Two things set Hirunaka no Ryuusei apart from other conventional shojo mangas.

One is the art: it's clean, very well-formed, with appealing character designs and an unusual amount of variation in facial features and hairstyles which helps distinguish the cast - most shojo mangas can't do as well.

The second, and by far the more important, is that the characters show a great deal of maturity and introspection in resolving their feelings and trying to act in a way that's true to themselves without hurting others. They don't always succeed, and neither does this straightforwardness and maturity stop Hirunaka from going down a fairly predictable path of love triangles and will-they/won't-they. But because the characters aren't irrational, contrived, or stupid, you can understand why they make the choices they make, invest in them emotionally and genuinely care about their happiness.

Ryuusei is limited and deeply flawed due to its singular focus on a love triangle as well as its near-total lack of a larger plot. With one exception, the supporting characters aren't quite strong enough to keep the manga afloat if the focus moves off the central love triangle, so there's little scope for suggesting a life outside of the endless (and wearying) heart-pounding drama of who to fall in love with. Nevertheless, although it adds up to less than the sum of its parts and doesn't use its lively and emotionally convincing characters as well as it could, it's still solidly above average.