Dai Sato and the English cast talk about the musical magic of Listeners at FunimationCon

We may not be able to attend an actual con yet, but that didn’t stop Funimation from hosting its virtual FunimationCon this weekend.  For the Listeners panel hosted by Jacki Jing, the company brought in the creator Dai Sato, as well as three members of the English dub cast and the ADR director.

The Listeners Dai Sato and Voice Actor Q&A panel opened up with a pre-recorded video from show creator Dai Sato. He talked about the creation of the series and answered some questions about topics such as the inspiration for his ideas and the collaborative environment that Listeners was made in. Though the original concept was for a robot show involving music was already in the works, when the producers saw that Sato had been responsible for such shows as Cowboy Bebop and Eureka 7, they knew they had to get him onboard.

It was interesting to hear from Sato, even if it was in the format of a pre-recorded video message. Hearing tidbits about the musical error on his Wikipedia page and what video game Listeners would be were fun to hear. I also really liked his response when asked what he would want viewers to take away from the series, which basically amounted to: “This isn’t schoolwork, so just enjoy it. And if it inspires you to check out more music and genres, that’s great too.”

After Sato’s video, the rest of the panel was devoted to the host asking the four live guests questions. Comprising the guests were Justin Briner, the voice of Echo, Bryn Apprill, the voice of Mu, Lee George, the voice of Jimmy Stonefree, and Cris George, the ADR director for the dub. They talked about a variety of things for the remainder of the time. Listening to their stories about what they first thought of the show and how their casting came about was cool, especially with some of the strange similarities like April’s family history with music and Cris’s skills at playing so many instruments. It was also neat to hear more personal trivia, like everyone’s favorite rock bands. There was even some deeper talk, like when Justin talked about how the musical mech setting can be interpreted as a metaphor for change and progress in the world.

The panel ended with the guests talking about what they hope to see happen in the rest of the first season and what they want the audience to take away. Lee is hoping for a big redemption story for his character Jimmy Stonefree, while Apprill finished by saying she hopes the series inspires viewers to try out new things they’ve been too afraid to go for before. Justin had a great line as well: “If you know that you rock, don’t be afraid to rock out.”

For a virtual con, Funimation put on a pretty good panel for Listeners. I wish that viewers could have submitted their questions live, but the questions asked for still thought-provoking for the most part and Jacki proved an engaging and humorous host. Unfortunately, there wasn’t an answer given on when fans can expect the rest of the episodes to be dubbed, but ADR director Cris George said he will keep doing the show as long as Funimation lets him. If you aren’t a patient person, the entire first season is available with subtitles on Funimation’s website right now.