Sunshine & Bright Stars - Reviews

A very mediocre GL romance story that doesn't do anything particularly well. The only things that stand out are negatives that I will go over now. 

Pacing

In one of the first chapters, two weeks go by in a single panel. However, some character development actually happens in this time and the main character and love interest did grow closer by the next panel but it's just not shown. A very strange choice. 

The story continues on to be a typical vanilla GL romance where the characters have to find out if they're into one another. This continues on to chapter 60 where we get back onto the highway. Or should I say raceway? 

Also, it takes place in China. The road to GL is littered with homophobes. It's the reality, sure, but it needs to be met with the right respect. This show didn't manage to portray anything in a believable manner so the homophobia seems to be used as a cheap ploy. Hell, even the mother of the love interest gets over it in a split second. 

The power balance between the popular Love interest and the normal main character is shoehorned in like you wouldn't know. Up and downs lefts and rights are explored in the final 9 chapters only for it to come to an unsatisfying conclusion. 

There isn't really a whole lot of sunshine here. But I did see stars after the dizzying pacing of this show. If you got a big manga list, feel free to skip this. 

Story: The writing at times is very choppy with the story come across as jarring in its pacing, especially in the beginning with a time jump happening very quickly. However, as the webtoon's story goes on it finds itself a stable pace and the story evens itself out. It's a bit clichéd and overly contrived at times with its bouts of drama, which will either be entertaining or frustrating depending on your individual threshold. And I found the ending ti be extremely sudden and jarring—I was sure that there had to be more, but the webtoon has a "The End" so it's clearly an intentional ending, if an unsatisfying one. The story is entertaining but it's nothing especially exceptional, so while the ending was sudden I did not feel particularly upset either since the story has always been relatively simple and I lacked that much emotional investment in it. It ended in a decent place and while the story isn't a masterpiece it succeeds at being entertaining with havibg a fair bit of drama, fluff, and humor.

Art: The art style is quite nice and I very much enjoyed it. One of the reasons I kept reading this webtoon was because I found the art to be delightful to look at and very aesthetically pleasing. I especially love the character designs. They're really beautiful, unique, and lively in a way thag clearly defines who the characters are and the designs are distinctive enough that even minor characters can become somewhat memorable and recognizable. I find Ah Ming and Xin Cheng's (the two romantic leads) designs to be especially lovely! Ah Ming has a really attractive punk aesthetic that matches her role in the band as well as her personality, while Xin Cheng has a bit more of a traditional beauty with a somewhat innocent and wide-eyed look.

Characters: In general, the characters are fun and enjoyable; they easily fulfill their express purpose but they don't come across as incredibly complex and are relatively two-dimensional. The main cast has a bit more complexity to them in terms of their struggles and their character development, but nothing particularly interesting. And several characters, especially the ones that thrust into the story to cause drama for our main couple, are extremely one note in their dimensions and come across as almost contrived. For the most part, the cast of characters are enjoyable and succeed in their purpose of telling the story but they aren't very three dimensional outside of their purpose in the story. 

Overall: This is a decent and enjoyable webtoon but it isn't particularly good or memorable. I'd recommend it for those who want to kill a couple of hours reading something fun, but if you're hungering for something really good and not average mediocrity then you're better off skipping this one. It's fun; it'll make you smile and laugh at times, perhaps even gasp at the drama, but it isn't memorable or spectacular.