Full Moon (manga) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

is a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese shōjo

Shojo

The term refers to manga marketed to a female audience roughly between the ages of 10-18. The name romanizes the Japanese 少女 , literally: "little female". Shōjo manga covers many subjects in a variety of narrative and graphic styles, from historical drama to science fiction — often with a strong...

manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

by Arina Tanemura

Arina Tanemura

is a Japanese manga artist who mainly does shōjo manga. Her debut work was a one-shot work titled , which was later reprinted in her anthology work Short-Tempered Melancholic. Tanemura gained fame with the 1997 publication of I.O.N, a high school romance with a supernatural twist...

. According to the furigana

Furigana

is a Japanese reading aid, consisting of smaller kana, or syllabic characters, printed next to a kanji or other character to indicate its pronunciation. In horizontal text, yokogaki, they are placed above the line of text, while in vertical text, tategaki, they are placed to the right of the line...

, the kanji

Kanji

Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...

in the title are read furu mūn ("full moon") and not mangetsu or mitsuki, the Japanese

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

words for the full moon. In North America, the series is published as Full Moon, although the full title is given on the front cover.

The manga was published by Shueisha

Shueisha

is a major publisher in Japan. The company was founded in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The following year, Shueisha became a separate, independent company. Magazines published by Shueisha include Weekly Shōnen Jump, Weekly Young Jump,...

in the magazine Ribon
Ribon
is a monthly Japanese shōjo manga magazine published by Shueisha. First issued in August 1955, its rivals are Nakayoshi and Ciao. Its target audience is young girls roughly 9–13 years old. In 2009, the magazine's circulation was 274,167, down from the previous year's circulation numbers of 330,000...

from January 2002 to June 2004 and collected in seven tankōbon
Tankobon
, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...

volumes. The manga is published in North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

by Viz Media

VIZ Media

VIZ Media, LLC, headquartered in San Francisco, is an anime, manga, and Japanese entertainment company. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ Media LLC, which is jointly owned by Japanese publishers Shogakukan and Shueisha, and...

. The series was adapted as an anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

television series produced by Nihon Ad Systems

Nihon Ad Systems

, NAS for short, is a Japanese anime production and character merchandising company, a wholly owned subsidiary of the advertising agency Asatsu-DK. The "Ad" in its title is an abbreviation for "Animation Development". Along with animation studios Sunrise, Toei Animation and TMS Entertainment, it is...

, which ended before the manga was completed, plus an OVA distributed with an issue of Ribon. The series was broadcast on TV Tokyo

TV Tokyo

is a television station headquartered in Toranomon, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Also known as , a blend of "terebi" and "Tokyo", it is the key station of TX Network. It is one of the major Tokyo television stations, particularly specializing in anime...

, where it enjoyed high ratings, and is also licensed in North America by Viz Media

VIZ Media

Plot

12-year-old orphan Mitsuki Koyama is a talented singer who dreams of becoming a pop idol

Pop Idol

Pop Idol is a British television series which debuted on ITV on 6 October 2001. The show was a talent contest to decide the best new young pop singer in the United Kingdom, based on viewer voting and participation. Two series were broadcast - one in 2001-02 and a second in 2003...

, but she is afflicted with sarcoma

Sarcoma

A sarcoma is a cancer that arises from transformed cells in one of a number of tissues that develop from embryonic mesoderm. Thus, sarcomas include tumors of bone, cartilage, fat, muscle, vascular, and hematopoietic tissues...

, which is curable only through a surgery that could ruin her vocal cords, and destroy her ability to sing. The tumor in her throat already affects her ability to breathe well and sing loudly. On top of that, her grandmother hates music, and is completely opposed to Mitsuki's wish to audition. Mitsuki’s dreams seem impossible to achieve, until one day she is visited by two shinigami
Shinigami
is the personification of death in Japan. It's unclear when the concept entered Japanese culture; it may have been imported from China , or possibly been imported from Europe during the Sengoku era—that period in European history featured a common motif of the Grim Reaper gathering souls...

, whom only she could see. The shinigami, Takuto and Meroko, inadvertently tip Mitsuki off that she has only one year left to live.

