''Shadow Star'', known in Japan as , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Mohiro Kitoh, originally serialized in Kodansha's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''

Monthly Afternoon is a Japanese monthly ''seinen'' manga anthology published by Kodansha under the ''Afternoon'' line of magazines. The first issue was released with a cover date of January 25, 1986. ''Afternoon'' has spawned many successful manga series such as ...

'' from 1998 to 2003. The Japanese name is an abbreviation of , which roughly translates to ''Corpse of a Star; A Precious Child''. In North America, it was licensed by

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and manga publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon comic book shops know ...

and serialized in '' Super Manga Blast!''. A 13-episode anime adaptation by Planet was broadcast in 2003 and was released in English by Central Park Media.

Plot

The protagonist of the series is a twelve-year-old girl named Shiina Tamai. She bonds with a starfish-shaped "dragonchild" (baby "shadow dragon") whom she calls Hoshimaru. The series is mainly about the interaction between Shiina and other young people who have also bonded with dragons.

Media

Manga

''Shadow Star'', written and illustrated by Mohiro Kitoh, was serialized in Kodansha's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''

'' from 1998 to 2003. Kodansha collected its chapters in twelve ''

tankōbon is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or ...

'' volumes, released from August 19, 1998, to December 22, 2003. In North America, the manga was licensed for English release by

and serialized in '' Super Manga Blast!''. The series ran in the magazine from March 29, 2000, to February 1, 2006, when the magazine ceased its publication. Dark Horse Comics collected the chapters in seven volumes, which were released from September 5, 2001, to December 21, 2005.

Anime

A 13-episode anime adaptation by Planet was broadcast from July 7, to September 29, 2003, on

Kids Station Kids Station ( Japanese: キッズステーション, ''Kizzu Sutēshon'') is a Japanese children's television channel showing anime and other cartoon material. Kids Station also airs some anime aimed at teens and adults during the night, such as '' ...

. The anime adapted the storyline of the first six volumes (seven volumes of the American release) of the manga. The anime was licensed by Central Park Media and released in English as ''Shadow Star Narutaru'', and has played on Comcast's Anime Selects multiple times. In 2007 it ran on the Illusion on Demand television network. Central Park Media released the title under their "U.S. Manga Corps" line, on 4 DVDs, and later re-released the DVDs in a box set. Central Park Media filed for bankruptcy in 2009, and the DVDs have since been out of print.

Reception

Tasha Robinson of the

Sci Fi Channel Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. Lau ...

described the anime series as "transformed" from "fascinatingly quirky" to "slow but expressive".Robinson, Tasha.
Shadow Star Narutaru
" ''

''. May 21, 2008. Retrieved on December 26, 2010.

References

External links

* * *
ANIMEFringe article about ''Shadow Star''
* {{Afternoon 1998 manga 2003 anime television series debuts Central Park Media Dark fantasy anime and manga Dark Horse Comics titles Kids Station original programming Kodansha manga Mystery anime and manga Seinen manga