Hello and welcome back to Guest Review Wednesday! I am so pleased to be able to host another great guest review today! Thanks so much to Okazu Patrons and Supporters for making this possible, we could not do it without you. If you’d like to see us host more guest reviews, support Okazu on Patreon or Ko-fi and become part of the Okazu family! Today we once again welcome Luce!

It’s Luce, catching up with reviews; I can be found on the Okazu discord as farfetched. This time, it’s a Spanish manga offering from Tokyopop.

Sirius: Twin Stars tells the story of Dani Torres, daughter of a star tennis player. Trying to follow in her footsteps, Dani asked her mother to coach her. Her mother’s perfectionism causes the relationship between them to become ever more fraught, until her heart literally gives out. Fresh out of heart surgery and fresh out of aspirations, Dani is packed up to the family’s vacation home by the beach to ‘recuperate’ – or escape her mother who will no longer speak to her, as she sees it. There, she meets a girl called Blanca who loves astronomy and the stars. They have a bit of a rocky start, but Dani begins to build a friendship with her – and more.

I really enjoyed this story. Not many of us have been where Dani is literally, but I think we’ve all been a little lost, not knowing where to turn or where to go next, so her feelings are relatable. Blanca is adorable, vibrant and happy without being over the top, and I liked how their relationship developed. I greatly appreciated that there was no ‘but she’s female!’ from either party. Unusually for a manga, it was set in Spain, although aside from the names, there wasn’t a great deal to remind you of this. Still, it’s nice to get a story not set in a high school, although they are of school age.

Being a single volume, the conflict of the story isn’t drawn out, but it’s backed up enough that it doesn’t feel rushed – you can see that both Dani and her mum are hurting, and although due to Dani being the protagonist, we side with her – it’s obvious that this split is hurting Dani too. I also really enjoyed the resolution of it; there is an epilogue with neatly ties up a few loose ends, and ends us on a happy note.

The art here was lovely, too. It really suited the story, and detail is given where needed. There are a few colour pages at the start which really ping, and the figurative illustrations of Dani’s struggles really come through. In the physical version, somewhat unusually, these are matte pages, but it still works very well.

Story: 9
Yuri: 10
Service: 2 – they’re in Spain in the summer so some clothes are more revealing, but nothing feels salacious or is done with service in mind
Art: 9
Overall: I would usually hedge my bets, but I actually love this story, so for me personally, it’s a 10. A really good balance between angst and resilience.

This came out from Tokyopop a while back. Ana Sánchez also wrote and illustrated Alter Ego, which I haven’t read yet.

Erica here: Thank you so much Luce! I have read Alter Ego and reviewed it here on Okazu in 2021. There is also a sequel in the works, Noel Y June. It’s great to see Sánchez developing as an artist and a writer.