Title: Anonymous Noise Vol. 15
Author: Ryoko Fukuyama
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Genre: Shojo, Romance
Publication Date: July 2, 2019
The Story
Volume fifteen of Anonymous Noise is all about the second Rock Horizon. The band is booked on the Ground Stage; however, when it was announced that the band Apollo broke up, a vacancy opened up on the Sunset Stage which holds a much larger audience. In No Hurry agrees to fill the vacancy but Girlless tries to throw a monkey wrench into their plans by inviting Nino to do a duet in a cover of In No Hurry’s “High School.”
Day two arrives and In No Hurry to Shout is up. They start going through their set list until they hit the song “Zero,” Yuzu has some thoughts about this song as our volume comes to a close.
The story section is rather short this time around because that was the gist of the story from cover to cover; however, there was a lot of character development in this volume to fill the pages! As for the story aspect, it was about as simple as it got: go to Rock Horizon and play at Rock Horizon. While there were lots of subtle twists and turns throughout the journey, it still remained fairly linear from beginning to end. You could definitely tell that this was a character-driven volume and that’s fine because the characters truly shined in this one!
Characters
Right from the start, we go right into some more development between An and Kuro. All the momentum comes to a screeching halt when Kuro sees An talking to another boy and gets jealous. He begins to start questioning himself and whether or not if he’s wasting too much time thinking about what could be rather then finding out what it will be first-hand. After some advice, he decides to take the plunge… sort of. This was an odd point in the book because things seemed to be heading towards a big moment and then it just switched scenes and gears on a dime, putting that side story on hold with a screeching halt. It was a bit jarring and made me wonder just what had happened. It does pick back up towards the end of the volume but in an anonymous sort of way (no pun intended.) You’ll have to read it to find out what I mean but I wonder what will be the result of this new situation… a situation that was giving Kuro a burning fire inside of him!
We get more development on the love triangle between Momo, Nino, and Yuzu… but not in a way you would expect. It was rather bland development and more like a reminder that these characters were there and still in love with each other. Yuzu and Momo have a few moments where it seems like they are going to act but nothing ever happens and that was probably the most frustrating part. There didn’t even seem to be any soul searching, either. It was just random banter to remind the reader that there are still love interests there. I think we’ve been teased enough. I really hope something big comes in the next volume. We are fifteen volumes into this series now and our main characters are still fidgeting about and not really doing anything. At this point, I’m starting to lose interest in Yuzu. He needs to hurry up and just confess everything to Nino and get it over with or just pair Nino back up with worst boy and end the series. It’s really getting drawn out for way too long.
Haruyoshi and Miou have a brief snag when it comes to the band coming up with the idea of playing a song from the Miou era as their sound check on the stage. The tension between them didn’t seem all too trying and it was easily overcome and while it may have seemed pointless to have it in there since the tension really leads nowhere, it still showed off a bit of realism and continued to aid in the building of our already-established world. It was a nice callback to one of the first big major conflicts at the beginning of the series so I did enjoy the small trip down memory lane. Not many series will make people think back to the old material. Often times, things get written and forgotten about as a series progresses forward so it’s nice to remember that the older material still exists and is as much as part of the story as anything else!
Finally, we have Yuzu by himself. His development didn’t come until the very end of the volume so I will refrain from going into too much detail to avoid spoilers. I said that Yuzu either needs to make a move or concede at this point; however, there is a possible spark here that may ignite a scenario where he just might do so. Then again, it may just lead to nothing. I’m interested in seeing what will happen in the next volume. I hope it finally leads somewhere but if it doesn’t, then I might just completely give up on Yuzu’s journey even though it’s painfully obvious he’s best boy here.
Final Thoughts
One of the hardest things to do is convey music through black and white silence and yet, Anonymous Noise still manages to get you hyped up through its artwork and description of emotions. While you can’t hear any of the music, you can imagine it in your head. Even though the anime was a rather poor adaptation of the series, you still got to hear the music there so if you’ve watched the show, just knowing what the music sounds like enhances your experience when reading the manga. For those who haven’t, probably YouTube the songs and hear them for yourselves. This way you can enjoy the reading experience that much more.
The romance development here seems to be coming to a head for An and Kuro but still stagnant for Yuzu, Nino, and Momo. I don’t think we will see a conclusion for the latter next volume but I do believe we will start to see some big advancements. I really hope we do because this “should I, could I, nah I won’t, or maybe I will” formula between Yuzu and Nino is getting super old, super fast. I do think we will see a definitive moment for An and Kuro next volume though and that has me excited!
All in all, a good volume in the series although a little bit frustrating for obvious reasons. The characters wrapped themselves around the linear story plot and made themselves shine, creating an intriguing volume. After last volume’s filler content, things are picking back up again and it’s good to see it doing so!
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
