This is the best manga I've read in 2024.

I love diving into stories that I do not have a good understanding of. When I saw this story pop up on my feed, I thought, oh neat this is something I would've never thought of to read when it comes to the manga. After HS, my interactions with people who are autistic, neurodivergent, mentally challenged, etc is very limited, so I thought, lets dive in and see what this story is about, and wow did it open my eyes to a lot of what is around me, and now makes me think, maybe I am surrounded by these people and I just dont know it, and made me question myself if I had something in me as well based off the characteristics and habits the two main boys go through in the series.

The two leads, Kobayashi who is portrayed as somewhat neurodivergent and Keisuke who is autistic, form a bond over their understanding of not understanding. Kobayashi has a hard time studying, following tasks and getting frustrated easily by his own actions, and Keisuke who keeps a notebook of how to act properly in situations cause he cant understand the norm. The blossoming friendship between these two is incredible. Kobayashi is sweet and caring to Keisuke, cause he knows Keisuke cant necessarily control what he says and how he acts and Kobayashi might be the only person who can understand that. Keisuke cherishes Kobayashi as his first real friend, and is constantly in a state of confusion on how to properly act with him, but its cause he cares so much that he doesn't want to lose his friend, like past interactions with other people when he was growing up.

I cant speak on the accuracy of their characters, but something clicked in my head when reading this thinking to myself, wow I have interacted with these people in the past before, and I wish I could've changed something I said or did when doing so, and when a story makes me do that, thats how I know its good, thats how I know its a 10. I cant wait for more chapters to see how everything comes to, cause a story like this rarely comes along for me.

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- "Beautiful"

That was the first word that subconsciously came out of my mouth after reading the four chapters that this absolutely outstanding manga has currently available to offer. I absolutely don't know how I stumbled across this nor do I care. I am just grateful that I did.

It's first chapter, maybe one of the best first chapters of the mangas I have ever read. It gave me a sense of fulfilment; like I have completed reading a short manga in that short of a time which felt like seconds. Maybe the first manga after a long long time which gave me a sense of calmness and put me in a trance during reading. The feeling which you experience after taking a soak in hot water during winter, smelling the smell of wet earth during rainy days, turning your pillow to the cold side during sleep in summer, sound of crunching of leaves beneath your feet during autumn.

Now enough with the poetic praises and onto the other things. Characters are absolutely gorgeous, not in the literal sense. Their characterisation, depiction of feelings and emotions, development has all shown by the author in such a way that I refuse to believe that this is his first work of his career. All of them have different traits which surprisingly do not feel stale at all. Art is beautiful to look at. There are certain panels which make me feel that it is a work of an experienced illustrator. When I saw the first page of the manga I was like whoa this is good and then I was hit hard by the cover page like a BAAM!!! (you can see it by clicking the image of the manga above). The art has an originality to it which is soothing to see.

Now about the big elephant in the room which is the story which shines separately just like the stars that the story focusses on. It focuses on students who are retarded (not used as a slur here) or rather it would be fair to say that they have trouble handling various things in their day to day lives that other people apparently have no trouble doing. It focuses on how they handle and overcome their day to day life problems with they developing an interest in astronomy which seems to be the major thing that the manga is gonna focus about along with their day to day happenings. It also invoked my childhood interest about stars and space, so maybe the reason I am praising this manga so much is that it reminded me of that. But still doesn't negate the fact that this is an absolute banger of a manga.

Looks like I should also visit my hometown to see some stars sometime.......

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