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Full Moon, Vol. 1: I Want to Sing
VIZ // Unrated // June 27, 2006
List Price: $24.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Show:
Though Shojo (girls) manga and anime are good sellers in
Mitsuki Kouyama is a twelve-year-old orphan who desperately wants to be a pop singer. There are several obstacles in her way to fame and fortune however. First of all her grandmother hates the entertainment business and won't even allow Mitsuki to listen to music, much less sing it professionally. The more pressing problem however is the tumor in her throat. If it is removed, there is a good chance that she'll never be able to talk again. If it's not removed, she could die.
The probability of her death turns into a certainty when a pair of shinigami (death spirits or harbingers of death) show up. Takuto and Meroko are from the pediatric division and together they are known as "Green Onion Raman!" For some reason, Mitsuki can see these two spirits. She's the only one in the world who can. They're quite surprised and flustered by this and accidentally reveal that she only has one year to live.
Instead of upsetting her, this news fills Mitsuki with determination. She only has a year to become a pop star now, so she sneaks out of the house and heads off to an audition even though it hurts her throat to sing.
Once at the audition though, the young girl runs into a road block. She has to be 16 to get in, and she doesn't look anywhere near that old. Takuto feels sorry for her and uses a drop of his blood to transform her into a 16 year old girl and cures her illness at the same time. (Though the cure is only in effect while she's in her older body.) Mitsuki is then able to get into the audition, wows the judges, and wins a recording contract.
There's a reason that Mitsuki so desperately wants to become a popular singer: she's looking for a boy. While she was living at an orphanage before her grandmother took her in, she fell in love with a boy there, Eichi. He was adopted and taken to the
This was a cute show that was enjoyable if you could overlook to goofy premise. The reason that the two shinigami are hanging around, for a whole year apparently, isn't explained, and neither is why Mitsuki can see them. The reasons why one of them would turn her into a 16-year-old is also glossed over. (It's heavily implied that he's in love with her. If that's the case why not just cure the 12 year old version?)
If you can just convince yourself not to worry about any of that, this can be a fun show. There is a fair amount of humor, mainly from the two shinigami, and Mitsuki is a likable character. The episode where Mitsuki has to meet with her doctor and her agent as both a 12 year old and a 16 year old at the same time is pretty funny, and the things the young girl goes through to write a song is very endearing.
This first disc is a little on the slow side, but that's understandable. A fair amount of time is taken up with introducing the characters and the situations they find themselves in. I have a feeling that things will pick up with the next volume.
The DVD:
Audio:
This disc comes with the original Japanese track and an English dub, both in stereo. I alternated tracks while watching the show, and they both had a similar sound quality. The range was a bit flat, but the dialog was easy to understand and the songs sounded fine. One point worth noting is that Viz did not dub the songs, so the English track has the songs sung by the Japanese voice actress. This isn't really horrible, but it is easy to tell that they are two different voices. There weren't any audio defects worth noting. A solid, if average sounding disc.
Video:
The full frame video image looked very good. The image was sharp with solid lines and the colors were solid. There palate used was a bit on the dull side, something that I'm sure the creators intended. There is a bit of aliasing in the background, but this was a minor problem.
Extras:
There weren't any extras aside from a couple of manga and video previews.
Final Thoughts:
This show is off to a solid start. Mitsuki is a likable character and the humor generally works well. Though the volume was a bit on the slow side and had some aspects that were hard to swallow, it was still a lot of fun to watch. Not all anime has to involve giant robots fighting with teen aged pilots, and this series is a nice change of pace. Recommended.
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