Kono Koi wo Hoshi ni wa Negawanai
There Is No Love Wishing Upon a Star.

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This manga surprised me in many good ways… and then emotionally betrayed me in the end.

There Is No Love Wishing Upon a Star is a slow-burn, dialogue-heavy romance that focuses strongly on inner conflict, jealousy, emotional dependence, and long-suppressed feelings. Chapters are dense, often feeling much longer than typical romance entries, which works in its favor when it comes to character psychology. The story takes its time showing how misunderstandings pile up over years rather than being solved in a single conversation.

Fuyuki is a compelling protagonist. reserved, self-sacrificing, and painfully honest once she finally breaks. Watching her emotional pressure build is one of the strongest ... parts of the series. The supporting cast is also well used, especially one particular rival figure who acts as an emotional anchor and catalyst for many of the story’s major turning points.

Where the manga becomes divisive is its romantic direction. Without getting into spoilers, the final pairing did not personally work for me. Not because it was impossible, but because another option felt more emotionally stable and better developed over time. The ending itself moves quickly, with a resolution that felt more symbolic than fully explored, leaving me wishing for a few more chapters of buildup.

That said, this doesn’t make the series bad, far from it. The journey is strong, the character writing is thoughtful, and the emotional confrontations are intense. If you enjoy messy, complicated relationship dynamics and love triangles that lean more psychological than comedic, this will probably be the perfect story for you to read.

I just can’t fully shake the feeling that the emotional payoff didn’t land as well as it could have.

I'll put this on "Recommended" simply because the story itself was very compelling. If the ending had changed a bit, this would be a straight 10 out of 10. Just because of the ending, which didn't do it for me, this is a 8 out of 10 for me.

Should you read this?
Yes, if you like slow-burn drama, introspective romance, and morally gray characters.

'There is no wishing upon a star' is a title that begins to make sense the more and more you read. The manga is melancholic and the pacing is delicate, but the characters feel alive and the tension between them is too much not to get hooked into. Writing this, I'm caught up to what's translated and I'll be following it until it is completed. If you are wondering whether or not you should read it, the short answer is: Please read it, and if you like drama, complicated relationships, realistic feeling writing or beautiful art, you'll want to read it even more so.

Without revealing ... anything much about the story, the premise is a love triangle between Fuyuki, Eri and Kyou, three childhood friends who have been together their whole life, but are seeming clueless about what each other are feeling. I usually don't really like love triangles because they are usually added to boring romances just to add some sort of conflict. This manga is not that whatsoever. The author really seems to understand the web of influence that relationships exist within, and the way that new and existing relationships change the people who are in them and by proxy those surrounding them. It's a drama about unrequited love and how impactful it can be for everyone involved, and about the bitter reality most gay/lesbian people at some point face when pursuing love. Everything that happens seems to affect the environment surrounding them, and there is are a lot of intricacies and lots of attention to detail put into this manga, which is what makes it feel so grounded and genuine. That wouldn't be the case were it not for the characters though, which are incredible. There's not much to say without revealing spoilers, but almost every character is written well, and even when you don't like how things worked out or something happened you weren't expecting, you can understand and empathize with why everybody did and said what they did. You won't be sitting there wondering how x thing ended up x way because you can follow the mess of motivations, circumstances, mistakes and emotions to understand it all.

There's not a lot to complain about with this manga. The two most difficult to pull off elements are pacing and complex relationships, and both stand out as especially good. I think there are a few events and side characters in the story that could have been written a lot better and felt a little awkward. I also wish the way the author explained character details was a little less direct. Flashbacks were necessary, but there was a lot of opportunity for story telling through allusion, though, it's more of a missed opportunity than a flaw. The biggest flaw in my eyes is that Kyou and Kisaki are not developed nearly as much as they should be. They are characters crucial to the plot, but they seem underdeveloped compared to Fuyuki and Eri. This is a shame because they are characters that you want to understand and learn more about, but the narrative never seems to get to it.
And, this is entirely personal, but the big emotional moments didn't seem to hit as hard as I would think. But, I think because the manga is so melancholic and reserved, it maybe wasn't supposed to.

I don't think the story is perfect, but regardless it is very far above most romance manga that try to go for a story of this tone and I really enjoyed reading it. It's beautifully written and drawn, elegant in it's execution, the characters feel genuine and empathetic, it's easy and exciting to read and the art is so obviously incredible it isn't even necessary to discuss it. If for anything else, the art is incredible and it's worth reading just for that. If you are looking for a mature feeling yuri romance drama and want something different from the numerous highschool romcoms, this is among the best you can read.

I finished reading the last chapter with a feeling of regret. While the story is slow-paced but with each scene having a meaning, there's something rotten in the premises. To make a long story short, it confuses love with obssession, jealousy and codependence, and wraps everything up in pretty discourses to make it look nice and warm. So my final regret is that I cannot, in good conscience, believe in the the main couple's lasting love.

The whole story is drama-heavy, and both protagonists are in the depths of depression in almost every chapter. And in addition to that, regular flashbacks show that their relationship only ... grew more problematic over time. Eri is insanely jealous and is more than willing to deny Fuyuki the right to have a relationship of her own, while having a (very toxic) one herself. Fuyuki lets herself drown and very skillfully avoids anything that could pull her out of her situation.

But the main sin of the story is that the author is too lazy to write an actual resolution. In the next-to-last scene, all the jealousy, all the obssession, all the posssessiveness are still there, poisoning their relationship so much that throwing a mutual confession on top of it is very unlikely to solve anything. And then it jumps to marriage, without showing whether Eri and Fuyuki managed to overcome their mental problems and build a healthy relationship in the interim.

If you can appreciate the toxic relationship, you'll problably enjoy the read. Otherwise, you're likely to leave the last chapter with a feeling of frustration, or even to drop the manga before reaching the epilogue.