Wave Listen to Me is currently one of my favourite ongoing manga periods. For Wave, I'm uncertain how long it has to go. Due to the unique setup of the manga, Samura can keep it going for an extremely long time without it feeling dragged out. People have doubts about Samura as a writer, they think he a relic that can retire because his Mangum Opus (Blade of the Immortal) is complete but this manga and his other manga like Die Wergelder state otherwise. The plot synopsis is pretty evident you can see it at the top of anilist, which is not a good well-view of the manga. It sounds dumb, boring, mundane etc. but they are so much life, energy, and creativity it makes this premise so wonderful. If you have watched the anime well that great sales job but I still would recommend reading the manga from the beginning as like every adaptation (IE most) they are aspects the anime would skip and some really important aspects, though the voice actress did a brilliant job in depicting Minare.
Samura is one of the best artists working in the industry period or heck I argue even the medium. It's difficult to describe with words, why his art is incredible. It's a see-it-and-believe situation, but even regardless I think people will fail to realise some of the nuances because of how subtle some of the details are portrayed. Blade of the Immortal during the latter half of the series is truly a sight to behold, in particular, Samura's accuracy in depicting correct anatomy. You must think, I'm being delusional as there is some well, hard to state in a formal manner but more goofy stuff occurs. That's accurate, but, anatomical if people had superhuman strength and well do the stuff that was conducted in that series, you will soon realise how carefully detailed it is truly. Their some drawings he does beautifully like depicting eyes ( and others) its basic stuff, but the small things add to the realism like one eye is slightly bigger or smaller than the other as the human face isn't symmetrical. Furthermore, feet are one of the most difficult and frustrating body parts to draw because it's so easy to break the illusion extraordinarily. The man just does an exceptional job, there are moments in BOTI where he just highlights his ability as an artist and it's impressive. This isn't just the feet, but the hair, the body proportions and the list is endless. The art feature here isn't as experimental as Die Wergelder nor is it as precise as the latter half of BOTI. Because like Inoue for REAL it's fitting a tone of the series, to make it feel consistent. Vagabond's Philosophical and supernatural art style at times can clash with the tone which is why Inoue well restrains it to effectively tell his tale. Here is the same approach. But neither case is bad, it's truly brilliant.
This deserves a whole section of itself. Sure you can be a brilliant technical artist death note prominent example. What does it LACK? well, fantastic panel work to compliment the story and art featured. It is why Osamu Tezuka is one of the most praised manga authors of all time, if you read his work you know the length he goes with his panelling and just has this cartoonist approach. Where feels so smooth the movement on the screen, then their Naoki Urasawa who is heavily inspired by Tezuka with maybe not the greatest nor detailed ART but his panel work and how to convey its story is second to none. The last example would be Akira Toriyama that dude I mean he combines everything effortless which is why the manga is a classic. Now let's talk about Samura, the dude has a great balance in his panel work, it's not the cartoonist approach it's fundamentally different but smoothness and clarity just enhance what is fantastic art by itself. When to use a full page, or half page how to convey dialogue which another I talk about later. All this without feeling bogged down. You can write an incredible script, you can draw some incredible art but without sufficient panel work, all the talent feels wasted. Thankfully that ain’t the case and truly has awe moments throughout, though not in terms of depicting action.
This section is partly writing, I would admit but the reason I separated this is that you won’t (or rarely) find anyone better than Samura in this department. Organic dialogue is a talent, it’s a craft and so much more. Samura has written some of the best female characters depicted in this medium largely due to his dialogue. The dude knows how people interact when you sometimes read the manga you think “ huh that sounds somewhat clunky ... feel it's a stereotypical anime thing” this is more so legitimate people are speaking. Minare is such a dynamic character to read and especially in the anime in which that actress gave her life and it was a beautiful performance. I never feel clunkiness with Samura's dialogue, it's this modern mannerism he gets down to the nail. It does beyond certain archetypes and he just knows people like Stephen King he knows how people talk so his books to many feel like legitimate people.
The writing for each arc throughout just gets better and better. For manga of this nature, you wouldn’t expect it to be so fun, nuanced, hilarious and sometimes heartfelt. The Demographic its targetting are adult, of course, teens can enjoy it, but probably won’t entirely get some aspects of it because once you feel certain situations in life it hits harder. This would be brilliant writing if just the main character was great but thankfully it's most of the characters even people with limited screen time. As Samura is fantastic at quick characterisation if you have read his short series you would know that. Anyways each arc gets more experimental firstly starts normal then gets batshit, it's a beauty to read. Makes you appreciate the art of radio drama and lately I have been listening to podcasts and sometimes think of Minare and how she delivers herself to the people. Minare is someone I respect because she ain’t perfect she is selfish as hell. But she does have a lot of heart and sincerity for the people around her. Sometimes she is too blunt and makes big mistakes but that’s what makes us human to an extent.
To cut this short it is a journey and an adventure you would not expect, sadly I feel this manga is overshadowed. This is my first proper manga review in anilist, as I rarely see any discussion for this incredible series. It's truly a shame in my opinion because it's in all honesty brilliant. It contains fantastic art, beautiful panel work the dialogue top-notch, the writing is high quality which you expect from Samura furthermore a refreshing story. Sure you can read another Iseaki ( not dissing) or whatever but I do think this is something that you should give Wave a shot, I doubt you are disappointed.
Thank you for reading this review.
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