Mitsuki then realizes she cannot wait any longer to fulfill her dream, so she runs away from home and the shinigami, to try to audition for a singing competition. However, the shinigami stop her before she is able to audition. She moves Takuto, the male shinigami, to agree to a compromise: If Mitsuki promises to go quietly when her year is up, he would help her become a singer, so she could leave the world with no regrets. Takuto gives her the ability to transform into a completely healthy 16-year-old, so that she could meet the age requirements of the audition, and sing without hindrance.

Despite heavy competition, Mitsuki wins over the judges with her excellent voice and her enthusiasm for singing, sealing a contract with Seed Records. To conceal her true identity, she chooses the stage name "Fullmoon" ("Fullmoon," a single word, which is a name, in contrast to "Full Moon" such as in the series title, which refers to the actual moon).

Mitsuki had decided to become a singer two years before, when she was 10 years old. She had made a promise with Eichi Sakurai, a 16-year-old boy she met at her orphanage

Orphanage

An orphanage is a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable or unwilling to care for them...

, that the next time they met, they would both be closer to their dreams. Eichi wanted to become an astronomer

Astronomer

An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...

and Mitsuki wanted to become a singer. Shortly after, Eichi was adopted and emigrated to America

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

before Mitsuki could express her feelings for him. Mitsuki hopes that by becoming a famous idol, Eichi would be able to hear her sing and realize her feelings for him. This is a tale of growing up, falling in love, awareness of life and death, and desire to move forward.

Differences between anime and manga

Because the manga continued to be written after the anime series completed, the plots of the manga and anime take different paths after the point of Mitsuki's first singing audition. The two stories share common themes, but events develop differently as the series advances, and some of the characters in the anime have different histories and personalities from their manga counterparts.

For example, in the manga, Mitsuki is never allowed to go to school, while in the anime, Mitsuki attends middle school regularly, and many episodes involve her interactions with classmate friends.

Also, in the anime, Mitsuki tries to convince Oshige and Wakaoji that Fullmoon is her "older sister." However, by episode 19, Mitsuki decides to end the charade, admitting to Oshige and Wakaoji that Mitsuki and Fullmoon are one and the same, and that she changes via Takuto's and Meroko's magic. She proves this by performing a transformation in front of them (much to their astonishment), and Wakaoji and Oshige become friends with Takuto and Meroko for the rest of the series. By contrast, in the manga, no human other than Mitsuki knows about the shinigami in detail. Oshige and Wakaoji eventually deduce Mitsuki is also Fullmoon, but they never know specifically how that was accomplished. In only one frame do they mention a time when Mitsuki told them of shinigami, and Wakaoji says simply, "I believe her."

Mitsuki's love for Eichi plays a lead role in her quest to be a singer. When she was 10 years old, she fell in love with Eichi, who was then 16 years old (anime); he was 14 in the manga (relationships with that age difference are allowed in Japan). She wishes to be a singer because she thinks her songs will reach America, where Eichi lives, and will recognize her. However, in the manga, Takuto finds out that Eichi died in a plane crash the day of his departure and Mitsuki knew all along and pretended that he was still alive. In the anime, she goes to America to meet a doctor who might treat her illness and uses the chance to track down Eichi's adoptive family, who tell her that Eichi died in a car accident two months after moving. In both versions, she becomes emotionless and blames herself for his death. In the anime, she is so depressed that she gives up singing, refuses to eat and sleep, stares at a photo of her and him, and considers suicide. In the manga, she continues with singing but does so so that she can exhaust herself to death and "go to the world Eichi is at". At the end of both versions, with the help of her friends, she realizes that Eichi would have wanted her to live and fulfill her dreams, so she continues singing and fulfills her promise to him.

In the manga, Takuto is more blunt about his feelings for Mitsuki, even forcibly kissing her and trying to force himself on her. Mitsuki becomes more aware of her feelings for him earlier and even goes on a date with him. At the end, he awakens from a coma (he wasn't really dead) and reunites with Mitsuki three years later. While in the anime, he holds back his feelings for her and doesn't confess until her final concert. At the end, he is granted a second chance to live and has no memories until Mitsuki calls for him and seems to realize who she is.

