Title: Anonymous Noise Vol. 11
Author: Ryoko Fukuyama
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Genre: Shojo, Romance
Publication Date: November 6, 2018
The Story
If you thought volume ten of Anonymous Noise was an emotional rollercoaster, volume eleven cranked it up even further! Volume eleven picked up with the joint concert between In No Hurry to Shout and Silent Black Kitty. The concert began a bit rough as Yuzu had a lot on his mind from Nino to the tweet that was sent out exposing his identity. It didn’t help matters when the entire audience was focused on him and him alone. Momo got on guitar and got in Yuzu’s face, snapping him out of it, though. The two of them engaged in a guitar battle that was symbolic on so many levels. Not only did it serve as a friend helping a friend get back on track during the performance but it was symbolic of their rivalry over Nino’s love!
After Momo’s part was over, he got off stage and ran into Nino who was due to go out and sing next. Momo couldn’t hold back any longer and planted a kiss right on Nino’s lips! This threw her off her game and she went into classic Nino Meltdown mode! The band tried to cover for her but they were really struggling. They ended up letting Nino sing the start of one of the songs a Capella so that they could find a way to salvage this. Nino finally calmed down and exploded into her best performance yet. In fact, it was Nino’s singing that caused the audience to focus on the concert rather than Yuzu. After everything was said and done, Nino believed that her voice finally reached Momo. Couple that with the fact that Momo said that he would come see her and Nino’s mind began to wander all over the place.
Momo did, indeed, come to pay Nino a visit and that’s when Momo finally confessed his love to her. Realizing that (at least for the moment), Yuzu completely lost this battle, he ended up coming face to face with Momo to declare that it truly isn’t over and that he will, one day, make Nino’s voice his and his alone. He tells Momo not to make her cry until he gets back. That’s when things take a shocking turn when Yuzu decides that he’s leaving!
WOW! I didn’t expect an ending like that! I would have thought that there would have been some more conflicting feelings, some self-reflection and things of that nature but it seems that they are really moving forward with Momo and Nino being a thing for the time being. The confession on the beach was them saying everything they’ve wanted to say for six entire years and it seemed so much easier for the two of them to say those things to each other than it was for Nino and Yuzu. The story was really amazing this volume!
Characters
Momo took center stage by and far when it came to character development. In fact, aside from a blurb with Miou and Haruyoshi, this entire volume has been all Momo. This is evident by the fact that we FINALLY got Momo’s entire backstory laid out and why he left for those six long years! Momo’s father borrowed money and couldn’t repay it back. They were forced to move away where he did it again and again until he decided that his wife was no longer worth it. He left her for another woman and dropped all of his debts onto her lap! Scorned by this, she took out her frustration on Momo by taking all of the money he had ever earned from paper routes and singing until the debt was paid off. Momo was ready to move forward with his life and decided that now was the time to tell Nino everything and confess his love for her!
While we finally got the answers we were looking for, it doesn’t really excuse Momo for being cold and brash. If he truly loved Nino and considered her as something special, he should have just told her everything. While it’s true that he didn’t want her getting involved, she still had a right to know. To me, if the crush of your life was willing to keep something that important from you, what would make you think you could trust them with anything else? Still, even with his backstory laid out, I’m still not liking Momo as a character. I know they are trying to redeem him here but I think his actions did too much damage for that to be a possibility at this point. That’s just me, though.
One has to feel pretty bad for Yuzu. Here’s someone who has a genuine love and interest for Nino does everything in his power to make that dream a reality only to fail in the end. He wrote songs for her, dedicated a position in the band to her name (Alice), confessed his love and got shot down, and never gave up. While Momo and Nino may be a thing now, he’s still not giving up but the fact that he is disappearing for a bit makes he wonder what he hopes to accomplish. Even if it’s to return to try and make Nino his, what is running away now going to do? Is he hoping that Nino feels he left because of her? Isn’t that going to do more harm than good? This seems like an odd decision but maybe Yuzu just couldn’t handle it all and needs to get away. Leaving Nino in Momo’s care.. or more specifically, leaving the love of your life in the hands of your rival, doesn’t seem like a smart decision.
On the Miou and Haruyoshi front, they end up going on a date with each other. Haruyoshi pulls a move since they’re sitting in the back and it completely has Miou flustered to the point where she couldn’t even remember the movie after it was all said and done. While we didn’t get a full confession out of Miou, she’s still having a hard time telling Haruyoshi that she likes him. It makes you wonder if she’s truly ready to forget about Yuzu but with the fact that Yuzu just up and left, I feel that it’s going to throw a huge monkey wrench into Haruyoshi’s quest for love. We’ll see, though.
Final Thoughts
Last time, I felt volume ten was one of the best volumes of Anonymous Noise. Volume eleven easy ranks itself right up there but I think it failed to capture that magic quite like volume ten did. There was still magic and we did finally get a Momo confession but it just seemed a bit forced considering we had Yuzu’s confession last volume. It was almost if it were saying “okay, it’s your turn now” and didn’t feel really natural. Plus, Momo and Nino’s confessions weren’t really given as much time as Yuzu and Nino’s which leads me to believe that this relationship isn’t going to last all that long. Even though Yuzu left, thus giving Momo plenty of time to make Nino his, I think this relationship is going to backfire on Momo. Nino herself even believed that her voice belongs to Yuzu and not Momo and I think that after daring Momo for a little while, she’s going to become satisfied with the fact that she finally got to date the person she had been chasing this entire time but realizes that Yuzu was the one really meant for her.
Yuzu has put in far too much effort and now lives inside of Nino’s head. Nino is fully aware that Yuzu loves her and the fact that she stated that her voice belonged to Yuzu when Yuzu told Nino that her voice was now Momo’s clearly shows that there is love there. It’s almost fully predictable that this relationship with Momo is going to serve nothing more as a period of self-reflection for Nino and she’s going to realize that Yuzu truly is the one she belongs with.
Or, I could be wrong and this fully blows up in Yuzu’s face and he loses Nino forever and gets back with Miou much to the chagrin of Haruyoshi. Now that would be an M. Night Shyamalan twist! With the concert tour over and our confessions said and done, next volume looks to be a more calming wind-down edition of Anonymous Noise. We need a chance to breathe after all of this and I think the 12th volume would serve as a perfect time to bring it down a notch. Still, I want to see more of the fallout from these last two volumes and what Yuzu truly has planned.
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
