The manga series Wave, Listen to Me! has been written by Hiroaki Samura who is also known for Blade of the Immortal. The series revolves around a 30 years old woman, Minare who is exhausted and fed up dealing with her personal problems that led her to become a famous radio anchor.
The anime adaptation of the series released in 2020 which received positive reviews. The first Volume of the series builds up the story, while introducing the personality and life of the main characters and setting up the tone which is the most compelling aspect of this comedy, Slice of Life series for seinen demographics.
The story starts with Minare Koda who works at a small restaurant in Voyager, in Sapporo as floor manager. Being depressed after her horrid break-up, she gets drunk at a bar and stumbles upon a producer of a local radio station.
After course of some events, she comes to her senses and ends up being annoyed and embarrassed for all her nonsensical babblings about her life was featured on the radio.
At first she is all raged up and rushed towards the radio station to confront them but ends up working with them as they recognize her live and energetic personality which was quite appealing and attractive to those who come to know her.
The plot picks up from this point when Minare comes to realize that even though she doesn’t like this job but it pays her well and is something new which brings excitement and joy to her life which was way better than her plain daily routine.
What I find really interesting and attractive in this series are the imperfections in the characters particularly in a medium where usually the protagonists are impervious to the day to day life. That is one of the reason why I like the protagonist of the series as she stands out in many ways. It is evident that Samura has carefully written the character along with the development as the Minare’s flaws are not concealed and her problems and struggles are realistic. The beginning of the new life starts here which makes it a promising series.
You can closely relate to the protagonist because despite of going through the bad phase of her life, she struggles hard to move ahead even if she is not willing at first due to her outlook towards the life.
Apart of the main character, the supporting characters have also been written pretty well and one of the major characters is the producer of the radio station, Kanetsugu who convinces Minare to be the part of the radio. At first it’s hard to read his mind and get his intentions as he seems a little dubious but later he admires Minare’s work and see potential in her. Then there is the assistant at the station, Mizuho who becomes Minare’s friend and then later becomes her pseudo-housemate, letting her stay alongside. She is a likeable character but there are some peculiarities.
Apart of these major supporting characters, there are also the co-workers of Minare at the restaurant who are also very interesting which include chef Nakahara who make some efforts to help Minare but fails as Mnare knows how to maintain boundaries. There is also a strange occurrence involving Minare’s neighbors.
The first Volume of the series is great in terms of the characters especially the protagonist. It keeps you hooked till the time story develops along with the characters. The supporting characters also contribute to the building of the story around the protagonist as well as the development of the story.