In the manga, Meroko still has feelings for Izumi, who is more open about his love for her. Izumi is also more amusing and teasing than is cold and cynical self in the anime. Meroko accepts that she loves Izumi and they become partners again in the manga, while their relationship is left uncertain in the anime.

In the manga, Mitsuki is cured of her illness by her frequent transformations, which lessened her cancer, after she agrees to take the surgery. In the anime, Mitsuki takes the surgery after her final concert and it successfully allows her to keep her voice.

Humans

A 12-year-old girl who dreams of becoming a pop singer, but who has a tumor in her vocal cords which restricts her ability to sing. She grew up in an orphanage, and then later went to live with her strict grandmother, Fuzuki, who forbade her from singing. When Mitsuki learns that she'll die if her vocal cords aren't removed, she refuses the surgery, saying she is more afraid of never singing again than she is of dying. With Takuto's help, she transforms into , a 16-year-old pop idol

Teen idol

A teen idol is a celebrity who is widely idolized by teenagers; he or she is often young but not necessarily teenaged. Often teen idols are actors or pop singers, but some sports figures have an appeal to teenagers. Some teen idols began their careers as child actors...

, completely free of cancer and able to sing. As Fullmoon, she is discovered by Seed Records during an audition, and in both the manga and anime she is depicted as releasing several hit singles. The anime ending theme songs are all supposedly sung by Fullmoon. Mitsuki chooses the stage name Fullmoon because mitsuki means "full moon" in Japanese, and because her childhood friend, Eichi Sakurai, wants to become an astronomer

Astronomer

, and the name reminds her of him. Mitsuki decided to become a singer when she was ten years old, because she made a promise with Eichi that they would fulfill their dreams the next time they met.

Mitsuki desires to become a singer because she wants to tell Eichi that she loves him. However, the shinigami eventually discover Eichi is dead. In the manga, they realize Mitsuki knew this all along; in the anime, Mitsuki learns of his death during a trip to America. Both the manga and anime revolve around Mitsuki dealing with Eichi's death, as well as her eventual feelings for Takuto.

Mitsuki is portrayed as an assertive young girl whose personality has matured far beyond her chronological age, and who, in spite of terrible circumstances, stays optimistic and determined. She smiles, even when she harbors pain inside herself. Eichi observes this, comparing Mitsuki to the moon: "The other side of the moon has craters made by meteors...the moon shines while hiding all its wounds" (chapter 3). This trait is also noted by Takuto. Although she always smiles, deep down she is suffering largely due to her desire to see Eichi (as well as her grief over his death). She blames herself for his death because he would not have gotten on the plane if she had confessed to him. Her grief causes her to withdraw from everyone and even considers suicide just so that "she can go to the world Eichi is at".

Halfway through the series, Mitsuki realizes that she loves Takuto but feels guilty for it because she is afraid of forgetting Eichi. With the help of Meroko, she decides that she loves them both and is able to confess to Takuto, as well as accept that Eichi would have wanted to her to be happy. By the end of the series, she is cured of her illness and is able to pursue a singing career and relationship with Takuto, but keeps Eichi in a special place in her heart. Mitsuki's corkscrew hairstyle was inspired by Ai Kago

Ai Kago

is a Japanese singer, actress, author and former Guinness World Record holder.At age 12, Kago won the 4th National Audition of Morning Musume held by Up-Front Works Agency in 2000, which led to her admission into the extremely popular idol group as a 4th generation member. In the same year, she...

of the group Morning Musume

Morning Musume

, sometimes referred to as is a Japanese idol girl group, whose act generally revolves around singing and dancing to upbeat melodies. They are the lead group of Hello! Project, which is managed and produced by Tsunku, who composes nearly all the lyrics and melodies of their songs...

. Mitsuki herself is modeled on one of Arina Tanemura's assistants, Airi Teito.

