Title: A Star Brighter Than the Sun Vol. 4
Author: Kazune Kawahara
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 179
Genre: Slice-of-Life, Romance
Publication Date: December 2, 2025
The Story
We are just cycling through events in this series! We’re straight from an English school play to sports day, and now it’s school festival time! As the class gathers to decide what they will do, Iwa is preparing herself, because on the last day of the festival, people typically ask out their crushes as the fireworks go off, but only when the special song they requested is played. Iwa finds a way to talk to Kamishiro about what music he likes, and ironically mentions “Fireworks” by Katy Perry. Well, he didn’t state the artist, but come on… what other song called Fireworks is popular these days?
Subaru is trying to get them to submit their song because she knows that they like each other, but the problem is that neither one knows it. They still believe that the person they have a crush on isn’t the other. All the while, Ayukawa is slowly trying to get closer to Iwa. He even goes so far as to ask Kamishiro permission to invite her to play shogi with him again. He even boldly suggests that she visit his country home during summer break.
The day before the festival, the class runs into a snag. The fluorescent paint that Iwa used for their space theme doesn’t glow, so they have to scramble to get some cardboard from nearby stores. Kamishiro uses his bike to go to the furthest away; however, the town that Iwa goes to has a bad reputation. Ayukawa rushes to her to make sure she’s safe. With their display saved, Subaru is paged somewhere. There’s a commotion coming from outside, and when the class looks out the window, we see a scene that has everyone concerned!
Characters
The biggest focus of this volume was on Iwa and her indecision to talk to Kamishiro. From the previous volume, she had already made up her mind about wanting to confess her feelings to him; however, she didn’t know how to go about doing it. With the school festival’s fireworks event, she feels that would be the perfect time, but she’s having trouble working up the courage to ask him. She does get some help from her friends so that she can be alone with him for thirty minutes, but we don’t get to that point in this volume. The one thing we did see with her was that she was slowly hardening herself to work up the courage to talk to him. She’s beginning to realize that nothing is going to happen if she stands idly by. The fear that Kamishiro likes someone else and not realizing it’s her pushed her forward. It’s going to make the payoff even better if they keep thinking this way. The moment they realize they liked one another, this whole time will be incredible!
Ayukawa is the hopeless third wheel, but I like how they are approaching it this time around. While the hopeless third wheel is always a trope in romance series, it’s not painfully obvious that he’s going to shoot his shot and get turned down. We already have it established that Iwa and Kamishiro are going to get shipped, and the fact that Ayukawa is somewhat aware of this makes it interesting. Despite his knowledge, he still feels like he has a shot, even though we all know he doesn’t. What sets him apart is that, unlike other third wheels in different series, he’s not forcing the issue. He’s just trying to be there for her as a friend. It’s that natural connection that sets him apart, but at the same time, it doesn’t make him feel like a threat. I feel that it’s just a mechanism to ease the discomfort when he gets turned down…. IF he even gets to that point. He’s made no indications that he wants to ask Iwa to the fireworks event, as if it’s not even on his mind. I think that’s the self-awareness that he has of the situation. We’ll see how it ends up, but we already know he’s not getting the girl.
Subaru had a bit of time to shine, and she’s as energetic and as forward as ever. When one of her paintings gets defaced, she puts on a brave face, but Iwa sees through it immediately. That’s the kind of girl that she is… always trying to put her best foot forward and hide the pain and anger. She’s also the type who feels that she can handle everything on her own, and this is accentuated when she stands up in front of the whole school and declares herself as the one running the festival and openly invites anyone to come to her if they need any help with anything. She’s biting off more than she can chew and is too stubborn to admit it. Perhaps a wake-up call is to get her to realize that she needs to rely on others more than she thinks!
Final Thoughts
In my previous review, I felt as if they would get to the confession in this volume, and with the pacing it started with, I felt we were going to be right on target with my prediction… only to be shown that I was wrong. Not only did we not get the confession, but we also didn’t even get the invite to the fireworks event. We had some setbacks, but it was nice because it allowed for some character development to happen. Fleshing out the cast was a good choice here, and even though it did pump the brakes on the pacing a bit, I don’t feel as if the manga was trying to stall. Everything that happened here felt completely natural, and I liked how we slowed down and allowed the characters to breathe. I will admit, the breakneck pacing did worry me, but seeing all of this made me breathe a sigh of relief.
The biggest hook for this series, where Kamishiro and Iwa don’t know that the person they have a crush on is each other, is being played out beautifully. There was one point where Subaru flat-out told Kamishiro that he was the one Iwa liked, and he straight up didn’t believe her one bit. That in and of itself shows that, as much as he likes to claim he has grown since being a kid, those insecurities and self-esteem issues are still there. When Subaru dropped that bomb on him, I thought for sure it would have changed the dynamic of the series, but his ignorance made it a rather cute moment instead and preserved the hook. As I said before, it’s going to make it so much sweeter when they realize the truth about one another!
This was a pretty good volume. I can actually see them drawing out the confession a bit more, so my new prediction is that we’ll get the scene where Iwa and Kamishiro have desk duty together and she invites him to the fireworks event. I’m going to even go out on a limb and say that the confession will be our cliffhanger ending. We’ll see if I’m right or if, once again, have to write another review and proclaim that I have the proverbial egg on my face.
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
