MOON - Subaru Solitude Standing is a manga by Masahito Soda, which acts as a sequel to his previous manga, Subaru. It was serialized in Big Comic Spirits from 2007 to 2011 and compiled into nine volumes.
Some time after the end of ''Subaru', Miyamoto Subaru is now working as a professional dancer in a German ballet company. After using a case of pneumonia as an excuse to not join her troupe on a dancer tour in Japan last minute, Subaru needs to learn to take the consequences and damage this has put onto her professional career.
After being shoved into a reserve group of dancers, Subaru meets Nico Asmer - a handicapped, but amazing ballet dancer. Nico lost his eyesight, dancer partner and lover in a plane crash a few years ago and has been a solo dancer ever since. Intent on dancing with him, Subaru begins to practice a pas de deux with him.
With Subaru and Nico dancing together now, the two begin to collect fame in Berlin. Then the overseas performances are right behind, including a trip to Japan. Where Subaru, desperate and convinced to have left everything there behind her, gets confronted with her past and how it spills into her career now. Even if she isn't ready to face it.
MOON - Subaru Solitude Standing contains Examples of
- Animal Motifs: Once again, the black cat. Subaru took one in from the street. It disappears from the story very fast, too.
- Ascended Extra: A few characters, who only had minor appearances in the previous series, become more prominent here.
- Wanja's student Katja watched Subaru dance in Lausanne once. Now she's back as Katja Rolle.
- The bearded man, who consoled Subaru in Lausanne, is the director of Subaru's German ballet company.
- Crash-Into Hello: Played with. Subaru first notices Nico dancing and it seems like his jump will result in crashing into Subaru, but he lands and stops just an inch away from her.
- Darker and Edgier: While Subaru wasn't very lighthearted to begin with, Moon ups the drama. The deaths in a person's past are still important, dragged up and Subaru even shows the more horrible feelings when in love.
- Disability Superpower: Nico's other senses have heightened after he went blind, to the point that he can sense a strong type of energy from dancing. Though it's made clear he only knows two dancers who emit such energy while moving - one of them being Subaru.
- Happy Ending Override: Subaru had some issues with the American Deportation Department at the end of the previous series. Contrary to what readers might think, this was not forgotten and Subaru is technically not allowed to enter America easily. They do find a way for her to be allowed to go back, which sets up the arc of taking part in Varna
. - Playing Sick: Her company finds out that Subaru faked pneumonia, to avoid having to go on a dance tour in her homecountry. She actually wasn't faking.
- Sudden Name Change: Several names were mistranslated for a while, like Nico's last name as Jasma instead of Asmer, Michael Ellison instead of Mikael Ericson and Minmin initially was translated as Misamisa.
- Your Eyes Can Deceive You: Done by Katja to herself when she tries dancing a pas de deux with Nico, but keep bumping into each other cause of his blindness. Katja then blindfolds herself and manages to dance just fine with him.
