Wave, Listen to Me! vol. 4

Why yes, it has been quite some time since we last checked in on the adventures of budding  neurotic radio personality Minare Koda.  Even though Kodansha started publishing the series in individual chapters, I still figured they’d give us the digital volumes as well.  They didn’t.  So I figured I’d wait until they did, or the series finished and I had no choice but to buy all the chapters individually.  What actually wound up happening was that the series got an anime adaptation last year and it turned out to be enough of a success to convince Kodansha to not only start publishing the series in digital volumes, but print volumes as well.

So how’s Minare doing now?  Well, she’s got a new frenemy at radio station MRS in the form of its star, Madoka Chishiro.  Madoka thinks our protagonist’s shows have been entertaining, but doesn’t think she has it in her to make it as a long-term host.  This leads to lots of friction between them as Minare tries to think of new ideas to fill her one-day-a-week radio show.  One of them, involving her being chased by a big brown bear while she answers questions, goes over really well… until they find out what’s really in the intro that was given to her by her curry-shop-owner boss to play as part of the show.  Speaking of the curry shop, Chuuya is still doing his oblivious best to support “Not the most skilled swordsperson in this manga” Makie as her brother tries to reassert his presence in her life.

This volume managed the interesting trick of being both dense and rambling.  A lot of that comes from Minare herself, who continues to pour her heart about everything that crosses her mind on each page.  I can see that being a bit much for some, but if you’re like me and have made it this far, then it’s something you find more endearing than irritating.  I also like how mangaka Hiroaki Samura is slowly expanding the private lives of the supporting cast as well.  It was nice to get to know about how station writer Katsumi is at a crossroads in his life and how it weirdly leads to him going on a research trip with Minare, and adoring (of Katsumi) assistant director Mizumi along for support.  Nothing groundbreaking here, yet it’s still entertaining nonetheless.  The wait to find out what was going to happen next in this series (in print) was worth it after all.