I have never dated anyone I’ve worked with, though most of my coworkers being women probably has something to do with that. I still don’t think I’d be able to do it though (unless I worked with Tom Hiddleston dressed as Loki, in which case I’ll come back and edit this) as it never seems to go as well as it does in fiction and having to work with an ex seems like it would suck. Either way I really love the workplace romance trope in yaoi, especially when it isn’t the standard “boss seme and secretary uke.” I liked that in this story, the two main characters don’t really a power imbalance, they just happen to be coworkers and feel like equals rather than one being tiny and whiny.
The story stars narrator Hoshimi Sudou, a scientist working in R&D who moonlights as a jazz musician, and his coworker Hirokawa who works in sales. Sudou is quiet at work and even cranky, but has a reputation as being a womanizer. Hirokawa takes a liking to him and pursues him even though they’re both involved with women; and Sudou responds more out of tepid curiosity and indifference than interest. As the story unfolds, the two try to navigate workplace and personal issues, old wounds, their developing feelings for each other, and bisexuality.
This story has female characters show up more than in most yaoi, and even better they aren’t painted as villains. In fact, every character in this story is quite likable, and it was a very enjoyable read. The bisexuality factor was particularly interesting, and a nice change of dynamic. Sudou has another duality in his life, where he hides his true self at work but shows his true self when he plays with his band.
The book does not have any side stories and so the length solely dedicated to it allows it to develop, shall we say, slowly and more deeply huehuehue. It also had real-feeling moments that a first-time gay couple might wrestle with, such as when Sudou wonders if being in an exclusive relationship with Hirokawa makes him ‘the girl’ since he has the smaller body.
The M rating isn’t much to get excited about – I don’t even think they showed anything censor-able – but that is pretty standard for mid 00s June titles. The story shined enough to make me not too disappointed about this, and the sex seemed to fit the couple and the story.
So, the art. It’s not awful but it’s awkward, rough, and in a few places it honestly looks kinda like she just rushed through it as fast as she could. Sudou especially looks almost like a different character altogether in some panels, his face is drawn so inconsistently. To be fair however, in 2004 when this was made, a ton of yaoi and even shojo looked like this stylistically so it wouldn’t have been as big of an issue. The bar is set higher now thanks to the incredible digital capabilities and resources available to modern manga artists, and this further magnifies the weaknesses in what was passable in some of these older early-to-mid 00s titles. It does have a few bright spots and the anatomy is mostly ok, but the faces need some work and it’s hard to not notice sometimes. It’s a but frustrating that she can do stories this well, but doesn’t quite draw at a level to match them.
Bonus funny bit because I couldn’t figure out where to stick it (!) in the review:
I read another Kanno title that was unlicensed, “Shoujo Mangaka no Koi”, and my comments about this one mostly apply to that one as well – excellent story, but weak art. She hasn’t been active since 2007 and that was one of her very last works, though it would be a shame if she isn’t still drawing and writing in some capacity because there was a story in that one that I think might have been my top five favorite yaoi premises ever – a male shojo mangaka is struggling to make a good story, and his editor said he should add a BL twist which was ‘trendy.’ His editor then ends up giving him some ‘inspiration’ by acting out some real life BL with him, and they fall for each other while struggling to keep their writer-editor relationship professional. Omg, I just adored it, and it was so meta – if her art doesn’t bother you, I’d definitely recommend it and I really wish we had had it in English. Kanno has another English title though, the 2-part Words of Devotion, that I’ll be reading very soon!
TL;DR: Keiko Kanno may draw awkwardly, but she makes up for it by being able to write some very good stories. Mature and well-paced with likable characters, Star is a fantastic and very real-feeling workplace slice-of-life romance – and with two bisexual characters to boot, which is a nice change of pace. If not for the art holding it back, this manga would be easy to recommend, but I think modern readers will have trouble looking past that – if you can, though, definitely give this one a whirl.