Full Moon o Sagashite

Full Moon o Sagashite
File:Fullmoonosagashite.jpg Meroko (left) and Mitsuki (right)
Genre	Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Magical girl, Music, Romance, Shōjo, Supernatural
Created by	Arina Tanemura
Manga
Full Moon o Sagashite
Written by	Arina Tanemura
Published by	Shueisha Viz Media Glenat Egmont Manga and Anime Seoul Media Group
Anime
Full Moon wo Sagashite
Directed by	Toshiyuki Kato
Studio	Studio DEEN

Full Moon o Sagashite (満月をさがして, Furu Mūn wo Sagashite, literally "Searching for the Full Moon", often shortened to Full Moon) is a Japanese shōjo manga and anime series by Arina Tanemura. The kanji in the Japanese title are read "furu mūn" (i.e. Full Moon) and not mangetsu or mitsuki. The full title is always used in Japan whereas in the U.S. the full title is present only on the front cover of the manga.

Originally this manga was serialised in Ribon, a Japanese magazine for girls. As of 2004, it has become a completed series with a total of seven volumes and an artbook. The manga is published in English by VIZ Media with translations by Tomo Kimura. As the manga began to gain popularity, an anime version of the story was simultaneously made and completed before the manga's ending. Produced by Nihon Ad Systems, the anime enjoyed high ratings. It aired on TV Tokyo and has been licensed in North America by VIZ Media.

Story

Full Moon focuses on a 12-year-old girl named Mitsuki Koyama. While Mitsuki is a talented singer and dreams of becoming a pop idol, she is afflicted by throat cancer, which seems curable only through surgery that will destroy her voice. One day she is visited by two shinigami whom only she can see, Takuto and Meroko, who go by the team name "Negi Ramen" or "Leek Noodles." These shinigami tell her she has but one year left to live. Mitsuki realizes she cannot wait any longer and attempts to achieve her dream of becoming a singer. However, she does not look old enough to be a singer, so she makes a deal with one of the shinigami, Takuto, to transform her into a 16-year-old who goes by the stage name of "Full Moon." Not only does she become older, but her throat is healthy in this form, and she is able to sing without any difficulty.

To start a career as a singer, 16-year-old Mitsuki auditions in a singing contest. Though there is much competition, she is able to win over the judges with her enthusiasm for singing and her excellent voice. Two years before the shinigami's arrival, she promised Eichi Sakurai, a boy she met in an orphanage, that they would both achieve their dreams together. Eichi wanted to become an astronomer and Mitsuki wanted to become a singer. Shortly after, Eichi was adopted and emigrated to America before Mitsuki could express her feelings for him. Because Mitsuki is fated to die, she is intent on achieving her dream and meeting Eichi. Mitsuki hopes that one day Eichi will hear her songs and return to her so they can be together again before her life ends.

In the manga, like the anime, Mitsuki debuts as a singer under the alias "Full Moon." However, unlike the anime, she does not gain instant overwhelming success and popularity as Full Moon and instead struggles to survive in charts. Despite their similar beginnings, the manga and the anime of this series enjoy extremely different plotlines.

Characters

Names are in Western order, with the surname after the given name.

Humans

• Mitsuki Koyama (神山満月 Kōyama Mitsuki) - Seiyu Myco

The protagonist, she dreams of becoming a pop singer but suffers from throat cancer. She is told that she will die if the surgery to remove her vocal cords is not performed, but Mitsuki still refuses the surgery. She is also an orphan who grew up in an orphanage school and with her strict grandmother who refuses her from singing. One day 2 Shinigamis, Takuto and Meroko, who only she could see, visited her and informed her that in 1 year she will die. Because of this, much to the dismay of her Angels of Death, she went on to pursue her dreams of being a singer.

With Takuto's help, she is able to transform into Full Moon, a sixteen-year-old pop idol, completely free of cancer and able to sing. She wants to become a singer because she wants to tell her love, Eichi Sakurai, that she loves him. Mitsuki lost contact with Eichi when he moved from the orphanage to America. In the manga, after he leaves, Mitsuki she realizes that she loved him. She waited to call him in America and tell him her feelings, but later finds out on television that his plane had crashed and sees his name on the list of the deceased. In the anime, she does not find out until much later in the series that he is dead (and of a car crash in this case).

