Review of Listeners

"Why is the score so low?" It seems with "Listeners," you're on two sides of the fence: you either love the show, or you hate it. I'll explain why I think "Listeners" doesn't live up to the hype. The biggest hindrance to the show is the story. On the surface, it's got a great message, but much of it feels half-baked. There's really no depth, the "links" that are supposed to tie the story together feel extremely weak and there's really no back story to make you care about the environment. Even the love element between the two characters is nothing more than blushing and vague hintsby other characters. It's like watching a flower half blossom and then stay that way. Don't get me wrong. I love the premise, the idea and the music history that's tied in. I'm a dork in that aspect, but when it comes to anything beyond those elements, it's lacking. The twist is okay and caught me a bit off guard, but ultimately, I should've seen it coming.

The art is not good for a modern anime. I try to judge art based on it's "era." In other words, if this was an anime from the early 2000s, I'd take that into consideration. But it isn't and visually, there are many more stunning shows out there.

Sound was outstanding in my opinion. It was well acted (english dub) and the music constantly felt appropriate and well written. I tapped my foot along to the opening each time and felt most of the ending songs were at least good. If there was anything missing, it's that each character was inspired by a rock-n-roll legend and yet seemed to have a lack of musical styling to back that up. I consider that a flaw under character though.

Much like the story, the characters were half-baked. Echo Rec and Mu were the two best, but their relationship never blossoms properly. The other players are nothing but noise and the earless never feel like a properly developed "bad guy." Even with the overall point of the story line, the earless should have started out this way. Truthfully, I'm not even sure that we ever find out what the earless are or where they come from. They just appeared, I guess.

All of this said, I actually enjoyed the show. I was hoping for another season despite one of the lower ratings on my list, but I do not foresee us getting that. If we were given another season, they need to fix a lot to turn this anime into something great.

Do I recommend? Yeah, it's not terrible, but don't expect a Jimi Hendrix guitar solo.