Wave, Listen to Me!

Wave, Listen to Me! (Japanese: 波よ聞いてくれ, Hepburn: Nami yo Kiitekure) is a Japanese manga series by Hiroaki Samura. It has been serialized in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Monthly Afternoon since July 2014, with its chapters collected in 12 tankōbon volumes as of June 2025. The manga is published in North America by Kodansha Comics. An anime television series adaptation produced by Sunrise aired from April to June 2020 on MBS's Animeism block. A television drama adaptation, titled in English as Born to Be on Air!, aired on TV Asahi from April to June 2023.^[2]

Wave, Listen to Me!
First tankōbon volume cover, featuring Minare Koda
波よ聞いてくれ (Nami yo Kiitekure)
Genre	Comedy, slice of life[1]
Manga
Written by	Hiroaki Samura
Published by	Kodansha
English publisher	NA: Kodansha USA
Magazine	Monthly Afternoon
Original run	July 25, 2014 – present
Volumes	12
Anime television series
Directed by	Tatsuma Minamikawa
Produced by	Toshihiro Maeda Chitose Kawazoe Takuya Matsumoto Hiroshi Ootsuka
Written by	Shōji Yonemura
Music by	Motoyoshi Iwasaki
Studio	Sunrise
Licensed by	Crunchyroll
Original network	MBS, TBS, BS-TBS, HBC
Original run	April 4, 2020 – June 20, 2020
Episodes	12
Television drama
Born to Be on Air!
Directed by	Takashi Sumida Osamu Katayama Hisashi Ueda
Written by	Kazunao Furuya
Music by	Yuki Hayashi Shōgo Yamashiro
Studio	TV Asahi MMJ [ja]
Original network	ANN (TV Asahi)
Original run	April 21, 2023 – June 9, 2023
Episodes	8

Plot

Minare Koda, a floor manager at a small restaurant in Sapporo, tries to deal with her bad breakup with an ex-boyfriend. In the process, she drunkenly vents her frustrations to an older man sitting next to her at a local bar. The following day, she discovers that the man works as a producer at a nearby radio station, which broadcast her drunken ramblings over the airwaves.

As Minare's voice gains her more attention than her work at the restaurant, she ends up becoming a late-night radio talk show host at the same station, trying to balance her talk show with her daytime life to make ends meet.

Characters

The cast of Wave, Listen to Me!

Minare Koda (鼓田 ミナレ, Koda Minare)

Voiced by: Riho Sugiyama^[3] (Japanese); Terri Doty^[4] (English)

Portrayed by: Fuka Koshiba^[5]

An amateur radio talk show host. She starts out as a waitress at the restaurant Voyager, and often gets into trouble because of her anger management problems. Shortly after breaking up with her ex-boyfriend Mitsuo, she ranted about it and was broadcast over the radio leading her to get fired by the restaurant, as well as get a job opportunity working for a local radio station starting out as a weekly late night talk show host.

Kanetsugu Matō (麻藤 兼嗣, Matō Kanetsugu)

Voiced by: Shinshū Fuji^[3] (Japanese); Christopher R. Sabat^[4] (English)

Portrayed by: Kazuki Kitamura^[6]

Minare's boss at the radio station.

Mizuho Nanba (南波 瑞穂, Nanba Mizuho)

Voiced by: Manaka Iwami^[3] (Japanese); Tia Ballard^[4] (English)

Portrayed by: Nanoka Hara^[6]

Minare's co-worker at the radio station. Minare later moves into her apartment to live with her after getting evicted due to her inability to pay the rent.

Katsumi Kureko (久連木 克三, Kureko Katsumi)

Voiced by: Kazuhiro Yamaji^[3] (Japanese); Charlie Campbell^[4] (English)

Portrayed by: Mantarō Koichi^[7]

Madoka Chishiro (茅代 まどか, Chishiro Madoka)

Voiced by: Sayaka Ohara^[3] (Japanese); Monica Rial^[4] (English)

Portrayed by: Aya Hirano^[7]

Ryūsuke Kōmoto (甲本 龍丞, Kōmoto Ryūsuke)

Voiced by: Kaito Ishikawa^[3] (Japanese); Zach Bolton^[4] (English)

Chūya Nakahara (中原 忠也, Nakahara Chūya)

Voiced by: Masaaki Yano^[3] (Japanese); Ian Sinclair^[4] (English)

Portrayed by: Ryota Katayose^[6]

A chef at Voyager.

