Summary
The growing concerns about lost anime have been a topic we have covered on this sitemultiple times. Contrary to what some may believe though, not all lost anime is obscure stuff that only aired once and never again.
There is an increasing number of anime titles that were very popular for several years that are finding their assets (or entire shows) are winding up lost or outright destroyed. This is also the case with this classic anime, which, despite its popularity, had a rough American release, which has resulted in a mystery of what exactly happened to its dub.
What is Full Moon o Sagashite?
Full Moon o Sagashite(which translates toSearching for the Full Moon) is a Japanese shoujo anime and manga series created by Arina Tanemura. It was serialized in Ribon magazine from 2002 to 2004, with the anime adaptation airing shortly afterward from 2002 to 2003. The story follows Mitsuki Koyama, a 12-year-old girl with a deep passion for singing, who dreams of becoming a professional singer to fulfill a promise she made to her childhood friend and love interest, Eichi.
However, Mitsuki has throat cancer, making it difficult for her to sing and ensuring that her dreams of becoming a singer are almost certain not to come true. One day, two shinigami (death spirits) - Takuto and Meroko - appear and tell her that she only has one year left to live. With the help of Takuto, however, she can temporarily achieve her dream before time is up, transforming into the 16-year-old teen idol Full Moon, which gives her the ability to sing despite her illness.
Who Originally Licensed it?
In America, both the manga and the anime were licensed byViz Media. Viz Media actually usedFull Moon o Sagashiteas one of their flagship titles for their Shojo Beat line (though in a very confusing way, which we will discuss later on), and they maintained the license for many years. At one point, the license lapsed and both the manga and anime went out of print. It was just as well though, as the release wasn’t the hit Viz Media was hoping it would be.
The Failed American Release
While the manga was a minor hit for Viz Media, many fans felt the release was botched. When Viz picked up the series, the title had already gained a following in online circles, and a proper release would give the series another big boost. Viz had previously had success with launching an American version of Weekly Shounen Jump (retitled Shonen Jump), and the line was so successful they wanted to replicate the success with a shoujo magazine.
This would result in the creation of the Shojo Beat line, a mgazine that would focus exclusively on shoujo titles that were primarily geared towards a female audience. The magazine’s flagship series was going to beAi Yazawa’sNANA(which would become one of the line’s best-selling titles), however many fans were surprised to see thatFull Moon o Sagashitewasn’t part of the magazine.
Despite being a much more well-known title compared to titles that did make the cut (Baby & MeandKaze Hikarufor example),Full Moon o Sagashitewas sold in book form with the Shojo Beat label on the book. The anime was even more of a mess, with the DVD series coming out with roughly 4 episodes per disc. These discs did not sell well though, and after 7 releases (with the last two becoming huge collectors' items at this point), the release was canceled and the rest of the dub never released. Despite this, Viz Media did get the series onsome streaming servicesnear the end of their contract, but the streaming options did not provide the option to view the dub. This would cause much speculation about the status of it years later.
The Series Receives a Second Chance
At an Otakon Con panel for AnimEigo, CEO Justin Sevakis announced that his company had picked up the franchise for a re-release on BluRay sometime next year. The set will have all 52 episodes of the anime. It will be a BluRay release using the best elements that the company has available, and this is a personal victory for Sevakis as it is one of the company’s first major acquisitions since he bought the company. As predicted though, once the acquisition was announced, fans had one question: will the BluRay retain the long-lost dub ofFull Moon o Sagashite?
The Lost Dubbed Episodes
Viz Media got to release 28 episodes ofFull Moon o Sagashiteon DVD before the series was canceled. Those dubbed episodes never streamed legally on any site and there were conflicting reports on whether or not the entire series had been dubbed or not. Some actors claimed the entire series was dubbed while others cited the dub as the expense that got the DVD releases canceled in the first place. Now the questions arose:
Since Sevakis is a veryhands on CEO(more so than most CEOs of American anime companies) with a history in journalism (he also co-founded Anime News Network), he put on his detective hat and started making phone calls to see what happened to the dub ofFull Moon o Sagashite. After months of calls, e-mails, and talking to friends of friends, he got on X and revealed the results of his investigation.
The thing was, this actually wasn’t the end. Because lost media sleuthing has become this explosive hobby on the internet, fans started reaching out to these companies in their free time, which meant that someone who was very close to the production got wind of these quotes, and reached out to Sevakis to give him some more information on the whereabouts of the lost dub. The follow-up information wasn’t much more promising.
So, there you have it. If the dub did exist, it was destroyed a long time ago. It’s frustrating to not receive a straight answer, but the good news isFull Moon o SagashiteWILL be coming back to BluRay, so for those of you who missed this (surprisingly heartbreaking) anime back in the day, you will be able to own it within the next year.
