Wave: Listen to Me! vol. 8

Vol. 7 had Minare and Mizuho heading out to Motomachi to help a shut-in get out of his room in order to get a story that they could use for the former’s radio show.  Everything was going (kinda, sorta) to plan until SUDDENLY OUT OF NOWHERE AN EARTHQUAKE HITS JAPAN!  Now everyone’s doing their best to cope with this sudden crisis by either taking shelter where they can, helping with the distribution of supplies, or trying to ease people’s minds in the midst of all this.  Believe it or not, Minare is actually helping with the last one as Mato has called her in to do a special extra-length episode of “Wave:  Listen to Me!” dishing out survival tips as she reads and responds to people’s emails with her own signature style.  She’s still got the problem of the shut-in to deal with, however.  Which she does by sticking him with the Voyager curry crew as they set up an improvised soup kitchen.  I’m sure nothing will go wrong there!

This is the second time that mangaka Hiroaki Samura has thrown a curveball in the middle of an arc to change things up.  While it’s not as delightfully outlandish as the time Minare and co. fell into a trapdoor in the countryside and wound up in the clutches of a cult, the storyline makes up for it with its more grounded approach.  There’s irreverence here, as it wouldn’t be “Wave” otherwise, but it feels more integrated with the story in bits like Mato opening up the studio for daycare, the shut-in making a shocking decision about what he wants to do with his life, and Minare’s interactions with her listeners during the long night of the earthquake.

If I’m being honest, it feels like Samura could’ve drawn out this arc a little longer and dug in more to show how radio (and Minare) helped with the crisis.  This means that the volume is a little more than half over before it decides to shift gears again.  Where does the series go from there?  Back to prepping our protagonist for the Valentine Radio showcase by having her meet with a very handsy British guy.  Minare immediately lets him know what she thinks of those hands, but it’s cool because Mato hasn’t been entirely upfront about why this guy is going to be her first on-show interviewee.  Maybe he’s secretly a Terminator, or something – that would be a twist no one would see coming!  It still leaves me curious to see where this storyline is going and what the creator has planned.