When Arisu Yamabuki was twelve years old, the only joy in his life was listening to "Midnight Heart Tune", a radio show hosted by a same-aged girl that went by the name "Apollo". However, despite their dream to join the world of professionals together, one year later Apollo abruptly ended her show without explanation.
Desperately trying to find Apollo, Arisu, now a second-year high school student, deduced the school that Apollo likely attends, but when he identifies her as a member of the broadcasting club of his school, he finds out that all four members of the club sound like her. Arisu then joins the broadcasting club to help the girls fulfill their dreams, while trying to find the girl behind the voice he fell in love with.
Tune in to the Midnight Heart — Finding the girl behind the voice (真夜中ハートチューン, Mayonaka Hātochūn, "Midnight Heart Tune") is a romantic comedy manga by Masakuni Igarashi (Senryu Girl). It began serialization in Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine in September 2023 and is simultaneously published in the US on Kodansha's manga platform K MANGA.
This manga provides examples of:
- Accidental Declaration of Love: Chapter 1 reveals that during one of Apollo's broadcasts, in which Arisu again was its only listener, Arisu accidentally reciprocated Apollo's love declaration to her listeners by confessing in return. He finds it rather embarrassing.
- The Ace: Arisu is a dilligent student who excels at nearly everything he does. Due to his promise to Apollo, he actually is a legitimate help for the girls who aim to become pros in their voice-related job choice.
- Accidental Pervert: In Chapter 6, Arisu walks in on the girls changing. The girls try to call him out for walking in, but Arisu instead is lecturing them for being careless since if it had been a bad person, they could have taken a pic of the girls and spread it.Nene: You saw us, so you owe us an apology, you perv.
Arisu: You all got changed without locking the doors! You're the perverts here!
Nene: The peeping tom is actually calling us perverts?! - All for Nothing: At the end of Chapter 5, despite practicing for weeks with Arisu, Nene doesn't pass the audition, because the author of the original work insisted on a certain voice actress, making their hard work all for naught.
- Bad Liar: Shinobu points out in Chapter 5 that Nene is a rather bad one. One can tell she is lying whenever her ears start to turn red.
- Close on Title: Chapter titles are always presented at the end of a chapter rather than the beginning.
- The Perfectionist: As a family member of the Yamabuki Group, Arisu is obsessed with doing everything perfectly, from the food he takes in to the time he goes to the toilet. He demands the same from the people around him, like his school teacher who flubbed a sentence. Arisu claims to be 99% perfect. The missing 1%? Him accidentally confessing his love to a girl whose face he doesn't even know.
- Practice Kiss: Subverted. In Chapter 4 and 5, Arisu and Nene are pretend-dating to help with her audition for a voice role in which she is in a relationship with the male lead. There is also a kiss scene in the manga, but, unlike Nene who kind of is looking forward to it, Arisu refuses to practice the kiss scene because Nene should save her first kiss for someone she actually is in love with.
- The Promise: Apollo told Arisu that she wanted a voice-related job. Whatever it would be, Arisu promised to support her in her voice work and together they would join the pro world together.
- School Idol: All members of the broadcasting club are extremely popular in school. They even have their own fan clubs.
- Title Drop: The chapter titles at the end of chapters often act as a kind of title drop by completing a character's line. For example:Shinobu: Yes, but... It was over a string telephone, so...
Chapter 12: I Can't Tell Whose Voice It Was - Tsundere: Nene is a classic harsh type, including the twintails with Zettai Ryouiki look. She is the most Hot-Blooded among the girls and usually tries to hide her embarrassment behind her outbursts. Shinobu later tells Arisu it's rather obvious Nene doesn't actually hate him, even if she is slamming him to the ground with a judo throw.
