Hanbun no Tsuki ga Noboru Sora: looking up at the half-moon

Information of Anime

Yuuchi Ezkai is hospitalized for hepatitis.  However, he escapes from the hospital at night for some fun & the nurse, Akiko Tanizaki, is fed up with it & starts to put a bench in front of his room at night.  One day, she offers him a proposal.  She will remove the bench if Yuuchi is willing to become friends with a patient named Rika Akiba.  Meeting her, Rika is a selfish person & orders Yuuchi around.  Although he is captured by her beauty, he doesn't know why he's being treated like that.  All he knows is that Rika is in the Eastern Ward where patients with serious illness are stationed there.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  This section does contain some spoilers.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

Rika doesn't have long to live since she has heart values that don't function properly.  She has to undergo an operation to get it fixed, but she may die during the operation like her father.  Yuuchi, who follows her around like a dog, is starts to fall for her & pretty much does anything that she tells him to do.

In one incident, Rika refuses to forgive Yuuchi when she finds his stash of porn magazines that he inherit from the will of a hospital patient who died.  Yuuchi tries hard to get her forgiveness until she find forgives him because Dr. Natsume told her to.  According to Rika, she has been following Dr. Natsume for 6 years when he transferred to different hospitals.  This cause Yuuchi to be upset.  As a result, Rika throws a book at him & falls on the edge of the building which is impossible to get.  That book is special to her since it was given to her by her late father.

Later that day, Yuuchi decides to get the book back when it starts to rain.  Successfully, he returns the book to her in secret but ends up getting himself in worse conditions for his health.  Now, Rika & Yuuchi are friends again & this bothers Dr. Natsume.  Dr. Natsume secretly talks to Yuuchi at night & gives him a pounding by telling him that he is a fool to hold on to hope.  Beaten, Yuuchi reads a copy of the book Rika cherishes & learns that there is no hope for the couple in that book.  Meanwhile, we get a flashback from that day when Dr. Natsume talks to Rika's mother.  It seems Rika's condition is getting worse & her chance of survival in the operation is getting slimmer.  In fact, it leads to a sudden attack that forces the operation to be scheduled closer.  During this time, Yuuchi helpless & mindless doesn't know what he wants to do.  It's as if all hope is gone.  We also get a glimpse of Dr. Natsume's past where he loses his wife in the same situation as Rika's condition.  After the operation on Rika, her condition gets worse & reduce her success rate even more.

Yuuchi is now banned from see Rika due to her mother's orders.  She feels that Rika isn't getting better because of the times where Yuuchi takes her outside the hospital.  In-between, we learn about Dr. Natsume's past which is similar to Rika's case which his wife suffered a similar fate.  This is why Dr. Natsume wants Yuuchi & Rika apart for Yuuchi's sake.  However, Yuuchi is determine to be with Rika & makes a bold move going into Rika's room from the outside.  Although Rika's mother stops, Rika wants to be with Yuuchi.  This creates a bond between the two patients & Rika's mother backing down.

The show ends where Rika still has a slim chance of survival & Yuuchi continuing to be sick.

My Personal Review

Hanbun no Tsuki ga Noboru Sora: looking up at the half-moon is surprisingly good at the start.  It's got some comedic bits here & there, but it focus heavily on drama.  Personally, I recommend watching this if you are into heartwarming dramas with a storyline.

Animation

The drawings are pretty average.  They are not badly drawn & they look good.  Yuuchi has the standard long hair hairstyle that I don't like personally.  His sideburns are big & long that it makes him look like a girl. 

The backgrounds are ok.  They are pretty much up to par with today's OVAs.  Light & dull colour tones that don't clash with the characters & contain simple details that yet makes it look gorgeous.

Animation flow is quite natural.  It's your typical down to Earth movements containing no silly stuff.  Very smooth with no choppiness.

Sound

The sound effect are ok & the volume level is good.

The music is pretty much soft ballads.  Some have intense melodies for some scenes, which sets the mood well.  However, I didn't have any songs that were able to stick to my head.

The voices are solid & the studio did a good job finding a decent cast for it.

Story

The "I'm going to die soon" theme is starting to become common these days.  So common, it's no longer original.  Writers now need to face a challenge that can make it appeal to the audience & so far, this show is getting my attention right off from the 1st episode.

For a 6 episode series, the pace seems to be moving just right.  I found it a little too quick for Yuuchi to convince his love to Rika, but I'm thinking it's probably moving at the right direction.

One major problem though is the possible spoiler that the show gives off purposely.  If you watch the ending credits, you will see what I mean.  If that is how the show will end, then the writers really blew away the emotions of the storyline.  However, that isn't the ending of the show after all.

Overall Conclusion

Having me hooked on the first episode is really gives me the feeling that Hanbun no Tsuki ga Noboru Sora: looking up at the half-moon has a lot of potential in being a good anime.  In fact, I'll strongly recommend it just from that one episode alone.

Hanbun no Tsuki ga Noboru Sora: looking up at the half-moon gets an eight out of ten from me. Although it has a common theme, the drama & warm feeling really caught my attention.  Great pace & excellent characters really make this show worthy to watch.  However, the ending is open-ended.  It doesn't complete the show by giving a final outcome.  The show still has lots of room to continue with the story, which I think won't happen.  This is actually where the show suffers a bit.