Daytime Shooting Star: Volume 5 manga review

Daytime Shooting Star Graphic Novel Volume 5 cover image

A teenager, Suzume Yosano lives in a small rural town that does not have convenience stores, cafés, or traffic lights.  When her parents suddenly announce that they are moving to Bangladesh, they also tell 15-year-old Suzume that she will be moving to Tokyo to live with her uncle, Yukichi Kumamoto.  Once there, Suzume finds herself attracted to a friend of her uncle's, Mr. Satsuki Shishio, who also turns out to be Suzume's homeroom teacher.

As Daytime Shooting Star, Vol. 5 (Chapters 29 to 34) opens, the school festival continues.  Suzume is working at the “Butlers & Maids Cafe,” which gets a visit from Mr. Shishio.  Although he has seemed interested in Suzume, he suddenly seems cold, and he has some kind of confrontation with Daiki Mamura, Suzume's childhood friend.  Mamura avoids girls, but he apparently has feelings for Suzume and considers Mr. Shishio inappropriate for Suzume.  Still, Mamura's feelings aside, Mr. Shishio is about to blurt out his true feelings for Suzume...

[This volume includes the bonus story, “Cookie Girl, Cream Boy” and illustrated author's notes.]

THE LOWDOWN:  The Daytime Shooting Star manga is in the mold of a typical high school shojo manga.  It has a bit of an edge in the fact that the romantic lead is in love with a teacher!

Daytime Shooting Star Graphic Novel Volume 5 continues the ebb and flow of the relationship between Suzume and Mr. Shishio.  Will they or won't they:  creator Mika Yamamori is getting a lot of mileage out of that.  Vol. 5 also offers other romantic entanglements – boys who want girls that don't want them and girls in love with boys who have feelings for other girls.

Daytime Shooting Star is about to shoot off some fireworks, thanks to the tart English translation by JN Productions.  Inori Fukuda Trant continues to capture the story's sense of wonder and blunder with her mercurial lettering and fonts.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of shojo high school romance will want to read the Shojo Beat series, Daytime Shooting Star.

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7.5 out of 10