History VisualNovel / ShiningSongStarnova

** Natsuki looks nearly identical to her older sister and mother, with all three of them sporting the same face, CatSmile, IdiotHair and bright orange hair colour. The only differences between them are their clothing and the length of their hair.

The game has an official website [[http://sunrider-vn.com/starnova-main/ here]]. It was first announced in 2016, and was successfully funded via Kickstarter and Patreon in 2017. The game was officially released on July 25th 2018 via Website/GOGDotCom, and was subsequently released on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} September 13th of the same year.

* BlandNameProduct: People keep track of their social media with apps like “Chirper” (Twitter), "Ourtube" (Youtube), and "Spacebook" (Facebook). Natsuki also makes a burger run to [=WcDonald=]'s in the common route. Mika also owns a [[UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch Swap]]. Sasami and Shiro end up starring in a [[Franchise/{{Godzilla}} Lordgilla]] movie.

* ReusedCharacterDesign: Some of the character designs are very similar to those from Love In Space’s previous series, ''VisualNovel/{{Sunrider}}''. Nemu Akimoto is basically Claude Trilleo with [[IdiotHair a hair antenna]]. Sasami Shimazaki has the same eye colour and hairstyle as a teenaged Ava Crescentia. Mika Hashimoto resembles a white haired Chigara Ashada. Kamijou looks like Kayto Shields with a pair of glasses. The similarity is literally only skindeep however, little or none of the ''Sunrider'' characters personalities are evident in their ''Starnova'' counterparts.

** On the ''other'' branch of Mika's route, the cast and crew of the ''Black Opera'' adaptation all band together with energy and passion to try to create a TruerToTheText adaptation rather than the borderline-porno they'd been originally created to make. [[spoiler: And because they have NoBudget and two leads who're both inexperienced actors with a [[IncompatibleOrientation profound lack of chemistry]], it just ends up being a total disaster.]]

** The ''Black Opera'' series that Mika enjoys appears to be a combination of ''Anime/{{Symphogear}}'' and ''Anime/CrossAnge'' due their use of MagicMusic to power up weapons and the main antagonist being a ManipulativeBastard who engages in ecchi and borderline hentai moments.

** [[spoiler:Nemu]] gets into a car accident, but [[LightNovel/KonoSuba is not actually hit by the car and just passes out from shock]].

* ArentYouGoingToRavishMe: In Julie's route, the producer refuses to respond to Julie's advances since good producers don't take advantage of their idols--but this actually ''annoys'' Julie, who is aware that he is in fact interested in her but just won't act on it; and as she says herself, she actually ''wants'' him to make a move on her, or he'll just end up another cog in the machine, always sacrificing what he wants like a "herbivore man". [[spoiler:Eventually Julie gets so annoyed at the Producer not returning her advances that she tries to take revenge by attempting to seduce Kile, but Kile doesn't return her advances ''either'', both because he thinks what she's doing is wrong--and because it turns out he's gay.]]

* HopeSpot: After [[spoiler: Julie's sex scandal]] nearly destroys Starnova, her heartfelt apologies to both the fans and her teammates (and [[spoiler: Kile's willingness to reveal his orientation to protect her reputation and prove she didn't sleep with him]]) seems to put her and the rest of the group past the worst of it, even potentially making their bonds as a team even stronger. [[spoiler:Then Reon, a deranged fan, tries to knife Julie at a handshake event, succeeding in murdering her on her bad ending and just making their reputation even worse if he "only" manages to badly injure her, Aki, and the producer.]]

* HopeSpot: After [[spoiler: Julie's sex scandal]] nearly destroys Starnova, her heartfelt apologies to both the fans and her teammates (and [[spoiler: Kile's willingness to reveal his orientation to protect her reputation and prove she didn't sleep with him]]) seems to put she and the rest of the group past the worst of it, even potentially making their bonds as a team even stronger. [[spoiler: Then a deranged fan tries to knife Julie at a handshake event, succeeding in murdering her on her bad ending and just making their reputation even worse if he "only" manages to badly injure she, Aki, and the producer.]]

* NotQuiteTheRightThing:

* CastingCouch: In Mariya’s route, the Quasars discuss a rumour which states that any girl who wants to become the group’s new center must sleep with Kamijou as a “final inspection”. Kamijou confirms that the rumour was true at one point, but he’s lost interest in taking advantage of his idols this way by the time Shiro becomes the center, and he simply throws her out of his office after she stripped naked. [[spoiler:In other routes, Oda intends to revive the practice if he takes control of Golden Calf, and to expand it to the entire roster.]]

* DeconstructedCharacterArchetype: Several of the girls superficially embody standard anime character archetypes, with Aki being a tsundere, Nemu being a yandere, and Julie being ForeignFanservice. While this is played for laughs in the routes not focusing on these characters, in their individual routes each of these archetypes is deconstructed. [[spoiler:Aki's belligerent attitude is the result of an attempted rape by Oda and her mother pressuring her to succeed at any and all costs, Nemu inherited a mental illness from her mother, and Julie was abandoned by her abusive father and feels alienated by Japanese culture, which especially objectifies and slut shames her because of her heritage]].

