Nami Yo Kiite Kure! : Of Radio, Old Man Jokes and Fillers

Hey guys, Wolvenciel here with at last, a full-blown anime review of a show that I'd say most people glanced over despite the cool theme of it. Today I'm going to talk about Nami Yo Kiite Kure! (a.k.a. Wave, Listen to Me!), a show about a girl stumbling herself into the radio industry.

The Gist

This is Minare. She looks cool in this one.

Koda Minare, the protagonist of this anime got very drunk one day and decided to vent at a local hotpot shack. The next day when she's out working, she overheard herself on the radio drunk-rambling about herself and her pathetic love life. That, ladies and gentleman is probably what you'll find in the synopsis of this anime.

The anime starts like this.

But that's not how the anime starts. The anime starts with Minare in the woods, in the middle of the night trying to read listener letters while being confronted by a bear. This is a scenario of a radio drama that was given out to her to act out for her segment.

See. She's acting out a scene during the broadcast.

This might and will confuse the heck out of a lot of you if you're unfamiliar with what radio drama is. Its basically a radio show but with the host (or a number of hosts) acting out a scenario. Kinda like  normal drama but without the moving picture. Just voices and sound effects.

The Pacing

I don't know about you guys but even me, a person who is very familiar with radio dramas and frequently listen to them got a little dumbfounded by the opening section of the anime. It felt a bit awkward and the premise for the radio drama is... if I'm putting it lightly, is a little bit out there. Especially since that bear in the woods scene is literally the first thing happening in the first episode.

This is in episode 8. Yeah.. Too late buddy. Too late.

As if that is not enough awkwardness, you're then hit with a flashback of how she got in that position in the first place. FOR ABOUT 8 EPISODES. YES 8 FLIPPING EPISODES.

So after the bear scenario the anime starts off with Minare's life as she slowly gets into the radio industry. However, this happens at a very slow pace. Most of the things happening in the first half of the anime are basically things that have little to no importance to the anime's overarching plot. 

Schrodinger's debt repayment. This feels like a very old joke. Lol. And yeah. This is why I like people to pay my debt in full.

If you're one of those people who has that 3 episode rule, you'd see almost nothing pertaining to the main plot in those 3 episodes. The show only did start breaking just a little bit on the radio stuff at episode 5. But that's it. Then when you get to episode 8 you're hit with the continuation of the bear radio drama scenario which shows that the 7 episodes you watched just now are all flashbacks.

Yeah even I don't listen to my state's radio channel.

Now I do not mind exposition at all. I love it. So long as it contributes to the plot of the show itself. Random fillers are fine once in a while so that you can really build on your main characters but when you have a 12 episode anime that actually has an interesting theme and a driving plot? It leaves much to be desired. Not to mention the filler is half of the show.

After all those fillers though? The anime is actually enjoyable. I loved it a ton. When they started to get deep into the radio stuff around episode 10 onward, that's when I couldn't stop watching. The anime tells you the technical aspects of the radio industry and a little bit of how this weird radio drama culture started. 

In my honest opinion, if the first half of the anime wasn't about mundane unimportant stuff and actually delving more into Minare as she's learning the ropes and juggling between her current life and her radio gig (as advertised in the goddamned synopsis), it would have added a whole lot more substance to the anime itself and not just leave me longing for more substance in it.

The Minare Problem

Instead of focusing on the radio stuff earlier, the anime decided to focus on Minare as a person. That would have been fine if she wasn't such a wishy-washy, hopeless idiot. I know this is probably just my gripe with it as some people do like a more grounded realistic character that you can visualize existing in the real world but I just can't stand her.

Yeah the thing is she doesn't even try to change.

Minare is very bad at finding love. Most men she likes treat her like crap and her most recent ex-boyfriend is a gold-digger who scammed her of most of her savings. I could excuse having bad luck, definitely. But Minare is someone who doesn't really appreciate people too much. When people are being nice to her she assumes the worst in them and even if she did get hurt a lot, she doesn't seem to mind doing it to others.

I legit said "serves you right" to her here. 

The worst thing about this is that she knows that she's like this and she doesn't really want to change herself for the better. Or maybe she does change in the future but I wouldn't know because the anime didn't really get too far into this because it was busy feeding you with fillers instead.

