Full Moon wo Sagashite, for me, is the quintessential shoujo anime. It has all the elements a shoujo addict like myself craves; it's funny, dramatic, emotional, has nice looking characters and great music. There is not much to be said about this series that has not been said already, I would truly love to give this series all PERFECT 10s because it does deserve it, but there are some minor stuff I gotta take points off for. Still hands down Full Moon excels as a shoujo series as most reviews you come across have demonstrated by giving this show nothing but 9s and 10s.
~Art | Animation
The art could be considered “old school-inspired” since it does have that 90's anime look. it kinda reminds me of Sailor Moon a little bit but you can tell it's fairly recent because the movements are a lot smoother and there aren't as many irregularities that you'd normally see in anime from the 80s – 90s.....but there are some [minor] errors and also quite a few scene looping and reuse.
~Music | Voices | F/X
This show has some of the best music anime has to offer.....eventho it's only like, 3 songs. No seriously, I think Full Moon, NANA and lets not forget Lacus Clyne [Gundam SEED] have some of the best songs in anime, if you are into ballads/slow songs and J-POP then you know what I mean. However, the 3 or 4 songs in this series, which in reality is a tad insufficient for a 52 episode series, gets played over and over and over again. This might annoy some viewers, I was OK with it though.
The OPs were not sung by Full Moon but by another group The Scanty. I only liked the first OP “I Love You” because it is very cheerful, playful and makes you want to sing along [I also like the little Mitsuki dance.] However I'm not too crazy about the second OP [Rock n Roll Princess] I do think that song is a little bit on the kiddie side. The title gets on my nerves words like Rock n Roll and Princess clash, I know they [The Scanty] were trying to perhaps be edgy or ironic but it's really lame sounding. Also I know little girls like to dream of being princesses...but the notion is all too very cliché to me.
I watched it in Japanese and the cast was just great, as usual.
~Story | Plot
What a great story! If it weren't 52 episodes long I'd watch it a lot more frequently. Like everyone else, when I first read the synopsis of this show I thought...cancer...CANCER??? How they make a show about cancer and think it's going to be entertaining? But it's really not as dramatic as all that, thank goodness! Full Moon is actually a very light and nice feeling show, which is very similar to Card Captor Sakura [as far as emotional tone goes, not plot-wise] but it can also be very profound at times.
There are a few things you should know though, like I said Full Moon is a 52 episode series, aside from the first couple of introductory episodes everything else seem to be filler. At least to me they seem to be filler, this does not mean that they are not funny or fun to watch. To me they are still somewhat vital since they allow you to see the characters in various situations and settings which allows you to understand and appreciate the characters as well as become attached to them. Now the last 12 or so episodes is when things are on and popping, this is where the story peaks and the biggest dramatic turning point is revealed!!! This is where you aren't going to be able to stop watching the series....I know I was hooked!
~Cast | Character
Not one character I didn't like! My favorite character award goes to both Meroko and Tanaka-san [yes Tanaka-san]. Meroko at first comes off as this ditsy, love-obsessed, brat but deep down she has a heart. This is important because a lot of anime females are like this and they do not have the opportunity to express it or have things turn out the way things did for Meroko [or even Madoka for that matter] and people just write them off as “air-head bitches” when truly that's only a superficial layer for who they truly are. Meroko was the emotional to Takuto's rationale and a person [in this case, Mitsuki] cannot be whole without either. And then there's Tanaka, I loved her she was so funny. Just they way they drew her face always smiling, mischievous...and she's always sneaking around spying, eavesdropping and listening to her music, eventho it's banned in the house where she works. Not since Alice from the Brady Bunch has a maid been this cool.
OK here comes the Bishounen Hunter section: Eichi-kun, what's not to love about this guy? He's smart, sensitive, polite and soft-spoken. He's also somewhat of a classy dresser....I love that white trench-coat! His style is simple yet understated and classy. Eichi wears a lot of white which supposedly is the color of purity and in his case this would be true, Eichi is my favorite bishounen of the series. Takuto comes in a close second, he is one-half of the Negi Ramen Shinigami team with Meroko. Takuto is almost the opposite of Eichi, he wears outlandish costumey,rocker-type clothes and is kinda brash and outspoken. His face is stern-looking most of the time while Eichi's face was always gentle and smiling. But Takuto is very principled and can be self-sacrificing.
~Worth It?
What can I say. I really like this series. Some people may hate the art, some people may hate the fact that it's too long, others may hate [Eternal Snow] and [Myself] being played over and over again. It was all worth it, the best way I can describe this show is that it's like one of those dishes you have to cook slowly for hours [maybe even overnight?] for it to come out fantastic and once you take a bite you realize all the labor was worth it.
