Until the Full Moon (AKA: Full Moon ni Sasayaite) Vol.#01

By: Eduardo M. Chavez
Review Date: Sunday, January 30, 2005
Release Date: Thursday, January 20, 2005



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Matoh Sanami
Translated by:Rie Hagihara
Adapted by:

What They Say
Marlo has a problem. On the night of the full moon, this half-werewolf, half-vampire undergoes a mysterious and terrifying transformation:

He turns into a girl.

Desperate for a cure, his parents call on Doctor Vincent, a long time family friend. But Marlo wants to keep his condition secret from Vincent's son, the vampire playboy David.

Unfortunately, the secret gets out, and a new problem surfaces: David is interested in Marlo's female form! If a remedy can't be found, their parents believe the next best solution is marriage - a marriage between Marlo and David!


The Review
Packaging:
Let me repeat this: Broccoli Books is the North American standard in packaging! Okay, I am done....

One would expect Broccoli Books to take care of their BROCCOLI properties with the utmost care, but after seeing their first non-Broccoli release there is no doubt that they are able to consistently produce wonderful manga for their entire library. Broccoli uses the original cover art featuring lead characters David and Marlo. The image is surrounded by blue and purple fruit and leaves... Romantic? They also use a crescent moon to hold the volume number, as well. The opposite cover does not have character art, however beneath the volume description there is another blueberry and blackberry floral arrangement.

Inside Broccoli has a full color landscape image of David and Marlo (in his female form), which is followed by a list of brief character bios. At the end of the manga, there is an after talk from Matoh-sensei and a short preview of volume two. All of this was done with crisp clean printing on nice paper. Very nice.

Artwork:
Right off the bat, I want to say I have never been a big fan of Matoh's art. I tend to find some of it really sloppy. Matoh's older work has very little consistency. Characters have a set design, but Matoh tends to only be able draw them well in certain angles. When the characters are not in an optimal position then jaw lines change, eyes tend to look different, and detail is greatly lost. I also find Matoh's length annoying. Jaws are huge and legs are unbelievably long. Moreover, for some reason those characteristics have placed an image of John Kerry in my head every time I see lead vampire David Vincent. That is not an image I want to see when I read manga.


Backgrounds are stale when they are present. Matoh tries to cover for it with manpu and flowery patterns as often as possible. This does not remedy this problem, but it does help with the complex but slow layout.

SFX/Text:
I love how well the translation flows in this manga. I have not read the original, so I cannot properly asses this, but Higahara was able to create a translation that kept the personality of each character. I did not notice any honorifics. I wonder if they were there originally, as they could have added some more humor to this funny little romance comedy.

BroBooks translates their SFX with small subs. This perfect as they keep the original art and provide appropriate translations that do not distract or compromise Matoh's art.

Contents: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
When will parents ever learn to stay out of their children's love life?! It is as if they do not respect the concept of love; instead, they go ahead and force their kids into arranged marriages. Situations like this tend to only benefit the parents who end up saving face, gaining power or insuring stability. Their children, though, might not get a single positive thing. They could end up struggling for love, searching for compatibility and questioning the partnership.

Poor Marlo already has more than his share of problems; the last thing he needs is to have his parents marry him off to some stranger. So Marlo will not be marrying a stranger, he has been engaged to an old friend but these are definitely not the circumstances he thought he would find himself when finally meeting his fiancée. Turns out that he will be marrying an old male friend! David Vincent, a known playboy, is not even against the strange arrangement. For some reason or another he is actually infatuated with Marlo - but does he want him for that one day of the month when Marlo is not himself or does he want him the other 350+ days of the year as well. If he could only know for sure, cause he might feel the same way. Either way Marlo is going to have a tough time with this. He did not want to get married, and now he is going to have to get fit for a wedding dress to boot!

Comments
There are a couple things people cannot do anything about: blood and love should be right near the top of that list. There is nothing that can be done about one's blood. Sure, you can get medication, and science is trying to achieve "advancements" like genetic engineering, but in the end, blood is much more than what flows in your veins. Blood is history; it is nature and nurture; and blood brings people together for all sorts of things (good or bad).

Love is a mystery to many people, as well. Sometimes it is cut and dry, but love often comes from where we least expect it. Love is a very powerful emotion and some would do anything to keep it.

Matoh uses these two ideas with some wicked results. Her lead character has been cursed with blood that has him very confused about how he sees himself and what he has thought love means to him. Marlo knows he has had feelings for one person for as long as he can remember. Is that what love is? Are his feelings right or wrong? Now that his werewolf blood has him changing into a woman once a month, should he be afraid to love a man? Will he love him back?

Lovers around the world can share many of these questions. Personally, I was able to relate to Marlo being hesitant initially as he wondered about his feelings and if they were shared. I was able to understand how there are times when having parents force their feelings onto their children is frustrating. I was able to agree with David and how he would fight for his love. There is little people can do about blood and love, but they influence our lives everyday.

Until the Full Moon is a fun boy/boy romance that with a twist. I wondered why Matoh had to have that angle (Marlo's transformation) as it sets up a situation where Marlo might be considered a girl, which his parents agree about early on in the series. Nevertheless, in the end I found that really helped with Marlo's trouble. If he was always a guy and David fell for him, the answer would be simple. However, with that little bit of doubt, especially since David is a playboy, then Marlo would have to make sure his feelings were reciprocated. Love does not come easy and this is one reason why. I love romances with issues and this one has a big one. I wish there was a little more to this story, as the comedy is really more visual than dialogue based, but Until the Full Moon is still a fun short romance that makes readers think about how confusing love can be.

Fun.