Weird pacing and sweet drama

Well this is an odd one that I can’t quite figure out. I liked this, I absolutely did, but the pacing is a little strange overall to me.

Our protagonist is Nino, a young girl who sings when her parents are fighting, and specifically sings to Momo, her neighbor and best friend. Momo is forced to move away unexpectedly and in his absence Nino makes friends with Yuzu, a kid her age who is a songwriter. They have an odd friendship until Yuzu stops showing up to see her and Nino vows never to sing again unless they’re reuinted.

Years later in high school Nino is reunited with Yuzu who is a very different person now and member of a pop club band. Yuzu has basically always held feelings for Nino and vice versa but for reasons not explained Yuzu tries to push her away with every chance until she sings one of his songs at a show.

This manga is odd in that who is still in love with the kid they lived next door to who moved away when they were like, six or seven? This whole storyline is over the top silly which I can forgive, but it’s a weird mix of overly cute and overly angsty. The pacing is also strange to me in that the story starts really slow and then barrels through all the way to high school and revisiting the relationship between Yuzu and Nino within a few dozen pages. It just feels weird to read and at points I was struggling to figure out what was really going on. Overall I thought it was fine, I will probably grab the second one from my library if possible, but it’s not a must read.

Title: Anonymous Noise Vol 1
Author:  Ryōko Fukuyama
Format: Paperback
Pages:  192
ISBN: 9781421594200

Three Descriptors: Relatable, Angsty, Dramatic