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Okay, for those of you out there who are still trying to make a decision whether to read this or not, let me tell you one thing; this shoujo is not what you think it is. At least for me, definitely not.

Right, now that that's said, let's proceed.

I have finished this manga, and there really is nothing very unique about it. Also, the title 'Daytime Shooting Star' has little to do with the actual story itself. The plot chosen is actually a bit too cliche in my opinion, the forbidden love between the student and teacher, only that the author, Yamamori Mika-sensei, successfully made it ... different by adding a few tweaks on it, but then in the end, there still isn't anything much to say.

The story started off pretty good in the first few chapters. It tells the reader about Suzume, a country girl moving to the city where she made some good friends and experienced a few times heartbreaks. I can't say much about the story without spoiling it, but the manga is really good in the beginning. It does not only focus on the love triangle between Suzume and her teacher, Shishio, and her classmate, Mamura.

Everything was nicely paced, until later at the middle, where it kind of gives off the feeling that it's rushed.

One thing that might appeal you to read this manga though, might be the pretty and clean art. Yamamori Mika-sensei's drawing style changes from the first few chapters until the end. You could clearly see the changes, but it's not a bad thing. She gets better at drawing the characters, and at some point, managed to make me feel frustrated out of trying to decide who between the two main love interests, and the rest of the characters, looks better in terms of appearance.

Although the characters may seem beautiful, the main characters do lack some character development. This, in my opinion, resulted in the somehow.. unrealistic (due to the lack of a better word) ending of the manga. Besides that though, the main characters; Suzume, Shishio and Mamura have nothing too special about them.

What made this manga different from other shoujo mangas out there may be the fact that Suzume is a strong girl who doesn't cry all the time. There is also none of those 'flowery' scenes that normally appear in shoujo. And Suzume has her own flaws, like the rest of the characters. Even though she's not perfect, messes up and falls, she still has the courage to get back up and try her best.

Shishio and Mamura are both also good characters. However, there is so little character development with both of them. Shishio let what happened to him and his previous lover happen again, and Mamura, although he did change, he lacks a good background. Not only that, Mamura lacks a good enough background story to explain his misogynist behavior. Since he was the main focus for a love interest in the beginning of the manga, Shishio had much more chemistry when compared to Mamura. Some scenes in the manga may be a bit awkward due to the lack of development and chemistry between the characters.

I really enjoyed reading the first few chapters of HnR, but in the middle, I kind of lost the 'feeling' and everything started to crumble for me. Here, let me make it clear for you; I am not one of those hardcore shippers and I am neutral at this so I am perfectly fine with what Suzume decides to do and etc, as long as it has a good chemistry to it. HnR is the first shoujo manga that I read after a long time trying to avoid the genre, since the art and characters are quite nice, I'd give an overall rating of HnR a 7/10. But some scenes are just unrealistic and I have a very high expectation on this manga. Sadly, it was not satisfying enough. Looks like I'll have to resign from that genre again for some time.