I received an advanced reviewer copy of Gazing At The Star Next Door published by Kodansha from NetGalley and Kodansha in exchange for an honest review.
I had heard about Gazing at the Star Next Door by Ammitsu on an X (formally known as Twitter) thread in October and immediately preordered it. When I saw the chance to access Gazing early on NetGalley, I jumped at the opportunity. I’m always rereading manga anyway so I had zero issues reading it before I got my physical copy.
Like many of the girlies of my age, Shojo raised me. Tohru, Duck, Himeno, and Sakura defined my outlook on love and romance. Even as I navigate towards Josie and Seinen now, Shojo is always top of mind. So a new Shojo in print and it mixes the childhood friend trop with the idol/fame trope? Sign me up!
Gazing at the Star Next Door is about a high school student Chiaki who has a crush on her best friend Subaru. The catch? Subaru is on his way to fame as he’s becoming a model and actor. Navigating high school is hard enough, but now everyone wants a piece of Subaru all while Chiaki is trying to get over him.
Immediately, Chiaki felt relatable to a teenage me. First of all, Chiaki seems all over the place. She’s flustered around Subaru, due to her feelings for him. In other moments she’s interacting with him like any childhood best friend would. She wants to act normal and chill about his budding stardom in front of him and others, but secretly she’s as starstruck as everyone else. Chiaki wants to get over Subaru and find her great high school love but she also isn’t ready to let him go.
In typical shojo boy fashion, Subaru is unreadable. He comes off chill and aloof, but some of his actions seem a little bit on the “I like you as more than a friend” side. He cares about Chiaki but it doesn’t feel too special yet. I can see exactly why Chiaki is trying not to read too into his actions and leave her crush behind.
Volume one is just three chapters but it does a great job at setting the scene of what we can expect from this journey Chiaki and Subaru are about to embark on. While having a crush on your childhood friend is not a new story, I love the additional layer of Subaru’s impending stardom. Instead of a possible rival in school, you have to essentially fight out a bunch of fan girls? Chiaki get behind me!!
I feel a lot of misunderstanding, tears, and laughter on the path ahead and I can’t wait. Ammitsu’s art style is a beautiful combination of that familiar 1990s/2000s Shojo with a more modern approach. It makes reading this new take on an old trope all that more exciting. I’m looking forward to cheering Chiaki on and seeing where this childhood crush takes her.
