Wave: Listen to Me! vol. 9

“Valentine Radio” week approaches at MRS.  It’s an event where the station and its personalities guest on each others’ shows and do the same with those on a few affiliated stations.  Minare is going to be part of this as well, so she’s going to have to prepare!  Which means doing a show with a British friend of Mato’s where the alcohol flows like water, meeting with hot comedian duo Joker Skonsky, and going toe-to-toe again with her frenemy Madoka Chishiro.  While Minare is doing her best to muddle through all this, her best friend Mizuho gets the chance to be interviewed by a cult favorite radio magazine looking to make a comeback.  Some of the radio’s staffers think that this is kind of a sketchy situation, and they’re right.  It’s even sketchier than the woman who shows up ordering food for four several times at Voyager all in the hopes of making something you’ll just have to see for yourselves.

Vol. 9 starts out by groping for direction.  While the individual stories are strong, particularly the opening one where Minare is interviewed by Thomas, you’re left wondering, “Where is Samura going with all this?”  The idea that it’s all going to culminate with “Valentine Radio” is bandied about, but the first half of the volume survives mainly on the strength of the mangaka’s character writing and offbeat sense of humor.

Then the business regarding Mizuho’s interview starts to get more traction and things start going somewhere.  While it’s obvious that there’s something not quite right about the guy who wants to interview Minare’s BFF, the reveal of who he is has wide-ranging ramifications for the series at large.  Samura may be tempting the law of diminishing returns by revisiting this particular well a bit too soon, yet I’m still interested to see where he’s going with this.  He’s also got a different set of characters involved this time with the Minare/Madoka team-up teased at the end of the volume, and the latter is prepared to go full “I Am A Hero” in this situation.  Which should make for a ridiculously violent and entertaining time when vol. 10 arrives in November.