Mitsuki's childhood friend and first love. In the anime, he is six years older than her; in the manga, he is four years older. After his parents died, Eichi lived with his grandfather. When he died as well, Eichi moved to the orphanage where he met Mitsuki. They became fast friends, and he eventually fell in love with her, confessing his feelings just before moving to America. Mitsuki was heartbroken when he left, 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. In the manga, Eichi dies when his flight to America crashes (which Mitsuki learns immediately); in the anime, Eichi dies in a car accident a few months after moving (which Mitsuki doesn't find out until her trip to America, two years later). In the manga, Takuto's first assignment was taking Eichi's soul, but Eichi refused to depart the world and instead stays near Mitsuki as a spirit, which gives her the power to see shinigami. He stays with her until the end of the manga, when he leaves after seeing that she is now happy and wants to live on, and no longer needs his presence. As he disappears, he smiles lovingly at her while crying.

Mitsuki's maternal grandmother. She took in Mitsuki when she was 10 and barely spoke to her, likely because she saw Mitsuki as the reminder of the affair that stole her daughter from her. She initially hates music because she believes that it has stolen everyone she has loved. She becomes angry when Mitsuki sings in her house. After Mitsuki runs away from home to become Fullmoon, disappearing from her life, Grandma Fuzuki constantly worries about her, gradually accepts the fact that she cannot keep Mitsuki from music, and the two reconcile. In the manga, as a young woman Fuzuki was best friends with Moe Rikyou (the human who became Meroko), and they both fell in love with a violinist, Seijuro Koga. He chose Fuzuki as his fiancée, but Fuzuki refused the engagement out of loyalty to Moe. When Fuzuki announced this to Seijuro, she gave him a final kiss, but Moe, already hearing of their engagement, misread the scene, ran off, and committed suicide in despair. Fuzuki later married another man and had Hazuki, who became Mitsuki's mother. Seijuro married another woman, who gave birth to Aoi Koga--Mitsuki's father. At the end of the manga, Fuzuki reunites with Seijuro (both are by then widowed), and they attend Mitsuki's concert together--strongly implying they are finally a pair. In the anime, Fuzuki was engaged to a man who wanted to become a famous pianist. He became obsessed with practicing the piano, and when she suggested he should relax a bit, he said she did not understand and left Japan, breaking Fuzuki's heart.

Fuzuki's maid. She acts silly at times, but cares deeply for both Fuzuki and Mitsuki. Tanaka is skilled at cooking, cleaning, shopping, and appears to take pride in her abilities as a maid. She is also something of a snoop and often eavesdrops on conversations. In the anime, Tanaka is shown as loving music and she has a radio with headphones so that she can listen without Fuzuki knowing; Mitsuki sometimes uses this to blackmail Tanaka. Tanaka also has a crush on Wakaoji and is jealous of Oshige, mistaking her to be Wakaoji's fiancée. In one episode, she challenges Oshige to a contest to see which of the two would make a better bride. Although Tanaka wins all events, she concedes the contest when she sees Wakaoji and Oshige laughing together, believing the two are in love (which is actually true in the manga, but not in the anime).

Mitsuki's doctor. He played keyboard in the band ROUTE:L along with Mitsuki's father, Aoi Koga, and Takuto Kira, but he quit after Aoi's death. Fans called him the "Prince of ROUTE:L" because wakaōji means "young prince" in Japanese. In the manga, Wakaoji performed the surgery on Takuto to remove the tumor in his vocal cords and witnessed Takuto's suicide. Mitsuki learns that Wakaoji loved her mother because of a letter he thought she had written him, but Wakaoji falls in love with Oshige when he discovers the letter was from her. In a side story, he asks Oshige to marry him and she accepts. In an episode of the anime, Mitsuki asks him to go out with her and he says yes. He cares for Mitsuki because she looks like her mother.

Fullmoon's 28-year-old manager, and a former avid fangirl of ROUTE:L, especially Wakaoji. She started out as an unsuccessful idol singer, under the stage name , before moving into management. In the manga, she has an affair with her boss out of loneliness despite his being married. She truly loves Wakaoji, having been smitten with him since his days in Route:L, but she feels she is too old and unworthy of true love with a man. To cope with this despair, as well as with the pressures of her job, she often loses herself in a bottle of sake. (In reality, Arina Tanemura says Masami is a heavy drinker because Tanemura's editors like to drink, and Oshige's name is a hybrid of the editors' names.) At the end of the manga, Wakaoji discovers Masami is the one who composed the mysterious love letter, making her the one he really loved all that time, and so asks her to marry him.

