An Anime Review of 'Wave! Listen to Me'

This was an anime that is quite curious. It is simultaneously over the top, and understated, while managing to pull off the balance quite well. The show revolves around Minare, who is a waitress at a small restaurant, who gets scouted to be in radio. The show is about Minare, and the people that are close to her life, rather than her becoming the star of the radio, or even having to choose one profession over the other. If anything the show is about people living lives, each with their own goals in life, and each going in their own different directions while maintaining contact with each other. Their professions are a means to get to character exploration.

The narrative has multiple characters come in and out of the show at various points, some with a long lasting presence, while others are simply affected by the interaction that they had with Minare in one form or another. We are following Minare through her living her life and the characters that we come in contact with and the various journeys that they go through are a proxy of us following Minare. As a result of which we do not get a lot of character progression when it comes to anyone, what we do get is a lot of character development. None of the characters around Minare change, we simply get to know more about them. Of all the characters in the show, Minare is the only character that has some amount of change.

This show, and narrative as a whole is something that will live or die by the way Minare is executed. She has a very distinct personality, and type of behaviour that stands out among the rest of the characters. The best way I could possibly hope to describe her is a female Deadpool. She speaks in a stream of consciousness, and always has a come back planned. She is loud, and confident. If she is not, she will act confident anyway. In addition she is quite over the top when it comes to her actions while the rest of the cast has a ground set of behaviours. Making this balance work is difficult, and this show makes it work as best as one could hope.

Setting the narrative around a radio station was really interesting. It shows us the ins and outs of what working in radio is like, how broadcasts work, and even has instances of how digital and practical sound effects are created for a fictionalized show. The show really takes its time with regards to the pace at which it is progressing, and unlike many other anime, there is no real time limit that the protagonist has to fight against in order to achieve an ultimate goal. Instead it is a matter of starting a new show, keeping it afloat, and making it more and more relevant. If anything, the biggest conflict that persists throughout the show is whether Minare would choose to do radio long term or not.

Visually this is an interesting show as the frame is quite detailed, and the colours that were used were soft and pleasing to look at. The characters all have a unique design that helps them stand out, though Minare’s personality completely overshadows everyone else significantly. The soundtrack performs its job and it in itself felt as if it were made for a radio show, which I thought was interesting, though this is more a feeling than a fact.

This is a show that I enjoyed watching, and what I am most impressed by is the handling of the various tones. There is a lot of comedy, and just as many dramatic moments throughout the show. Despite how much I liked it, these twelve episodes felt as if it was the prologue to a much longer story to come. As of the writing of this there has not been a second season announced. However, the manga is still ongoing, so that is another way to continue with the story. Ultimately, I would say if you are looking for something light to watch while you are bored I would recommend this show. It is available to stream through Funimation.