Twinkle Stars, Vol. 3

Twinkle Stars #3

by Natsuki Takaya (Creator)

It's the day of the fireworks display, and Chihiro's come down with a fever! At Saki's recommendation, a worried Sakuya decides to visit him at home. But when the ill Chihiro opens up to her about his painful past, will Sakuya be able to accept the real, more vulnerable Chihiro, or will the two drift apart in the aftermath of his shocking confession?

Genres: Manga, Shojo, Graphic Novels Manga, Graphic Novels, Comics Manga

390 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2017

About the author

Name (in native language) : 高屋奈月

Natsuki Takaya (高屋 奈月 Takaya Natsuki, real name Naka Hatake) is the penname of a Japanese manga artist best-known for creating the series Fruits Basket. She was born on July 7, 1973; (Tanabata). Takaya is left-handed and once revealed that she wanted to be a mangaka since first grade, when her sister started drawing.

She was born in Shizuoka, Japan, but was raised in Tokyo, where she made her debut in 1992. She enjoys video games such as the Final Fantasy series or Sakura Wars, or working on her different manga series, such as Fruits Basket, which is the second best-selling shōjo manga ever in Japan, and the top selling shōjo manga in North America. Fruits Basket has also been adapted into a twenty-six-episode anime series.

In 2001, Takaya received a Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo manga for Fruits Basket.

According to Takaya (in a sidebar of a Fruits Basket manga volume), she enjoys drawing girls (girly ones) more than she does boys. Takaya also enjoys electronics and music, but dislikes talking about herself. Also revealed in a sidebar of Fruits Basket, Takaya broke her drawing arm (left) after Fruits Basket volume six was published. She had to go into surgery, and as a result, had put Fruits Basket on a brief hiatus. Takaya made a full recovery, but complains that her handwriting had gotten uglier, due to the surgery. During her hospital stay, she gained an interest in baseball.

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm getting a little further into the groove of this manga, but it's still not at the point that it's drawing me in and keeping me there. The parts where the characters are hanging out, and (mostly) bickering with each other are enjoyable.

But it seems like Takaya can't write a story without a pall of misery hanging over the characters, that comes of past tragedy or abuse. And--for whatever reason--whenever those tragic elements come up here, they feel like they're trying too hard for an emotional punch, and that punch mostly misses.

Maybe it's because it feels too deliberately constructed or artificial in places. As one example, a large section of the middle of this volume was a storyline where Hijiri pushes a dossier on Sakuya. This dossier is about Chihiro's relationship with Sakura (who also, of course, has a sad background) that happened while he was living in Tokyo. This leads to Sakuya and Chihiro getting closer, and Hijiri bringing herself to apologize for the first time in her life. This could--or, perhaps, should--have been handled more organically, through Chihiro's facade cracking on its own, rather than being busted open by someone else who isn't that closely connected to him. Sakuya's and Hijiri's rift could have had its source in something besides a boy that one of the girls has an attraction to, but that's asking a lot of a shoujo manga.

Something I thought of this morning is that this story feels like Banri Hidaka's manga, only everybody's default state is "unhappy" rather than "happy." Since this one is also a less affecting clone of Takaya's own manga Fruits Basket--with Sakuya as a version of Tohru, and Chihiro as [all the Sohmas]*--I doubt it'll be a keeper. Maybe in a world where I wasn't trying to optimize my manga collection, it would make the cut. It's pretty good. But it just doesn't have that extra oomph that would justify eleven volumes' worth of shelf space.

* I'm going to belabor this until the end, probably. Sorry about that.

[Eyla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Chihiro's backstory was so emotional! The character development in this volume is amazing. I think the only main characters without too much was Kanade and Yuuri who both had development in the previous volume. I am really excited for the fourth volume coming out later this month!

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my favorite volume so far

[Starr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can Yuuri be any more adorable!? He's a short king and we stan! He's so mature about persuing his feelings for Saku and idk just something in the way Takaya draws the expression of one character who is deeply in love with another and how their eyes are just filled to brim with emotion. And add to that unrequited feelings and oof no wonder I feel so heartbroken and giddy everytime Yuuri on the page. Not only that I love his dynamic with Chihiro-kun too, they are on their way to becoming best Bros and I'm here for it.

Sei-chan, Sei-chan she is always the belle of the ball both in beauty and character complexity.. she is so intriguing and I am enjoying peeling back her layers one by one to get a deeper look behind the mean spoilt calculating girl who somehow has a soft spot for Saku.

Speaking of intriguing characters.. Chihiro-kun, the love intrest. I am finally completely on board the main ship, it is a very complicated situation tho, without any spoilers I genuinely have no idea how Aoi can possibly heal and move forward from such a trauma especially with the source still in the picture. Also I was SO upset about the whole past of Aoi, truly one of Takaya's saddest pasts and that's saying something.

And I guess that's about it for my review such as it is lol, I'm loving it and can't wait to continue on. Also this is a very high 4 stars like possibly 4.5 stars. Should I just make it 5? I could honestly but then I feel wierd for always just giving 5 perfect stars to everything Takaya writes even tho I do have some criticisms, her work just takes me on such emotional journeys it's very hard to seprate my feeling lol. Okay I'm giving 5 stars lol life's too short to not give 5 stars to the things I love even if they give me emotionally damaged hehe

[Arunima]

best volume till now but i guess that's to be expected as we flesh out the characters more by looking into their pasts. yuuri is <333 just saying. chihiro's backstory was so fucking sad like it almost felt unreal. but i did cry at sakura talking about families saying 'good morning' and 'welcome home' in real life and not just on tv. and i was kinda soft for sakura and chihiro finding solace in each other.

now, if the seichan story with the sensei just triggers her growth and not end up in a romance (this volume really gave me hope about that like you can say that it's mostly in seichan's head and that shizuka guy has acted quite respectably in all the scenes we have till now), I am willing to maybe forgive takaya for the shitshow that is katsuya and kyoko romance (i mean i already like the grief part of it, i just forcibly forget that katsuya was kyoko's teacher in middle school).