• Full Moon

A pop idol and the stage name of Mitsuki Koyama in her 16-year-old form. The reason Mitsuki chooses this stage name is because Eichi's goal is to become an astronomer, and the term "full moon" reminds her of him. It is also because Mitsuki's name means "full moon" in Japanese.

Unlike Mitsuki, Full Moon does not have throat cancer, and therefore can sing. She is discovered by Seed Records and is selected from their audition. Full Moon is a major hit, releasing several singles in the anime, including "Myself" and "Eternal Snow." In the manga Full Moon also releases several singles, including "Angel" (her first single) and "Missing Link". Full Moon has made several public performances and two concerts. Mitsuki's Full Moon appearance is dependent on Takuto's powers.

• Eichi Sakurai (桜井英知 Sakurai Eichi) - Seiyu Ryohei Kimura

Mitsuki's first love. After his parents died, Eichi lived with his grandfather until he, too, died. He was then moved to the orphanage where he met Mitsuki. They became fast friends, and Mitsuki was heartbroken when he went to America, as she could not yet confess her true feelings to him. Part of the reason she wanted to become a singer was to find him. However, in the manga, Eichi died when the plane transporting him to America crashed. Mitsuki knew he was dead all along, but pretended not to realize it due to the intense pain she felt at his death. Much of the manga revolves around Mitsuki dealing with Eichi's death. In the manga Eichi Sakurai meet Takuto on his first assignment. As Eichi was dying he started talking to Takuto. Saying that one girl can retrieve and realease his soul. Then his body sinks into the sea. In the prohecy Eichi is supposed to appear when the day she dies. To prevent her death. On the day of her death instead of Mitsuki soul being taken. He blocks the shininami's scythe and has has his soul taken instead. It turned out Eichi was watching over Mitzuki when he died.

In the anime, Eichi dies in a car crash in America, and Mitsuki does not discover this fact until much later in the series when she finally gets to travel to America.

• Fuzuki Koyama (神山文月 Kōyama Fuzuki) - Seiyu Kazuko Sugiyama

Fuzuki is Mitsuki's grandmother. She initially hates music because she believes that music stole away everyone she loved. She is strongly against any music, and becomes angry when Mitsuki sang in her house.

In the anime, Fuzuki fell in love with a man who wanted to become a famous pianist. He became 'obsessed' with practicing piano, and when she suggested that he should relax a bit, he pushed her away and said she did not understand. Then he left Japan, and it broke Fuzuki's heart.

Though, in the anime, not only Fuzuki's fiancee, but other people also caused her to despise music. Her daughter, Hazuki Kouyama, Mitsuki's deceased mother, was in love, and eventually engaged to Koga Aoi, Mitsuki's deceased father, whom Fuzuki despised. He was also the guitarist from one of the most famous music groups in Japan, Route L. Also in the band was the keyboard player, Keiichi Wakaouji, who is Mitsuki's present doctor. The other member, the lead singer was, in fact, Shinigami Takuto when he was alive, though at age twelve.

Fuzuki loved Hazuki very much, but yet detested what she was currently doing with a music group. In the anime, Fuzuki had mentioned in a flashback that Hazuki was sick in someway, and was afraid that her beloved daughter would die from childbirth because she was pregnant with Mitsuki. Hazuki ran out the door, her last words to Fuzuki being "I hate you, Mother!" Though, when her daughter died, and after Aoi died when she was one, Fuzuki was left with the responsibility of caring and looking after her only grandchild, Mitsuki, which she cherished because she was all she had left. In episode 38 of the anime, after Mitsuki won the New Artist of the Year award, she was given the prize of a trip to America, not only to see Eichi, but also to meet a Mr. Jon Halberd who had developed a procedure with throat cancer that could remove the tumor in Mitsuki's throat without harming her vocal cords. Fuzuki heard this, yet still denied it, because she was still under the certain fact that even though this could save Mitsuki's life, her body is still too weak to leave the country. When her grandmother would not listen to her, Mitsuki then told her that she hated her. She ran out, with Fuzuki witnessing the same reaction as her late daughter had shown, with a shocking look.

In the manga, Fuzuki was friends with Meroko (when she was a human) and they both fell in love with a violinist. The man chose Fuzuki as his fiance, but after Meroko/Moe committed suicide, broke off the engagement. Later in her life, Fuzuki married someone else and had Hazuki. Later, Hazuki fell in love with Aoi Koga, the son of the violinist that both Fuzuki and Meroko/Moe fell in love with, and a member from the band Route L. She eloped with him, and was killed in an accident when rushing to the hospital when she went into labour. Fuzuki was only left with Mitsuki.

