Full Moon wo Sagashite

Two years ago, Mitsuki Kouyama's friend, Eichi Sakurai, moved to America before she could confess her feelings to him. Though she cannot contact him, they made a promise to fulfill their respective dreams: Mitsuki wants to become a professional singer, and Eichi an astronomer. She hopes that one day her music will reach him across the world with a brilliance like that of the full moon.

There is just one catch: Mitsuki suffers from throat cancer, which makes her voice quiet and singing strenuous. Her grandmother, who has a hatred of music, insists that Mitsuki undergo surgery to remove the cancer, but she refuses due to the risk of losing her voice. One day, two shinigami—Meroko Yui and Takuto Kira—appear to tell her that she only has one year left to live. This sudden revelation spurs Mitsuki into action, and she decides that with Meroko and Takuto's help, she will become a professional singer in the time she has left.

Full Moon wo Sagashite follows the emotional story of Mitsuki and her shinigami friends as they discover what it means to sing—and ultimately, what it means to live.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kira, Takuto Main

Sakurazuka, Yakkun Japanese

Kouyama, Mitsuki Main

Myco Japanese

Yui, Meroko Main

Honda, Chieko Japanese

Rio, Izumi Supporting

Ogata, Megumi Japanese

Sakurai, Eichi Supporting

Kimura, Ryouhei Japanese

Jonathan Supporting

Mori, Norihisa Japanese

Wakamatsu, Madoka Supporting

Kana Japanese

Wakaouji, Keiichi Supporting

Ogawa, Teruaki Japanese

Ooshige, Masami Supporting

Seo, Tomomi Japanese

Koyama, Fuzuki Supporting

Sugiyama, Kazuko Japanese

Yamakawa, Norio Producer

Miyake, Masanori Assistant Producer

Katou, Toshiyuki Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Hiramitsu, Takuya Sound Director

Reviews

Apr 5, 2025

The_Blue_Lotus

Recommended

Hands down, Full Moon wo Sagashite might be one of the best Shoujo anime I might have seen out there. Maybe even could go as far as nominating it one of the better titles I have ever seen in the whole of the anime medium.

Because seriously, if I had to point at a flaw this series have it would be no doubt how its first episodes feel kinda "rushed" and "badly done" for how a generally complex and emotionally charged story such as this one is (not to say they are necessarly bad, just "less enjoyable", let's say, to overall how good the later half ... of the series's episodes feel), other than that, its pretty much flawless on whatever it proposes to do.

Its history? Heavy and emotional, sprinked here and there with some moments of hapiness. I have heard people complaining about this anime having "too many unnecessary episodes" and suggesting "cutting some of them down the make the more thing more compact and thus, interesting" but I disagree with them on a fundamental level; while some surely don't have the patience to go throught the 52 episodes of Full Moon and would prefer a faster pace overall, I myself am very fond of the slower approach it goes for as a way to soothe us, the audience, of the more emotionally charged content with some "lighter" episodes in between that serve primordially to elaborate on the characters of Mitsuki, Yui and Takuto aswell of the occurences of their daily lives. Not to mention that it aligns more than anything with how these kind of things in real life work: there are some days where so many things happen one ends completely exhausted by the end of them, and many, many more days in between where nothing really happens and one is able to ooze off. Just like Full Moon wo Sagashite with its episodes!

Not really related to the plot of its history, however, but I would like to mention the producers of this anime planned beforehand to spread the duration of its series across an entire year to simulate Mitsuki's last year in the world of the living sort of in real time, which means the happenings of whatever episode of Full Moon was airing originally at the time were occuring cannonically at the same time in her own "universe". How cool is that?

Again, not really relevant or even related to the plot of Full Moon whatsoever, but I believe its a nice detail on the side of the show's producers and tought about mentioning it as a way to demostrate why it deserves such a high score as it does.

Its character development? Near perfect; Full Moon wo Sagashite is truly one of those animes who doesn't have an uninteresting charcter. Every cast member who gets introduced at some point of the anime feels organic and natural; just like one would expect from a real-life person. They are multi-dimensional characters with overlapping layers of complexity manifested in the form of their own (generally tragic) backstory that caused them to form a certain series of values and beliefs more often than not based on their insecurities and negative experiences who lead them to act in certain maners provided the different circumstances they find themselves througt the anime. That's precisely why it is such a pleasure watching them interact, evolve and mature as the story goes by: their chemistry is so intrincate and so well done you can do nothing but delight at the "realistic" portrayal of human relationships as well as everyone in the Full Moon team growing increasingly close together and forming such a strong bond not even time would be able to deal with it.

Even characters who initially seemed poised to be nothing but a way to thwart Mitsuki's journey into stardom, such as her grandmother, for example (and who I will admit, caused me nothing but frustration when dealed with during screentime), became fully fledged at some point of the journey and even turned to be sympathetic once their circustances where explained (which again, proved me wrong when judging a character beforehand). Situations like this are the mark of a very good anime series with a strong and believable writing, and do nothing but reinforce the fact Full Moon wo Sagashite is one of those.

