Introduction/Blurb:

Full Moon wo Sagashite is telling the story of the 12-year-old girl and orphan Mitsuki, who is currently living with her grandmother. Mitsuki loves to sing since her childhood, but unfortunately, her illness made singing impossible for her. Nevertheless, she wants to achieve her dream of becoming a singer herself and with that she wants to keep the promise she had made with her childhood friend and first love Eichi. One day, she discovers her ability to see Shinigami, while being visited by the full-fledged Shinigami Meroko and the half-baked not yet Shinigami Takuto. With the message presented that Mitsuki would only have one more year to live, she takes the decision to make her dream come true, while also asking the Shinigami to help her out with their supernatural powers, until she would reach her predetermined day of death.

Background/Relations:

As I’ve only seen the anime and not (yet) read the manga of Full Moon wo Sagashite, which was created by Arina Tanemura, this review of the series has to be seen as a stand-alone and not as a description of how well it adopts the story from the manga to the anime.

Furthermore, a little research (based on other opinions/discussions) has shown that the Anime and Manga differ in many aspects. Some things seem to be told in the anime with a different approach, some aspects have been changed and some things have even been left out completely.

Arina Tanemura is, besides Full Moon wo Sagashite, mostly known for her shoujo manga as I.O.N., Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne and Time Stranger Kyoko. Viewers that have watched the anime Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne before, might be reminded at it (art style-wise), while watching Full Moon wo Sagashite. Although, it should be mentioned that these two works have been adapted by different animation studios. (Full Moon wo Sagashite by Studio DEEN and Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne by Toei Animation)

The animation seems to be okay/acceptable for the time in which it was published (2002-2003) and it also seems to be held close to the typical art style of Arina Tanemura. Nothing outstanding, but still enjoyable.

Story/Setting Overview:

The most important topics in the story are:

Youth and Growing up
It’s a story about overcoming difficulties in life and about not giving up. A story about encountering others with a shackling effect of making an impact on them, while also overcoming the own hurdles on the way and growing further.
Music & the Music Industry
During her time as a young artist, Mitsuki encounters many typical topics related to the music industry as i.e. scary paparazzi, rumors spread in the show business, Rivalry with other artists, and even a photographer setting up a fake story. Nonetheless, Mitsuki grows more and more and works as hard as possible, while not losing hope.
Love & Friendship/Family
With the background stories related to Eichi, her grandmother, her parents and even the further relations to her fathers’ band Route L, Wakaouji-Sensei and the complex story relating to the Shinigami, there are many possibilities for human (and non-human) interaction, bonding and more or less complicated relations between them.
Supernatural occurrences & the Illness
With a little supernatural help from Takuto and Meroko, Mitsuki is able to transform to a 16-year-old version of herself with blond dyed hair. This enables her to enter the music audition and later on to perform as the artist Fullmoon in the series. While being transformed, Mitsuki is perfectly fine and healthy, but as soon as being changed back her health issues come back to her as well. While at some points it seems to be a cat-and-mouse game of not being discovered, Mitsuki tries to keep up her built-up story, more or less successfully.

Wrap-Up: (Minor spoilers included)
The story surrounds the question if one’s destiny/fate can be changed or not. About duties, which need to be fulfilled, but also about rightfulness, friendship and love. It shows clearly what it means to fight and the importance and ability to change certain things. In its’ story-telling it even achieves to portray not only the protagonists, but also the antagonists in a relatable way, so that the viewer is even able to sympathize with them.

Instead of showing one singer making it on her own, there are many people (friends/team/staff etc) surrounding and supporting and depicts therefore a little insight into the japanese music industry and the different steps, which are to be taken, as a young artist.

The pacing of the 52-episode long series seems a little off, though. While the beginning was rather slow-paced, the end seems to be finished/closed rather quickly as if the story was not from the beginning planned to be that long (/or short). A little bit more consistency wouldn’t have been bad in retrospect as there were many complex topics mixed up in each other, even to an extent, where one would say that the story would have been better off without these. The extent of the supernatural aspects are indeed a matter of taste, but the story could have been told nicely even without it (or with less).

Overall the story is enjoyable, while the audio might or might not be to one’s taste. While I got more used specific songs/performances which seemed to be rather odd in the beginning, it suited the series itself well.

Definitively, the series is enjoyable, although some aspects seemed rather odd to me and left often a wth-was-that-exactly-expression on my face and in my thoughts. For sure, this series delivers some unexpected things and might even be good to clear away ones’ cobwebs. An interesting and nowadays unusual watch for sure.

The First Half Is Spoiler Free And The Other Half Is Not But I Did Write In A Way So You'll Know Where The Spoiler Starts From.