Madoka Wakamatsu is the stage name of . Madoka is Fullmoon's rival in the music industry, who at the same time befriends 12-year-old Mitsuki. While talented, she is constantly upstaged by Fullmoon because she initially lacks the heart Mitsuki gives her songs. In addition, she is insecure because she had plastic surgery to make herself beautiful as a celebrity and was disowned by her family as a result. Madoka has a small pig called , who worships her. Although she sometimes takes out her anger on Gu-chan, she is genuinely fond of him. In the manga, Madoka is shown as having pride as well as ambition: she refuses to cheat to win over Fullmoon, even once resigning a commercial offer to Fullmoon when she realizes that Fullmoon would have won if Madoka hadn't inadvertently stolen her lyrics. In the anime, Madoka is not above using underhanded tactics to best Fullmoon and does so several times, although she eventually changes her ways--particularly after learning some humility the hard way. In both versions, Madoka cares very much about Mitsuki/Fullmoon by the end of the story. At the end of the anime (episode 52), Madoka brings Mitsuki flowers following her surgery, and at the end of the manga, Madoka cries when thinking about Fullmoon having cancer: "Why? Why does it have to be her?" (chapter 29).

Mitsuki's dead father, and former guitarist and songwriter for the band ROUTE:L. He acted as a father figure for the orphaned Takuto. In the manga, he died in an accident while driving Hazuki to the hospital to give birth to Mitsuki; in the anime, he died when Mitsuki was one year old.

In the manga, Aoi is shown as a laid-back, cool-tempered man. Arina Tanemura states that "He loves wearing Buddhist priest work clothes!" Aoi was very close to his bandmates and friends, Keiichi Wakaoji and Takuto Kira. He asked Takuto to name his daughter, and Takuto decided on Mitsuki (vol. 4, bonus manga, Totsugeki Dokodoko). He is only briefly seen in the anime, including a scene where he gives a music box to Hazuki when she named their daughter Mitsuki.

Hazuki Koyama

Mitsuki's dead mother. Like Mitsuki, she was physically weak and often fell ill. She is also a spinning image of Mitsuki. She had loved Aoi for a long time, against the wishes of her strict mother, and married him after becoming pregnant with Mitsuki. In the anime, she is scene in flashbacks attending Aoi's concert and receiving the music box Mitsuki now has from Aoi. She died giving birth to Mitsuki.

In the anime, she was confident she was carrying a girl and agreed with Takuto that Mitsuki was a perfect name. She rarely appears in the manga, only in a couple of flashbacks.

The lead singer of the duo OZ, who befriends Mitsuki (as Fullmoon) 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 Gu-chan is jealous of him. When Madoka finds he has an old photo of her with her unattractive childhood fiancé, , she assumes Nachi is Soichiro's friend, pretending to love her to get revenge for her rejection of Soichiro. Madoka apologizes to Soichiro's mother and asks to break off the engagement because she loves Nachi, only to discover Soichiro is Nachi, after having plastic surgery to become an idol in hopes of making her love him. In the end, they remain engaged and a happy couple. Nachi does not appear in the anime.

Hikari was Takuto's girlfriend while he was alive. Takuto discovered that she was cheating on him and the two were on the verge of breaking up when Takuto attempted suicide and went into a coma, after which Hikari realized that she still loved him. She later sees Takuto (visible to humans while he was about to go on a date with Mitsuki) and attempts to revive their relationship, which causes problems between Takuto and Mitsuki. Hikari only appears in the manga.

