Title: A Star Brighter Than the Sun Vol. 2
Author: Kazune Kawahara
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 187
Genre: Slice-of-Life, Romance
Publication Date: June 3, 2025
The Story
After Kamishiro stated that he had a crush on someone, Iwata’s natural reaction was to avoid him at all costs. At first, she brushes him off, but then she begins to physically distance herself from him as much as possible. Kamishiro obviously notices her efforts to avoid him and confronts her about it when they are stuck on a rowboat together. In the end, they agree they it shouldn’t be a big deal between them and that they should carry on as friends; however, while Iwata is relieved that she doesn’t have to keep running away from him, she’s disappointed that things will continue at a friendship level.
After they return from their class trip, Iwata goes out with her friends for ramen… and to do a bit of girl talk; however, a ramen shop that is packed with people from their school isn’t the best place to talk about girl stuff out in the open so they resort to texting one another while they eat. Things get a bit complicated when Kamishiro and some of his friends show up. In the excitement, Iwata accidentally texts Kamishiro about having a crush on someone, although she doesn’t specifically say who. She ends up overeating and stays home from school the next day due to indigestion. Kamishiro brought her a copy of the notes she missed and asked her a question inside the book, wondering if she was getting over a crush. The next day, Kamishiro was absent due to an ankle strain during practice, so it was Iwata’s turn to visit him. She returns the notebook with her answer.
This brings us to school, where they are holding an English exam. Since the average class score is 75, their teacher decides to make them participate in a school play that is meant to be performed in English! The play is The Wizard of Oz, and despite his terrible English, Kamishiro gets cast as the Cowardly Lion. Iwata ends up taking part in the play, but she is there as support in case someone forgets their lines. Through it all, she learns that all the Cowardly Lion needs is a little bit of courage. Could that courage set the course for a love confession?
Characters
Iwata overreacted when she heard about Kamishiro having a crush on someone. Then again, without knowing any context, it was easy for her to do that. After all, she has a crush on him and has had one since they were in elementary school together. Despite Kamishiro spending a bit of time in the last volume dropping hints that nothing has changed with him, she can’t help but see him differently. After they get past the awkwardness, Iwata almost slipped up and told Kamishiro via text about her crush. Thankfully, it was vague, but that served as a golden opportunity for her because it allowed her to do some soul searching. One pep talk from Kamishiro later, and she made up her mind about confessing her feelings to him. This is a big step for her development-wise, but I’m surprised this came about in the second volume. Typically, you would get five to six volumes in before a decision like this is made. Maybe we’ll see them get together sooner rather than later? Then again, with the whole English class setback, we do have mechanisms in play to give us that delay.
While Iwata came to terms with her feelings, so did Kamishiro; however, he still remained as vague as ever about them. It’s obvious that the girl he likes is Iwata; however, just like her, he can’t bring himself to confess his feelings. Despite that, when he gave her that little pep talk when she visited him to check on him and his ankle, he also made the decision that he was going to confess his feelings to her. Kamishiro seems to be coasting through this, compared to Iwata. His conflicted emotions are just as valid as hers, but he’s very laid-back about them. Iwata is more worrisome and lets things affect her thinking, whereas Kamishiro just rolls with the punches. It’s not like he doesn’t have worries and concerns, though. You can see that he does through his actions. Always chasing after Iwata, making sure she’s okay, trying to help her whenever he can, and in one case, standing up for her. He is showing his affection in his own way, but subtly. That’s the biggest difference between them.
Final Thoughts
It seemed as if the pacing quickened a bit in this volume as we are progressing towards them becoming a couple. It makes me wonder if this is going to be one of those series that puts them together and then spends the rest of its time exploring their relationship, or if we are going to have artificial stall after artificial stall? Given the English exam/school play happening right after they decided to go for it and confess their feelings, I’m thinking it’s going to be the latter. While this is fine as it allows for some more natural development between them, it needs to be used cautiously because I’ve seen a lot of series overuse this tactic, and it creates a negative form of frustration and impatience with the reader. Sometimes it creates so much of it that when the payoff finally happens, it’s not a feel-good moment, but rather a “finally… we can move on” moment.
This is only the second volume, so it’s a bit too early to tell which path this series is going to take, but with the decision on the table for both of them to confess to one another, we now know it’s just a matter of time. How much time until the moment is the big question, and with this happening in the second volume, that was the sign that I read that we’ll be headed for a lot of artificial stalling.
We’ll have to see, but what we did get in this volume was pretty cute. Iwata helping a classmate with improving her jump rope skills was nice, the tender moments between Iwata and Kamishiro on the rowboat and again at Kamishio’s house, how they both have a crush on one another, but cannot say it out loud which leaves them in the dark… it was all good stuff. But now, it’s time to put that on hold and watch them perform a timeless classic… I’m sure this is going to go just fine! *wink*
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
