Twinkle Stars

Hoshi wa Utau is a shoujo manga written by Natsuki Takaya, known for Fruits Basket. While Hoshi wa Utau does not really compare to Fruits Basket, it's still a solid shoujo manga that's really worth a read. Spoilers ahead. Story: 7 The plot isn't anything really new or ground breaking, but it works well enough and is still enjoyable and engaging. The story is both sad and uplifting at the same time, and Natsuki Takaya manages to balance these elements really well. There was also the twist at the end with Chihiro going back to Tokyo to help Sakura. Although it was obvious that Chihiro and Sakuyawould end up together in the end, I actually thought the story's message would have been more effective if they didn't end up waiting for each other and walking off holding hands into the sunset. The story's message deals a lot with moving forward, and it would have fit with that message nicely if Sakuya could have accepted that although Chihiro would always hold a special place in her heart, she can't keep waiting for him forever and she needs to move on with her life. It had the potential to be a very true-to-life and touching depiction of first love. But instead, she doesn't move on at all (She thinks about it for about 10 seconds only to find Chihiro waiting for her) and waits for Chihiro for years until he finally DOES come back. That whole turn of events seemed to kind of contradict the entire message of the manga, although I'm completely not surprised it turned out the way it did. (If it didn't, there'd be a lot more bad reviews of this manga, lol!) Art: 8 Natsuki Takaya's art is very clean and solid, and her talent with lighting and shadows really shows. In the earlier volumes, the characters were sometimes hard to tell apart, but they become more individual and unique as the manga progresses. Characters: 7 My main problem with the characters is the heroine, Sakuya. She's a very typical shoujo protagonist, and in the early volumes was nearly insufferably bland. She gets a little more development as it goes on, but she's still many times over less interesting than any of the supporting characters. Luckily, the supporting characters are interesting and dimensional enough to make up for Sakuya. Her friends, Hijiri and Yuuri, are both a ton of fun to watch and I ended up loving both of them a lot. The romance between Hijiri and Saki was really endearing and I enjoyed it a little bit more than Sakuya and Chihiro's, honestly. Chihiro, while sometimes so angsty to the point of ridiculousness, is an interesting enough love interest. You care about him and really want to see him grow. Overall: 8 Although not perfect, Hoshi wa Utau is a very good shoujo manga with a very uplifting message and some pretty likable characters. If you really enjoy shoujo/romance manga, this is definitely worth your time.

To start, I just need to get this off my chest: The English title drives me crazy. Like, it looks like a mistranslation and very obviously should have been 'Twinkling Stars' or something and nobody caught that?! Anyway... I'll be honest. I picked this one up because I'm a huge Fruits Basket fan. If I wasn't already in love with Takaya's work, the summary never would have caught my attention enough to buy even the first volume to try it out. But I had faith that there was going to be something deeper, and I think that faith was rewarded. The romance really wasn't what resonatedwith me in this story, but I'll be the first to admit that I'm not typically one for romance anyway. And to get that out of the way... Not the best love story I've ever read. Some touching moments, but something missing overall. To name a few things that really stuck out to me, I think they immediately got off on the wrong foot. The mystery with Chihiro was interesting. And I think that was certainly enough to make Sakuya sufficiently curious to track him down and get to know him better. Especially after he leaves her that night with some really touching words. (Even if he couldn't have possibly understood the effect his words would have on her at the time.) But I definitely think she jumps to the conclusion that she's in love too quickly. And the extent of Chihiro's angst-- especially when we're just getting to know him-- was a little off-putting for me. That romance cliche where a love interest is perfectly normal and pleasant one day and then suddenly comes out with the dramatic 'I hate you' the next? Not a fan in general. Definitely didn't need to see it here. But I will say I think their love story is wrapped up nicely by the end. And the night they share together right before his return to Tokyo did have me genuinely emotional. That said, I did like all of the characters. (With the exception of the parents, who were all written to be kind of one-note villains.) That was the one thing I was most looking forward to-- Natsuki Takaya's ability to write characters with emotional, dark backstories. And all of the characters did feel fleshed out. More importantly, we get to see them all grow and develop as human beings over the course of the story. I loved the family story between Sakuya and Kanade. I thought the 'twist' with Sakura was predictable, but I did like her character too. And Chihiro played his part well, even if he felt a little bland sometimes. In this regard, all of my expectations were met. So at the end of it all, I did enjoy this series. I feel like the romance they were aiming for didn't quite hit its mark, but I wasn't really in it for the love story anyway. And if you're a fan of Fruits Basket and all the dark stories and character development it offered, I think you'll enjoy this one as well.

It started off really well in the first two volumes, the first omnibus. There was mystery and Chihiro was actually two sided. Chihiro meets Kanade on Saku's birthday. He's holding a present, and when he meets Kanade, he tells him he's her boyfriend. Saku comes home and meets Chihiro for the first time. She thinks he's Kanade's close friend and Kanade thinks he's her boyfriend. She finds out later that that's not the case. He's neither her boyfriend nor a close friend of Kanade. He's unwilling to be who he really is. He tells her he can be anyone she wants to him be, otherthan himself. So I thought the writing was really good at the beginning. This would be as good as Fruits Basket. I thought the series would talk about duality within people, how we have who we wanted to be perceived as and who we really are. It'd explore the roles we play in our daily lives. It depicts bullying in a really subtle way and explored the dark side of people, even within a classroom. That fact was too much is revealed too fast and Chihiro loses his edge. He loses what made him difficult to approach. Chihiro becomes bland. Before, he was sarcastic and rather rude, but blunt and honest. He's not willing to reveal anything about his life in Tokyo. His character to me becomes inconsistent once the hat's out of the bag. And somehow Sei-chan, the rich girl, digs up his file. How's that even possible? Like when Tohru's relatives hired a private investigation and dug into her living conditions. Then all the mystery's gone. Good storytelling doesn't need to be told. It needs to be shown. Not revealed in a file. And then it fell into a melodrama and became riddled with shoujo cliches: rich girl with a butler, a love triangle, girl crushing on a teacher, fireworks, and lastly girl in a coma. I've seen this done so many times in the "romance" genre that it's become old and stale. I already knew what would happen and yes I've seen and read Bokura Ga Ita. Everything that made the first omnibus really good fell to the waist side and it became another angsty boy with baggage who can't be with his one true love for whatever reason. Of course he lashes out as his love interest at some point, for the added drama. He could be a jerk but he didn't need to physically put her to potential harm. Another Bokura Ga Ita, but with much better art. It plays out almost like Bokura Ga Ita. Chihiro becomes another Kakeru from Orange and that flighty boy from Bokura Ga Ita. I was so disappointed. It started off so well, but devolves into this disheveled heap of a melodrama. Once they introduced the coma girl, I already knew what was going to happen. It's that predictable. I regret reading it or even investing in it. It honestly went on longer than intended. Stick with Fruits Basket. This ended so badly.