It is funny how when you get charmed by fascinating characters you end up forgiving any logical fallacy or inconsistency the show tries to throw at you. Yes, I am totally convinced that grim reapers can transform into plushy animals and have nothing better to do than to look over a girl destined to die a whole year from now on, and I am not at all bothered by the ambiguous and sometimes even incoherent powers of them. I mean, how can I find time to be bothered by all that, when the whole show is just so genuinely fun?
Mitsuki is a fantastic character whose resolve to fight for her dream to become a singer is not at all shaken by her impeding death, and I shed one too many manly tears at her genuine child-like purity. The grim reaper combo of Takuto and Meroko is also fantastic. Takuto balances perfectly on a line between being a supporting love interest and a bratty asshole without coming off as a cheap stereotypical character. While Meroko seems like an energetic comedic relief from the first glance, but turns out to be somewhat of a tragic heroine from the second.
The plot is engrossing from the beginning to the end, tackling both show-biz and relationship related issues, even growing somewhat inevitably darker near the end. Full Moon wo Sagashite is one of the very few shows where I can totally forgive logical fallacies and deus ex machinas. It’s just so genuinely entertaining and so genuinely pure, it is bound to leave you with a warm feeling in your heart pretty much after every single episode.
Unfortunately this feeling of genuine purity does not persist in the manga which is totally different from anime both in plot and atmosphere. Moreover, the male characters like Takuto and Izumi come off much cheaper there due to their one-track fascination with the heroine, almost feeling like one-dimensional otome game archetypes rather than their attractive anime counterparts. Manga is darker, more mature and much better drawn, but, unfortunately, it loses the charm of genuine purity the anime has and some characters, especially Takuto and Mitsuki, are nowhere near as likeable.
| Positive: | Negative: |
| Beautiful clothing design | Some filler episodes |
| Good, charming atmosphere | A little bit too childish and far-fetched sometimes |
| Good music, especially songs | |
| Charming, interesting, inspiring characters | |
| Surprisingly good story, especially the ending | |
| Good romance |
Visual novel & other stuff impressions 