BASIC INFORMATION
Name: Meroko
Real Name: Moe
Surname: Yui
Surname: Rikyo
Age: Apparently 16
Hair: Red
Eyes: Pink
Animal: Bunny
She likes: Sweets and Cute Clothes
She hates: Liars
PERSONALITY & APPEARANCE
Meroko is a tsundere. She's cheerful and full of energy, the kind of girl that always obtain what she wants because of her stubborness.
She likes sweets and clothes, and in fact, she's the one that chose how she and her comrade had to dress..
She made her and Izumi's clothes following her tastes, and because of that, we can see that she likes white and pink.
The separation with Izumi changed her a lot, and from the moment she was in a team with Takuto, her clothes became black.
She thinks that all the people have to be sincere with her but she's the first one that hides her real feelings in order to not be betrayed again.
The real herself is fragile and she cries a lot. It's in moments of sadness (and near to the day of her death) that she remembers about her past life.
STORY
Meroko's real name is Moe.
When she was alive she was a normal girl. She decided to commit suicide because of the betrayal of her best friend Fuzuki, that Meroko considered the one who wanted to steal the beloved boy to her, leaving Meroko to marry the guy that she rejected.
The realty is another and Fuzuki didn't marry him, she've always been devoted to Meroko and her death was the saddest thing of Fuzuki's life.
Meroko understood the true only when, as shinigami, she met Fuzuki again, and together they visited Moe's grave.
As half-shinigami, Meroko decided to become a complete god of death and in order to do it, she made a team together with Izumi Lio, her first partner. Because of Izumi's rejection of her feelings, Meroko made a team with Kira Takuto, a new half-shinigami, and their team was called NegiRamen.
Day by day Meroko seems to have fallen in love with him but that's not the truth, and Meroko understands her real feelings when Takuto rejects her for the umpteenth time. He loves Mitsuki, but Meroko can't accept to be rejected again, so she decides to kill Mitsuki and to send her soul to the Heaven. Takuto fights against her and thanks to Mitsuki's sweet and warm feelings, as well as Takuto's declaration of friendship, Meroko gives up, definitely becoming Mitsuki's friend.
It's fighting for her that Meroko understands that she've always been in love with Izumi, and the one for Takuto wasn't real love.
At the end Izumi understands that he've always loved her too and they work together again, as couple and as team.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MANGA & ANIME
At the end of the manga Meroko and Izumi work together again, as lovers and as team, in the anime is different because Meroko becomes an angel and she fly in Heaven, obviously without him.
Unluckily their relation isn't deep there... and she remain in a useless love with Takuto. Also, she had to cut her hair to help Mitsuki to transform in Full Moon and perform on the stage, and she looks horrible like that. After becoming an angel, she looks even worse, like a clown. Meh. Read the manga, it's better.
PERSONAL THOUGHTS
When I started to read Full Moon wo Sagashite I loved Meroko at once, beacuse she's not an idealized or kind character. Not a perfect one. She's a girl with strong and weak points that sometimes can be evil, making bad actions. But the reasons behind her horrible behaviour are hidden in her death. She had a destiny of death in life and a sad one in after-life. Because after dying as Moe, she bacame half-shinigami and at the begin of the story we can think that she just wanted to reach the final form of her new nature, but it's not like this. She was searching for herself, she was searching for love. And that role of shinigami, to keep the others' lives, never suited her. Not even gave her any satisfactions.
Meroko's heart was bleeding for the delusion of the betrayal of her best friend in life and the one of her partner shinigami after that.
I'm really touched by Meroko's story and everytime I read Full Moon I can't help but finding a part of me in Meroko's twisted feelings. Because the feelings inside of her heart are so deeply sufferent that she lived like a zombie, searching for love and envying Mitsuki, who really found the real love, even if she lost it before having the chance to have a happy ending with him. And then, we have Takuto. At the begin we can think he was the person Meroko was in love with, but it was a lie to herself, because she only loved the never forgotten Izumi. That Izumi who betrayed her. With a lot of sacrifices she got to become Mitsuki's friend and she found the strength and the will to entrust her, so the conclusion of the story is simply fantastic, because she finally understands that she doesn't have to share with friends and her partner just a job anymore, but a whole, eternal "after"life.
It's sad to think that Meroko, Izumi and Takuto died without loving someone, but the eternal life is the most important one, and they share a brilliant future there, a future where their hearts won't be alone anymore.
I love this girl with all my heart and after more than ten years from the first time I read Full Moon, I can proudly say she's always in my heart as the first day. Now, and I hope, forever.
