Reviews for Whispered Words

Good things about Sasameki Koto: Decent art, strong characters. The main two protagonists are both in depth and likeable characters. You really grow to care for them. Also the first 3 side characters are great too. Bad things about Sasameki Koto (spoilers): Just as you think there's about to be some actual progress to real romance the author throws some annoying contrived cliche drama at you over and over again until he runs out of options and ends the manga like it should have done 30 chapters ago. Annoying transfer student shows up and gets in the way? Of course! Main character has some past trauma that preventsthem from being honest? Sure! The wind made them not hear properly? Why not? MORE annoying transfer students? LOVE IT! Ill grandma? Are we done yet?

And that's how what should have been a much briefer but more enjoyable cute rom-com became a dead cat dragged through the mud before being hastily crammed into its finest clothes for the finale.

Well, that was a mistake. In exploring all genres of anime/manga, I had decided to explore the various yuri/shoujo-ai titles available to read and watch. Apart from watching the anime version of Sakura Trick, this would be my first encounter with the genre. If anything, I should have built up to this. I should have watched all the cheap, fan-service-laden trash that accounts for most yuri titles. But no, I had to right to the top of the mountain. It's not perfect. The art varies, swaying between blank-faced background characters and... the Big Emotional Scenes, which are so well done, I can only guess how many timesTakashi Ikeda drew them, erased them and and re-drew them.

Onto the characters. The secondary characters, as with the art quality, vary in terms of depth and development. But the main characters... here we go.

The two leads of the series are so well constructed, I'd not be exaggerating in saying they're almost like family to me. The story involving them quite honestly has me re-evaluating pretty much every romance anime/manga i've ever come across, and none of them come close to this one. The ending of this series makes tears come to my eyes just by looking at its last few pages.

As I said at the start, I could have watched or read other genre titles before this, like Valkyrie Drive... actually, I didnt make a mistake after all.

Story was pretty good, if not a bit cliché. You get the same cookie cutter drama as with "most" love stories (dead relatives, inability to communicate, transfer student, bla bla). There's a few chapters where things get very real, and you feel the characters' frustration. I was impressed with how easy it was to empathize with pretty much everyone. What drags it down is the last few chapters that were quite confusing, without spoiling anything. It was still worth reading, though. Art is very good, not much else to say. I absolutely loved the characters. I enjoyed how the protagonist was so boring without being boringat all. She's a very fleshed out character with a lot going on. The love interest was honestly a little bland, with little conflict going on. She just spent the entire story being either frustrated or waiting patiently for stuff to happen. The supporting characters were fantastic, especially Mayu.

In the end, I enjoyed the story a lot. It was carried by the strong protagonist and the interesting supporting characters.

This is a very good but very flawed work. It has some high highs, some low lows, and a lot of confusing plots and periods of pacing. To put it simply, I wanted it to be better than it actually is. Funnily enough, I think the characters are fairly weak in this story as a whole; they should have been more than who they were. Sumika is a strong almost perfect girl that "isn't cute." She is the epitome of a teenage girl, and I think that is a good thing. She knows who she wants to be but can't: a cute girl that fits Ushio'spartner preference. She struggles between wanting to be close to Ushio as a best friend while wanting to be able to express her love to her. Ushio is that sunshine-smiling girl that overcomes her struggles as a girl who loves girls that never shows what's wrong to others, but there is a tragic struggle that haunts her past. Luckily, Sumika is there to help her through all struggles.. but maybe there's more? These two characters are fickle and wishy-washy, which gets pretty frustrating at times. Every other character is actually pretty simple, though that isn't always a bad thing.

So the story... It's a mixed bag. The beginning is really good and interesting as feelings are discovered and struggled with and against. Conflicts of the heart arise constantly, as one would expect of a teenage drama slice of life. The issue comes as the story continues, the pacing gets strange, and the characters begin to go back and forth. Honestly, the writing starts to work against itself, as it feels more fitting for an anime rather than a manga. Multiple events will be going on at the same time on the same page without distinction, and important events are given through flashbacks and in a very unclear manner. There are many really strong moments that are written well, but I still found myself asking, "So what was that about?" and "Wait, so what's going on between these two characters then?" A part of me wants to pretend that the bad parts aren't there to give it a higher score--one I wish it deserves--but I can't.

