Minare Koda, a floor manager at a small restaurant in Sapporo, tries to deal with her bad breakup with an ex-boyfriend. In the process, she drunkenly vents her frustrations to an older man sitting next to her at a local bar. The following day, she discovers that the man works as a producer at a nearby radio station, which broadcast her drunken ramblings over the airwaves.
As Minare's voice gains her more attention than her work at the restaurant, she ends up becoming a late-night radio talk show host at the same station, trying to balance her talk show with her daytime life to make ends meet.
An amateur radio talk show host. She starts out as a waitress at the restaurant Voyager, and often gets into trouble because of her anger management problems. Shortly after breaking up with her ex-boyfriend Mitsuo, she ranted about it and was broadcast over the radio leading her to get fired by the restaurant, as well as get a job opportunity working for a local radio station starting out as a weekly late night talk show host.
Minare's co-worker at the radio station. Minare later moves into her apartment to live with her after getting evicted due to her inability to pay the rent.
A waitress at Voyager. She begins working there after her brother was at fault for an accident that led to restaurant's manager being hospitalized. She later develops feelings for Chuya.
Minare's neighbor who lives in the unit below her.
Media
Manga
Written and illustrated by Hiroaki Samura, Wave, Listen to Me! started in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Monthly Afternoon on July 25, 2014.[7][8] Kodansha has collected its chapters into individual tankōbon volumes. The first volume was released on May 22, 2015.[9] As of April 21, 2023, ten volume have been released.[10]
In North America, Kodansha USA began releasing the manga digitally on January 24, 2017.[11] Kodansha started publishing the manga in print on May 26, 2020.[12]
An anime television series adaptation was announced in October 2019. The series is animated at Sunrise and directed by Tatsuma Minamikawa,[31] with Shōji Yonemura handling series composition,[32] Takumi Yokota designing the characters and Motoyoshi Iwasaki composing the series' music. It aired from April 4 to June 20, 2020, on the Animeism programming block on MBS, TBS and BS-TBS, as well as HBC.[2][a]Tacica [ja] performs the series' opening theme song "Aranami", while Harumi contributed to the series' ending theme song "Pride."[34] The show had an advanced screening event for the first two episodes at United Cinema Toyosu in Tokyo on March 22 with Riho Sugiyama, Shinshū Fuji, Manaka Iwami and Sayaka Ohara joining a talk show on stage.[35]
Funimation (later Crunchyroll LLC) licensed the series for streaming in North America.[31]
"I'll Never Forgive You" Transliteration: "Omae o Yurusanai" (Japanese: お前を許さない)
April 4, 2020 (2020-04-04)
Minare Koda responds to listener questions on a 3 AM radio talk show while being chased by a bear. The show flashes back to the recent past where Minare vents her feelings about her ex-boyfriend to a man she meets at a bar. The next day, Minare goes back to her job at a restaurant when she finds out the man was a radio producer named Kanetsugu Matou, who left her his business card. During her shift, she hears her own drunken rant broadcast over the radio station, playing on the speakers in the restaurant. Enraged, she abruptly leaves her shift to confront Kanetsugu at his radio station, but then gets pressed into finishing her thoughts about her ex-boyfriend live on air.
2
"I Despise Them" Transliteration: "Yatsura ga Nikui" (Japanese: 奴らが憎い)
April 11, 2020 (2020-04-11)
Minare finds herself trapped as she accidentally signed a non-disparagement agreement with Kanetsugu while drunk, and the restaurant owner threatens to fire her next month, after the local summer festival finishes, for her antics. Kantesugu and his staff believe that Minare showed some real talent on air, while Minare quickly rises in popularity among the locals and restaurant patrons. Kanetsugu offers Minare a part-time position at the radio station and reveals that he used to be a TV producer but switched to radio when he grew tired of the types of talent he was forced to promote. Minare uses her spot to promote her restaurant's stall at the festival.
3
"You All Are Soft" Transliteration: "Omaera wa Yurui" (Japanese: お前らは緩い)
April 18, 2020 (2020-04-18)
Minare is officially fired from the restaurant. After drunkenly stumbling around in and out of two different men's lives, she decides to take Kanetsugu's offer at the radio station. Minare is annoyed that Kantesugu will not discuss her pay and that she is being given a slot a 3:30 AM to do her show and the task of finding sponsors. Later, Minare is offered a room with Mizuho Nanba, an Assistant Director, who did not want her to stay in the radio station's storage room. Mizuho tells Minare that Kanetsugu's "Three Second Rule" was just an exaggeration to motivate her to speak on the air. Minare swears revenge on the radio station, but Mizuho just laughs in response.
4
"You Don't Smile" Transliteration: "Kimi wa Warawanai" (Japanese: 君は笑わない)
April 25, 2020 (2020-04-25)
5
"You're Not Getting Out Alive" Transliteration: "Ikashite Kisanai" (Japanese: 生かして帰さない)
May 2, 2020 (2020-05-02)
6
"There's No Such Thing" Transliteration: "Sonna Mono wa Inai" (Japanese: そんなものはいない)
May 9, 2020 (2020-05-09)
7
"I Want to Cry" Transliteration: "Watashi wa Nakitai" (Japanese: 私は哭きたい)
May 16, 2020 (2020-05-16)
8
"I Can't Tell You Over the Phone" Transliteration: "Denwa ja Hanasenai" (Japanese: 電話じゃ話せない)
May 23, 2020 (2020-05-23)
9
"I Won't Believe You" Transliteration: "Omae o Shinjinai" (Japanese: お前を信じない)
May 30, 2020 (2020-05-30)
10
"I Have to Do This" Transliteration: "Watashi ga Seneba Narumai" (Japanese: 私がせねばなるまい)
June 6, 2020 (2020-06-06)
11
"I Don't Fear Anaerobic Creatures" Transliteration: "Kenkiseibutsu wa Osorenai" (Japanese: 嫌気生物は畏れない)
June 13, 2020 (2020-06-13)
12
"I Want to Convey It to You" Transliteration: "Anata ni Todoketai" (Japanese: あなたに届けたい)
June 20, 2020 (2020-06-20)
TV drama
A television drama adaptation was announced on February 21, 2023, starring Fuka Koshiba as Minare Koda. The series is directed by Takashi Sumida, Osamu Katayama, and Hisashi Ueda, based on a screenplay by Kazunao Furuya, and the music is composed by Yuki Hayashi and Shōgo Yamashiro.[4] It aired on TV Asahi and its affiliates from April 21 to June 9, 2023.[5][37]
Reception
Wave, Listen to Me! was nominated for the ninth, tenth and thirteenth Manga Taishō in 2016, 2017 and 2020, respectively.[38][39][40] The series ranked 6th on Takarajimasha's Kono Manga ga Sugoi! guidebook list of 2016 top manga for male readers.[41]
Notes
^ abMBS listed the air dates for the series on Friday at 26:25, which is effectively Saturday at 2:25 a.m. JST.[33]
