Anonymous Noise Volume 13 (Manga Review)

Summary

The members of In No Hurry to Shout and Silent Black Kitty are busy preparing for their next big concert. Both bands will be performing at the Tokyo Sailing music festival.

Things seem to be going disastrously for In No Hurry though. Everyone is distracted by their own personal problems. Yuzu is still feeling lost and out of control from the discovery of his father's remains. He still can't sing and his playing is mediocre at best.

Nino is also struggling to find her voice. Ever since her and Mom began officially dating, she has lost the drive to sing. It seems that finally getting what she wanted for all these years has caused her to lose focus on her voice. As it is, the band if having some of the worst rehearsals in their history and nothing seems to be shaking them out of it.

Yuzu pulls Nino aside on the morning of their first concert and tells her that she should break up with Momo to get her voice back. He says he misses the days when they would sing like it was their last concert. Nino listens intently and seems to be spurred into action by his words.

Just minutes before their first concert, Nino leaves the green room to go find Momo. She must tell him something she hasn't had the courage to since they first reconnected. Nino tells Momo that she loves him. She quickly runs away and makes it just in time to start the concert.

The band seems to have found their groove again and is playing the best they have in ages...but Nino's voice is more crazed and intense than usual. Yuzu immediately recognizes that Nino is trying to destroy her voice so she cannot sing any more. At the same time, Momo hears her from backstage and realizes the same thing. They both leap inot action to stop her but Nino is too driven and stubborn. No matter what they do she is pushing her voice beyond its limits. Yuzu rips off his costume mask and steels himself to fing with Nino once again and bring her back from the edge.

Review

This volume had some pretty nice story flow. I thought for sure that Nino and Momo would break up by now. Everyone knows that the conflict and tension of a tense relationship is much more engaging than watching two bull beaded teenagers try to figure out how to talk to each other.

Yuzu is playing the brooding, tossed aside lover fairly well. He has so much going on character wise that is much more interesting than his pining over Nino. he is handling his father's death well so far, and even seems to be making progress on finding his voice again.

Momo is still my least favorite character in this love triangle. He is still a selfish, cold lover than doesn't appreciate Nino at all. His heroic moment in this volume was trying to rush the stage when he realized Nino was sabotaging herself. Though, he may have just been wanting to preserve her voice for the songs he is writing her. Maybe one day we'll get some redeeming character traits from Momo.

My favorite character Miou wasn't even in this volume besides getting mentioned a couple times. I was wondering if her and Nino would go head to head in this concert series and bring their drama to a dramatic head. I guess we'll have to wait and see more Miou in the next volume.

The artwork and some of the dialogue is still a bit rough fro my taste. I/m still trying to figure out how to read overlapping silent thoughts where each character gets overlapping thought bubbles. It's like a concentration game and a puzzle all in one. It sometimes takes me a couple tries to but the thoughts in order and place them with who said what. Some of the art felt a bit stylistically unfinished. Everyone is drawn a bit noodle-like and it shows in some of the more minimalist scenes. I know that Fukuyama has been ultra busy with writing for the next manga, the anime, composing original lyrics, and helping produce the live action. Maybe the added responsibilities have rubbed off on the art style just a bit.

We'll also have to wait and see if Nino will succeed in ending her singing career in the next volume. It seems like she wants to bring her career full circle and have her last performance be at Rock Horizon. Who will have the more compelling argument to change Nino's mind?