In episode 46 of the anime when Mitsuki began to sing at the roof of the hospital after being lured there hypnotically by Izumi, still not yet recovered from the loss of Eichi, Fuzuki found her, beginning to cry, saying she did not want her to die. When Mitsuki began to sing at the end, her grandmother wanted to listen, telling Wakaouji that it would be the first time she actually heard Mitsuki sing. After, she no longer detests music, and had then become a more understanding grandmother, and smiling most towards the end of the series.

• Keiichi Wakaoji (若王子圭一 Wakaōji Keiichi) - Seiyu Teruaki Ogawa

Dr. Wakaoji is Mitsuki's doctor and a friend of her deceased father. He performed in the band Route L with Mitsuki's father Aoi Koga and Takuto Kira and plays the keyboard. Most fans named him "Prince". In the manga, he was the doctor who performed the surgery on Takuto which removed his vocal cords in order to save his life. In the manga, Mitsuki (as Full Moon) discovers Wakaoji loved her mother because of a letter she had written him, but ends up falling in love with Ms. Oshige when he finally discovers she was the one who wrote the letter to him all those years ago.

• Masami Oshige (大重正実 Ōshige Masami) - Seiyu Tomomi Seo

Ms. Oshige is Full Moon's manager and an avid fangirl of Route L, especially Dr. Wakaoji. She and Dr. Wakaoji end up going out in the manga. She started out as an idol singer herself, under the stage name Yuina Hanakazari (花飾結菜, Hanakazari Yuina), but was not very successful. She is completely in love with the Prince in the manga, and in an extra story in which Mitsuki was named by Takuto, she is shown as the idol singer, meeting with the Prince. In the manga, she and Dr. Wakaoji get engaged.

• Madoka Wakamatsu (若松円 Wakamatsu Madoka) - Seiyu Kana

Madoka is Full Moon's rival in the music industry, but at the same time befriends twelve-year-old Mitsuki. At her audition, Madoka sang the song Eternal Snow by Route L. , chosing the song she overheard that Full Moon wanted to sing it as well and she hoped that she if she sang it first, the producer would not let Full Moon sing it. Eventually both Full Moon and Madoka had a single produced under the title Eternal Snow. However, there are some differences in the song. Madoka's version of Eternal Snow is Diamond Dust Remix. Near the end of the anime, Madoka performs her version of Eternal Snow in Full Moon's Final Live Concert.

In the manga Madoka doesn't even know what song Full Moon was singing for her commercial. Mitsuki wrote a song about the Mermaid that couldn't get her feelings through and died. Eariler Mereko gave Izumi the lyrics, and he put it on Madoka's desk saying that it was a fan's and would like her to use them. Later Madoka watched Full Moon singing the lyrics that were given. Madoka was devastated about her singing that song. Madoka won the commerical but then she gave the assigment to Full Moon. Saying that she couldn't do it because it was her song and it was on her pride.

Madoka, while talented, initially lacks the heart Mitsuki places into her songs and is constantly upstaged. Madoka is friendly but when it comes to rivalry with Full Moon she gets angry. In addition, she is insecure because she had plastic surgery to make herself beautiful enough to become a celebrity and was disowned by her family as a result. Madoka also has a chibi pig called Gu-Chan who worships her. She seems to depise him, but cares for him in reality.

• Nachi

Appears only in the manga. The lead singer of the band OZ, who becomes a good friend of Mitsuki because she was the first person in the music industry to genuinely smile as she spoke to him. He cherishes her friendship and takes it upon himself to find a stalker hurting people close to her.

Nachi and Madoka fall in love (though Madoka's Gu-chan is jealous and dislikes him), but their relationship takes a dive when (in a side story) Madoka finds him with a photo of herself as "Chisato" (before plastic surgery) and her rather unattractive childhood fiancé, Soichirō Shidō. Believing that Nachi and Soichiro are childhood friends and because Chisato had offended Soichiro by declaring she would not marry such an ugly boy, Madoka thinks Nachi is out to avenge Soichiro and runs off, thinking that Nachi's feelings for her are just a ruse to get revenge.

Madoka/Chisato goes to apologize to Soichiro's mother and asks to break off the engagement because she loves Nachi only to discover Soichiro is Nachi. Soichiro/Nachi, who loved Chisato, had decided to get plastic surgery and become an idol in hopes of making her love him. In the end, they remain engaged (and Nachi wins Gu-chan's approval).

