Review of Listeners

Listeners is a show that wanted to be something, but ultimately failed to ever materialise. An interesting/fun concept with poor execution. The show started off pretty well with a first episode that did manage to catch my attention and get me interested in the world. I got pretty heavy FLCL vibes from it given the focus on adolescence, the sexual undertones and innuendos, etc. However, whereas FLCL had a legitimate plot and was enjoyable to watch, I found many episodes of Listeners downright disorienting and difficult to sit through. The pacing and narrative are really all over the place with characters coming in and out ofthe story at random, overt rock and roll/drug references that are beat over your head every damn episode and an extremely confusing overarching story. After watching the entire series, I probably know as much about the series as someone who’s only read the MAL synopsis.

Despite the awful pacing, storytelling and overdone pop culture references, Listeners is rather impressive technically. Some decent CGI scenes, cool character designs, beautiful art and a pretty cool soundtrack. Unfortunately the consistency of its art was not shared by its story. As a result, for only the 6th time in my life, I would have to advise against watching this one.

Despite an interesting concept and world, listeners falls flat on its face. While I appreciate the effort by the studio, it could have been much better with better direction. Listeners gets 5 earless out of 10.

Note: Listeners is one of only 5 shows that I have ever rated below 7.