Narutaru: Mukuro Naru Hoshi Tama Taru Ko (Shadow Star☆)

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Japanese: なるたる骸なる星･珠たる子

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 12

Chapters: 68

Status: Finished

Published: Mar 25, 1998 to Oct 25, 2003

Genres: Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi, Supernatural

Theme: Psychological

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: Afternoon

Authors: Kitoh, Mohiro (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 7.34¹ (scored by 3,922 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #4205²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #1492

Members: 12,151

Favorites: 374

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7.34

Ranked #4205Popularity #1492Members 12,151

MangaAfternoonKitoh, Mohiro (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /12

Chapters: /68

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Synopsis

"From a dying planet shall come the children of light..."

While on vacation on a small island, young Shiina Tamai dives under the water near an old shrine and discovers an unearthly starfish-like creature. She nearly drowns but is rescued by the silent, wide-eyed little animal, who Shiina befriends and names Hoshimaru. To Shiina's surprise and delight, the creature changes shape, lets Shiina stand on him, and the two fly off into the clouds. But what looks to be a young girl's ultimate fantasy soon takes a darker turn as Shiina and Hoshimaru become entangled in a struggle between rival extraterrestrial factions who battle in the skies upon huge alien beasts called Shadow Dragons, with the fate of Earth hanging in the balance.

(Source: Dark Horse)

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Background

Narutaru: Mukuro Naru Hoshi Tama Taru Ko was first published in English as Shadow Star☆ by Dark Horse in the magazine Super Manga Blast from September 13, 2000 to February 1, 2006—issues 5 to 59, which was the final issue. The manga was partially published in standard tankoubon format as well by the same publisher, with seven volumes published from September 5, 2001 to December 21, 2005.

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Related Manga

Adaptation:

Narutaru: Mukuro Naru Hoshi Tama Taru Ko

More characters
Characters

Tamai, Shiina

Main

Hoshimaru

Main

Sakura, Akira

Supporting

Koga, Norio

Supporting

Kaizuka, Hiroko

Supporting

Sudo, Naozumi

Supporting

Tsurumaru, Takeo

Supporting

Kuri, Mamiko

Supporting

Ozawa, Satomi

Supporting

Soph, Ain

Supporting

More reviewsReviews

Sep 15, 2008

Master10K

Recommended

Shadow Star (Narutaru) is a unique blend of Supernatural, Military, Action & Drama with a really promising story, which was let down by the way things concluded. Just like this mangaka's other works, Shadow Star revolves around kids but that doesn’t make it any less disturbing.

It all begins when an energetic young girl named Shiina Tamai discovers a star-shaped creature, whilst visiting her grandparents over the holidays. Ever since then she becomes involved in some strange and dangerous incidents, involving other kids who have similar creatures to hers. It is later explained that these things are known by the term Dragon Child/Shadow Dragon and the ... kids themselves are mentally linked with their respective Dragon Child, allowing them to do what they want with them. Shadow Star is just one of those manga where you are left in the dark about all the important stuff and it just shuffles between Military and Dragon Child issues. Although when it does explain things, the explanations can leave you with a feeling of bewilderment. At least it is possible to grasp an understanding of what this manga is all about and the story finally gets interesting, but being drawn back into confusion is inevitable once it reaches the halfway point. After the sudden change in the story, it just feels like trying to understand this confusing premise all over again.

The manga revolves mainly around a bunch of kids/young adolescence, all different in some way, but they share the same bond of being a Dragon Child bearer. Shiina Tamai is just one of the kids the manga focuses on and just like all the others, the reader will become familiar with their family & social life, as the story progresses. There are various other characters that come into play as you advance through the story, but not only can some be hard to figure out, there are also those who's motives aren't made clear.

Just like with Mohiro Kitoh's other works, the artwork of this manga has a similar style. Nonetheless this comes with its problems; the details of the characters are very inconsistent and some of the character designs lack any distinctive features so you can find yourself constantly wondering, "who is this again?" The military hardware and the Dragon’s designs are about the only note worthy thing about the artwork, having a lot of thought and detail put into them along with the scenery.

Overall Shadow Star is certainly a great read but when reading it; expect to experience lots of confusion whilst trying to comprehend the purpose behind the story. The story itself has a simple structure where each volume focuses on its respective arc. Though there are a few complications along the way and by the end you will be left with a bunch of unanswered question like: why are only kids Dragon Child bearers? And what was up with that ending? We’ve all heard the term "Kids can be so cruel…" Well that term is put into practice with some really intense and disturbing moments. If these words have put you off from checking out this fine manga, then there’s no point in giving it a try.