Shinigami

The shinigami are spirits who committed suicide when they were human and are consequently punished with the task of collecting souls. The manga goes into more detail on the past lives of the shinigami. Of all the shinigami's lives as humans, only Takuto's is covered in the anime. Rule is if a shinigami fully remembers his past life he is to disappear and to become a Ghost.

• Takuto Kira (タクト・キラ Takuto Kira) - Seiyu Yasuo Saitou

Takuto is partnered with Meroko, and they are assigned to take Mitsuki's soul. His shinigami costume is a cat outfit (with a backpack with wings), without which he would not enjoy the power of flight because he is not yet a full shinigami and hence has not sprouted wings of his own. Takuto is capable of transforming into an anthropomorphic cat plushie. Takuto transforms Mitsuki into a 16-year-old to help her participate in a singing audition. Meroko loves Takuto and gets very jealous whenever he shows affection towards Mitsuki. During the manga he remembers his past as the youngest member of Route L and also develops romantic feelings for Mitsuki. He becomes depressed at times, especially when Mitsuki talks about Eichi, the boy she loves. Towards the story's end, Takuto resolves to save Mitsuki's life, violating fate and his duty as a shinigami. Meanwhile, Mitsuki finally reciprocates Takuto's affection.

In his past life, Takuto was once a lead singer in Route:L, the same band that both Mitsuki's father and doctor were in. Takuto did meet Mitsuki when she was still 4 or 5 years old when Dr. Wakaoji introduced them. He developed a malignant tumor in his throat, just as Mitsuki later did. Wakaoji removed the tumor in surgery, but it made Takuto lose his voice. Unable to bear the thought of being unable to sing, Takuto jumped from the top floor of the hospital and became a shinigami. Upon remembering his past life, he slowly disappears, but Meroko and Mitsuki manage to stop him in time.

In the anime, Takuto drove his motorbike off a cliff as soon as he found out about his tumor and its consequences. He is reborn again like he was at age 15 and doesn't remember anything until Mitsuki yells for Meroko and Takuto sees her feather.

• Meroko Yui　 (めろこ・ユイ Meroko Yui) - Seiyu Chieko Honda

Meroko is Takuto's partner and is infatuated with him, though her love is unrequited. Meroko is a rabbit shinigami with long ears, and she is capable of transforming into an anthropomorphic bunny stuffed toy. She is rather fond of changing her appearance into other characters': her trademark phrase in the anime is "mero mero change!"

In the anime, she is initially portrayed as a stickler to the rules, often consulting a rule book, but her love for both Takuto and Mitsuki eventually gets the better of her. In the manga, she is jealous due to Takuto's affection for Mitsuki, and occasionally vents her wrath on Mitsuki. She fears that Mitsuki will make Takuto recover his memories, and if he does, he will become a ghost. In the end, however, she is considerably softened and finally realizes that she has loved Izumi all along. In the manga, she and Izumi become Shinigami partners again while in the anime, Meroko's ultimate fate after agreeing to sacrifice herself along with a fading Takuto is to become an angel.

Meroko, who was named Moe Rikyō (里匡萌, Rikyou Moe) when she was alive, was Mitsuki's grandmother's best friend. Mitsuki's grandmother, Fuzuki, was engaged to be married and Moe was a 16-year-old girl. One day they both met a violinist and the trio spent much time together from then on. Moe fell in love with the violinist, but he loved Mitsuki's grandmother so he became engaged to her and the person who was once engaged to her was passed on to Moe. When she was told the news, she rushed to Fuzuki's house to see if it was true and caught Fuzuki and the violinist kissing, then abruptly ran off. Later on, her fiancee tried to rape her and she ran away in the rain. Feeling depressed and suicidal, Moe slit her wrists and bled to death. Meroko's shinigami name, Meroko Yui, is an anagram of Moe Rikyō. In the manga she was able to resolve her issues with Fuzuki when she found out the real family line of Mitsuki; Fuzuki did not marry the violinist. Even though it was forbidden to show their old form to those they lived with in the past life she showed herself once more as a ghost to Fuzuki. She also visited Fuzuki in her rabbit form and they are quite friendly with one other, with Fuzuki often providing sweets for Meroko.