[Skye (Skye's Scribblings) · Rating 4 out of 5]

THIS IS A REVIEW OF THE ENTIRE SERIES

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary Romance
Content Rating: Older Teen (bullying, child abuse, attempted suicide, some mild language and violence)
Format Read: Paperback

Trigger Warnings: bullying, child abuse, depression, attempted suicide

Series Note: The US edition consists of 5 omnibus editions. The series was originally released in Japan in 11 volumes (found on Goodreads here).

Twinkle Stars is an emotionally charged teen romance of first love and familial angst from the author of the wildly popular series, Fruits Basket. In five omnibus editions, Takaya tells the story of two teens who are emotionally bullied and scarred by their classmates and family but after a mysterious meeting find hope and healing in each other. Theirs is a heavy journey of abuse, depression, and attempted suicide, but Takaya injects a lot of affection, eventual support, and a little of her signature humor into the otherwise dark story. While the romance was hesitant and heartbreaking with more downs than ups, it had its sweet and uplifting moments with consequent happiness for all involved. The art was simple and strong with soft smiles, painful tears, and a few trademark flails to lighten the somber content. Overall it was an emotional rollercoaster with dark turns but a happy finish that I highly recommend for romance readers who like their love stories full of tenderness and tissues. And if you're a fan of Fruits Basket, it is not to be missed.

For Fans Of: Fruits Basket

[-moonprismpower- · Rating 5 out of 5]

I shall take it upon myself to save these kids from the shitty adults in their lives. They deserve to be loved and shown that they’re never truly alone.

Chihiro’s past with Sakura makes everything fall into place… why he feels alone. Why he feels like he can’t “save anyone”. Why he’s scared of Saku.
Saku reacted how I thought she would. How I would’ve reacted if I loved someone that deeply. Their past does not define them. I still would’ve fallen in love with this person even if I knew about their past beforehand.

I understand Sei a lot more after this volume. And oddly, I do understand that feeling of “My life is too perfect. I want to feel sadness. I want someone to want to save me…” But she’s right. That’s just shallow. You only wanted trauma to be “interesting”… Those traumatized people aren’t “interesting”. They’re dying on the inside. They’re battling demons every damn day.

[Keith Hendricks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Twinkle Stars is an exceptional manga not only for the mangaka’s unflinching treatment of the subject mattter, but for the way the images articulate the story in a rhythmic arrangement of panels. And instead of a rational sequence of thoughts, the image bursts in Twinkle Stars create a sequence of feelings, so that reading the manga feels more like lived experience. Takaya enhances this effect with her understated dialogue, sparing the reader the unnecessarily redundant commentary that we get so much of in real life. The overall effect of submerging the verbal in Twinkle Stars creates a melodious and lyrical effect so that these double volumes fly by.

Full review through this link (spoilers): http://www.nerdspan.com/twinkle-stars...

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well a definite sign you’re in a story is when you begin to compromise one more hour knowing you’ve got work or some sort of morning obligation and you should’ve been in the bed hours ago.

I’m definite curious how this turns out but reading it almost makes me want to reread Fruits Basket. Will definitely be getting the other volumes from the library later today.

In this volume of the Omni got to see the circumstances of what lead Chihiro to his current mindset and also the story of Sakura. That bit was depressing but made me think how sometimes we are attracted to others and think we’re trying to save them when really we’re projecting and needing to save ourselves. It almost becomes this idea of “maybe if I can fix them then I can be fixed...”.

[✮Octjillery✮ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume was much better than the previous two. Chihiro's backstory in regards to Sakura was intense and emotional, and many of the characters displayed growth of character, which was nice. Yuuri, Chihiro, Saku, Sei, and Kana all had at least a small arc in which they grew as people, whether it was in their understanding of themselves or others.

The choppiness to the dialogue is still there, but I suppose it's more palatable now or I just got used to it.

[Celinda Reyes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume was so intense! I really felt so bad for Sakura & Chihiro. Hijiri was kinda annoying towards the end of this one but it did come from a good place. Overall super excited to see where this story is going but I know I'll make me cry.

[Violeta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked Volumes 1 and 2, but Volume 3 is where the series really gets good. Natsuki Takaya is excellent at using tragic backstory to inform her characters’ motivations and relationships with each other. There were a couple panels where the illustrations were so subtly powerful, I teared up.

[Jillian -always aspiring- · Rating 3 out of 5]

2020 Read #143

This series is very somber at times, and at those moments I feel like the humor is at odds with the overall tone of the story. But otherwise it’s a solid series — just not as special as Fruits Basket.

[Ágnes Köteles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before I was complaining not knowing Chihiro’s story... I did not wanted to get slapped with it in the face for 250 pages straight! (Only joking, defenetly did!)
I can’t wait for the fluff to kick off in the next one, this one was very angsty...

[Bee (BacchusVines) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gimme my babies wrapped in 1000-thread count blankets. <3 (More cohesive review eventually)

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave me more clarity as to what was really going on and I'm both happy and sad to know it.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fabulously made! Didn't expect that twist to come! This one's a page-turner unlike the first 2 volumes! Well worth the read 😁