Anonymous Noise: Volume 14 manga review

Anonymous Noise Graphic Novel Volume 14 cover image

Nino Arisugawa experiences two heart-wrenching goodbyes.  The first is Momo Sakaki, the boy next door for whom she sings, but he suddenly moves away.  The next is the young songwriter, Kanade “Yuzu” Yuzuriha, who nicknames Nino, “Alice.”  Before he moves away, he tells her that she should sing instead of scream.  Now, Nino is in high school and is the lead singer of the band, “In No Hurry to Shout” a.k.a. “In No Hurry.”  She is reunited with Momo and Yuzu, but it's complicated.

Anonymous Noise, Vol. 14 (Chapters 76 to 81) opens as In No Hurry is ending its set at the “Tokyo Sailing” concert series.  Nino, her voice no longer at top form, is determined to sing until she can't anymore.  Then, she will quite the band.  But Momo won't let her quit, so he breaks up with her.  Will that save In No Hurry's performance and Nino's voice?

Next, the hot manga, “All-You-Can-Me,” is now an anime series, and the studio has asked In No Hurry to write and perform the show's opening theme.  When Nino meets the leader of “Girlless,” the band that will write and perform the show's end credits theme, she gets a lesson in being a professional.

THE LOWDOWN:  The Anonymous Noise manga tells the story of rock bands, songwriters, young love, and family and relationship drama.  As it approaches its end, however, the series also becomes a story of resolutions.

Anonymous Noise Graphic Novel Volume 14 finds Momo making a big step in improving his contentious relationship with his mother.  However, what I like most about Vol. 14 is that creator Ryoko Fukuyama is focusing on the professional development of In No Hurry, so perhaps, the band's evolution will be as important to the end of the series as is the resolution of its love triangle

Once again, Casey Loe's English adaptation captures the soap opera and melodrama, but also the characters' joy in working on an anime series.  Joanna Estep's lettering, as always, stays in step with the rhythm of the story.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of Shojo Beat high school romantic dramas will want to try Anonymous Noise.

A
8 out of 10