At first glance, Full Moon wo Sagashite's story shows great potential. Two shinigami tell an adolescent girl with throat cancer that she has a mere year left to live. Such a dark premise seems in complete contrast to the fluffy drivel that shoujo series usually spew out by the boat-load. Perhaps this can rise above the insubstantial and generic mass? Tch. Fat chance. Full Moon’s initial intrigue quickly gives way to a festering pile of nothing whose only redeeming quality is its diligence at sabotaging everything that could have been remotely good.
It isn't even the awful storytelling that ruins Full Moon, but rather its absurdly augmented length. The first forty episodes could easily be condensed down to five (or less!) without sacrificing anything of significance. An episode or two of filler in a long series is sufferable, but forty is anything but. Worse, the filler is completely bereft of comedy, thought-provoking anecdotes, or ANYTHING to disguise the fact that it's wasting your time. The only things going on are Mitsuki's embarrassingly easy rise to the top of the entertainment industry, and the “wacky” hijinks caused by everyone being too stupid to function, the tone of which is an infuriatingly far cry from the utter desolation the first couple of episodes teases us with. If that weren't bad enough, bizarre coincidences and inconsistencies pepper the story. The shinigami Takuto and Meroko can phase through walls, yet sometimes they get severely delayed because of a locked door or another physical barrier. They also spend an insufferable amount of time trying to not be noticed by humans while in their (visible) stuffed animal form, despite the fact that mortals cannot see their typical form.
Granted, the final arc manages to escape the brain-melting cycle of filler. The plot evolves (I would usually use the word 'devolves' in this situation, but here it is an improvement) into a mawkishly mediocre shoujo melodrama. By this time, though, exhaustion from slogging through endless amounts of fluff has settled in, and only audience members lacking crucial mental facilities will be able to muster excitement for the finale. The grimace-inducing pedophilic relationship that develops will wake everyone else from their torpor.
To compound it’s inadequacies, Full Moon delivers barely serviceable animation. Gaudy bright colors coat characters and settings alike, and character designs range from forgettable to contemptible. However, it isn't the (deplorably low) production values that makes the series unpleasant to look at- it's the complete lack of ambition. It doesn't care that it's ugly, and it certainly doesn't attempt to do anything other than look completely generic.
The soundscape fares no better. One would expect a show about idols to have good music (or at the very least a wide variety), but Full Moon disappoints in both regards. Until the very last episode she has only two songs in her repertoire. Just two songs repeating ad naseum for fifty-two episodes making the prospect of watching the series on mute more and more appealing.
If this series was banking on it’s characters to make up for a vapid plot and deplorable animation, there was a grave miscalculation. Full Moon’s is a cast of paper dolls, whose only character traits center around how idiotic everyone is. Logic dictates that everyone should have died in some tragic incident long before the events of the show, due to rampant incompetence. Unfortunately for the audience, this is not the case.
Given everything that these characters go through, it is a marvel how one-dimensional and soulless they are. Twelve year old Mitsuki armed with cancer and the knowledge of her imminent death? A mere bumbling idiot. Mitsuki’s guardian shinigami Meroko who has already died? Just as bumbling, if not more so. The only character with a shred of likability or any redeemable qualities is pop rival Madoka, who plays an antagonistic role, albeit a useless one.
I’ve heard the manga version of Full Moon wo Sagashite far outclasses this adaption, so if you're still convinced this trainwreck could be superb, you may have better luck looking there. I however have given up hope for this franchise and refuse to touch a manga with such a high likelihood of being abhorrent.
As it stands, I can only recommend this series if:
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I absolutly love the manga but I totally agree with your review. It's horrible. Seriously, don't watch it.
I couldn't agree more with your review. I'm on episode 13, trying so very hard to like the show. So far all I've watched is pointless, cheesy (cliché?) drama. The characters are mostly an annoyance, and the few times I they do something not annoying, for the lack of a better word, it's like they repent and go back to their annoying ways.
Don't understand the six year gap between Mitsuki and Eichi --- so far I think she must've got his "I love you" in the wrong way. Meroko can be amusing but not for too long, almost as if the producers wanted to make her unlikeable to the viewers.
Oh, and her song. It's on every episode, two or three times and that's not counting the ending. When the melody for the song begins I feel as if a loaded gun is pointed at my temple and all I can do is beg for forgiveness.
Nonetheless, as I stated before I'll try to get farther into the series because... it has 52 episodes and average reviews (other than this one) so it can't be that bad. Hoping for a 180 degree turnaround.
@kazesenken (cross-posted on user's page so they'll actually see this)
For one, all reviews are biased, and if by some wonderful stroke of luck someone somewhere managed to write something completely unbiased, it would probably be a rather dull read. Looking back, I do agree that I bash it more than necessary. The reason for this, was that I couldn't find a single negative review of the series anywhere on the internet, despite the fact that every one of the 10+ people I discussed the series with while I was watching it hated it just as vehemently as I. So in writing, I sort of felt like I had to make up for the total dearth of negative perspectives with my one review. Maybe that's a little silly, but I have no regrets.
As for your claim that I didn't take into account the show's target demographic: I totally did, and still found the series completely lacking. Shows such as Heartcatch Precure, Shugo Chara, and Princess Tutu are all aimed at younger girls, and I find them completely awesome. Princess Tutu even aired during the same year as Full Moon, so you can't blame its airdate for its insufficiencies.
This review is so true, it took all of my effort to get to episode 18, didn't watch any anime for like a month after that, I can't believe anyone made it through all 52. It was just one episode after another of this plot that was going nowhere fast and I had to listen to that terrible song over and over and over. Ugh, just thinking about this show makes me angry. I don't mind kiddy shows, or cheesy romances like Fruits Basket, I'm fine with stuff of that sort, hell I watched Popotan. But this show was just poorly written and treats the audience like they're stupid and won't recognize all the glaring inconsistencies and idiotic character mishaps.
This is probably the most biased review I've ever read. He's expecting way too much from a series that's 8 years old. Back then, Studio Deen was making stuff like Fruits Basket and ROD, which were the few other series that seemed to stand out at the time.
While the music is limited until the end, it's same way with other music series with little exception (the only one I can think of is Macross Frontier). I do agree that the music could have been distributed more evenly though.
The series is needlessly long and has some awkward issues with the humor. But this is an easy-going, fun series. You don't start watching it, expecting for dramatic action or genious plotline in every episode. That's perfectly clear right at the opening theme.
As for characters, you either like them or hate them, and the show takes it's time to develop the characters along the way, which makes unfavorable characters a chore to go through. And hardly are they one-dimensional, a little cliche by today's standards? Quite so, but read the manga if you think it's too unbearable.
I admit that not everyone will enjoy this series, but if you can't watch something without dwelling on all your dislikes or thinking about the demographic at the time, you shouldn't be reviewing it at all. There are plenty of good aspects of this show, but pure negativity makes for an unbelievable review.
Read the other review for a proper analysis of the series.