The Spring 2025 Manga Guide

A Star Brighter Than the Sun

What's It About? 

Sae and Koki have been friends since childhood. One fateful day at the end of middle school, she has a revelation: Koki has grown up! Now they're in high school, and she has another revelation: she has feelings for Koki! But Sae isn't the only girl who does… The question is, who does Koki have feelings for?!

A Star Brighter Than the Sun has a story and art by Kazune Kawahara. English translation by Tetsuichiro Miyaki. Lettered by Elena Diaz. Published by Viz Media (March 4, 2025). Rated T.

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Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

A Star Brighter Than the Sun was always going to have a tough time living up to its older siblings, High School Debut and My Love Story!!. It does its absolute best to achieve that, and it succeeds the most in its protagonist, Sae Iwata. She's a very believable character – quietly riddled with insecurities about her size (she's tall and well-built) and about her friendship with Koki, especially now that they're in high school. They were best friends in elementary school but drifted apart in middle school, and that's left her feeling like she maybe no longer has the right to have a crush on him. But she also doesn't seem to know how to treat him like a person, because all of a sudden she's aware that he's a boy, and at this point in her life, “boy” doesn't necessarily equate to “person.” She's just a jumbled-up mess inside, and I think most of us are at that age, even if you're just trying to reconnect with an old friend, no romance involved.

But Koki himself is a problem. While the book is firmly from Sae's perspective, the way Koki is written doesn't give us much of a chance to get to know him. I'm certain that's deliberate on Kazune Kawahara's part, because most of Sae's angst comes from not feeling like she knows him anymore. But this is a romance, so we need to have something to build the relationship on beyond “he's cute” and “other girls like him.” I'm probably not being entirely fair, because there are some moments when we can guess that Koki absolutely returns Sae's feelings and she's too much in her head to pick up on it. Again, this becomes a bit of an issue because her head isn't an awesome place to be, and that just makes the book more frustrating than it needs to be.

“Frustrating” is the word I'd use to describe my feelings while reading this. I appreciate that Kawahara is trying to do something a little different than other similar stories, and I really do like Sae and her two new gal pals quite a bit. But her thoughts are repetitive to the point of claustrophobia, and quite frankly, the art isn't entirely up to depicting Koki as the super-hot guy everyone says he is. Mostly, I'm disappointed that I can't give this my wholehearted recommendation, because I desperately wanted to love it… and instead, I find myself wanting to re-read a better book to make up for it.