Searching for the Full Moon
Full Moon wo Sagashite, by Tanemura Arina (also author of Time Stranger Kyoko & Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne), is her newest running series in the monthly manga magazine (often times called a manga phonebook) Ribon. The heroine in this series has a particularly interesting dilemma: does she love to sing so much that she would be willing to give up her life?
Kouyama Mitsuki is a twelve-year-old girl who loves to sing. However, she has a potentially fatal case of throat cancer. Surgery is required, but it would remove her vocal chords as well. Thus, she will never be able to sing again, shattering her dream of becoming a professional singer. Mitsuki is at a loss for what to do and everyone around her pressures her to have the surgery. What will Mitsuki do?
One day, as Mitsuki is in her room, she witnesses a strangely dressed guy with cat-like ears coming through the poster on her wall! Following him is a girl with rabbit ears, also odd-looking. Mitsuki just watches in wonder as they start arguing, taking no notice of her. Finally, she asks them who they are, startling them greatly! She can see them?! They introduce themselves as shinigamis (Gods of death): Takuto (the guy) and Meroko (the girl). Later on, one of them accidentally reveals that Mitsuki has only a year left to live.
Upon hearing this, Mitsuki decides to go for her dream while she’s still alive and go to an audition to become a singer. She wants to become a famous singer so she can fulfill the promise she had with her beloved Eichi-kun. Initially, the shinigamis were against it, but seeing her determination, Takuto finally agrees to let her go and even helps transform her to look like a sixteen-year-old girl to enter the audition, thinking that she doesn’t stand a chance of winning.
However, Mitsuki’s singing wows the judges and she is immediately chosen to be the next idol (the Japanese call famous people idols). How will Mitsuki live as a sixteen-year-old popular idol and a twelve-year-old regular girl?
I’m only going to review the anime because I haven’t read much of the manga. The major difference between the anime and manga is that the manga moves very fast compared to the anime. There are a lot of things added into the anime that were not originally in the manga. There will probably be a total of 4 manga volumes (2 currently out right now), while there will be 52 anime episodes.
This anime is one of my favorite series, along with other series by Tanemura Arina. There aren’t a lot of costume changes as in the manga, but the animation is still very nice, even if it isn’t as detailed and beautiful as the manga. The plus side is that you get to hear her sing!
The story is very well planned out, humorous and very interesting. It may seem like this story is the typical magical shoujo (girl) anime, but as the story goes on, there’s a lot of story developments and surprising secrets are revealed. Mitsuki is involved in love triangles while she has to face rivals, her mean grandmother, and making sure her secret stays a secret.
The story sometimes gets annoying because Mitsuki is always saying she’s doing everything just so Eichi might one day notice her while she’s so blind to Takuto’s apparent feelings for her. It gets annoying when all she keeps talking about was Eichi, Eichi, Eichi. However, I liked her determination and how she wants to live her life doing what she loves before she dies. She is very pure and innocent and easily believes in others and what they tell her.
The music for Full Moon is very nice. The background music fits well with whatever scene is playing. The opening animation songs are fast, bouncy and very upbeat while the ending credit songs are slow and very melodic. I liked the ending songs a lot, which are sung by Changin’ My Life. The opening songs are sung by The Scanty.
Some people may think the voice of Mitsuki sounds strange because it is a bit too deep and I have to admit it: I once thought she sounded strange too. However, after watching a few episodes, I got used to her voice and even liked it. Mitsuki sounds unique because she doesn’t sound like the stereotypical anime girl with a cute, high voice. What’s cool is that she can actually sing because all the ending songs are sung by her!
I loved this anime! Even if some people may say the story is unoriginal, after watching it more and seeing the characters and story developments, there is a lot of original content. So give this series a try if you get the chance to watch it!
Opening Songs:
1st- I <3 U by The Scanty
2nd- Rock’n Roll Princess by The Scanty
Ending Songs:
1st- New Future by Changin’ My Life
2nd- Myself by Changin’ My Life
3rd- Eternal Snow by Changin’ My Life
4th- Love Chronicle by Changin’ My Life
The first ever English Full Moon site
Lyrics, wallpapers, winamp skins and other great content
Webring where you can find links to other great Full Moon sites
A great page for Full Moon multimedia
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