Story~
I have a friend who loves dark, gory, horror anime. Although I am a fan of mystery/horror stuff, I don't like mindless gore (where gore happens for no reason except to show guts flying everywhere. It doesn't contribute to the plot in any way). However, my friend does-- if it's blood, she likes it somehow. And then she told me that the liked this anime-- And I was SHOCKED. I had to check it out, and at first I didn't see how someone like her could like such a stereotypical romance.
And then I watched further. I realized this isn't the cutsy happy determined romantic little girl. She started like that, but-- Well, we shall discuss that in the character section. The plot delves deep into emotions, suicide, sickness, character development, etc. As I've stated in other reviews, I love love love character development. But this development was... Interesting. Ok, basically the story IS the characters, so I'll talk more in that part of my review.
Art~
Uhhhhhh... I dunno. I like the whole big-eye cute happy face art (sometimes), but this was just... different. Maybe it's because I watched Death Note literally right before I watched this, so the stark contrast of going from realistic, dark art style to bright, happy shoujo just killed it for me. As I watched more, it grew on me though, and certain uneven parts smoothed all their bumps later. You could tell the animators were getting better at what they did. All in all, it's cute and it gets darkwhenitneedsto later on, but stays bright where it should. It starts out stereotypical and bumpy, but seems to grow more dark and unique all while keeping the same style. How do they do that?
Sound~
It went unnoticed for me. The soundtracks sort of... well, they just weren't there most the time. Sure they improved the mood, but they did just that and nothing more. They were stereotypical and that was that. Voice acting for the Japanese version was again, stereotypical, but the actors did an amazing job at really coming out believable with their emotions later on. It improved from just another romance (that I would have given a 4 or 5 by the way) into the... Er, 7 I think it deserves. I'll explain that rating later. Anyway, the songs that were sung by "Full Moon" were very nice and pretty. The first one was sweet, but Eternal Snow just sticks out in my mind. It's just pretty yet so sad to me, perfectly displaying the emotion of the show at that time. It was just amazing.
Character~
Oh me, oh my! The characters were quite the annoying beasts for me. You have the sweet little girl who wants to be with her love again. A girly... Shinigami who is just jealous and protective of her "guy". And then that same "guy" who is obviously falling for the cute girl who is in love with some other guy. Soap opera, much? I hate soap operas. I don't know why. Maybe I find them stressful and just plain dang annoying. I gave up on this for a little but came back to it after about maybe a month or two. Unfortunately, I had left right before the characters' true feelings deep inside were fleshed out, and their personalities were exposed then seemed to be torn to shreds through some kind of evil depression. It's hard to explain, but I found myself both enthralled and slightly disgusted at their changes. But then it occurred to me-- just because she's the heroine doesn't mean she can't falter. She doesn't have to stay on the perfect path all the time. Look! We're humans! We falter all the time, we give up, we become afraid, we fall depressed. We are people with emotions. That's why these characters enthralled me in that dark yet saddening way. One of the reasons I gave the series a 7 is because of how dark it turned out. Yes, dark anime is fine. Things that go from bright to depressing are fine. But there was something different about this... yes, it was genuis how they did it, but it wrenched my mind and almost my very soul. It was just odd, and even though it's amazing how the creators did this, I was still a little turned off. I had to take a little break to avoid the depression. All in all though, the characters are interesting and, for the most part they change in a very realistic way... Yes, most the time. But when they do change, I warn you, you might be confused and saddened. But it all works out... Erm, I think it does.
That brings me to my overview. All in all, Full Moon wo Sagashite is engrossing and takes an unexpected turn for the dark and cruel, yet surprisingly realistic. But that ending? I've heard a lot of people like it, but it's too abrupt. I can't describe it without spoilers, but I will try to do my best.
In that very last part, there was a hint that a certain person recognized a certain other person. But did that person really, or was it just a fading memory they couldn't place their finger on? And how did Full Moon return to her... you know, position? It all confused me, and if you think about it think you'll know why it confused me. If you have an explanation, by all means send it to me. I just thought the ending was abrupt and rushed, though agreeably cute.
All in all, this show was hard for me to get through, since I'm not a romance fan too much. But the twists and turns this took were totally unexpected, and took me for a depressing ride that... I'm not sure quite how it ended out. I definitely don't regret watching this, but it somehow isn't my taste either. I guess I'm just too picky?
Anyway, if you enjoy shoujo but also like a nice peek into those dark human emotions, watch this by all means. Even if you claim not to like depressing shows, give it a try anyway, since it really is a small gem in its genre. I enjoyed it for the most part, but for some stupid, insane reason I couldn't give it anything above 7 overall. But I hope you enjoy it, at least more than I did.
