Getting beyond the annoying fan service on the cover, the stories inside didn't advance the story. the fake-Yakuza cousin was fun, but that's pretty much the exact same idea as the entire "Way of the Househusband" manga so it seems less funny than derivative. And the Tokyo Disney storyline is cute, but it really feels like filler and is less funny and entertaining. The main characters are still endearing and interesting, but this felt like a less compelling volume.

In this volume, Tsukasa fills in at the bath house while the owner is away, and Chitose and Aya, who are both there at the same time, end up becoming friends. Later, Nasa's yakuza-wannabe cousin Ginga comes to visit, with a problem: he found a stray cat, but can't take care of it, so he asks Nasa if he and Tsukasa will take care of it instead. They agree, and Nasa decides using a cute kitten to get closer to Tsukasa isn't such a bad idea, but Toast (the kitten) has other ideas. The couple do get a kiss in, though. To thank the couple and as a wedding present, Ginga gives them tickets to a theme park which is in no way a thinly disguised Disneyland (wink wink), where they run into Nasa's teacher, Yanagi Sensei. She's there with a male coworker, Taniguchi Sensei, and appears clueless that he likes her, and that they're on a date. Now Tsukasa & Nasa's date has turned into a stalking mission- they want to know if Yanagi ever figures things out, and if Taiguchi gets the courage to confess (I'm not saying). Other things happened too which may or may not have involved Tsukasa wearing a school uniform and that's all you're getting out of me!
There are little meta comments sprinkled throughout that were cute and fun, and the art remains dreamy and sweet. This sweet little slice of life series usually gets 4 stars from me, but this volume gets 5 because........reasons.

#FlyMetotheMoonVol6 #NetGalley

Fly Me to the Moon Volume Six introduces two new characters to the series.

Fly Me to the Moon Volume Six
Written by: Kenjiro Hata
Publisher: Shogakukan
English Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: July 13, 2021

At the beginning of the volume, while Tsukasa is helping out at the bathhouse, Chitose comes over and gives Tsukasa a hard time about it. Tsukasa tells her to take a bath or leave. Chitose decides to go into the bath and runs into Aya. At first, they don’t get along, but after Tsukasa orders the two of them to get along, we see them becoming more friendly over the course of the chapter. While these two will never be BFFs, they get along well enough by the end to at least exchange numbers so they can stay in contact.

The next chapter introduces the first new character, who comes across as a yakuza boss. But it turns out this is really Ginga, Nasa’s 17-year-old cousin. There’s a running gag with Ginga’s dialogue where he uses words and phrases normally associated with the yakuza to refer to ordinary things. I was never quite sure if I found this to be an amusing or annoying trait. It turns out that he also has lackeys who treat him like a mob boss. The reason for Ginga’s introduction is that he and his friends found a stray cat outside of their school and don’t have a way to take care of it. Both Tsukasa and the reader learn that Nasa once had a cat and is a cat person. In fact, he’s so knowledgeable about cats that he later tells the vet what kind of shots and tests the cat needs. He also shows off his encyclopedic knowledge of cats when he’s explaining to Ginga about what he and Tsukasa are going to need for the cat in order to take care of it.

When the vet asks what the cat’s name is, they take the cat out of the crate and discover there’s a white square among the brown fur. Tsukasa decides to name the cat Toast. And with this, our second new character (the cat) is introduced. Toast seems to love Tsukasa, yet seems to view and treat Nasa like a servant. It’s kind of funny that Nasa is the cat person, yet the cat isn’t warming up to him. The manga shows how the cat being around kind of helps nudge Nasa and Tsukasa a little closer together, yet also causing minor complications. But after getting a couple of chapters focusing on Toast, the cat becomes something that appears in the background off and on for the remainder of the volume. It’s going to be interesting to see if Toast will be relegated to the background from this point on, or if the cat will have more of a role to play in future volumes.

Ginga becomes important again when he comes over to give Nasa and Tsukasa a wedding gift… two tickets to the Land of Dreams theme park in Maihama. It turns out Tsukasa has never been there and is really looking forward to it. It’s raining when they go, but Tsukasa doesn’t let this get her down. We get to see Nasa and Tsukasa spending time together and having fun, and actually doing something they would have done if they had dated before they’d gotten married. While they’re there, they run into Nasa’s former teacher, who is there with a male co-worker. But Nasa’s former teacher is oblivious to the fact that this co-worker likes her. The rest of the volume is set at the Land of Dreams theme park, and we get to see what happens with Nasa and Tsukasa, as well as with Nasa’s teacher and her co-worker. Chitose and her maids are there, too, spying on Nasa and Tsukasa. But I thought it was kind of interesting to see Nasa’s former teacher getting a bit of the spotlight on her love life during this volume.

There is also a bonus chapter included that ties back to something that happened earlier in the manga. Like with the bonus chapter in the previous volume, it really felt like this could have been included in the main manga storyline. It was an OK bonus chapter, although it does seem to imply at the end of it that Nasa and Tsukasa have become a little more physically intimate than we’ve ever seen in the main manga storyline. Maybe that’s why it was done as a bonus chapter.

The introduction of Ginga helped move Nasa and Tsukasa’s relationship in the right direction, but I’m really not sure how much mileage Hata will be able to get out of him in the long run. And by the end of the volume, Toast already seems to be relegated to the background. So while this volume did introduce two new characters, I’m really not sure how important either one of them is going to end up being in the long run. But I was happy to start seeing some kind of an evolution in Nasa and Tsukasa’s relationship. Yes, they can still get flustered and embarrassed at times, but it’s nowhere near as much as they did earlier on in the series. And I’m still convinced that hints have been dropped regarding Tsukasa, and I’m hoping we’ll start seeing more of her backstory sooner rather than later.

If you’ve read and enjoyed the previous volumes of Fly Me to the Moon, I think you’ll enjoy Volume Six as well.

In this volume, Tsukasa fills in at the bathhouse for their kind host who is allowing them to stay in their home. We meet Nasa's cousin Ginga, whose name means galaxy. They manage to adopt a stray kitten and name it Toast. Tsukasa and Nasa go to a theme park where they run into one of Nasa's former teachers who, unbeknownst to her, is also on a date.