Aesthetically, it is very pretty. All of its character's designs are very cute and nice to look at and its backrounds, altough nothing special or worthy to writte home about (as is to be expected from these types of animes from the early 2000s) are nice enough for me to not write a complaining about them. Its music, the very thing this show is about is also very sweet and nice to hear. You see; I am not really a fan of "contemporary" music (as "contemporary" as the music of this show could be considered, 20 years later...), but the tracks of Full Moon wo Sagashite proved to be an exemption; the real-life bands who provided the themes for this show really knew what they were doign. They are all very nicely-made slow pop ballads who manage to mix their sad and melancholic melodies with more modern electronic sounds that really add to the overall athmosphere of the series and define Full Moon's character as she sort of tells about her own story and the feelings surrounding it as she sings. A genre of sentimental music who, for whatever reason, is not really produced anymore; a fundamental part of the show's identity that adds to its magic overall.

I would also like to praise the voice acting from everyone involved on this anime: Myco, the singer in charge of voicing Mitsuki knew nothing about voice acting before taking this role and yet gave everything when making the character memorable sound like a real person through pretty much beginning to end of Full Moon. Not only does she really have a nice voice, but indeed, she sounds like she's genuinly happy whenever she meets Ooshige-san or Wakaouji-sensei or sad and shocked whenever something bad happens to her. Altough those praices could also go to pretty much everyone on the series aswell, if we are beign honest. Everyone took their role seriusly and made this anime one of the more convincing when it comes to voice acting for all what matters. Props to them for that.

Overall, Full Moon wo Sagashite can only be descrived as a magic experience: it is cute, it is sad, it is emotionally heavy and it is complex on its plot, it is one of those experiences you have to witness yourself to truly take it all in. It might not be for everyone, that's true, but for viewers with tastes like me it could possible the best type of anime it could be produced for. Mitsuki is a genuinly sweet and innocent character it is easy to fall in love with and you genuinly get to care about her and her quest for stardom and get to fell her pain whenever something bad ends-up happening to her (situations who, sadly, are far too frequent on this series). It has its own unique atmosphere modern series can't really replicate with only adds to the charming nature Full Moon already had beforehand, enticing it.

I hope one day my children will be able to see Full Moon or at least a similar anime, because I would love to experience something like this as a kid, and chances are, you will be able to enjoy it also at whatever state of life you find yourself in, dear reader. Give it a chance :)

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jun 11, 2022

Seraphrose

Recommended

One of the first anime I encountered that actually left a great impression on me. I essentially watched this series in Korean back when it was popular, then got back to it later down the road.

Generally thought the anime was good--original songs (unfortunately not sung by the CV herself) that's worth listening to even now and it also helps that there are Openings and such sung in Korean so definitely check that out I'd say.

I suppose the issue I have with this series was that it relied too much on fantasy to create drama to the point the conflict that characters would go ... through seemed artificia and unrelatable. I suppose even if I turned a blind eye to this, the series also ended on some very convenient notes with a literal deus ex machina, so that's up for critique in my opinion.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Sep 25, 2024

Whe3333

Mixed Feelings

Spoiler-less, TL;DR, fast, simple, and easy-to-digest review:

Live, Sing, Full Moon

4/10

Animation? Ok (+)
Good cutesy artstyle and serviceable animation, although, nothing remarkable. It is fine during that time.

Characters? Good (++)
... Most characters are well fleshed out. The main cast, which are Miyuki, Takuto, and Meroko, have good character dynamic, synergy, and character growth overtime. Although, there are some negatives to them but it is not possible to tell those here without spoiling... but lemme give you a hint. There is creepiness surrounding one particular character.

Plot and Pacing? Bad (--)
Do you both like magical girl-type and Idol Animes? This might be a show for you but prepare for 52 episode mountain. The story itself is good and somewhat enjoyable. Although this is not your typical normie-type show where there are hype fights, intense harem/reverse-harem romance subplots, or regular slop, you might like to follow along to the story... up until the last arcs of the show. There is a good premise of this show and I expected it to stay that way, until it is betrayed at the end. I won't be spoiling the ending, but you might finish it with disappointment, or not. It depends on you. But for me, I was mad. Wasted all of those episodes just to betray my expectations. No payoff. Oh I wished I spoiled myself at the ending so that I dropped this show earlier.

Overall, the good 3/4 of the anime is ruined by the last quarter. Was 7/10 up until the later episodes. Disappointing...

OST? Excellent (+++)
This is a music-type Anime so I expected it's music to be good. Although the genre of Full Moon's music is not for me, her tunes are classic bangers. The music of this show reminds me of the good olde 2000's music, where everyone still has talent, unlike some TikTok dances and modern music slops... well not all of them.

Enjoyability? Meh (-)
52 episodes are daunting to watch. While most episodes are somewhat joy to watch, given that I'm a SoL enthusiast, it leaves you an unexpected bitter taste while eating a sweet cake. This turned me off, thus plummeted my enjoyability.

I have mixed feelings for this show. I liked it at most part but that sudden meh at the end is just... meh man.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Full Moon wo Sagashite Episode 27 Discussion emeraldrosary - Dec 7, 2013	10 replies	by Vyse_Sohma »» Dec 14, 7:47 AM
	Poll: Full Moon wo Sagashite Episode 18 Discussion jacobpaige - May 31, 2010	22 replies	by Vyse_Sohma »» Sep 1, 1:08 PM
	Poll: Full Moon wo Sagashite Episode 34 Discussion shanimebib - Jan 1, 2013	10 replies	by inim »» May 29, 3:59 PM
	Poll: Full Moon wo Sagashite Episode 1 Discussion jacobpaige - Aug 20, 2009	16 replies	by Vyse_Sohma »» Apr 19, 11:22 AM
	Is there any difference between this anime and the manga? SakurakoMikage - Feb 23	5 replies	by SakurakoMikage »» Feb 25, 2:17 AM

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