telling the story of Hikaru Genji and his many loves.

The manga starts with Hikaru as a child. Hikaru is the son of the emperor and one of his wives, a lower-rank woman who died because all women envied the Emperor’s love for her. And when Hikaru sees his father cry for his love many years after she died, the young boy decides to never fall in love. Years later, when Hikaru reaches his teenage years, he plays a game which consists in throwing maples leaves in the air: if they fly in the wind, they’ll show him the person bound to him. He follows the leaves and meets his father’s new wife, Fujitsubo. She looks like Hikaru’s deceased mother, and the emperor asks her to be Hikaru’s new mother, but she refuses to the boy’s expense. Hikaru finally persuades her to become friends, but one year later, the boy learns that the day for the ceremony that will make an adult of him is at hand. From that day, he won’t be allowed to see her. Thus he realizes he loves his stepmother…

Hikaru Genji will have many lovers, among which a young girl named Murasaki, who looks like Fujitsubo. Hikaru decides to protect her, and falls in love with her in spite of her young age.

Centuries later, Hazuki is a young man who tends to skip school. He’s got a strange problem: each time a woman approaches him, his hands violently shake. Because of this, he avoids women, until the day when a girl bumps into him… She’s a new student, and is of course in the same class as Hazuki. Her presence arises old feelings…

Being the reincarnations of Hikaru Genji and Murasaki, the two main characters are inevitably attracted by each other, and with each encounter come new memories from their past, establishing parallelism between both love stories. Hazuki has to cope with his hands shaking, and the girl is afraid of Hazuki’s haste which probably reminds her that Hikaru Genji raped Murasaki. How will evolve their relationship? How much will they be influenced by their past selves? Will they remember everything?

Shimaki-sensei’s art can be really beautiful! I particularly love how she draws her characters’ eyes. Also, don’t think the story is too serious, it can also be funny. Hikaru Genji and Hazuki have so different personalities… ^^;

If you like reincarnation stories like Please Save my Earth my Hiwatari Saki, then devour Gekka no Kimi!