Makie Tachibana (城華 マキエ, Tachibana Makie)

Voiced by: Mamiko Noto^[3] (Japanese); Katelyn Barr (English)

Portrayed by: Yurika Nakamura^[7]

A waitress at Voyager. She begins working there after her brother was at fault for an accident that led to restaurant's manager being hospitalized. She later develops feelings for Chuya.

Yoshiki Takarada (宝田 嘉樹, Takarada Yoshiki)

Voiced by: Bin Shimada^[3] (Japanese); Kent Williams (English)

Portrayed by: Mizuki Nishimura^[7]

Manager and lead chef at the restaurant Voyager.

Mitsuo Suga (須賀 光雄, Suga Mitsuo)

Voiced by: Daisuke Namikawa^[3] (Japanese); Austin Tindle (English)

Minare's ex-boyfriend.

Shinji Oki (沖 進次, Oki Shinji)

Voiced by: Kōki Uchiyama^[3] (Japanese); Jessie James Grelle (English)

Minare's neighbor who lives in the unit below her.

Media

Manga

Written and illustrated by Hiroaki Samura, Wave, Listen to Me! started in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Monthly Afternoon on July 25, 2014.^[8][9] Kodansha has collected its chapters into individual tankōbon volumes. The first volume was released on May 22, 2015.^[10] As of June 23, 2025, 12 volume have been released.^[11]

In North America, Kodansha USA began releasing the manga digitally on January 24, 2017.^[12] Kodansha started publishing the manga in print on May 26, 2020.^[13]

Volumes

No.	Original release date	Original ISBN	English release date	English ISBN
1	May 22, 2015[10]	978-4-06-388058-8	May 26, 2020[13]	978-1-63236-867-6
2	February 23, 2016[14]	978-4-06-388125-7	May 26, 2020[15]	978-1-63236-868-3
3	November 22, 2016[16]	978-4-06-388214-8	August 25, 2020[17]	978-1-63236-869-0
4	September 22, 2017[18]	978-4-06-388288-9	October 20, 2020[19]	978-1-63236-870-6
5	July 23, 2018[20]	978-4-06-511983-9	March 2, 2021[21]	978-1-63236-871-3
6	March 22, 2019[22]	978-4-06-514837-2	May 25, 2021[23]	978-1-63236-808-9
7	December 23, 2019[24]	978-4-06-517924-6	August 10, 2021[25]	978-1-63236-817-1
8	October 23, 2020[26]	978-4-06-521107-6	October 5, 2021[27]	978-1-64651-264-5
9	January 21, 2022[28]	978-4-06-526548-2	January 24, 2023[29]	978-1-64651-265-2
10	April 21, 2023[30]	978-4-06-531373-2	November 21, 2023[31]	978-1-64651-442-7
11	April 23, 2024[32]	978-4-06-535140-6	April 21, 2026[33]	979-8-88877-398-7
12	June 23, 2025[11]	978-4-06-539611-7	—	—

Anime

An anime television series adaptation was announced in October 2019. The series is animated at Sunrise and directed by Tatsuma Minamikawa,^[34] with Shōji Yonemura handling series composition,^[35] Takumi Yokota designing the characters and Motoyoshi Iwasaki composing the series' music. It aired from April 4 to June 20, 2020, on the Animeism programming block on MBS, TBS and BS-TBS, as well as HBC.^[3][a] Tacica [ja] performs the series' opening theme song "Aranami", while Harumi contributed to the series' ending theme song "Pride."^[37] The show had an advanced screening event for the first two episodes at United Cinema Toyosu in Tokyo on March 22 with Riho Sugiyama, Shinshū Fuji, Manaka Iwami and Sayaka Ohara joining a talk show on stage.^[38]

Funimation (later Crunchyroll LLC) licensed the series for streaming in North America.^[34]

