Full Moon o Sagashite Manga Discussion (with Laura Spicer)

There are few authors more synonymous with "shojo" than Arina Tanemura. We've done Tanemura works before. But Full Moon is peak Tanemura. Which is not to say it's a masterwork. 

For those who don't idolize Tanemura and are wondering what Full Moon is about, the series follows a 12-year-old girl named Mitsuki who wants to be a singer so she can reconnect with her childhood crush, whom she met when they both lived at an orphanage, but she can't become a singer because she has throat cancer that, if left untreated, will kill her. Some shinigami show up telling her she only has one year left to live, and she somehow convinces the shinigami to turn her into a 16-year-old so she can become the idol of her dreams before she dies. Are you keeping up? Tanemura fan Laura Spicer joins Shojo & Tell host Ashley once again to go through the whirlwind of a manga to, first, figure out what even all happened here, and second, to determine what the good emotional beats are.

REFERENCES

• Full Moon is available digitally from Viz Media's Shojo Beat line
• The Full Moon anime is available on blu-ray
• Tanemura's other projects
  • Phantom Thief Jeanne
  • Idol Dreams
  • idolish7
  • The Gentlemen's Alliance
  • Sakura Hime
  • Time Stranger Kyoko
• Music mentioned
  • +44
  • Linkin Park
  • Evanescence
  • Within Temptation
  • t.A.T.u.
  • Maaya Sakamoto
  • Yui Horie
  • AKB48
  • Morning Musume
  • Ayumi Hamasaki
• Other anime/manga series mentioned
  • Fruits Basket
  • Sailor Moon
  • Cardcaptor Sakura
  • Ouran High School Host Club
  • Yona of the Dawn
  • Hana-Kimi
  • A Condition Called Love
  • Not Your Idol
  • Oshi no Ko
  • The Vision of Escaflowne
• Outro: "To