Full Moon (Arina TANEMURA)

DarkDollmaker Oct 2, 2012

9.5

I have to say this now: the end... was almost unecessarily sappy and cheesy. Or rather, it went from unnecessarily sappy to unnecessarily cheesy. But I still loved it. The characters were wonderful. I loved Mitsuki, Takuto and Meroko from the moment I saw them. The whimsicle animal-eared appearance of the shinigami really detracted from the gloomy atmosphere that shinigami tend to bring to instead help the comedic air that most of Tanemura's series tend to have. And yet it got serious and sad at all the right moments. I'll admit that I had a lump in my throat a few times as I read this series, with all the heartbreaking pasts and soul-breaking secrets. The beautiful art in Tanemura's wonderful style only helps that along. Overall, while it isn't perfect, I think that anyone who likes Tanemura's other works will like this one. For, once again, the talented Tanemura makes up for all of the flaws in the storyline with her shining moments of emotional mastery. And now, with Time Stranger Kyoko and Full Moon o Sagashite down, Gentlemen's Alliance Cross is next!

FreddyCrab Nov 24, 2011

8.5

Story: The story of Full Moon Wo Sagashite initially starts off as one thing, then turns into another. At first its about Mitsuki, a small 12 year old girl with throat cancer who has only a year to live and wishes for nothing more than to be a singer, but then about 15 or so chapters in it turns into a story of Mitsuki aspires to do nothing with her life but to find her first love, Eichi Sakura who moved to America two years ago. I'm not much of a fan of stories concerning singers, but this change seemed to make the first part of this story a little pointless and make Mitsuki seem a little fickle- she revelead she only wanted to be a singer to find Eichi, which irritated me. Nonetheless, Full Moon still has a great storyline, even when the whole point to it ends up changing and the singing takes quite a drastic backseat. The big plot twists I never saw coming and the ending was amazing. The love triangle of Eichi, Mitsuki and Takuto was superbly arranged and the other characters were portrayed just as well in the story. Art: Typical of Arina Tanemura, the artwork is amazing. The drawings are so detailed and beautiful. Characters: Every single minor character in this show is developed all the way through this manga, and thats a good thing. It shows you how all the different shinigami's died- what their past human lives were like, and why they are how they are. This was especially good with the older characters, and I found it very impressive how Arina managed to intertwine all of the characters stories together to show how their all related in some way or another. Overall: Its a very good manga wih a great ending, but if you don't like the guy Mitsuki ends up with then that can easily ruin your experience with this manga. But its cute and if you like Shoujo then its a must read :)

ak1ndo Apr 30, 2021

9

Seems like a cute little story at first, but gets into the depths of death. Very beautifully written. I listened to 'New Future' and 'Dream' when the lyrics appeared on the panels and it makes it so much better. I even cried in the end.