星は歌う Volume 2 (manga)
Twinkle Stars Manga Vol. 2
(Twinkle Stars Like Singing a Song)

SPOILER Summary: Chapter 6 has Sakuya deal with Chihiro-kun’s transferring to her school. Chihiro-kun makes it clear he wants nothing to do with Sakuya, but when she returns his gift to her and he tosses it out the window, Sakuya decides she can’t bear to part with the gift. In chapter 7, Chihiro-kun is pretty popular, but Sei-chan manages to get him away and join herself, Yuuri, and a dismayed Sakuya. To make matters worse, Sei-chan convinces Chihiro-kun to attend their club’s presentation, which Sakuya will be giving. Sakuya gives her presentation in chapter 8, which is not only visited by Chihiro-kun, but others as well. This leads to a change of attitude by Chihiro-kun toward Sakuya.

Chapter 9 has Chihiro-kun return to his hating on Sakuya. Yuuri gets into a fight (I think defending Sakuya). Despite everything, Sakuya accepts Chihiro-kun into the club and despite his protests, he does spend time with the group. Sei-chan confronts Chihiro-kun for his treatment of Sakuya in chapter 10 as the rainy season forces a cancellation of a club event. In chapter 11, the club meeting is back on at Sei-chan’s house. Sakuya has to escort the reluctant Chihiro-kun to Sei-chan’s large home where Sei-chan reveals she has a mini planetarium for home use.

Thoughts: I really don’t know what to make of Hoshi wa Utau. The strangeness of Chihiro-kun’s arrival, the fact that the manga is about “stars” (“hoshi”), and the fact that Sakuya’s club is star watching makes one thing that Chihiro-kun is a star or something. This tankoubon seems to imply that as well.

I’m not really a fan of this unrequited love thing. In School Rumble, I’m fine with it because of the comedy aspect. Here, Takaya-sensei has written things more for a shoujo market than she did for Fruits Basket (or at least, when Furuba started). So with that in mind, I understand why she’s has Sakuya get all happy at the least little crumb that comes from Chihiro-kun, to include something like escorting him to a star watching club event at Sei-chan’s house. However, Chihiro-kun is just so unlikable. From someone who’s well past his angst-filled days of having an unrequited love, I cannot find myself feeling for Sakuya’s poor choice of whom she fell in love with.

While I do kinda like Sakuya now, Sei-chan still is the star of this manga for me. She’s the one element that adds an element of fun to what would otherwise be a dreary manga for me.

Since Hoshi wa Utau is a monthly manga, only two volumes will be published a year. The materials for volume 3 have been published in Hana to Yume, so I may go ahead and read/blog that, or I may just wait for the manga tankoubon to be officially released in Japan. I haven’t decided yet. That said, I will proceed on despite the fact that this manga isn’t something that I would want to re-read at this point.