1. Conclusion: the frightening part is not the star itself, but a 2020 wish catching up with a life built by 2026
The most coherent version of the current fan theory is this:
Dekatsuyo, strongly implied to contain the original Momonga, wished in 2020 to regain the body that had been taken from them. Years later, that wish may be approaching the present Momonga in the form of a shooting-star motif.
What makes the theory disturbing is the delay. In 2020, restoring the bodies could have looked like a simple correction of an injustice. By 2026, the present Momonga has a life: an ongoing relationship with the Used Bookstore Clerk, memories, photos, routines, a social identity, and years spent treating the cute body as unquestionably “mine.”
If the bodies are restored now, four things can be true at once:
- Dekatsuyo regains a stolen body.
- Present Momonga loses the body on which their current life depends.
- The Used Bookstore Clerk may lose the familiar appearance—or even the familiar personality—of a friend.
- The reader receives justice and destruction in the same event.
That is why recent peaceful Momonga-centered scenes can feel like a “last supper” or a blessing before a fall: happiness is being made narratively expensive before it is potentially taken away.
None of this is confirmed. The series has not confirmed that the same shooting star is literally following Momonga, that it is getting closer, or that a body restoration is imminent.
2. What the story actually establishes
2.1 Momonga and Dekatsuyo have long been framed through a mismatch between body and self
Early Momonga behaves as if obtaining the cute body was a major achievement. Dekatsuyo later chases Momonga and cries, “Give it back.”[2]
Later stories introduce actual body-switching mechanisms and further clues that strengthen the reading that a body was taken. Developments around the 2024 treasure-hunt storyline pushed the interpretation even further toward an exchange or theft of bodies.[5]
The exact mechanism remains unknown, but reading the two characters as selves placed in the wrong bodies is far better supported than treating them as unrelated opposites.
2.2 In 2020, Dekatsuyo made a wish upon a shooting star
In October 2020, Dekatsuyo is shown alone, crying, looking at a shooting star and wondering whether the wish will come true.[3]
The wish is never stated. Yet because this comes after Dekatsuyo pursued Momonga demanding something back, the most natural inference is: “I want my original body back.”
That is a strong contextual inference, not an official explanation.
2.3 In Chiikawa, a star and a wish can have literal consequences
The setting contains shooting stars associated with wish fulfillment, as well as the separate Black Shooting Star, which grants a wish in a disturbing way.[6][7]
Therefore, Dekatsuyo wishing on a star does not have to be dismissed as poetic scenery. Within this world, wishes can become mechanisms.
This still does not prove that the 2020 star is identical to any later star.
3. Timeline: from “give it back” in 2020 to the renewed tension of 2026
August 2020: Dekatsuyo chases Momonga
Dekatsuyo pursues the fleeing Momonga and demands that something be returned.[2] In retrospect, the body is the most coherent object of that demand.
October 2020: the wish
Dekatsuyo, isolated and in tears, looks at a shooting star and wonders if the wish will come true.[3]
Placed together, the scenes create a clean causal line:
I want my body back → I cannot recover it myself → I entrust the wish to a star.
April 8, 2023: the official “💫” post
An official April 8, 2023 post foregrounded the shooting-star motif with “💫.” In August 2026, a widely shared reader post argued that stars in Momonga-related scenes can be read as repeatedly following the character and possibly drawing closer.[1]
This is the most speculative part of the theory. The claim that all these stars are the same entity, or that their visual distance is steadily decreasing, requires panel-by-panel comparison of the originals.
Still, the deliberate use of the star emoji means the motif itself was at least being highlighted.
2024: the body-exchange reading becomes stronger
Later material reinforced the idea that the mystery is about a body being taken, not merely two characters having opposite personalities.[5]
This retroactively gives more weight to the old “give it back” and wish scenes.
January 30–February 2, 2026: the cruel photography contrast
At the end of January 2026, Dekatsuyo looks at a photograph of the current body and rejects it as “not me.” Immediately afterward, Momonga and the Used Bookstore Clerk happily take photos, with Momonga fully enjoying the cute body.[4]
The symmetry is brutal:
- Dekatsuyo: this body is not the self.
- Momonga: this body has become the self.
The same object—a photograph—turns the body-identity problem into an explicit contrast.
Summer 2026: Momonga’s daily life returns to the foreground
Recent stories again emphasize Momonga’s life, relationships, food, fun, and ordinary satisfaction. On August 7, 2026, the “chasing shooting star” theory went viral again.[1]
That is the context in which peaceful scenes begin to look like a “last supper”: perhaps the story is increasing the amount that can be lost.
4. What does it mean to say “the shooting star is chasing Momonga”?
The strongest version of the theory does not treat the star as a predator.
It treats the star as an executor of Dekatsuyo’s wish.
In 2020, Dekatsuyo personally chased Momonga and failed. Then the wish was handed to the star. If later stars are the continuation of that wish, the structure becomes:
the victim gives chase
→ cannot catch the target
→ entrusts the wish to a star
→ the wish itself keeps approaching over the years
If intentional, the shooting star is not merely foreshadowing. It is a recovery mechanism physically moving through the background of the story.
The moral problem is even more interesting. Returning the body to its original owner may be just. But the act can still destroy a second life that has since formed around that body. A wish that mechanically restores the original state does not need to understand the relationships created in the meantime.
5. Why the latest Momonga material can feel like a “last supper”
“Last supper” here does not mean that the manga has been confirmed to quote Leonardo da Vinci’s composition.
It is a narrative metaphor: ordinary pleasure, food, friendship and satisfaction are emphasized immediately before a feared loss.
