Wave, Listen to Me! Volume 11 Review

Please note that this review contains spoilers for Volume 11 of Wave, Listen to Me!

Wave, Listen to Me! is a series by mangaka Hiroaki Samura (Blade of the Immortal) which centres on Minare Koda, an almost 30-year-old woman struggling with her personal issues and frustrations, who happens upon circumstances which lead to her becoming a popular radio personality.

Where we last left the story (over two years ago now!) Minare had managed to track down and rescue her friend/work colleague (and now flatmate) Mizuho Nanba after an interview request by a publication known as Radio Noah went awry. This affair involved her escaping captivity but then facing off against a thick snowstorm and bears lurking in the wilderness, resulting in trying to prevent a “The Revenant” style situation. Whilst all this occurred, we witnessed an almost battle-of-wits between Chief Director of Moiwayama Radio Station (MRS) Kanetsugu Mato, and the cult leader and tech-wiz Shiomichi Itakura, who was wrangling for the cult to get a slot during the MRS  Valentine’s Day radio event. 

From here, the volume concluded with the clock ticking down for Minare to get back to MRS in time for the Valentine’s Day broadcast, whilst Mato received a sinister phone call from an unknown woman whom he recognised from 30 years ago owing to her distinct voice. This is where we pick up, as Minare and Mizuho are trapped in a crevice in the snow, uncertain if they’ll be rescued and determined to stay warm and eat the little rations they have on-hand. Mizuho starts reminiscing about their time together, whilst Minare shuts it down: “Will you stop talking like this is a recap episode?” and instead speculates about their future in a humorous fashion which sounds straight out of a Tumblr fanfic, killing off most of their co-workers after some ill-fated romances and rejections. 

After this humorous exchange, the two are indeed saved thanks to the efforts of a rescue dog Minare (fed beef jerky in the previous volume) alongside fellow MRS co-worker Ryusuke Komoto’s efforts to find something with Mizuho’s scent in their apartment to track her down with. Naturally though, the two heroines aren’t able to return in time for the Valentine’s Day broadcast, but Komoto is able to set up the back of his vehicle as a booth for remote broadcasting. Minare finds herself talking with the aforementioned mysterious individual from Mato’s past, who has made themselves at home at the studio, revealing their identity as Sissei Komei, a personality for Radio Kushiro to whom Mato once professed his love. Komei also reveals they lost their face and voice in an accident and are using a voice box to speak, but we get little detail otherwise and Minare is invited to come onto her show for a more in-depth discussion, specifically about the future of radio.

The next chapter picks up with the cult members-come-kidnappers shown to have been hauled off by the police in a news broadcast, with the situation resulting in Minare and Mizuho becoming even more popular with the public as they recount the ordeal through VTS Radio’s Northern Drill programme, hosted by Mamoru Hanabishi, an old friend of Mato. In the spirit of the story so far, matters are escalated as a situation between Shinji Oki (Minare’s former neighbour who earlier in the series had some alleged supernatural problems) and a mysterious amnesiac woman who goes by the name of Rothian begins to unfold. 

At the start of the volume, we see Rothian trying to remember their identity, with MRS employee Kayano Hirose coming to their aid as Shinji storms the building in an attempt to track her down – all while Kayano assumes he’s an abusive boyfriend. This plot thread gets picked up here as Mato is called to help the amnesiac, with matters muddied further as Minare recalls seeing her at the School of Wave Wisdom who rescued her in an earlier volume when she lost her memory before, but doesn’t recognise her by her true identity of Ritsuko Azohara, Shinji’s Slavic girlfriend.

Rothian continues to receive emails and messages from the cult with broadcast scripts intended for hijacking purposes, and so Mato puts a plan into motion, bringing everyone along to a different radio station, Triangle Radio, hosted by Noriko Tsukada, who still feels guilt for the Eiji Shiomichi incident before. The plan is to broadcast a show directly to prisons, including the one housing Daiba Hanawa, the former Representative of the School of Wisdom, who had sent in requests, or rather complaints, regarding the state of modern radio broadcasting. 

What intrigued me about this part of the volume was how it played out in exposing the true nature of Daiba as a character, and how through his roots in Radio Noah and how deep down the man was more or less caught between the gap in the his ideal vision of the industry he once adored, and the reality of the situation, resulting in a need to brainwash and coerce people to follow his ideology – as Mato puts it “I reckon that’s all there really is to the man”. 

However it wouldn’t be a volume of Wave! Listen to Me without a good Minare rant, and when asked about her thoughts on Daiba’s musings she really lets him have it, musing on the flaws in his radio versus social media and the internet debates, but also fiercely defends that radio still has its place in modern society, and that his own arguments tear down the medium as much as idolize it. It’s a wonderful summary of how Minare has grown as both a character and a radio host over the past eleven volumes, and also rubs off onto Rothian as a newer broadcaster, all whilst Daiba rages in his confinement, unable to truly retaliate. 

The volume concludes, fairly abruptly, with Shinji finally catching up to his amnesiac girlfriend, though only after getting decked once again by Minare. The resulting skirmish jogs her memory, misunderstandings are resolved, and Ritsuko Azohara is back in the picture – as Minare puts it “I guess that’s that!”. 

Translation for Wave, Listen to Me! has once again been carried out for Kodansha by Adam Hirsch whose work on the series continues to be very solid, especially with the included translation notes and bonus in-character info for Minare.

Overall, Volume 11 is a nice improvement over previous volumes, hopefully bringing the cult storyline to more or less a closure, whilst also providing some nice character set pieces and hopefully laying groundwork for some fresh stories to unfold. Volume 12 is due out in October.

Our review copy from Kodansha was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.