Episodes

No.	Title	Original release date [39][a]
1	"I'll Never Forgive You" Transliteration: "Omae o Yurusanai" (Japanese: お前を許さない)	April 4, 2020 (2020-04-04)
Minare Koda responds to listener questions on a 3 AM radio talk show while being chased by a bear. The show flashes back to the recent past where Minare vents her feelings about her ex-boyfriend to a man she meets at a bar. The next day, Minare goes back to her job at a restaurant when she finds out the man was a radio producer named Kanetsugu Matou, who left her his business card. During her shift, she hears her own drunken rant broadcast over the radio station, playing on the speakers in the restaurant. Enraged, she abruptly leaves her shift to confront Kanetsugu at his radio station, but then gets pressed into finishing her thoughts about her ex-boyfriend live on air.
2	"I Despise Them" Transliteration: "Yatsura ga Nikui" (Japanese: 奴らが憎い)	April 11, 2020 (2020-04-11)
Minare finds herself trapped as she accidentally signed a non-disparagement agreement with Kanetsugu while drunk, and the restaurant owner threatens to fire her next month, after the local summer festival finishes, for her antics. Kantesugu and his staff believe that Minare showed some real talent on air, while Minare quickly rises in popularity among the locals and restaurant patrons. Kanetsugu offers Minare a part-time position at the radio station and reveals that he used to be a TV producer but switched to radio when he grew tired of the types of talent he was forced to promote. Minare uses her spot to promote her restaurant's stall at the festival.
3	"You All Are Soft" Transliteration: "Omaera wa Yurui" (Japanese: お前らは緩い)	April 18, 2020 (2020-04-18)
Minare is officially fired from the restaurant. After drunkenly stumbling around in and out of two different men's lives, she decides to take Kanetsugu's offer at the radio station. Minare is annoyed that Kantesugu will not discuss her pay and that she is being given a slot a 3:30 AM to do her show and the task of finding sponsors. Later, Minare is offered a room with Mizuho Nanba, an Assistant Director, who did not want her to stay in the radio station's storage room. Mizuho tells Minare that Kanetsugu's "Three Second Rule" was just an exaggeration to motivate her to speak on the air. Minare swears revenge on the radio station, but Mizuho just laughs in response.
4	"You Don't Smile" Transliteration: "Kimi wa Warawanai" (Japanese: 君は笑わない)	April 25, 2020 (2020-04-25)
5	"You're Not Getting Out Alive" Transliteration: "Ikashite Kisanai" (Japanese: 生かして帰さない)	May 2, 2020 (2020-05-02)
6	"There's No Such Thing" Transliteration: "Sonna Mono wa Inai" (Japanese: そんなものはいない)	May 9, 2020 (2020-05-09)
7	"I Want to Cry" Transliteration: "Watashi wa Nakitai" (Japanese: 私は哭きたい)	May 16, 2020 (2020-05-16)
8	"I Can't Tell You Over the Phone" Transliteration: "Denwa ja Hanasenai" (Japanese: 電話じゃ話せない)	May 23, 2020 (2020-05-23)
9	"I Won't Believe You" Transliteration: "Omae o Shinjinai" (Japanese: お前を信じない)	May 30, 2020 (2020-05-30)
10	"I Have to Do This" Transliteration: "Watashi ga Seneba Narumai" (Japanese: 私がせねばなるまい)	June 6, 2020 (2020-06-06)
11	"I Don't Fear Anaerobic Creatures" Transliteration: "Kenkiseibutsu wa Osorenai" (Japanese: 嫌気生物は畏れない)	June 13, 2020 (2020-06-13)
12	"I Want to Convey It to You" Transliteration: "Anata ni Todoketai" (Japanese: あなたに届けたい)	June 20, 2020 (2020-06-20)

Drama

A television drama adaptation was announced in February 2023, starring Fuka Koshiba as Minare Koda. The series is directed by Takashi Sumida, Osamu Katayama, and Hisashi Ueda, based on a screenplay by Kazunao Furuya, and the music is composed by Yuki Hayashi and Shōgo Yamashiro.^[5] It aired on TV Asahi and its affiliates from April 21 to June 9, 2023.^[6][40]

Reception

Wave, Listen to Me! was nominated for the ninth, tenth and thirteenth Manga Taishō in 2016, 2017 and 2020, respectively.^[41][42][43] The series ranked 6th on Takarajimasha's Kono Manga ga Sugoi! guidebook list of 2016 top manga for male readers.^[44]

Notes

1. MBS listed the air dates for the series on Friday at 26:25, which is effectively Saturday at 2:25 a.m. JST.^[36]