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The title of a manga I'm slowly working through is 惑星のさみだれ, but there is
furigana above the two kanji that says ほし (star) instead. Why did it use both
kanji, which seems to be normally read as わくせい (planet) when it could have
used just 星 on it's own?
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2011-06-30T03:05:49.730
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2021-07-21T00:36:12.710
2021-07-21T00:36:12.710
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furigana creative-furigana
Why use the kanji compound 惑星 for ほし?
ほし means any heavenly body except the sun and the moon. And while ほし is most
often heard used with stars, it is also used for "planet". This could just be
related to lyrics in that both kanji mean planet, but decided to go with these
kanji and this pronunciation for a poetic effect.
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2011-06-30T03:10:13.110
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2016-11-24T13:54:18.820
2016-11-24T13:54:18.820
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Japanese often refer to planets as ほし as well when they're being informal, the
manga is just specifying that it's a planet and not actually a star.

I guess you could say it's a stylistic choice.
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2011-06-30T03:10:27.447
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2011-06-30T03:10:27.447
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