• Izumi Lio/Rio Izumi (いずみ・リオ Izumi Rio) - Seiyu Megumi Ogata

Izumi is a shinigami who appears later in the story. In the anime, Izumi's background story is not mentioned and he is portrayed throughout as a cold-hearted character, sometimes almost as an antagonist.

In contrast, he is a tragic figure and has an understanding personality in the manga. He was a 6-year-old boy whose mother hated him. When his father died, his mother lost her mind and beat Izumi for growing up to be like his father. When she beat him, she thought that she was scolding his father for leaving her. In an effort to make his mother happy for once, he ran off while they were out and stood in front of an oncoming train. He saw his mother smile as he was hit, but somehow it didn't satisfy him even though he believed that was what he wanted to see. Later on, his mother died and Izumi went to take her soul, telling his mother that he had became a shinigami.

Eventually Mitsuki's gentleness makes Izumi realise that he had wanted his mother to call his name while he stood on the railway tracks. When he regains his last lost memory of his mother, he also realises that his mother was smiling through tears of guilt and relief.

He was once Meroko's partner in the Pediatric Death Ward. Meroko loved him, but he did not return the feelings. Tired of her frequent declarations of love, he tricks her into accepting a new partnership by sending her to train newcomer Takuto in his place. When Meroko falls in love with Takuto, Izumi realises that he loved her and spends much of the manga trying to get her back. In the second volume of the manga, he says he'll try to get Mitsuki's soul (that's the job of shinigami's) until the day of her death.

He likes to call other characters by nicknames (Mitsuki is "Mikky/Mickey"; Takuto is "Tak-kun"; Meroko is "Me-chan")

• Jonathan (ジョナサン Jonasan) - Seiyu Norihisa Mori

Jonathan is the ghost who accompanies Izumi, and wears a top hat. He often speaks in English. He can change forms. In the manga he exposed himself as a fanatic who tried to harm Full Moon and her friends. Near the end of the manga, his true form, a silver-haired man named Sheldan, is revealed.

In the manga on one of the 'side-pannels' Arina Tanemura mentions that one day with her friends, she drew a picture of what she thought 'Peeves' (From Harry Potter) looked like. After she was finished she showed it to her friends who laughed and said it did not look anything like 'Peeves' for Peeves has a human form, (the picture she drew of Jonathan was in ghost form) and deciding not to waste it, she renamed the character and made it into a character for the manga.

Songs in the anime

Opening Songs

Performed by THE★SCANTY, who makes several cameo appearances in the anime:

• "I ♥ U" (Episodes 1-26)
• "ROCK'N ROLL PRINCESS" (Episodes 27-52)

Ending Songs

The four ending songs of Full Moon o Sagashite are all songs Full Moon (Mitsuki) sings throughout the course of the anime. They are performed by myco - Mitsuki's seiyū - and her band Changin' My Life. In order of appearance, these songs are:

• "New Future" (Episodes 1-6 and 52)
• "Myself" (Episodes 7-26)
• "ETERNAL SNOW" (Episodes 27-42)
• "Love Chronicle" (Episodes 43-51)

Often, the songs relate to the plot. "Myself" and "New Future", with their references to romantic longing, reflect Mitsuki's yearning for Eichi and her efforts to find him. "ETERNAL SNOW" was a song that was originally played by Route L, or Mitsuki's father's band. "Love Chronicle" alludes to Mitsuki's disheartenment near the end of the series, Takuto's efforts to revive Mitsuki's former self, and their eventual romance. Lastly, the anime's finale is aptly reflected in the title of "New Future", the first and last ending song.

"New Future" is also featured in the manga as the song Mitsuki sings at the end of the manga.

There is an insert song- "SMILE"- also by myco and Changin' My Life.

Another insert song is "Focus", sung by myco and Changin' My Life. It was sung by Mitsuki in her dream at the beginning of Episode 1.

English adaptations

English-dubbed anime

In 2005, VIZ Media had obtained the rights for Full Moon. VIZ released the first volume of Full Moon in an uncut bilingual DVD. However, the songs were not redubbed in English, and the English dub often "switches" between English dialogue and Japanese singing.

External links

• Full Moon wo Sagashite English Fansite
• Full Moon wo Sagashite EichixMitsuki
• Full Moon wo Sagashite Song Lyrics
• Full Moon wo Sagashite on Animenfo.com
• Full Moon (TV) on Anime News Network
• Full Moon wo Sagashite (manga) on Anime News Network
• (German) Searching-the-fullmoon German Fansite
• (Spanish) Scripts and subtitles