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Plot Synopsis

MizzDorKeeAznGurRl wrote: Twelve-year-old Kouyama Mitsuki was devastated when she was diagnosed with a malignant tumor of the throat. She had made a promise to the boy she loves that she would one day become a singer, but her illness made singing impossible. To make matters even worse, two angels of death, Takuto and Meroko, appeared to Mitsuki and informed her that she only had one year left to live! This news provides an even greater motivation for Mitsuki to fulfill her dreams, and with a little bit of divine intervention, she begins her quest to become a professional singer so she can be reunited with Eichi before time runs out.

Story & Characters

The only reason that I watched this anime was because I wanted to see how this anime could be top-rated on animenfo… and of course to annoy my friends that threatened to kill me if I watched something with such a silly storyline and such a girlish design. Before I downloaded it I read about the storyline, I couldn’t claim I was mesmerized by it’s complexity and I could for my life not understand the why it was top ranked at animenfo, but I could understand why my friends tried to abolish all friendship with me…

Just to make this clear, I’m not the emotional type, I usually regard drama as slow and rather boring (both Hollywood and anime productions), I don’t like the average shoujo series I don’t listen to J-POP or POP in general for that matter and to pit in the finishing blow; I don’t appreciate childish humour either...
That doesn’t really leave much room for this show since that’s exactly what it’s labelled as, an idol singer anime, a show for girls aged 8-14.

So, how come I wasted 20 hours of my precious time to watch this anime then?
Well to start with I think it was Mitsuki’s very strong character that pulled me in, she gets to know that she only has one year left to live by the shinigami – who she’s not supposed to see - (gods of death in Japanese mythology who’s job is to protect Mitsuki from dying before her destined day and to make sure that she has no regrets by then) but instead of sulking about it she decides that she must accomplish something while she still can, so before the shinigami notices she sneaks out of the house and rushes to the audience that she finally had gotten past the primary selections on.

I almost directly wanted this girl to succeed and to fulfil her life dream of becoming a singer because she was so determined and she’d rather just live one more year and get to sing than live a lifetime without being able to do it, actually that’s literary her situation, with throat cancer that needs to be removed, but if they do surgery they’ll almost definitely damage her vocal cords thus making it unable for her to sing ever again, but if it’s left alone she’ll die of it.
She’s genuinely nice and healthily naïve giving her a very nice charm. But her situation is really sad, destined to die within a year without the ability to sing, she has no friends due too that she’s often too sick to be in school and her health is rather weak, she has lost her parents, her love Eichi-kun has moved to America two years ago and she lives with a grand mother that hates music and prohibits anything that has to do with it.
Now you may think that this story is too unbelievable, yes, it is, but they execute it in a nice way and they make the story believable instead of alienate it.

What I miss here is a Characters section, so here it comes...
(b)Characters: (/b)
I would almost go as far as to say that Mitsuki with her motivation and determination as well as her confidence that people aren’t always what they seems at first is purely impressive and is a guarantee to pull you into her world, make you laugh with her, cry for her and simply be stunned by how valiant she is.
However I found the acting of the shinigami duo Takuto and Meroko pretty childish and they often seemed to overreact… at first, their characters do develop very nicely and when they get a depth their behaviour becomes much more explained.
I also got annoyed by the total mental block that Mitsuki’s grand mother had for music but it was explained satisfactory later on… I still found her too narrow minded, but I got over it
Ooshige-san, Full Moons manager is simply likable because of her spontaneous behaviour and lovable charisma.
Not to forget is the obligatory hatable rival Madoka… or is she really that bad? And is really that obligatory bad guy that gets added later that mean? Or is he simply misunderstood?
Anyway, all the characters will develop and I will probably issue you some medicine if you don’t like every single one of them when this show ends.

Characters: 9/10

Rating

8 (good)

Art

The animation isn’t especially detailed but it doesn’t have to be, it’s very vivid, rather funny and always delivers the right mood, or I was too into the story to notice anything wrong besides the fact that the transformations from the 12 year old Mitsuki to the 16 year old Full Moon were repetitive and just slightly varied, brought back memories from Sailor Moon they used to broadcast here in Sweden as a kids show....
But, the animation still is not top notch, it does its job good, but it doesn’t compare with the rest of the show that’s better than good

Rating

6 (average)

Sound

Well, the voice for Mitsuki is Myco, the lead vocalist of the J-POP band "Changin` My Life", she does the job well, the voice might seem to strong for a girl with such weak health, but it isn’t out of place and her vocals in the songs are nothing short of great; very sensual and emotional. She delivers the feeling as if it really was Mitsuki with one year left to live that sings the songs and not some half-hearted vocalist from a J-POP band. :P
All the songs are extremely well-written, well-executed and well-fitting with the story. And they often use instrumental versions of the various tracks that she makes during the show to bring forward the emotional parts even better, and they succeed.
The rest of the sound track isn’t something you’ll really remember, but they mostly use the songs that she sings and those are the master-pieces (still occupies my play-list).

Rating

8 (good)

Presentation

The story of Full Moon wo Sagashite is very well written, while the first season it is mostly comedy and happy moments, but still with some sad and powerful moments, the second season is the exact opposite, it relies mostly on drama and powerful moments with occasional comedy and happy moments. Actually that's why she sings; because she wants to meet Eichi-kun again...
That fact disturbed me at first and that all the talk about this Eichi-kun was getting on my nerves, luckily I wasn’t alone, the shinigami Takuto also found it rather disturbing and often pointed that out to her.

There are some basic elements that exist in all anime but they are so originally executed so you won’t even notice it as something you’ve seen before.
And the ending is also worth a note, it will leave you wondering what will happen even just before it happens and the story overall is almost too well executed to be given to such young girls that the genre is developed for…
I think that anyone could appreciate the story simply because of Mitsuki.

And I’d like to recommend this anime to anyone that searches for lovable characters and an amazingly intriguing storyline, although it starts off as a series suitable for girls aging 8-14 as it develops and proceeds onto the second season I think these girls are being spoiled and shouldn’t have this series for themselves.

As I said before; I’m not the emotional type and this was the first anime that made me cry because it was so well done, you really can sympathise with Mitsuki...
When it came closer to her destined day I really wished that she could defeat the un-defeatable, fate, but something told me that it is impossible even if I don’t believe in fate myself (must have been (b)some(/b) good plotting). I actually still get emotional just by thinking about the ending and when I’m listening to the songs I still still feeling Mitsuki...

Rating

9 (very good)

Final Verdict

8.00 (good)

Reviewed by cyberstorm, 3y 30wk ago