A Star Brighter Than the Sun #1

A warm, golden light suffuses Kazune Kawahara's cover for this 2025 Viz release, where a bright-eyed young figure gazes upward amid a cascade of sparkling stars — an image that perfectly captures the hopeful, reaching-for-something feeling promised by the opening episode's title, "The Day I Reached Out My Hand." Kawahara handles both story and art here, bringing a delicate, emotionally charged shoujo sensibility to what looks to be a series about connection and longing. If the cover's tender atmosphere is any indication, A Star Brighter Than the Sun is shaping up to be one of the more quietly affecting new manga of 2025.