You know what's her solution? Become a nun. No dumb ass it wouldn't solve your problems

The Mature Tone

This scene was so fast I had to pause a lot to read the whole damn thing

Despite her being like that, the anime does have this "adult" feel to it. A lot of the scenes in the anime are very fast-paced and there are a lot of words being sprayed at you that sometimes even the subtitles have a hard time catching up to the characters talking.

Even the show knows it goes too much into pun jokes.

Then there's also the jokes. Comedy in this anime feels very old. I apologize for my lack of vocabulary here but yeah. Most of the jokes are Japanese puns, slapstick comedy and sarcasm. It doesn't have super exaggerated comedy like Grand Blue or Kakushigoto. If you're a fan of those then you'll definitely enjoy them.

This is her falling for the ex-boyfriend who scammed her again.

I guess Minare being a hopeless idiot can also be entertaining to some people. I'm not one of them though. I guess I like to root for my main characters.

The Verdict

Should you watch the show though? If by some godly chance the anime does get a second season, then absolutely. Due to the anime being very empty a lot of plot lines that are just starting are left hanging by the end of it all. If it does actually get a second season they could further expand on the radio stuff and all those plot hanging around. As of now, I doubt it.

If you free time and you're interested in the anime, sure. Give it a watch. Otherwise, skip. I have no idea why the comment section of Kissanime kept saying this is gold and underrated. You guys suck.

Wolvenciel, signing off.

This is how I felt when people actually read my reviews and comment on them. Sobs.

**P/S** I am also not a fan of the V.A. . Maybe because she voices Minare really well to be this annoying woman. Okay maybe I just don't like Minare. I don't know. I'm confused.

Kakushigoto : Fatherly Love Always Gets Me

Phew. Here we go. Hello peeps. Wolvenciel here. Yes I'm still here. I think even the blogmaster would be surprised I'm still here. Anyways, I'm gonna talk about this warm-hearted feels-good gag anime I found a few days back, Kakushigoto (Hidden Things).

So What's He Hiding

This anime is a very slice of life kind of gag anime about a manga artist trying to hide the fact that he draws manga for a living from his little daughter. You shouldn't really be ashamed of what you do for a living but... this guy draws a dirty joke gag manga called "Balls of Fury" so I do kind of get him.

Yes, as he said, it's not like he's drawing One Piece or Anpanman.

It's even harder for him as he's a single parent too. So he goes out to work in a businessman suit and changes into his sloppy manga artist shirt in a nearby tailor shop. It's very over the top and dramatic the way he tries to hide what he's doing to his daughter.

He is very good-looking though I'll tell you that. And people often mistake his intentions too.

 So What Are My Thoughts?

I approached the anime thinking it to be this super lighthearted kind of story with just Kakushi and Hime going about their lives but I was proven wrong when it started off with the premise that the anime is the past. I don't hate it though. Gives me the sense that there's something else the story is hiding and revealing to me slowly as the story goes by.

Yes he didn't wanna reveal his name because he's afraid his name would be all over the local papers saving a cat from drowning.

Their daily lives are also very interesting as its not just straight up gags. The show does a really good job of showing how this father struggles to keep his precious daughter happy and oblivious to what he's doing most of the time. It also presents the side of Hime who is very attached to her father and the anime shows it in a very subtle way too.

She drops these lines and sometimes a little frown here and there ever so slightly. It's cute.

The opening and ending soundtrack of the anime is great too. It really does give you the whole "flashback" feel to it and as my little brother say, has a little hint of sadness in it.

There are also these stupid references of popular manga of the time.

Expect this much gag from the show. Yes. This much. In case you didn't get it, the dog is clearly a Mutt. There's no way in hell its a Chihuahua.

I Also Kept Some Stuff Secret


I'll admit, there are a few things I skipped over in terms of what I think of the show but I'll sum it up in a sentence. Its not just a simple gag show and it got me real good. I definitely recommend you guys checking it out. It's good fun and it definitely isn't shallow either. It's a must watch especially for those looking to scratch that slice of life itch.

So if you're still here, do give me recommendations of what I should review next and definitely tell me what I'm lacking right now as well. I'll always appreciate the feedback. I'll try to make Saturday my upload day as well. For consistency.

Wolvenciel, signing off.