^_^

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Jun 27, 2012

SuiNoByakko

Recommended

Shadow Star is probably the most well done manga I've read and could have a code name “100 ways how to mentally break young teens”. Cute monsters and young girls? Why not make their life hell and make them fight for their lives in a battle that is seemingly lost even before they try? Why not add a psychotic group of young teens that want to rule world with “cute” monsters of their own and give “cute” another meaning the most ugly and bloody way? That’s pretty much Shadow Star.

Story: 10/10
Everything begins when Shiina finds a weird creature, Hoshimaru (as she names it), and keeps ... it as a pet. Later, she meets another girl with a similar pet but, unfortunately, the said girl isn’t very friendly and is weird. Weird as in, if taking everywhere your own bunch of bushes to hide in was possible she would do it. Shiina somehow manages to make this always scared and hiding girl her friend. But it isn’t until they are attacked by a freak (of similiar age) who gives a new meaning to “cute pet”, that the story actually starts unfolding. They found out that their pets are creatures called dragon children and are emotionless tools of mass destruction. Of course they find out it the hard way. These dragon children need human souls in order to mature because they don’t have their own. They usually look like something from fairy tales to show us that maybe they weren’t so far from truth.
Story perfectly ties together in every way. Not to mention that it’s perfectly realistic and whether air or ground battles with military are nothing rare. Neither are deaths that by the end happen on a massive scale.

Art: 9/10
While art isn’t anything perfect or modern since it’s a bit older but it’s extremely realistic and precise. It fits the story amazingly. Character designs are also very well done and memorable (although I didn’t like Shiina much).

Characters: 10/10
While this have a very well done and solid story with unexpected twists, characters are about as strong. This manga goes as deep into characters’nature and mental health as possible. We have a big variety of characters yet none could be a stereotype or underdeveloped. Even side characters get their own nature that is just their own and recognisable. Main characters have it much more difficult because this manga doesn’t spare them any mental trauma since they are thrown into first fronts of a warfare at a very young age. I dare to say that character mental development and exploration goes as deep and in NGE but at a far larger scale yet it feels perfectly fluent. This doesn’t spare anyoe, whether it’s the villains or leads or side characters, everyone has a secret to explore and everyone has at least one mental breakdown to survive.

Enjoyment: 10/10
The reason why I started reading Shadow Star, was the anime that ended not even in the middle of the manga. I finished the anime within a day since I just couldn’t stop. Manga took me a bit longer because my parents forced me to do such useless stuff like eating and sleeping. Needless to say that even though I was scarred for life, this was the best manga I’ve ever read. Though, that might be because I have a weakness for psychological horror.

Overall: 10/10
This is truly a must read for everyone who enjoyed NGE and the character depth in it. Everything is either explained or hinted at well enough. This is truly a masterpiece and when I manage to gather enough courage, I’ll definitely re-read it.

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Aug 18, 2016

BardJungle

Not Recommended

All the other reviews for this manga are positive, and I honestly can't understand why. The only thing I didn't think was total trash about this manga was the art, and that was "meh". Really, nothing is worthy of praise in this mess of a manga.

Characters - 4/10. All of them are unlikeable (except one or two). And NONE of them have any meaningful development. This wouldn't be that big of a deal (I mean, how many series has character development for side characters) except for the fact that whole volumes are dedicated to some characters, and still they don't develop. Of course the ...

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This feels more like it should be published by Akita Shoten instead of Kodansha. AkihitoZero1224 - Feb 13	0 replies	by AkihitoZero1224 »» Feb 13, 12:09 PM
Poll: Shadow Star Chapter 67 Discussion DonKangolJones - Aug 22, 2010	27 replies	by hypergoob »» Sep 14, 2022 11:40 PM
Where do I get the uncensored manga? ZXZXZXZXZXZXZX - Aug 31, 2019	3 replies	by ZXZXZXZXZXZXZX »» Aug 30, 2021 6:15 PM
Poll: Narutaru: Mukuro Naru Hoshi Tama Taru Ko Chapter 62 Discussion Rei_III - Dec 28, 2018	0 replies	by Rei_III »» Dec 28, 2018 4:27 AM
Poll: Narutaru: Mukuro Naru Hoshi Tama Taru Ko Chapter 51 Discussion Rei_III - Dec 26, 2018	0 replies	by Rei_III »» Dec 26, 2018 11:58 AM

Narutaru: Mukuro Naru Hoshi Tama Taru Ko
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