Wave: Listen to Me! vol. 7

If anyone was expecting something significant to follow on from Makie and Nakahara’s late-night encounter at the end of the previous volume, then you’re going to be disappointed.  In fact, much of Makie’s storyline gets put on the back burner as Minare and Mizuho gear up for the former’s latest gig for her radio show.  That would be convincing a shut-in who’s living with his stepmother and stepsister to rejoin the human race.  It’s a difficult proposition even before you consider how someone with Minare’s personality would approach such a problem.  Then again, the idea here is that someone with our protagonist’s disposition will likely find an unconventional way to solve this problem in a way that makes for good radio drama.  This is generally true for the majority of the volume, and mangaka Hiroaki Samura even throws in some additional complications when we find out why the guy became a shut-in in the first place.  

It makes for agreeable entertainment… until we get to the last quarter of the volume.  Then something happens that throws a wrench in Minare’s plans, as well as just about everyone else in Japan.  No one falls down into a trapdoor to land in the clutches of a nefarious cult this time around.  The event in question has Minare and company trying to get to the nearest hospital while the crew back at MRS shifts into Emergency Broadcast mode.  The shift comes out of left field, but it’s still credible when you consider Japan’s (recent) history.  It also adds a sense of urgency to the current storyline without derailing it completely.  The aim to solve this shut-in’s problems is still there, it’s just going to continue alongside this new development.  I’m fine with this, even as it has me wondering if Samura is going to keep pulling this “SUDDENLY, OUT OF NOWHERE!” in future storylines for this series.