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EP. REVIEW: Wave, Listen to Me!

Aside from recapping the events of Wave's first episode, which we've finally caught up to, there's one more sequence worth discussing in “I Can't Tell You Over the Phone”, a flashback of sorts to a meeting between a young Kanetsugu and the elusive Sissel Komei, who has returned from her overseas work with a passion for working in radio. The scene is decidedly abstract in how it is directed, using post-modern techniques like a sepia tone and dialogue intertitles that establish a much more somber tone than what the rest of Wave usually goes for. She went and saw Monty Python on Kanetsugu's recommendation, and while she got what made them so popular, she's less interested in comedy that makes fun of easy targets; Sissel would much rather establish a brand that draws laughter from jokes reflected back on oneself.

If that philosophy, not to mention her striking resemblance to Minare, wasn't enough to sell the feeling that has drawn Sato Kanetsugu to his new protégé in the present day, Sissel declares that, if she were ever to have a child, she would name them after the word that means “To make laugh”, which is written as 笑わせる. This would normally be romanized as “warawaseru”, though an alternative reading can give you the katakana spelling of ミナレ. “Minare”.

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Aside from recapping the events of Wave's first episode, which we've finally caught up to, there's one more sequence worth discussing in “I Can't Tell You Over the Phone”, a flashback of sorts to a meeting between a young Kanetsugu and the elusive Sissel Komei, who has returned from her overseas work with a passion for working in radio. The scene is decidedly abstract in how it is directed, using post-modern techniques like a sepia tone and dialogue intertitles that establish a much more somber tone than what the rest of Wave usually goes for. She went and saw Monty Python on Kanetsugu's recommendation, and while she got what made them so popular, she's less interested in comedy that makes fun of easy targets; Sissel would much rather establish a brand that draws laughter from jokes reflected back on oneself. If that philosophy, not to mention her striking resemblance to Minare, wasn't enough to sell the feeling that has drawn Sato Kanetsugu to his new protégé in the present day, Sissel declares that, if she were ever to have a child, she would name them after the word that means “To make laugh”, which is written as 笑わせる. This would normally be romanized as “warawaseru”, though an alternative reading can give you the katakana spelling of ミナレ. “Minare”.

I completely missed the fact that the two people in the scene were supposed to be Sissel and Kanetsugu (my best guess was just that they were Minare's parents) due to being distracted by the fact that all of the woman's lines were delivered in Ainu (which is why the Japanese intertitles were necessary for her lines in the first place). Incidentally ミナ・レ (mina re) isn't an "alternative reading" of 笑わせる, but simply the same phrase in Ainu. I've learned some Ainu in the past so a part of me is ashamed for not catching on to the meaning of Minare's name sooner , but I'm also happy to see a Hokkaido-based show acknowledge the island's indigenous culture in some way, even if it doesn't go to the lengths of Golden Kamuy or Concrete Revolutio.

She went and saw Monty Python on Kanetsugu's recommendation, and while she got what made them so popular, she's less interested in comedy that makes fun of easy targets; Sissel would much rather establish a brand that draws laughter from jokes reflected back on oneself.

Quote:

She went and saw Monty Python on Kanetsugu's recommendation, and while she got what made them so popular, she's less interested in comedy that makes fun of easy targets; Sissel would much rather establish a brand that draws laughter from jokes reflected back on oneself.

And this is where the episode lost me. While this show sees Monty Python as black comedy that attacks targets, the West see them as silly people who say silly things while doing silly walks. Monty Python worked so well for so long because they never lost sight of the biggest target of all, themselves.

And let's face it, now that the show brought it up on its own, Minare is the Argument sketch.

Animegomaniac wrote:

Quote: She went and saw Monty Python on Kanetsugu's recommendation, and while she got what made them so popular, she's less interested in comedy that makes fun of easy targets; Sissel would much rather establish a brand that draws laughter from jokes reflected back on oneself. And this is where the episode lost me. While this show sees Monty Python as black comedy that attacks targets, the West see them as silly people who say silly things while doing silly walks. Monty Python worked so well for so long because they never lost sight of the biggest target of all, themselves. And let's face it, now that the show brought it up on its own, Minare is the Argument sketch.

Hummmmmm they made an entire movie making fun of Christianity.

Even there, like the ministry of silly walk is clearly making fun government and pointless ministry.

Kakoton and Kakoen were freakin' awesome. I especially loved their very long montage of silly faces and noises, and the fact that, for reasons I won't even pretend to fathom, they bear uncanny resemblances to a monkey and a pig, respectively.

It is interesting that Kanetsugu is leaning hard into the role he's carved out for himself as Minare's mentor, and I'm keen to see how his past with Sissel.

It's a fun reveal, though I have to wonder if the character had (or has) much more to do in the manga, since I had completely forgotten she even existed.