Shinigami

The shinigami
Shinigami
is the personification of death in Japan. It's unclear when the concept entered Japanese culture; it may have been imported from China , or possibly been imported from Europe during the Sengoku era—that period in European history featured a common motif of the Grim Reaper gathering souls...

are the spirits of humans that committed suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

, who are then punished with the task of collecting souls. If a shinigami fully remembers his or her past life before becoming a full shinigami, he or she disappears and becomes a ghost. In the manga, Mitsuki is the only human who knows about the shinigami (other than Grandma Fuzuki, who befriends Meroko in her "plushie doll" form, but does not know she's a shinigami, nor realizes Meroko is a friend from many years ago). However, in the anime, when Mitsuki admits to Oshige and Wakaoji her double-identity, she also admits the existence of Takuto and Meroko, as well as their supernatural powers. Oshige and Wakaoji befriend Takuto and Meroko, and frequently interact with them when they're in doll form.

Takuto is Meroko's partner and trainee, and they are assigned to take Mitsuki's soul. His shinigami costume is a cat outfit plus a backpack with wings, without which, as a trainee shinigami, he cannot fly. Takuto is capable of transforming into a anthropomorphic

Anthropomorphism

Anthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s...

cat plushie. Moved by Mitsuki's plight, he transforms her into the 16-year-old Fullmoon. Takuto falls in love with Mitsuki as the story goes on, and despite the 12 year age difference between them, they become a couple at the end. As the series progresses, he remembers his past as , the lead singer of ROUTE:L, the band that both Mitsuki's father and her doctor were in. After a malignant tumor in his throat took his voice, he attempted suicide by jumping from the top floor of the hospital, witnessed by Dr. Wakaoji. He remained in a coma for the next two years. In the manga, a twelve year-old Takuto named Mitsuki before she was born, and later met her at the orphanage when she was four years old and promised to protect her. At the end of the series, Takuto saves Mitsuki's life, violating fate and his duty as a shinigami.

At the end of the manga, he is seen as a human again in the hospital, having lost three months of memories. Three years later, he reunites with Mitsuki during her concert. Mitsuki jumps off stage mid-song and confesses her feelings to him. They kiss amid cheers from the concert crowd. In the anime, the circumstances of Takuto's death are changed: he is in a motorbike accident and dies rather than remaining in a coma. After being given a second chance at life, Takuto has no memory of his former lives as human or shinigami, but still carries the cat charm Mitsuki gave him. In the final scene, Meroko (now an angel) leads Mitsuki to Takuto. Mitsuki calls out to him, and he recognizes her.

Meroko is a rabbit shinigami with long ears, capable of transforming into an anthropomorphic bunny stuffed toy. Her shinigami costume in the manga is black; whereas, in the anime it is red. Meroko is particularly insecure in relationships. At one point she laments, "I've finally run away from love... but when I fell in love and lost it, I realized that there's no place to run anywhere, anymore. Do I have to repeat this forever? Is this my punishment?" (bonus story in manga volume 3, A Kiss for Meroko). This insecurity gives her jealousy towards Mitsuki. Meroko is Takuto's partner and has an unrequited infatuation with him. Her jealousy in the manga causes her to act out almost violently against Mitsuki. In the anime, she is more passive; however, the anime depicts her love for Takuto as being much deeper and more permanent than the manga. Meroko is Izumi's former partner; in the manga, it is Izumi who selects her unique costume. Both the manga and the anime reveal a previous relationship between Izumi and Meroko and allude to it as being unhealthy but mutual. Eventually Izumi ends the relationship and partnership; Meroko is forced to train Takuto as a replacement. The anime does not address Meroko's past, while the manga does: As a human, Meroko was named , and was the best friend of Mitsuki's grandmother, Fuzuki. Fuzuki was in an arranged engagement to another man, but both she and Moe fell in love with Seijuro Koga, a handsome violinist. However, Seijuro returned only Fuzuki's affections and arranged things so the two could be engaged. Fuzuki's loutish ex-fiancé was passed on to Moe, who, shocked by the new arrangements, sought out Fuzuki to verify the truth. At the same time, Fuzuki broke off her relationship with Seijuro and was giving him a final kiss when Moe arrived. The upset Moe ran away; soon afterwards, her new fiancé attempted to rape her. Feeling betrayed by her friend, Moe committed suicide. In the manga, Meroko learns Seijuro is Mitsuki's grandfather and assumes Mitsuki is the descendant of Fuzuki's betrayal. In a rage, Meroko tries to take Mitsuki's soul with a whip, but Takuto intervenes. It is later revealed that Fuzuki did not marry Seijuro but later married another man, with whom she raised Hazuki Kouyama, Mitsuki's mother; Seijuro married another woman, and their child was Aoi Kago, Mitsuki's father.

