Serialized in 2023 on the monthly magazine Comic Bean, the alternative seinen issue published by Kadokawa, Aki Poroyama‘s “Stardust Family” is a powerful piece of sci-fi that addresses a pressing social issue with a well-calibrated balance of humor and human drama, thus allowing readers to overlook its poor visuals and enjoy the story nevertheless.
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In a not-too-distant future, the steep decline in birthrate vis-à-vis the rise of abuses has brought the Japanese government to mandate that individuals willing to have kids shall first pass an aptitude test. While not mandatory for anything outside childrearing, the test soon becomes somewhat of a social expectation, and those who do not pass it are ostracized. Hikari, one of the eternal children that act as field inspectors, is shocked when Daiki Hirokawa, his current examinee, asks to make him and his wife Chisa fail on purpose. Torn between his sense of duty and the overall sympathy for the couple, Hikari will get to know the truth behind their marital life, while trying to relate it to his personal trauma.
Credited for just one more comic, namely “Marble Bitter Chocolate,” a sugar daddy game of chase serialized on the online platform Pivix back in 2021, it might be too early to label Poroyama as a rising star of the manga scene, yet “Stardust Family” sure points in that direction.
For the foreign residents that were (un)fortunate enough to experience the latest pandemic in Japan, the concept of ‘recommendation-turned-obligation’ will sure ring a bell, as the downside of a very compliant society is precisely that compliance is expected even in the private sphere. As per how such compliance in forced upon individuals, “Stardust Family” outlines a scenario that, while indeed paradoxical and dystopian, is not unlikely, in a fashion similar to what director Chie Hayakawa achieved with her movie “Plan 75” concerning the issue of super-aging demographics.
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The need for inspectors like Hikari is even more felt in a generational context where most applicants enroll in the program out of peer pressure or fear of missing out, which sure is no flicker of imagination but the transposition of an everyday reality. As per how the inspectors can stop themselves from aging, the explanation provided by Poroyama requires an extra suspension of disbelief, but that is all part of the reading experience.
If anything, what seems to lack in “Stardust Family” is a distinctive drawing style, as one might also encounter some difficulty in telling characters and settings apart, to the point that they look like a mere collection of variations of the same layout, thus preventing the identification of a distinct ‘Poroyama feature’ as manga artist. This, together with the fact that the volume becomes quite verbose once Hikari and Chisa get closer, is one not negligible hindrance to narrative rhythm, that gets slowed down by sudden infodump dialogues.
Overall, however, “Stardust Family” proves captivating until its final chapter thanks to the tender depiction of family life and the tact in dealing with the feeling of loss, parenthood, and childhood trauma, with a conclusive turn that proves genuinely moving and makes one look forward to what Aki Poroyama will come up with next.
