Manga Review: Daytime Shooting Star

Daytime Shooting Star (Hirunaka no Ryuusei) (ひるなかの流星)
Original Story by Mika Yamamori
Art by Mika Yamamori
Published by Margaret from 2011 to 2014
Genres: [Shoujo] Romance, School
Volumes: 12
Chapters: 86
Status of manga: Completed*
[Edit 3/11/2018] My rating for the live action: 8/10

*Review based on entire manga series

MAL | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books a Million

Purchase links are not available because, as of when this review is published, this manga has yet to be officially serialized in English. However, you can still read this online with fan-subs.

3 Stars, Completed July 3, 2017

– read the bold text only to avoid major SPOILERS –

He emitted a light as bright as that of a falling star…

Daytime Shooting Star is a high school romance centering around the story of a teenage girl named Suzume Yosano that moves to Tokyo from a small town to reside with her uncle after her father’s job transfer. Upon her arrival to the city she meets a mysterious young gentleman that helps her reach her uncle’s place. Though she learns that this man is an acquaintance of her uncle’s she remains skeptical of this happy go lucky guy and tries to avoid him after their first encounter… but it looks like this will be harder done than said considering he’s her homeroom teacher at her new school.

Having read the entire series-all 12 volumes (which is roughly 80 chapters)-in the span of three days, there’s clearly an addictive quality to Daytime Shooting Star. And the sole reason why I think it was so compelling to read was because (dare I say it) the love triangle.

I might be the black sheep with this confession but I’ve actually never been one that disliked love triangles if done well. My biggest annoyances with the bad ones have been when A) the triangle itself was completely unnecessary and could have been avoided but was there to add unwanted drama B) it became blatantly apparent who the protagonist would choose at the end early on and/or C) the author decided to take a cop-out and villainized one party so that the lead female would alternatively get together with the seemingly “nice guy.”

Luckily, there was none of that nonsense with Daytime Shooting Star. Instead, it excelled at the push and pull aspect of these sort of romances but in balanced moderation to minimize readers’ frustration. It was also pretty obscure throughout the entire series who the heroine would eventually pick. In fact, the mystery of the outcome was this manga’s greatest charm, in my opinion.

Manga Review: Blue Spring Ride

Blue Spring Ride (Ao Haru Ride) (アオハライド)
Original Story by Io Sakisaka
Art by Io Sakisaka
Published by Bessatsu Margaret from 2011 to 2015
Genres: [Shoujo] Romance, School, Slice of Life
Volumes: 13
Chapters: 53
Status of manga: Completed*
My rating for the anime: 8/10
My rating for the live action film: 6.5/10

*Review based on entire manga series

MAL | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books a Million

Purchase links are not available because, as of when this review is published, this manga has yet to be officially serialized in English. However, you can still read this online with fan-subs.

3.5 Stars, Reread January 1, 2017

– read the bold text to avoid minor SPOILERS –

Gif credits to wordstuck

If I had to choose one word to describe this manga series, it would be the Japanese adjective, “懐かしい” (natsukashii). This term is difficult to translate into English accurately and completely, but it is often used to express a yearning for something, or a slightly nostalgic feeling of missing. As a non-native and amateur learning the foreign language for my own fun, how I’ve personally interpret natsukashii is the feeling you get when you’re reminded of the past. And Blue Spring Ride made me feel just that.

The story begins with two middle schoolers, Futaba Yoshioka and Kou Tanaka, that like each other making plans to attend a festival together during their school break. However, misunderstandings arise after Futaba accidentally blurts that she hates boys because of their obnoxious behavior. Kou hears her exclamation, and doesn’t meet up with Futaba the day of the event. Futaba believes that he stood her up for the outburst that he overheard, but really he couldn’t make it because of family issues. So she decides to address this misunderstanding when they return to school. But on the day of the new semester, Futaba discovers that Kou has already transferred schools to another town. With a lot of loose ends left and the strength of first love, the two never forget each other in spite of the distance. And then years later, fate makes them enrolled in the same high school. Will they finally face each other after all this time? And will the attraction they shared from the past be rekindled?

Manga Review: Wolf Children

Wolf Children (Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki) (おおかみこどもの雨と雪)
Original Story by Mamoru Hosoda
Art by Yu
Published by Young Press, Yen Press from 2012 to 2013
Genres: [Seinen] Fantasy, Drama, Slice of Life
Volumes: 3
Chapters: 16
Status of manga: Completed*
My rating for the anime: 7/10

*Review based on entire manga series

MAL | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books a Million

4 Stars, Completed August 7, 2016

– SPOILER free –

Wolf Children essentially begins as a love story between a young university student named Hana and an enigmatic man who attends her college but isn’t exactly a student there. As they begin to fall deeply in love, he reveals that he’s not human and transforms into a wolf. Unwavering, Hana still accepts the “wolf man” into her life. They happily get married and have two healthy children: Yuki born on a snowy day and Ame during heavy rain. All is well until Hana’s husband is tragically taken away from the family (this is not a spoiler-I checked and it was in the book’s cover flap as well as Goodreads’ synopsis), and subsequently she becomes a single mother. Unable to keep her wild and expressive children away from the prying eyes of the people in a densely populated city, she soon makes the decision to move to the countryside. And there she and her family will have to face other plights but also many joys as well.

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Books for Readers Who Like Manga/Graphic Novels (Especially in the Shoujo Genre)

Hi everyone! Once again, I’m participating in the Top Ten Tuesday meme, by The Broke and Bookish. This week’s topic is actually Ten Books for Readers Who Like _____, so it was really left for the blogger to choose this week’s theme. Since it’s rare to get this opportunity to make up your own topic for the weekly feature, I thought it’d be fun and different to talk about books most of my readers don’t read, manga (or graphic novels)! And, I guess, some could argue that manga/graphic novels aren’t books, but I don’t care, I still think they are.

Oh, and if you click the image, it leads you a page called myanimelist, which is basically the equivalent to goodreads for someone who loves to read manga or watch anime. And if you hover over the pictures, they should all be sourced/cited to where I got the original image since these aren’t my photos (well except for one).

Anyway, here goes!

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Skip Beat!
by Yoshiki Nakamura

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance, Shoujo

This one is my favorite and the art is gorgeous! It’s about a girl named Kyoko, and she follows her childhood crush to Tokyo. There she helps him achieve his dreams of becoming a singer and actor, but he dumps her after a couple of months. So to seek revenge, she decides to enter the acting industry herself to show him how much more successful she will become without him in her life. Kyoko goes through a lot of character development as more volumes are released, and there’s some great humor too!