Title: Looking Up At The Half-Moon
Director: Yukihiro Matsushita
Studio: Group TAC
U. S. Distributor: Nozomi, Lucky Penny
U. S. Release date: April 7th, 2015
Format: DVD / 6 Episodes / 150 minuts
Genre: Romance, Love Story, Coming of Age
Age rating: 13+
Overall Personal Rating: A-
Synopsis:
Even though Yuuichi Ezaki is in the hospital recovering from an illness, he’s constantly sneaking out. One day he’s caught by the head nurse, who makes a deal with him: she’ll overlook his future excursions if he’s willing to befriend a new patient, Rika Akiba. Due to a serious heart condition, Rika has spent most of her life in the hospital, and doesn’t really have any friends. As Yuuichi and Rika spend time together and learn more about each other, their relationship soon blossoms into romance…
Commentary:
There is something about the Japanese mindset that lends itself to these bitter sweet stores of love and loss. We see it stand out and revered in classics like Clannad, Kannon and Air just to mention a few. Looking Up At The Half Moon is a perfect example of a slice of life that not only shows the strength of love but also show the tragedy of life and the fragility of the human condition. The story is straight forward you realize what is going to happen by the end of the second episode, but that still doesn’t ruin anything at all. In fact knowing what to expect makes it all the better as you get to move this sweet little series.
There is a lot about this series that draws you to it and with it being only 6 episodes long it provides for a great source of entertainment in an easy to watch period of time. The characters are exposed to us at a reasonable pace and as you warm up to them you see all of the dynamics start to change and bonds become stronger and frictions begin to light up. This progression shows how well written the series is and how it has stood the test of time now that it is almost 10 years old. Of course I expect that the story will remain strong for some time because it is about young hearts find something very special with a heavy burden hanging over the entire situation.
Overall Grade : A-
For all that is good about the series I have to say that the animation was not the best. It came across flat and some-what anemic from time to time. The color plate was too muster for its own good. I would have like to see a little more color and maybe even a brighter overall feel to the production level. I understand that there is a certain amount of melancholy to the story that might require a bit of a muted paler, I feel as thought it was take too far with the series as a whole.
The writing is superb and even though it is only 6 episodes the story managed to develop at a pace that seem well suited and even though I would have liked to see a few more episodes to maybe complete the story with a defined understanding how much time remained in their story together I didn’t really mind having it end there. The character development was ok and it gave enough depth to the main characters to support what need to be there, but again I think that there could have been more opportunity to give us more background if the series was longer.
Looking Up At The Half Moon is both a easy watch and a touching story that can easily make you cry for joy and sadness at the same time. There is nothing more heartwarming that the development of love at a time of great distress and also watching two young adults find their way through some of the most confusing moments of anyones life.
If you are looking for a good love story to warm you hear then look no further than Looking Up At The Half Moon.
