Listeners

Episode 1-2-3

It's both easy and surprisingly difficult to nail down what Listeners is. On one hand, the influence of lead scriptwriter and co-creator Dai Satō is very apparent. Listeners' initial premise and character dynamic reads like a slightly grimier version of the Sato-penned Eureka Seven, a sentiment lost on nobody when it premiered. But it's the second half of its Original Creator credit that's harder to get a read on – JIN, best known for creating the Kagerou Daze franchise and its subsequent anime adaptation, Mekaku City Actors. The dichotomy between those very distinctive creative voices is a large part of what makes Listeners feel both familiar and unique at once.

For the familiar, we have our overall plot and protagonists. Echo and Mu are fairly archetypal on paper – the withdrawn nerdy boy with dreams of an exciting life outside his rural dumpster of a hometown, the mysterious amnesiac girl with a fated destiny that said boy just so happens to be integral to – but in practice they have just enough grit to them to stand out. Echo is awkward and quick to give up, but comes alive when he starts talking about things that interest him, only to shrink back and apologize for getting, from his perspective, too excited. Mu meanwhile eschews the typical wilting wallflower personalities of other super special amnesiac anime girls. She's laid-back about the whole amnesia thing, quick to act when the moment strikes, and just headstrong enough to yank Echo out of his own sullen head without ever feeling overbearing. Together they make a solid pair to follow, likable and straightforward without feeling devoid of personality – I especially liked Echo's insistence in that Mu needs a cool name for her finishing move in order to use it reliably. Branding is important, Mu!

The overall plot is a bit less polished, at least so far. Listeners indulges in perhaps my least favorite style of worldbuilding where characters dump Capital P Proper Nouns every few sentences, and while the strong character voices keep it from feeling dry, it's hard to ignore how much of these opening episodes is exposition for the sake of getting the audience up to speed. Thankfully the actual plot mechanics are pretty simple – people with stereo plugs (no they are NOT big headphone jacks I will fight you on this) in their bodies called Players can plug into transforming robots that use the power of Rock n' Roll to fight monsters called the Earless. There's doubtless some other conspiracies and mysteries at play that will come up, but for now the basics are all we need as Echo and Mu go on an adventure to find other Players and unlock Mu's lost memories.

It's with those other Players that Listeners looks to distinguish itself, with these early episodes introducing a few of the eccentric acts and the Opening animation promising many more. The first is the Neubauten sisters, a trio of pompous weirdos who speak like they're auditioning for Organization XIII and dress like NieR:Automata rejects. They arrive to harry our deuteragonists in episode 2 with a trippy bit of music-induced hallucinations, and all but steal the show in the process. The joke of them trying to intimidate Echo only for him to fanboy over meeting them is a great punchline that makes their ominous proclamations obvious for the posturing that it is. As a trio of “Witch Sisters” they also function as a suitably tongue-in-cheek source of mysterious prophecy as they taunt and tease out Mu's power through their illusions. They're overall simple antagonists, but they have more than enough charm and character to leave an impact.

Meanwhile episode 3 introduces us to the Valentines, a married Player couple who flirt with eachother almost exclusively through My Bloody Valentine lyrics, and who mentor our heroes on the ups and downs of a new relationship. It's here that the Eureka Seven vibes come back with a vengeance, but it's overall a welcome affirmation of that show's focus on relationship building through robot fights. Echo and Mu are young and sensitive and not even sure if they like-like eachother, but the Valentines show them that they're at their strongest when they're honest and open with one another. Beyond that I'm a sucker for any couple that weather the travails of married life by quoting Neil Young and goth-rock songs. They're inspirational, really.

But more than the characters, it's Listeners' dedication to its musical aesthetic that makes it standout. There are certainly a number of music-infused sci-fi anime out there already – for action series you have Symphogear and the Macross franchise, along with more character given dramas like Carole & Tuesday – but where its compatriots hum with high energy rock ballads or suffuse themselves in modern genre pastiche, Listeners mines its sound from good ol' rock and roll. The score is awash with distorted guitars and amplifier feedback, grinding and fuzzing out sounds reminiscent of proto-heavy metal from the 60's and pulling from a huge swath of music history for character references. The more mainstream classic rock influences are the most obvious – Eric Clapton, Prince, and even Phil Spector of all people get legally distinct cameos in these opening episodes – but the show's preoccupation goes far beyond namedropping artists from your dad's album collection. The Neubauten Sisters are actually a direct reference to Einstürzende Neubauten, a German industrial/Noise rock group formed in the 80's, and the illusions they cast on our heroes directly reference Marcel Duchamp's “Fountain” sculpture – a famous entry in the Dada art movement where Duchamp signed a name to an inverted urinal toilet and submitted the piece to an art exhibition. Meanwhile episode 4's title “Teen Spirit” almost assures we'll be meeting Anime Kurt Cobain next week. There's no telling where, if anywhere, the series is going with so many counterculture art homages, but combined with the soundscape it does a lot to make it stand out among similar sci-fi coming of age travelogues.

With any original anime work there's a bit of anxiety about where all this is going. Listeners wouldn't be the first sci-fi anime to start strong by wither as it went along, but so far it's done a fantastic job ingratiating me to its characters and world, and if nothing else I am absolutely buying the OST when it's released.

Rating:

Listeners is currently streaming on Funimation.