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... EDT. ⏎ How was the first episode? ⏎James Beckett ⏎ Rating: 3 ⏎ On the surface, Listeners has all the ingredients of a series that I ought to be over-the-moon for: a rocking soundtrack that complements its snappy visuals, charming and unique character designs that stand out from the crowd, and a pair of protagonists that share some honest-to-god chemistry, both in the original Japanese and in Funimation's excellent English dub. I even love the design flourishes of the series' mecha, known as Equipment — the whole show gives me strong FLCL vibes, except where that show went all in on the fuzzy and hyperactive alt-rock aesthetic, Listeners is going for a much lighter, power pop vibe. Nothing too heavy here, just some cool grooves and slick fights to buzz on after a long day of digging around the scrapheaps of a post-apocalyptic wasteland. ⏎ Listeners didn't leave me as warm as I expected, though. All of the pieces were in place from the start, and the execution left little to be desired, but there's just something off about Listeners' grooves that I couldn't bring myself to unabashedly jam out too. A kind of vagueness to its world and story, a lack of definition to the characters and their motivations, that gave me the same exact impression I get when I hear a really good cover of a song I love that just makes me want to listen to the original. Take Echo and μ for instance: One's the scrappy slum dog with big dreams and a knack for tinkering, and the other is the mysterious amnesiac he found in a scrapyard who just so happens to kick a lot of ass when she gets her hands on Echo's Equipment. Why are they such fast friends, and how do they work so well together as warriors against the Earless? Because they need to be in order for the story to work, basically. ⏎ Speaking of the story, it's more-or-less a condensed and polished-over take on Alita: Battle Angel, except there's nothing here to suggest that classic's gripping sense of place and violence. Outside of the fact that everyone is dirty and poor in most places, I couldn't tell you much at all about this world's place or people, or why either Echo or μ should be the heroes to save it. I also have a bone to pick with the story's choice of names; “Earless” is a hopelessly silly name for a very generic brand of spooky monster, and μ is just plain obnoxious. This might seem like a nitpick, but it speaks to this gnawing perception of mine that most of what Listeners does well was borrowed from other, better stories, and that its ⏎ personal touches are mostly cosmetic. Kind of like that cover song I mentioned earlier, except writer Dai Sato has been a writer on some seriously legendary projects — Cowboy Bebop, Eureka 7, Wolf's Rain, the list goes on — so it's more like when a band release a cover of their own hit classic, and it just sounds stale compared to their first go at it. ⏎ Does all of this make Listeners a bad series? Not at all; in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if its world and cast grew more complex and interesting with every ing episode, and the show is rock solid when it comes to its visuals and action. This is the kind of show that is bound to make a lot of people very happy this season. It's merely missing that certain something it would need to get me one hundred percent on board with what it's putting down. ⏎ Theron Martin ⏎ Rating: 3 ⏎ Throughout watching the...