Full Moon wo Sagashite

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7.5/10 - this reflects my personal enjoyment of the series. Full Moon was objectively Arina Tanemura's best work (although I enjoyed SDC more). This was also when her art style was the prettiest. The story tackles themes of death, love, survival and grief. It's quite a hefty attempt for something aimed at young girls, which you have to respect. Unfortunately Arina does have a tendency to write stories in a rather...simplified, fairytale sort of way, so the tone felt a little mismatched when tackling such heavy subjects. She tends to be great at premises and slightly weaker on execution, but you can tell it was ... still a manga with a lot of heart put into it. I just can't rate it higher because I didn't particularly love any of the characters, and I found Mitsuki to be quite bratty and Mary Sue (not so much in the anime which had a different plot and writing team). I would still recommend it to shoujo fans though.

Dramatic but somewhat shallow.

Mostly

Full moon is the story of a 12 year old girl trying to become a singer because of a promise she made to someone she loves. However her grandma hates music. She also has throat cancer. She also never went to school. Her dad was also a top tier singer. Also 2 death reapers try to reap her soul since she is supposed to die in 1 year. But she convinces them to help her instead so she is now this model looking woman who is now an idol.

Its a very fast paced story which is for the better. ... If you stop and actually thought about the series you'd notice how shallow majority of the characters are. Most of the woman are just motivated by the male organ. The heart. Every single character is like in love. And it feels very superficial. Some of them get the very needed backstory but some of them feel incredibly vain.

Despite this I did like most of the series to my own surprise. Combined with the art the author is able to convey the right emotion albeit barely. Like i've said due to the somewhat shallow behavior of the heroines and heroes the dramatic moments feel a bit hollow. But the art is good enough for me to still be gut punched by it at least initially.

The story is also interesting for the most part. It gets a bit convoluted near the end. But the author does a good job of grabbing you by balls and tugging you along. If you can't tell the series is a sad story. But it never overwhelms the reader. Lightheartedness and playfulness is throughout the manga. The cheery atmosphere just adds to the gut punching later on but the gut punching also adds to the levity the series has.

TLDR: I enjoyed this series. Despite 4/5 heroines being major simps, the art is good enough, the story is interesting enough and the characters are likable enough to make me wanna keep reading. 7/10

Story: 10/10
A girl and boy promises each other to fulfil their dreams. Her dream is to become a singer, however, unfortunately, she suffers from throat cancer. But, with the help of two shinigamis, she is able to sing once again. It's a unique story, I don't think I've ever read something like this before. It was definitely a childhood favourite and WARNING! It will make you cry.

Art: 8/10
Typical shoujo manga art style back in the 2000s, big eyes and quite small head. But the character designs are unique and easily remembered.

Characters: 9/10
There's a lot of character development and you get to know more about ... the characters' backgrounds so you are able to connect with them and feel sympathy. They'll make you cry so much.
Enjoyment/Overall: 10/10
Losing a lot of those tears was worth it, it's such a unique manga and you won't regret reading this manga! Watch the anime too!