Meroko eventually makes amends in the manga both by befriending Fuzuki in her rabbit form and by appearing silently as Moe, allowing Fuzuki a chance to explain and apologize although shinigami law prevents her from replying.

The manga ends with Meroko and Izumi reconciling their relationship as well as becoming shinigami partners once more. In the anime, Meroko is exiled from the shinigami and resolves to become a ghost in order to save Takuto; in reward for this kindness, she is made into an angel and given Takuto's soul to deliver a second chance.

Izumi is a cold and distant shinigami assigned to the Pediatrics Ward. He can transform into an anthropomorphic dog plushie, but rarely does so because it takes a lot of energy and he says it is embarrassing. He likes to call other characters by nicknames.

In the anime, Izumi's background is not mentioned and he is portrayed as a cold-hearted antagonist. He makes several attempts to steal Mitsuki's soul, and although he claims to love Meroko, he frequently does things to hurt her. He also implies that he was responsible for Takuto and Meroko being assigned to Mitsuki in the hopes it would cause Takuto to remember his past life as a human and turn him into a ghost. The anime portrays Izumi's sole motivation as the need to regain Meroko and cause Takuto pain in the process.

The manga illustrates Izumi as mischievous but not sadistic, and over the course of the series, he also befriends Mitsuki and the others. Izumi's background in the manga is elaborate: In his human life, he was a boy named whose mother was abusive; it is implied that the young Izumi looked much like his late father, thus invoking his mother's rage. In a desperate attempt to see his mother smile again, six-year old Izumi ran onto the train tracks - but though he saw his mother smile as he was hit, Izumi woke up again as a shinigami, dissatisfied. In the manga, it is stated that Izumi retained all of his memories after death, a very unusual feat for a new shinigami. Eventually, Mitsuki helps him realize that he had wanted his mother to call him back from the tracks. At the end of the manga, Izumi and Meroko team up once again and become sweethearts.

Jonathan is the shinigami who becomes Izumi's partner after Meroko leaves. He wears a top hat

Top hat

A top hat, beaver hat, high hat silk hat, cylinder hat, chimney pot hat or stove pipe hat is a tall, flat-crowned, broad-brimmed hat, predominantly worn from the latter part of the 18th to the middle of the 20th century...

and often speaks rather odd phrases in English. Throughout the series, he appears subservient to Izumi, while conducting covert operations including revealing to Mitsuki that the shinigami already knew that Eichi was dead and becoming a fanatic who tries to harm Fullmoon and her friends. In the manga, it is eventually revealed that he is really , the head of the pediatrics ward. He attempts to take Mitsuki's life, but is stopped by Takuto, Meroko, and Izumi. He was the second shinigami to be born, and shows great affection towards Mystere. In the final chapter, he uses up all his powers to heal Takuto's throat and give him his voice back, and disappears along with Mystere. In the anime adaptation, Jonathan's role is minor, acting only as Izumi's sidekick and a source of annoyance.

In an author's freetalk in the manga, Tanemura mentions that one day at work, she drew a picture of what she thought Peeves from Harry Potter
Harry Potter
Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potter and his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry...

looked like. She showed it to her assistants, who laughed and said it did not look anything like Peeves. Tanemura decided not to waste it, and used the sketch as the design of Jonathan in ghost form.