The first thing I wanna say It's not a kids anime the art style and the animation does look like it is but slowly as the episodes goes it's not, it's far more mature.

At first it was very slow, lighthearted and funny. That's when you'll think it's a kids anime and might even find it a little boring, but trust me it's not worth dropping, cause later it gets more interesting, then sad and then deep. The storyline and the plot is very creative. This anime is like a rollercoaster of emotions there are points where you'll feel sad and might even cry a bit, and then it also has a few happy moments in the first few episodes. It gets more interesting at about ep 33.That's where everything starts getting interesting but it does stop for a while. But then it gets interesting and deep and you'll feel a cold sadness at ep 41 you'll definitely cry. Starting from here it gets sad and has the theme of loss and there is character development and emotional stakes increases a lot and each episode gets better and better and you'll really feel it. This anime has a lot of ups and downs and that's what makes this anime unique and classic. I feel like the music also adds a lot to the episodes. The story, characters, and the music blends in so well all together. Although I would say it could've been better but it's truly a great and a beautiful anime and almost everyone should watch it. After watching the last episode it really hits in the feels and you'll feel so much. This is my first time writing a review here, usually I do it in kitsu (another app almost like this one) because after watching it I felt like I wanna say so much more than just 140 words. If you are thinking to watch it then definitely you should you won't regret it after finishing it or else you are missing out a lot. The ending is more than you expect when you are first watching it.

Spoiler Review:

( PLEASE READ THIS ONLY AFTER YOU HAVE FINISHED THE ANIME!)

As I said it's very slow at first but after ep 41 things starts to get interesting. Saddest moment in this whole anime was when Mitsuki finds out about Eichi's death. That moment was truly a deep and a cold sadness, cause all this time she was so hopeful and positive about meeting him. For 2 years she waited. But then later she finds out he died 2 years ago. (Even though she shouldn't have been so positive through out all these bad situation as a 12 year old but still she was, because she had promised him and also she had hope and that was meeting him.) The saddest part is also when she thought he was alive trying to achieve his dream. And I think after this the anime really starts.

Also there are few things they shouldn't and should've done (personal opinion)

• Telling grandma the truth about the shinigami so that she could've know that Mitsuki was full moon all this time.
• Telling the story of Meroko's past (but I guess since she was a full shinigami there was no way to tell her story).
• Also I think they shouldn't have made Takuto fall in love with Mitsuki or at least they shouldn't have made Mitsuki fall in love with him because of the age difference like Takuto is at least 12 or 13 years older than Mitsuki. Eichi is fine cause he is just 4 years older than her but 12 or 13 is a lot. Not just that, she truly loved Eichi a lot. And Eichi also loved and cared for her a lot. So it was kind of unfair specially Mitsuki falling in love with him. There were points where they maybe forgot or didn't care about the fact that she is 12 not 16.
• They should've tell us why Mitsuki and the old man can only see the shinigamis even though I think Izumi said in the last ep but I'm not sure it that's the answer or not.

I think the main hero of the whole show was Meroko. I did not expect her to be the hero but she ended up as one. I agree that Meroko was a little rude and against Mitsuki at times. But she never hated her. And also at the end they're (Meroko and Mitsuki) friendship and love was proven. Because at the end she sacrificed her such beautiful long hair for Mitsuki and also she sacrificed herself for Takuto by wanting to turn into a ghost (thank god she didn't turn into one). And she sacrificed her love for the people she loved (Takuto and Mitsuki) so that they could be together. Now this proves her love for both of them. Cause at the end she accepted the truth (that Takuto and Mitsuki loves each other) and wasn't even against it and didn't harm them at all. But still kept loving Takuto (and also Mitsuki) I agree all of this was mainly for Takuto but she also did it for Mitsuki too. She even helped Mitsuki to find Takuto and just went away. This really proves her love for Takuto too you know she wasn't just there with him because he was charming or handsome and this is what I loved about her. The ending really got me because the 3 of them really completed the whole show and now Meroko is an angel and also she went away, Takuto is a human and then the 3 of them wasn't even together as friends anymore. The characters are also nice specially Wakaouji sensei and Oshige san they were very sweet, loving and supportive towards Mitsuki. I loved Mitsuki's kindness too, she didn't just love Takuto she also loved meroko a lot, there was equality and you could see it. I also feel like the whole moon concept was nice like Mitsuki's name meaning full moon, Eichi and Mitsuki's conversation about the moon, sun and the stars, her stage name being full moon and the fact everyone trying to make her shine like the sun does to the moon. I feel like they could've done a lot better in the first 32 episodes. But still it's very underrated. The ending really completed the whole show even though it feels very empty.

2 of my favorite songs from this anime is

whenever I hear it feels really empty