Listeners

Episode 10

In terms of era, Listeners has kept its musical inspirations firmly rooted in latter half of the 20th century. It makes sense – Rock music as we recognize it today came to prominence in the early 60s, and stayed there in some form or another for the rest of the century. But Rock 'n' Roll has its roots far deeper in history than that, and if the episode title didn't tip you off, “Cross Road Blues” finally tips its hat towards one of the most iconic musicians in history, bluesman Robert Johnson. As Echo makes a customary introspective pit stop in a peaceful countryside farm, mulling over what – if anything – he can do in the wake of Mu's impending ascension to Music Messiah, he finds himself in the rustic home of Robert and Janis. Yes Janis Joplin's here too. It's week 10, you should be used to this by now.

The big thing “Cross Road Blues” pulls from Johnson is the titular crossroad, no doubt built on the posthumous legend around the man's legendary guitar skill. However, rather than the typical metaphor for choice and decision, Listeners uses this well-worn imagery as an expression of existentialism. A crossroad is not a path where one's path in life splinters into potential futures, but rather where it intersects, however briefly, with the path of someone else. As Echo lies in a trash heap, lamenting that he's not a Player, not special, not chosen, and begging to give up, he's not standing on the precipice of decision, but shuffling his feet at the thought of moving forward at all. Robert and Janis offer him comfort, and even offer a hand at escape, but it's clear from how each of them say it that “escape” is ultimately the end of the road. The reveal that these two aren't actually there – just musical memories offering guidance to a lost soul – is pretty standard for this type of episode, but it works as a way to solidify Echo's determination.

Echo's defining feature has always been that he... doesn't really have one. He's not a Player (Or possibly wasn't, but the whole nature of his little mental rest stop makes that part a little ambiguous.). He's a decent hand at engineering but he's not a super genius prodigy building flawless Equipment. Last episode he admitted to himself that part of why he was so attached to Mu was because being with her, going on a globetrotting adventure after an almost mythical man, gave him a taste of the life he was always afraid to dream about. So now that he's been cast aside, he wants nothing more than to retreat back to his trash hole and kick himself for daring to hope for anything more. But the truth, it turns out, is that nobody is really special, at least not how Echo thinks of it. “You're going to do something anyone could do,” Janis tells him in the episode's climax. “And when you do, that will surely become something only you could have done.” The fact is that every Player, every weird or eccentric or electric personality in the world of Listeners and music at large, is just a person. Just like you, or me, or Echo, or Janis' brother Jimi.

Yep, it turns out Mu isn't actually Jimi's sister. Nor is Jimi Stonefree the ethereal demigod of Rock that so much of the world has built him up to be. He was an unassuming boy from a humble country, who one day decided to see as much of the world as he could. He didn't set out to change the world or uncover the secrets of the Earless, but just wanted to learn more about the people and places he would never see if he didn't leave his home. And in the end, he wound up learning something about the Earless no one else had – that they hear and feel just as we do, and they have been listening to the world around them much more closely than humans could realize. They are, as the show finally gives us its title drop, Listeners, taking in the emotions of humanity for eons and crying out for a way to express their own, to be heard as well. In abstract this could all play out as tired cliché (“The REAL monster...was MAN!!!”) but it's here that Listeners' character parallels helps make its point a lot more salient. The Earless are, on an emotional level, no different from Echo was at the start of the show: repressed, lonely, and aching for a way to externalize the feelings inside. That through-line is more than a little muddled, considering the layered mysteries and misdirections that brought us here, but if I couldn't love a touching theme told with haphazard plotting and worldbuilding, I wouldn't be a Macross fan.

But with these revelations about Jimi and the Earless comes another surprise, though one that Mu herself figured out a couple episodes before everyone else: she's an Earless. Not just any Earless though, as her post-credits transformation makes clear, but King of the Earless, the same one Jimi came into contact with during Project Freedom right before disappearing. Considering what happens to Tommy after Mu's demon-horned form emerges, that doesn't portend a very happy ending to the Ballad of Jimi Stonefree, but it helps a lot of the previous story beats make sense in hindsight. And if nothing else it puts to bed the mind-control subplot with only minor collateral damage. Tommy may have thought he was turning Mu into his own personal Jesus, but wound up awakening the devil he sought to destroy. I guess you can't always get what you want.

“Cross Road Blues” is, on paper, about what you'd expect from a sci-fi adventure gearing up for its conclusion, with plenty of twists and solidifying our hero's character arc, and manages to pack in just enough sentiment to make it go down smooth. With the climax on the horizon, Listeners continues to strum along about as well as I could hope. It's neither the most original or innovated tune, but it's managing to stay on key well enough.

Rating:

Listeners is currently streaming on Funimation.