* FantasyForbiddingFather: Nemu’s stepmother Haruna disapproves of her desire to be an idol, as she feels it would damage the reputation of their family and corporation, and tries to make her stop. In most routes they come to an undisclosed arrangement that allows Nemu to continue being part of Starnova, but in Nemu’s route she discovers Haruna conspiring with Kamijou to ruin Starnova… [[spoiler:or so she thinks. In reality, Haruna is scared that the stresses of trying to be a successful idol will exacerbate Nemu’s mental illness and drive her crazy, just like her birth mother Sena.]]
* FarmersDaughter: Natsuki is the daughter of a huge farming family. [[spoiler:On her route, her farm is in trouble because of her father's debts, and Natsuki has to try to figure out how to pay off the debts.]]

* FrothyMugsOfWater: Parodied, as every time the group is shown drinking together, the narration goes out of its way to make [[ImplausibleDeniability increasingly paper-thin assertions]] that the underaged Aki is only drinking "fruit juice."

** In Sasami's route, [[spoiler:Oda expresses this sentiment when he offers to let Shiro rape Sasami -- who she's been attempting to seduce -- while he watches, instead of doing so himself.]]

* HufflepuffHouse: Platinum Class, an idol group mentioned several times as being the number two group after Quasar and thus their main rivals until (in some routes) Starnova takes that place (which, presumably, would make them Starnova's rivals as well). They never appear on screen, none of their members are ever named and, if they are trying tactics to get to the top, nothing comes of them.

* CapitalismIsBad: While not a main focus of the game, Mr. Producer and Mariya frequently lament that the idol corporations are dedicated to making money at the expense of the happiness, health, and sanity of the idols who work for them; their policies are ageist to the extent that women in their late teens and early twenties are considered less attractive than girls in their early teens; and that idols who are no longer deemed profitable are callously cast aside. More than once throughout the various routes, Golden Calf is able to [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney blatantly abuse the fact they have more wealth and influence]]; and even Shining Productions, which backs Starnova, is happy to screw the main characters over at a moment's notice for the sake of making more money.

* ACupAngst: Despite her schtick being the "eternal twelve year-old" -- earning her the nickname "shit loli" -- Aki is jealous of the other girls' larger busts, especially [[GagBoobs Nemu]]'s. In some of the routes' epilogues she has a [[IGotBigger time-skip growth-spurt]] and winds up with a buxom figure, while in others she remains flat-chested.

* GagBoobs: Nemu's massive bust is the subject of several running gags -- including the "[[MarshmallowHell Boobie Smasher]]" -- and earns her the nickname "Yandere Boobie-Monster" from Aki.

* CastingCouch: In Mariya’s route, the Quasars discuss a rumour which states that any girl who wants to become the group’s new center must sleep with Kamijou as a “final inspection”. Kamijou confirms that the rumour was true at one point, but he’s lost interest in taking advantage of his idols this way by the time Shiro becomes the center, and he simply throws her out of his office after she stripped naked. [[spoiler:In other routes, Oda intends to revive the practice if he takes control of Golden Calf.]]

** Aki was a former child idol who quit Golden Calf [[spoiler:after being molested by her producer, Oda]]. In her route she manages to achieve success and fame [[spoiler:at the cost of nearly working herself to death]], while several of the other routes have her become successful as an idol ''and'' gain the BuxomIsBetter physique she craves.

* EverythingsBetterWithLlamas: Natsuki’s parents raise alpacas on their farm, and Natsuki talks about them at length on a TV segment in her route. [[spoiler:They send her one to keep as a pet at the end of her route. In Sasami’s route they do it again, and this time the alpaca somehow becomes a successful idol under the name Alpaca-kun.]]

* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnFemale: Shiro gets rather handsy with Kaori in Quasar's showers, and in Sasami's route she [[spoiler:brushes aside the "Lamb of Starnova"'s protests that [[IncompatibleOrientation she's not into girls]] by saying that they're just practising and that kissing, groping, and (in the uncensored version) fingering don't count if it's between girls. When Shirou tries to take things further than that, however, Sasami coldly shuts her down and mocks her for trying to use her as a replacement for Kana. When Oda offers to let Shirou have her way with Sasami instead of him raping her, however, Shirou snaps and attacks him]].

* KnifeNut:
** PlayedForLaughs in most routes. Nemu carries a large knife (which she calls “Gunter-kun”) around in her purse, and is fond of brandishing it while cackling maniacally in a {{Yandere}} trance, but she never actually attacks anyone with it and only uses the knife for mundane things like cutting food.
** PlayedForDrama in Nemu’s route: [[spoiler:as Starnova’s situation worsens and Nemu’s sanity deteriorates, she replaces Gunter-kun with a meat cleaver (which she names Strobanov) and tries to murder her mother with it]].

* HufflepuffHouse: Platinum Class, an idol group mentioned several times as being the number two group after Quasar and thus their main rivals until (in some routes) Starnova takes that place (which, presumably, would make them Starnova's rivals as well. They never appear on screen, none of their members are ever named and, if they are trying tactics to get to the top, nothing comes of them.
* ICallItVera: Nemu carries a large knife in her purse. She calls it “Gunter-kun”, and has even made up a background and personality for “him”. [[spoiler:In the bad ending to her route, she names the meat cleaver she uses to butcher her stepmother “Strobanov”.]]

* HufflepuffHouse: Platinum Class, an idol group mentioned several times as being the number two group after Quasar and thus their main rivals until (in some routes) Starnova takes that place (which, presumably, would make them Starnova's rivals as well.. They never appear on screen, none of their members are ever named and, if they are trying tactics to get to the top, nothing comes of them.