Full Moon wo Sagashite

I've had a couple days to stew on the ending of this show, and it occurs to me that very many parallels can be drawn to a show, which on the surface, is wholly different.

Mitsuki is 12 years old and has an overpowering childhood crush an an older boy name Eichi (a poor choice of name given Japanese slang) who she hasn't seen since he left for the US with his adoptive parents two years ago. In their short time in the orphanage together, they develop a bond, and when he is forced to leave, they promise one another that when next they meet, they'll have been well on the way toward achieving their dreams. He wants to be an astronomer/astronaut (the fansub seems to mix this up a couple of times) and she wants to be a singer.

Mitsuki loves to sing. Mitsuki has throat cancer. These two facts mutually exclude one another. Surgery will likely mean loosing her voice. She discovers that she can see Shinigami (Death gods, or more appropriately death spirits) and subsequently discovers that she has only one year left to live. She begs to be spared so she can keep her promise and become a singer. The Shinigami-in-training (Takuto) charged with taking her soul at the appointed time, for subconscious reasons that are revealed later, decides to assist her for her remaining year. With his power he turns her into the 16 year old soon-to-be singing sensation Full Moon. But she obviously can't stay like that forever, what with living with her Grandmother who rescued her from the orphanage. So the typical transformation/secret identity dynamic comes into play.

It sounds like a premise ready to drown in its own angst and shennanigans, if not for the fact the that Mitsuki is an unredeemable optimist.

From this point we watch Mitsuki, Takuto, and Meroko (Takuto's sempai who gets dragged into the whole scheme) navigate the treacherous waters of becoming a Japanese Pop idol.

For a show that appeared so trite from the beginning, I can't help but compare it to another show with a completely different reputation: Haibane Renmei.

This show is a full 52 episodes, and it had several stories to tell, which is part of why it never seemed to lack for material. On the surface, there is the story of Mitsuki fighting to reach Eichi through singing fame in Japan (a method I'm sorry to say is only likely to reach a very small and devoted fanbase). But as time goes by we're slowly brought into the story of Takuto and his mysterious (to himself as much to us) urge to help this young girl out.

Ahead are many a...








Part of what we're taught about Shinigami is that they were once human, and that being forced to harvest human souls is punishment, for what, we're not told until much later. Their memories are wiped. Should they begin to remember their human life, they dissolve into Ghosts, losts forever.

This is sounding very much like the Haibane, isn't it?

Takuto was a singer (in the same band as Mitsuki's father, one of the few points that seemed rather contrived and unnecessary), and after the breakup of the band, he became listless and basically took his own life before his time was due. For that he was made a Shinigami, and through helping Mitsuki, his own memories begin to resurface, threatening his own existence. Meroko (who has confessed her love to Takuto a whopping 57, no 58 time) is terrified that she may loose Takuto, but has become fully involved with their scheme and has also developed a great deal of affection toward Mitsuki. She wants to do right by them both, but can't puzzle out how.

A conflict between their duties as Shinigami and their desire to change fate develops over the course of the show, culminating in Takuto giving his last bit of power before fading to keep Mitsuki tranformed in the middle of a massive concert, and Meroko sacrificing herself to stop another Shinigami from taking Mitsuki.

I should mention that about 2/3rd through the show, an experimental surgery that may remove Mitsuki's tumor without loosing her voice is developed in the US. After cheating fate the night of the concert, Mitsuki goes in for the surgery and comes out unscathed.

But what happens to the Shinigami? Kamisama steps in and does a couple of things. Takuto and Meroko have done a [fingerquote]very bad thing[/fingerquote]. They've prevented fate from running it's due course. Something must be done. Takuto, a special case not being full Shinigami, will be returned to the world of the living to try again where he left off. Meroko will become an Angel and ascend to Heaven. This all happens in a closed space between Kamisama and Meroko. Mitsuki, having had the surgery, will live to a ripe old age.

"What the deuce," you say? Well, here's where I have to speculate a bit. Like being Haibane, being Shinigami is a test, set out to redeem those who gave up on living. Refusing to take the life of someone, or sacrificing your life to save them, breaks the Circle of Sin. Those who don't learn that lesson continue to perform a horrifying job for all eternity or fade away after remebering their past life, just as a Haibane that doesn't achieve the Day of Flight is exiled and dies the ultimate death. The test is kept secret by Kamisama, otherwise no one would ever die ;)

End of ...






I honestly didn't expect anything nearly so deep and ultimately rewarding of what appeared to be a very shallow concept.