In terms of the story, it does sound fairly simple in the beginning, but the synopsis that outlines the main protagonists, Yuuhi and Samidare, it sounded oddly funny, and watching that play out was pretty nice. Beyond that, the story took some nice turns, twists, and themes and they meshed together beautifully. Some of the fights and action scenes were also quite exciting to look forward to as well.
The art could be better, but I personally didn't mind it because I've read other series with similar art styles. Although, it does get a little confusing in some panels, and luckily there were things that were explained on the next page/panel/chapter that cleared up what I was looking at.
Character writing is something that I value the most in virtually all series, and sometimes it can be to an imbalanced degree compared to other elements. Aside from that, I adored every character in the series, and Hoshi no Samidare gave many of them enough spotlight. However, even with many characters getting a natural and healthy amount of attention, Yuuhi and Samidare were fantastic. Yuuhi may look quite plain in appearance, but his entire character journey solidified him as my favorite character in the series. The same thing can be applied to how Samidare became my 2nd favorite. Since I don't see many people talking much about some of the other characters, I thought I'd add a few thoughts on my other 3 favorites in the series. Starting with Mikazuki, he is such an entertaining guy and continues to express a high level of spirit and compassion among the 12 Beast Knights. Hyou Shimaki is also really cool given how he can blend so well with the other knights and his dynamics with the antagonists outlined the stronger parts of his characterization. The main antagonist, Animus, is a big favorite right after Yuuhi and Samidare because of how the colors of his personality and mood changed so gradually and organically depending on the situation, and his involvement with the Beast Knights and Anima gives him a strange, cool, and dangerous presence. He was the one character I wanted to continue learning more about because he didn't feel like a normal main villain.
Overall, I thought this was a really slick and cool manga to read. It gives off this vibe of serenity with some patience and soul put into the writing. Satoshi Mizukami definitely shows how much he cared about this series, and he definitely deserves an anime adaptation for it after waiting for so long. I'll definitely take the time to reread this though because there were things that I may have missed, and it was cool that Mizukami revealed some parts of the plot in later chapters.
Anyway, that should be it for my thoughts on the series. Goodbye friends!
