My Starry Sky by Confeito Planet; Story overview/review!

           If the title of my blog and my profile picture weren’t enough to show you, this comic is a major part of my life. I first read My Starry Sky in 2019 after it had won the very first ever Manhwa King Comic Contest, and thus was part of a one free chapter a day event on Lezhin. Every year since I first read it so painstakingly slowly, I’ve re-read it at least twice, though now at a much faster pace. To explain this series to you briefly, I’d do so using the tags from its Lezhin Page: #ChildhoodFriends #Romance #Intense #HighSchool #ContestWinner #BL. However, I have no intention of explaining this comic briefly; I simply love it too much. Not only has this series been a mainstay in my reading repertoire, but it has also inspired my writing and just about every facet of my life. So to show you a small sliver of that affection I hold for this series, I’ll first talk through the plot of the comic, and then the art and some details that I loved.

           My Starry Sky is a high school romance that spans the three years of the Korean high school system. The two main characters of the story are Yeonduk, a kind-hearted kid struggling with his confusing feelings, and Skyler, a rebellious boy who is rebelling against his awful mother. Now, I’ll say that beyond this point, some spoilers lie ahead discussing the broad strokes of the story. If you would like to avoid such spoilers, skip ahead to the part of this post about the art style! Season one of this story takes place from Yeonduk’s perspective (with some moments from Skyler’s view, as is common with most webcomics). 

Throughout season one, Yeonduk works to navigate high school while alongside Skyler, the boy he inexplicably loves despite constant flaws and poor treatment. It shows their relationship bloom, and wilt, and bloom again before an uneasy parting at the close of the season. We see Yeonduk grapple with his feelings when Skyler treats him so nicely for days, only to find it’s in a ruse to hide a girlfriend from his mom, and many more instances of manipulation. The season is a mix of uncovering secrets and reasons, while also coming to terms with reality, even if it might be too late. Skyler’s mother and the school counsellor are two important side characters in this season. Skyler’s mother plays the villain role throughout this story, with her toxicity as a parent instilling in Skyler the traits that make him such a bad person. The school counsellor is a figure who helps Yeonduk through his sadness and then helps Skyler through the fogginess of his emotions. He helps both Yeonduk and Skyler see things about the other that neither had begun to consider, and it leads to two very different sets of emotions by the close of season one. The season one finale chapter is my second favourite chapter of all time in any media, and it is beaten for that title by the chapter Happiness-7, a chapter near the end of season two.

On the topic of season two, it is going into this season that our perspective shifts. The story not only has a slight time skip, but we also see an upgrade to the art style of the comic and a shift in our point of view anchor as Skyler temporarily takes the role of primary narrator. Season two feels different from season one in many ways, not only by the more frequent shifts in point of view but also through the more delicate nature of the story. There is no longer a battle of emotions internally as severe as in season one; rather, that battle comes out and is spoken between the two more often. Both Skyler and Yeonduk are vocal in what they want, and both work to meet the other where they can through a slew of circumstances. A major part of this season is Skyler moving temporarily to the countryside where Yeonduk now lives and spending time with him in this new place. He meets Yeonduk’s friends and feels like an outsider amongst them, a parallel to how Yeonduk felt back in Seoul. Skyler joins Yeonduk’s club and spends all his time day in and day out working to make them closer, even when Skyler hates the closeness between Yeonduk and his new friends, even when Skyler is kept at a comfortable distance at every step. There are many culminating moments and confrontations in season two, and they serve to show both sides of the relationship and their caveats, and by the season’s resolution, it’s impossible not to feel both satisfied with, but also happy for, both Skyler and Yeonduk.

The art of the comic is another selling point for this story, well, the art in season two, at least. Don’t get me wrong, some of my favourite panels from the whole comic come in season one, but the art in season two is on another level. The artist seemingly got a BFA in the small gap between the seasons, and I am quite grateful for it. But aside from just the quality of the art, there are many motifs repeated across both seasons that I loved. 

One of the most noticeable motifs used is that of starry night skies for Skyler’s hair. Throughout the whole series, Skyler is set a level higher than those around him, his standing in his school, family background and demeanour all set him apart, and his hair is a great way of signifying that. But beyond that, the hair also meshes well with the name of the series and Yeonduk’s feelings about Skyler. The original title of My Starry Sky, when translated into English, would be more directly “space boy” or “universe boy”, which we would often see as something extraterrestrial, but more closely meant “my universe”, thus why the series was renamed for English audiences as My Starry Sky”. I say all this because Skyler’s hair being stars doesn’t just make him stand out from the crowd socially, but it shows how, for Yeonduk, he is the universe, whether Yeonduk likes it or not. He is the negative embodiment of high school bullying and the positive embodiment of childhood friendship. Another character with sky in his hair is the school counsellor, who has teal clouds for his hair. There are a million reasons I could come up with for this choice, but one I always found nice was how he served to uncloud emotions in the story. He helped clarify the feelings both Yeonduk and Skyler felt, and did so with a gentle yet firm hand of counselling.

A common feature of My Starry Sky is the use of close-ups of eyes as a way of showing intense emotion, often with two sets of eyes compared with each other. We see this for showing feelings of rejection met with indifference; the resentment between Skyler and his mother; the longing between; and then almost all of these feelings are flipped and rehashed in season two, the other way around. These eye close-ups serve both to give the viewer a closer look into how each character is feeling at each moment, but contextualise the moment in someone else’s feelings. We aren’t just shown the sadness Yeonduk feels, but also the indifference Skyler feels for having caused it; We aren’t just shown the longing Skyler feels in season two, but also the confusion that Yeonduk receives it as well. This is by no means a feature used solely in My Starry Sky, Here U Are–a Chinese webcomic of a similar genre–also uses eye close-ups quite often, and dozens of other series I’ve read also do this. It's another tool used to show the emotion felt, and with the frequency of this tool’s usage, it is a great way to see the evolution of emotion over time.

All in all, My Starry Sky is a stellar comic with a beautifully sweet, though heartwrenching at times, romance, and amazing art. I may be biased, but I am also not blind and know that anyone can enjoy this comic even if it isn’t as life-altering for them as it was for me. My Starry Sky has shaped what I see as romantic and the colours I like, it has made me like the ocean in winter, and sparklers– I digress. This comic, in all of its 62 (63 if you count the special episode) episodes, is a great read and a story that doesn’t lose its joy even after multiple read-throughs, I would know. I highly recommend that anyone who reads this post go off and read the comic right now, but if you save it to binge on a particularly rainy day, the sad moments will hit even harder, and the ending will feel even more perfect.