Also called , the Death Master was the first human soul to descend to the Underworld

Underworld

The Underworld is a region which is thought to be under the surface of the earth in some religions and in mythologies. It could be a place where the souls of the recently departed go, and in some traditions it is identified with Hell or the realm of death...

and is the crowned queen of the Underworld. After discovering she could take the souls of humans, she encountered a dying young girl who asked her if she was a shinigami, which convinced her that she was one. Fragile and sentimental, she is believed to be the most powerful shinigami. When Meroko enters her room to erase Mitsuki's name from the rolls of the dead, Mystere gives her the keys to free Takuto, and later she listens with a smile to Mitsuki's final performance as Fullmoon. At the end of the manga, when Mystere and Sheldan disappear after using up their power healing Takuto's throat, they seem to show great affection for each other, and Mystere says that unlike the last time she died, she has no regrets about it. In the anime, there is no backstory to her, and she appears briefly near the end, forgiving Takuto and Meroko, forbearing Mitsuki's and Takuto's deaths, and granting Meroko the status of an angel.

Manga

Full Moon O Sagashite was published by Shueisha

Shueisha

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

in English

English language

by Viz Media

VIZ Media

as Full Moon, although the full title is given on the front cover.

Anime

The series was adapted as a 52-episode anime

Anime

television series by Studio Deen

Studio DEEN

is a Japanese company that produces anime. Three years after Sunrise was founded in 1972, Studio Deen was established by Sunrise's members in 1975. As a result of this, anime shows such as Cowboy Bebop that were produced by Sunrise may have had assistance from Studio Deen.-Produced anime:* Urusei...

, directed by Toshiyuki Kato

Toshiyuki Kato

is a Japanese politician of the Democratic Party of Japan, a member of the House of Councillors in the Diet . A native of Niihama, Ehime and high school graduate, he was elected for the first time in 2004.- External links :* in Japanese....

. It was broadcast on TV Tokyo

TV Tokyo

from April 6, 2002 to March 29, 2003. The adaptation follows the manga closely until Mitsuki's first singing audition, before diverging. Several characters have different histories and personalities, and the because the television series concluded before the manga was finished, the anime ended with a different resolution.

The television series is licensed by Viz Media

VIZ Media

, which released seven DVDs (the first 28 episodes), under the title Full Moon before putting further releases on indefinite hold, citing low sales potential. The songs are subtitled only, resulting in a dub that switches between English dialogue and Japanese singing.

Full Moon O Sagashite has two openings, and four endings. "I Love U" by The Scanty

The Scanty

THE★SCANTY was a Japanese girls pop-rock band formed in Tokyo on October 2001. They disbanded in October 2003. Futami and Akane formed their own band,...

is used as the opening song for the first 26 episodes, while the group's song "Rock 'n' Roll Princess" is used for the rest. Changin' My Life

Changin' my life

Changin' My Life was a Japanese pop band which consisted of Myco , Shintarō Tanabe , and Noritaka Henmi . They debuted in 2001, and broke up in 2003....

performs all four ending themes: "New Future" used for the first six episodes and the last episode 52, "Myself" is used for episodes 7-26, "Eternal Snow" is used for episodes 27-42, and "Love Chronicle" is used in episodes 43-51.

OVA

is a ten-minute anime OVA that was distributed with the November 2002 issue of Ribon
Ribon
is a monthly Japanese shōjo manga magazine published by Shueisha. First issued in August 1955, its rivals are Nakayoshi and Ciao. Its target audience is young girls roughly 9–13 years old. In 2009, the magazine's circulation was 274,167, down from the previous year's circulation numbers of 330,000...

, the magazine in which the manga was serialized. It was produced by Studio Deen

Studio DEEN

, and stars myco

Changin' my life

Changin' My Life was a Japanese pop band which consisted of Myco , Shintarō Tanabe , and Noritaka Henmi . They debuted in 2001, and broke up in 2003....

as Mitsuki and Chieko Honda

Chieko Honda

is a Japanese voice actor.-Notable voice roles:*After War Gundam X *Akihabara Dennō Gumi *Bosco Adventure *Devil Hunter Yohko *Dragonball *Dragon Century...

as Meroko, as in the television series, but Hiromi Ōtsuda as Takuto. Set before the series ends, it features Takuto and Meroko trying to make their way to the studio in stuffed animal forms after Mitsuki accidentally leaves them home while rushing to work.

Art book

On April 15, 2004, Shueisha released a seventy-page art book for the series entitled . Viz Media released an English language edition in North America on October 21, 2008.

External links

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