Present Momonga now possesses things that early Momonga did not:
- a sustained relationship with the Used Bookstore Clerk;
- social knowledge of how to demand and receive affection;
- a stable place inside the community;
- photographs and memories;
- years of history lived specifically as “Momonga.”
This raises the cost of restoration.
If the swap had been reversed immediately in 2020, the event could have been framed mainly as correcting theft. In 2026, the same correction would forcibly uproot a personality from a life it has occupied for years.
That is why happy scenes can feel like a blessing before the drop.
6. If the bodies return, who is “Momonga”?
A restoration would probably not function as a simple happy ending.
6.1 Dekatsuyo’s side
Returning to the cute body would fulfill a long-standing desire. Yet that body now carries years of relationships and reputation that the original inhabitant did not create.
The body may return, while the social life does not.
6.2 Present Momonga’s side
If present Momonga is sent back into Dekatsuyo’s large body, the conditions that enabled the current lifestyle disappear.
Because Momonga now has actual relationships, the event is no longer merely punishment for a body thief. It becomes the forced relocation of a socially embedded person.
6.3 The Used Bookstore Clerk’s side
This may be the most painful perspective.
If the familiar body now contains a different personality, or the familiar personality now exists in a different body, what exactly makes a friend the same friend?
- appearance?
- personality?
- memory?
- shared history?
A body-restoration arc could turn the Momonga/Dekatsuyo mystery into a story about personal identity.
7. Why the theory fits Nagano’s narrative method
Nagano often leaves mechanisms unexplained while placing inputs and outputs far apart.
A frightening event may sit beside a delicious result.
A wish can be shown and left unanswered for years.
A cute everyday scene can later be reinterpreted by one old line gaining new meaning.
Momonga and Dekatsuyo already work this way. “Give it back” and the shooting-star wish were ambiguous in 2020. Later body-switching material and the 2026 photo contrast make those scenes more meaningful retroactively.
So a design in which a 2020 wish is paid off in 2026 through the visual approach of a star would be stylistically plausible.
But “Nagano would do that” is not evidence. Stylistic fit and textual proof must remain separate.
8. Competing explanations
A. The star is only a recurring motif
Shooting stars appear multiple times in Chiikawa. A star in the background does not automatically identify one continuing entity.
B. Dekatsuyo wished for something else
The content of the 2020 wish is not stated. It could theoretically concern companionship, safety, or a different future.
C. The bodies return, but the star is unrelated
A witch, machine, slot device or another established switching mechanism could resolve the plot while the star remains emotional symbolism.
D. The bodies never return
The thematic endpoint may be learning to live inside an irreversible situation rather than undoing it.
A reasonable confidence scale is therefore:
body mismatch/exchange: very strongly supported
Dekatsuyo’s wish = body restoration: strong inference
a single star literally follows Momonga: coherent but unconfirmed
an imminent restoration: plausible prediction, not established fact
9. What to watch in future updates
The theory becomes much stronger if future chapters show:
- a visibly larger shooting star behind Momonga;
- consistent direction and position suggesting approach;
- the same star appearing in Dekatsuyo scenes;
- a visual echo of the 2020 wish scene;
- Momonga noticing the star;
- unusually sentimental memory-building with the Used Bookstore Clerk;
- repeated language about bodies, photographs, names, or “self”;
- the return of known body-switching devices or agents.
A continuous increase in the star’s apparent size would be the clearest countdown signal.
If the star disappears for a long period and the story moves elsewhere, the theory should be downgraded.
10. Overall assessment: why “they may be about to switch back” feels more plausible now
The possibility of reversing Momonga and Dekatsuyo is old. What changed in 2026 is the amount of narrative pressure around it.
- Dekatsuyo explicitly rejects the current body as the self.
- Momonga immediately treats the cute body as completely the self.
- The Used Bookstore Clerk relationship has matured.
- Momonga’s daily happiness is again foregrounded.
- Readers have rediscovered the shooting-star sequence as a possible long-term chase.
In other words, if the story wants restoration to hurt, now is an excellent time to do it.
The darkest completed version of the theory would be:
In 2020, Dekatsuyo chased Momonga to get the body back and failed. So Dekatsuyo wished on a star.
In 2026, long after the person stopped catching up, the wish finally catches up with Momonga’s happy life.
If that happens, the shooting star was never scenery.
It was a six-year-old wish, a rescue, and something close to a sentence being carried out.
FAQ
Q1. Is the Momonga–Dekatsuyo body swap officially confirmed?
The exact mechanism has not been fully spelled out, but the accumulated evidence strongly supports a body/self mismatch and exchange reading.[5]
Q2. Was Dekatsuyo’s 2020 wish definitely “give my body back”?
No. That is the strongest contextual inference from the nearby “give it back” scene, not a stated fact.[2][3]
Q3. Are all later shooting stars the same star?
Unknown. The “one star chasing Momonga” model is a fan theory that requires careful comparison of the original panels.[1]
Q4. Is it the Black Shooting Star?
There is no basis for identifying them as the same entity. Ordinary shooting stars and the Black Shooting Star function as distinct motifs in the series.[6][7]
Q5. Is the “Last Supper” reference official?
No. The phrase is used here metaphorically for the storytelling pattern of maximizing ordinary happiness before a possible loss.
Internal-link ideas
- Momonga and Dekatsuyo: a chronological guide to the body-swap theory
- The Black Shooting Star arc: why having a wish granted can be horrifying
- Body and identity in Chiikawa: chimera transformation, swapping, and extermination
- How Nagano pays off clues without exposition
- Happiness before horror: recurring contrast patterns in Chiikawa
