Ah Full Moon wo Sagashite one of the many manga of my childhood. I discovered this manga when I was young. It was around the time when volumes 57 hadnt been released yet and while I finished the entire manga I had only seen a few episodes of the anime and never got to finish that. I really ought to. But I dont think I ever attached to the manga despite liking it. I had the first DVD once but sold it recently knowing that the dub would never be finished. I had put the manga in a box and hadnt touched it in years. Only very recently did I get back into it. I liked it when I was a kid but...reading it now Im utterly convinced that its a heck of a lot better now than it was when I first read it and was extremely surprised by how bold and daring it is which made me fall back in love with it The story is about a young girl named Mitsuki Koyama whos been through a lot. Both her parents died in a car accident when she was a baby she was raised in an orphanage for ten years before being adopted by her strict traditionalist grandmother who doesnt approve of her dream to become a singer has never been to school and worse than that she has a tumor in her throat thatll not only jeopardize her vocal cords but kill her. One day a duo of quirky shinigami come right through her wall to try and take her life but she uses the opportunity to ask them to make her fulfill her dream. They give her a pill that not only turns her into a teenaged version of herself but heals her body so she can sing without hurting. Mitsuki manages to get scouted and learns the ups and downs of the music industry. But the quirky shinigami have their own baggage and Mitsuki might end up unknowingly jeopardizing their lives. Considering its a shoujo manga everything is redonkulously sparkly with the characters having big shining eyes chibi faces every once in a while love triangles etc. However one aspect of the mangas art surprised me as a kid and continues to surprise me now: the meticulous attention to detail on just about everything from the folds in peoples clothing to their hair to the environment everything is just absolutely loaded with almost lifelike detail that we just dont see anymore in todays era of anime. The faces are very much expressive the emotions are raw no character is wearing the same outfit all the time etc. Plus Im no expert on the music industry but for the most part the depiction of someone in the singing business is for the most part very accurate. Mitsuki has to deal with fans both good and bad rivals who dont always have the best of intentions commercials deadlines money problems etc. Fancy Lala did something similar though I think both Fancy Lala and the Full Moon manga depict the singing industry rather well. They both depict the singing business in a pragmatic light as in while the music industry has good points theres also a lot of bad to come with it but thats normal. Everything has its pros and cons. At first the characters come off very stereotypical. Mitsuki is the shoujo character who wants to do stuff Takuto is a brash reckless audacious boy Meroko is the annoying and indecisive love interest etc. Youd think theyd be nothing but black and white characters with only one character trait with predictable development. Nope Tanemura isnt stupid and she develops her characters very well. Everyones quirks personalities and good/bad qualities are all connected to things that happened in their lives and helped shape them into what they are now even after death and let me tell you it is glorious. When I was a kid I didnt really connect with the characters nor did I really understand the gravity of the things that happened to them. Now I completely get it and it hit me right in the gut and it made me keep reading just to see them succeed Even the characters whom you think are going to be completely evil for no reason have valid even tragic reasons for their behavior though none of it excuses what they do and the manga KNOWS it. Theyre very complex and the kind of people whom you want to have succeed. However as fangirly as I am about this manga even I have to admit that it is not without its faults. Some of them are pretty small and not worth mentioning but there is one that seriously bugs the heck out of me and its rather spoilery: Also how come Mitsuki spent a whole year with a tumor yet she never took any kind of medicine for it? I mean there had to be SOME kind of medicine for sarcoma right? Also I found that the characters thoughts come off as WAAAAAY too purple prosey. There is sooooo much purple prose in the narrative and although its deep and meaningful I got tired of it after volume three. I like mystical imagery and all but I think Tanemura relied too much on ridiculous purple prose when conveying the characters thoughts. Also...what twelve year old even thinks in purple prose like that? None. Even so despite its glaring flaws I still hold this manga in high regard. Why? Because its bold and doesnt give a durn. It knows what it wants itll do anything to get there it isnt afraid to go dark in order to tell its story. Seriously this is a shoujo manga for young girls yet it contains so many adult themes such as suicide illicit affairs cancer loss existential crises and even rape its not explicit but still blatant enough to warrant a 13 and up rating. But none of them hold the story back. In fact they make the story so much richer and seeing the characters struggle makes you want to root for them and see them overcome their trauma and make peace with both themselves the people around them and the demons that torment them...and it is GLORIOUS. I got a lot of flack from an abusive fandom because I dared to write a scene of implied rape in a fan fic it was MUCH more tame than what Full Moon showed and they all attacked me for it claiming Im a bad person who doesnt care about myself that I need to warn for this stuff Isnt the T rating enough? that I dont care about my readers that I absolutely have to write my story in the shows spirit that its not appropriate to write here that I shouldnt write that stuff on their beloved kids show Really? Ive seen fan fics for Pokemon and Powerpuff Girls get away with much worse yet you think my example is worth calling me selfish and sentient trash over? You guys are drama queens that I should stop writing blah blah blah. For a long while I was convinced they were right...until I read this manga again. It helped me out of my writing crisis and got me the answer that I needed. Also I dont see anyone complaining about Tanemura writing an implied rape scene in this manga If she can do it then why cant I? Sorry about that. Anyway if youre looking for a gripping rich story about life death moving past your mistakes and moving on then Full Moon is the story for you.