I knew of Shadow Star as the series ran for a while in Manga Mania back in the late 90s. I liked it's naive, laidback art style that looked different from the other, more stereotypical stuff that we wee getting. Manga-ka Mohiro Kitoh's art and storytelling belies the dark heart of the story underneath. The story was never complete in Manga Mania and, even though I bought the 7 graphic novels, the rest of the series was never released in the UK so I never got closure. Finally, after nearly 30 years, I got access to the 13 part the anime series and had a chance to see if it was as graphic, dark and violent as I remembered.
With the cheerful opening credits I second guessed myself thinking I was misremembering the series. The jaunty theme tune, the colourful paper cut art style and cute characters made it look more like a slice of life comedy series in the vein of Hamtaro or Shin Crayon rather than what we have here.
The first episode starts of cheerful enough as Shiina, a young tween sent to holiday with her Grandparents near the coast, finds a strange star-shaped creature in the sea next to a torii gate. She bonds with it as it flies her all around the coast. She names it Hoshimaru and takes it back home with her, keeping it a secret from her father. Great, a buddy story of two new friends from different world, a modern day ET you might think... but no, by episode 2 the darkness of the series is revealed and it gets progressively beaker, violent and misanthropic. There are several of these alien beings and they all have owners who are bonded with them, the problem is that a few of the teenage keepers of the 'Children of the Dragon' ETs are maniacs who want a Khymer Rouge style Year Zero where there is a genocide of the educated elite to allow for a 'peaceful and strong society that lives off the land'.
Shiina and her friend Akira want to fight back but there are a group of teens who are more bonded with their dragons and in their mind might is right.
Over the course of 13 episodes we have an ongoing battle between Shiina, Akira and Horoko and the Japanese Airforce against those with evil intent. However, along the way we deal with real big issues such as self-harm, neglect, emotional abuse, mental health,.... it's all pretty heady and heavy stuff and you'd like for it to be handled well but the show is tonally everywhere. It's light and breezy one moment and in the next minute very bleak.
The art style in Shadow Star will not appeal to everyone but I quite like that it is quiet distinctive in the manga space. The characters are all gangly arms and legs but I suppose to convey tween and early teens that'd be accurate. Shiina is a bit of a tomboy so her supposed gracelessness, which her career-driven mum criticises her about in episode 3, is understood to be a trait we can get behind as she is our plucky heroine. Shiina is very endearing and a sympathetic character as she wants to help and do the right thing. The character design of the other people is pretty forgettable, including the dragon children who all look a bit uninspired.
The series asks a lot of questions and is intriguing but the motivation of the evil cabal of teens here is not clear. I get the world is not great so the whole 'let's start afresh' seems like a bold idea... until you take into account the hundreds of millions of people you would need to kill in order to possibly achieve this. These youths don't come across as sympathetic or idealistic, more psychopathic with Stalin's attitude of 'You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs'.
It's a shame the series ends where it does as there is definitely something here. Sure, there's a dark heart here but the story of power corrupting youth and lack of impulse control is one we can all understand both in real life and through literary examples like Lord of the Flies. Sure, Shadow Star Narutaru isn't the finest work of anime or manga but I enjoyed the story that was presented. I need closure but I suppose with no chance of a second series being commissioned it'll be a case of finding English translations of graphic novels volume 8 to 12 to get that. Oh well!