Full Moon O Sagashite 1

Full Moon O Sagashite 1 by Arina Tanemura, 2005. 208 pages. Published by Viz Media. Source: Library.

A bittersweet tale of puppy love, tragedy, and aspirations of pop-star fame. A spark of hope ignites to a blaze in twelve-year-old Mitsuki Koyama's life when a comical pair of magical beings appears to prove to her that dreams really do come true.

Young Mitsuki loves singing and dreams of becoming a pop star. Unfortunately, a malignant tumor in her throat prevents her from pursuing her passion. However, her life turns around when two surprisingly fun-loving harbingers of death appear to grant Mitsuki a temporary reprieve from her illness and give her singing career a magical push start.

Story:
Full Moon O Sagashite was one that I had planned on reading finishing one Arina Tanemura's other series. I completely forgot that it was going to be a little on the sad side-just read the synopsis and you'll understand.

I really did not expect Full Moon O Sagashite to be lighthearted, I actually was afraid that it was going to be dreadfully sad and that it would make me tear-up. Thankfully, it was funny and light with characters that will have you laughing and at times cringing over the obviousness of certain feelings between a couple of characters.

What I really enjoyed about this manga were the harbingers of death, Takuta and Meroko, and the witty bantering between them and Mitsuki. I thought that Arina did an excellent job of adding in a touch of humor that it adds to an otherwise sad story. Plus, the three of them totally cracked me up with their antics.
The one thing that I was not to thrilled about while reading Full Moon O Sagashite was that the way Mitsuki's grandmother treated her, keeping her locked away in the house, while she (I think) was just trying to protect her and keep her safe I thought she definitely went the wrong way about it. Sure Mitsuki's mother hurt her and her grandmother didn't want Mitsuki to turn out anything like the man her father was, but I think that should have gone about things in a less extreme way.

Characters:

I definitely liked Mitsuki as the lead character because she was always hopeful. I liked the fact that Arina Tanemura  Mitsuki as a light, cheery girl who always tried to see the bright side of things even when things were quite bleak for her.

Takuta was my favorite in the manga. What I liked about Takuta would have to be that he was nice guy...for a shinigami who was there to reap Mitsuki's soul. So what made him such a likeable character, well, that would have to be because he is helping Mitsuki to achieve her goal of becoming a singer. 

Meroko is character that I felt badly for, which is odd considering the fact that she was not the one that was going to die. I felt bad for her because she cares about Takuta and felt like she was losing him to Mitsuki.
Artwork:

I really liked the art work in Full Moon O Sagashite because Arina did a great job on the characters and bringing their personalities out. While I loved her characters and how well she captured their individualism, I was not to keen on the back rounds and non-character images. The back round images were at times a bit vague and hard to pick out, but not really take away from the how good the book actually is.

Final Verdict: Full Moon O Sagashite 1 not what I was expecting but in a completely good way.

Full Moon O Sagashite 1 earns 4 out of 5 pineapples.