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A review by justabutterfly
Wave, Listen to Me! Volume 1 by Hiroaki Samura
2.0
I received a free digital copy of this in exchange for an honest review on Netgalley. Thank you!
2 "it was okay" stars. I was interested in this initially since its anime adaptation is airing this season. I decided to look into it because the radio aspect sounded cool, but this book isn't actually all about radio.
The manga follows the daily life of Minare, a curry shop worker who goes to bars at night to get drunk and look for a potential boyfriend. The opening chapter sees Minare meeting the director of the MRS radio station, Mato, ranting to him about her ex-boyfriend, blacking out, and then hearing her voice on the radio the next day at work, prompting her to go investigate. After she gets acquainted with the radio people and tries the job out for herself, the rest of the manga details her struggles deciding if she should work at the radio station or stick with her current job, dealing with money problems, and having a small romance subplot with another guy. At least, I'm pretty sure that's what happened, since I started to get lost after the first chapter. The reader bounces all over the place as new characters enter Minare's life and new plot elements appear with no clear reason why. There's no real focus.
Minare herself is short-tempered, chaotic, disorganized, and passionate. I had trouble connecting and liking her, although it was amusing to see what she got herself into. The other characters were also hard to relate to for me, although I did like Mizuho, another woman who works at the radio station who's probably the nicest character in the whole volume. She also has three cute turtles!
The art is more realism-focused. Some of the expressions can be pretty funny, but there's nothing super-stylized or exaggerated in here. It works.
Overall, it didn't live up to my expectations story-wise. Some of the smack talk Minare does get to say is amusing, but the disjointed narrative and lack of focus made it difficult for me to be really invested in her and her well-being. I might take a look at the anime to see if it's less confusing, but without the promise of more actual radio and/or a less convoluted plot in the next one I don't think I'll continue with this manga.
2 "it was okay" stars. I was interested in this initially since its anime adaptation is airing this season. I decided to look into it because the radio aspect sounded cool, but this book isn't actually all about radio.
The manga follows the daily life of Minare, a curry shop worker who goes to bars at night to get drunk and look for a potential boyfriend. The opening chapter sees Minare meeting the director of the MRS radio station, Mato, ranting to him about her ex-boyfriend, blacking out, and then hearing her voice on the radio the next day at work, prompting her to go investigate. After she gets acquainted with the radio people and tries the job out for herself, the rest of the manga details her struggles deciding if she should work at the radio station or stick with her current job, dealing with money problems, and having a small romance subplot with another guy. At least, I'm pretty sure that's what happened, since I started to get lost after the first chapter. The reader bounces all over the place as new characters enter Minare's life and new plot elements appear with no clear reason why. There's no real focus.
Minare herself is short-tempered, chaotic, disorganized, and passionate. I had trouble connecting and liking her, although it was amusing to see what she got herself into. The other characters were also hard to relate to for me, although I did like Mizuho, another woman who works at the radio station who's probably the nicest character in the whole volume. She also has three cute turtles!
The art is more realism-focused. Some of the expressions can be pretty funny, but there's nothing super-stylized or exaggerated in here. It works.
Overall, it didn't live up to my expectations story-wise. Some of the smack talk Minare does get to say is amusing, but the disjointed narrative and lack of focus made it difficult for me to be really invested in her and her well-being. I might take a look at the anime to see if it's less confusing, but without the promise of more actual radio and/or a less convoluted plot in the next one I don't think I'll continue with this manga.