Wave, Listen to Me!

Episode 4

There's even more change in there air this week on Wave, Listen to Me! as Minare prepares for her radio debut, though “change” in this case means that she actually ends up working at Voyager again. This isn't merely a case of career backsliding, though, because the circumstances around Minare's return are rife with potential for spicy drama. Takarada has been in a rather serious car accident, you see, and Nakahara has been put in charge while he's recovering, leaving Minare to pick up the slack, since the search for corporate sponsors means she doesn't have much to do at MRS for the time being. That isn't all though: The sister of the man who put Takarada in the hospital, Makie Tachibana, has offered to work at Voyager to help ease the burden her family caused, and it isn't long before she seems like she might be replacing Minare altogether, both as an employee and as a potential love interest for Nakahara.

I won't lie: On paper, this premise strikes me as exactly what I wouldn't want Wave to be focusing on at this point in its story. Nakahara seems nice enough, but he's also terribly pushy when it comes to shoving his feelings onto Minare, so I'm not especially jazzed about him about the maybe-love-triangle that gets proposed in this episode. We also barely get any interesting radio-work material this week, either, outside of a brief explanation of just how expensive even a micro-budgeted 3:30 AM timeslot will be to sponsor, plus a tidbit or two about Mizuho's personal life. One of the Odds and Ends from the first review even saw me anxious about whether the show would spend too much time focusing on the restaurant drama, and here is Wave doing exactly that.

The thing is that it works, though, and it's all thanks to Minare herself. She's just such a damned good character that I can't help but be invested in all of her struggles at this point, whether or not they're explicitly tied to her new not-quite-a-job at MRS. Makie also makes for an interesting addition to the cast, as another woman who is clearly going through her own personal crisis, though it seems much more serious than Minare's. She's downbeat and reserved in a way that almost comes across as suspicious, and you feel for Minare when Makie goes beyond washing dishes to add recipes to the menu and even update Voyager's blog. She's also incredibly reluctant to go home, so much so that Nakahara insists that she sleep over at his place.

I'm still not quite sure whether I buy that Minare is completely serious about Nakahara ¬—she's spent four weeks insisting that she isn't interested in dating him, even if she might secretly be a little attracted to him ¬— but it makes sense that she would start to feel uncertain about everything in her life once Makie starts encroaching on the guy who has always promised he was hers. She just lost a job she really liked, only to suddenly get it back as a temp gig due to absurd circumstances; her new gig at MRS is uncharted territory that she doesn't even believe she can succeed in; and she is also still reeling from the breakup and financial struggles that led her to upending her whole life to begin with. Nakahara even points out that she would be the first person to call bullshit on Kanetsugu's kindness were it not being applied to her. It's natural for her to cling to the last source of stability in her life that now also looks to be slipping out of her grasp.

This all sounds really heavy, and there's definitely a darker tinge of drama to “You Don't Smile”, but Wave also just as energetic and fun as ever, when it wants to be. The show mines a lot of comedy from the simple gag of Minare stuck turtle-sitting for Mizuho, for instance, since they're the only audience to listen to her zingers about how turtles and Japanese politicians are liable to shit where they eat. Next week looks to be putting Minare live on air again for the first time since the premiere's flash-forward, and I absolutely cannot wait to see how her first official episode ¬— appropriately titled “Wave, Listen to Me!” ¬— turns out. That said, seeing this series continue to be so successful in relaying Minare's off-microphone trials and tribulations has only bolstered my faith that Wave will be a joy to watch no matter what sorts of stories it decides to tell.

Rating:

Odds and Ends

• You've Got a Face Made for Radio: My pic for this week's best Minare Moment is her reaction to Nakahara's earnest insistence that she quit MRS and help him take over Voyager so they can make into a “curry soup restaurant franchise that boasts the most branches in Hokkaido!” At that, her only thought is “That last part doesn't excite me at all…” The rising blush on her face does imply that she might not be altogether opposed to his declarations of undying love, though…

• Speaking of romantic troubles, Mizuho has an unfortunate date with a guy where she runs off after he tries to kiss her (the dude has a godawful sense of timing, that's for sure). Mizuho also gets a little dodgy when Minare is singing Chishiro's praises, leading Minare to thinking that Mizuho might be the victim of bullying. I wonder what's going on there…

• One blemish on the episode is Minare's random callout of Takarada's assumed homosexuality as a reason not to make peace with him and get her job back. She seems affectionate enough with her old manager when she visits him in the hospital, though, so I hope that was just an instance of her being spiteful (which is still not cool, for the record), rather than a sign of consistent homophobia.

• For anyone that is curious, Kanetsugu quotes the ideal cost of sponsorship for Minare's program at about 1.7 million yen per month, or 10.2 million yen per six-month contract. According to the internet, that translates to roughly $95,000 USD in 2020 dollars for six months of ad space.

Wave, Listen to Me! is currently streaming on Funimation.

James is a writer with many thoughts and feelings about anime and other pop-culture, which can also be found on Twitter, his blog, and his podcast.