In Wave, Listen to Me!, we’re dragged into Minare’s world: the world of a hungover and bitter adult, looking to regain some momentum in her life and ranting into the void whilst she waits.
Plot summary
![](https://bateszi.me/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/wave-listen-to-me-episode-1-anime-image-0208-700x394.jpg)
Recently divorced waitress Minare spends an evening complaining about her ex, at great speed, to the random man that’s sat next to her in a restaurant. As fate would have it, he’s a radio producer, and he’s so amused by her story, or more specially, the deranged way that she tells it, that he throws her on-air to vent.
Is the Wave, Listen to Me! anime any good?
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It takes time to get used to the sheer amount of words being spat forth by Minare: she isn’t the quiet, retiring type, but by the end, I was sold. She’s an endearing mess of an adult with a gale-force ability to rant. Wave, Listen to Me! reminded me of how I felt at first about the rakugo scenes in Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju; all of those weirdly long, meandering monologues, that slowly but surely pull us in. Over the episode, we’re dragged into Minare’s world: the world of a hungover and bitter adult, looking to regain some momentum in her life. Aren’t we all?
Wave, Listen to Me! anime production notes
![](https://bateszi.me/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/wave-listen-to-me-episode-1-anime-image-0371-700x394.jpg)
I can’t say I knew this was an adaptation of a Hiroaki Samura manga, but suffice to say, I was pleasantly surprised! Only last weekend did I publish my end-of-series review of Samura’s Blade of the Immortal, a story that couldn’t be further from Wave, Listen to Me!! And yet here we are, 1 week later and another 12 episodes of a Hiroaki Samura anime to look forward to!
Speaking of odd fits, of all the anime studios out there to animate this, a comedy about a bunch of middle aged radio jockeys, Sunrise, the Gundam studio, would’ve been my last guess. I can’t complain though, they did a competent job, and lest we forget, Cowboy Bebop was animated by Sunrise too.
Finally, I just wanted to add that if you enjoyed Wave, Listen to Me!, I really recommend tracking down the live action Japanese film, Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald: a heartwarming comedy set in, you guessed it, a radio studio! It was almost certainly an influence on Wave, Listen to Me!.
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