6/10 I.. still think this is worth a read. The strong emotional moments still has me recommend this series, but I say be cautious of the weird writing and pacing. Prepare to read some parts more than once to really understand what's happening, and it will help. It's good, but man there is a lot preventing it from reaching the greatness I hoped it would be.

In short, disappointing. What could've been a short and emotionally moving GL ended up a tired, worn out, and confusing wreck. Misunderstandings, rivals, doubt, and the inability to speak ones mind are real parts of love. Unfortunately, Sasameki Koto loops through these clichés with absolutely no respect for the reader's time. Past chapter 15 character and plot progression slow to a crawl, making it genuinely difficult to remember anything changing other than circumstance or the misunderstanding of the week for 31 chapters and heartbreaking moments eventually blend into a general sense of frustration. The author in his afterword's frequently jokes, "the story will finally reach it'sclimax! Probably... Maybe..." which shows a befuddling amount of self awareness.

This disappointing midsection could be somewhat looked over if it weren't for the absolute mess of an ending. The author jumps between scenes at a frenzied pace, leaving no time whatsoever to properly flesh out what should be incredibly moving moments. The climax of the story comes out of nowhere in the form of a flashback with little if any buildup. It's a shame that the last 15 or so chapters frequently left me wondering if I'd skipped a chapter or if my reading comprehension had simply gotten up and left. Upon a reread there are simply too many threads, too many scenes being split between chapters to really feel confident in what's going on.

If you can handle a never-ending sequence of melodrama, this manga is for you. More than half of this manga's contents could've been erased from the mangaka's hard drive and the story would've been all the better for it. A shame when taking into consideration how strong the opening volumes were.

Spoiler free review: The best part of this story is the friendship/relationship and subsequent drama surrounding the main characters Sumika and Ushio. It's always a plus when the main characters are the best part of the story. Unfortunately the downside is that the story gets bogged down by way too many side characters that you don't always care for. A few side characters are very likeable and help move the story along and help to develop the main characters more. But most of the side characters were forgettable and felt like they only existed to extend the story and pull time away from the maincharacters. I was slightly underwhelmed after finishing the first omnibus and was basically skimming/skipping over parts that didn't involve Sumika and Ushio's friendship/relationship. Omnibus 2 was definitely a lot more enjoyable, but then omnibus 3 was a return to skimming/skipping due to newly thrown in characters that existed purely to cause drama.

Overall, I was happy to read Sumika and Ushio's story, but it felt like the story could've been told in half as many pages (by literally cutting out 75% of the side character stories). Artwork feels a tad cluttered in the first few chapters, but the artwork itself is lovely. The really emotional moments are well told and they hit hard. I just wish the story had been a little more streamlined.

Warning! Although I mostly liked this manga, it is definitely a product of its time. Akemiya's character is treated so poorly throughout almost the entire series. I don't expect authors to get trans stuff right all the time, but the jokes were truly heinous, to the point where I stopped reading for a bit after a particularly vile joke. I recommend skipping any section with him. Anyways, this was pretty okay. If you're looking for a light, chill read, I'd say go for it. The karate angle is fun and at times the comedy is pretty alright. The two main characters generally have good chemistry andare often fun to read. Even so, at times it feels like the author and plot forgets about them or doesn't move towards the most interesting aspects of their characters.

There's plenty of other good long form Yuri to check out before this, but this was a good enough read.

I started reading Sasameki Koto (AKA: Whispered Words) after I had watched the anime, and I'm happy that I did. The manga includes so much more information than the anime. I'd say it's a short manga with 55 chapters spread across nine volumes. It's an easy and fast read. The story is easy to understand as it follows a group of friends in high school and their day-to-day lives. I loved reading this manga; it's fun, and the characters are lovable and relatable. Also, the story is pretty fun to follow along as it has emotional aspects that areboth heartwarming and sometimes comedic. I would highly recommend reading this manga if you enjoyed the anime!

!english is not my first language - So... Love in teenage years itself is such a rollercoaster, but it's way more complicated when you fell in love with someone of the same gender as you. Sasameki Koto has a personal appeal for me, because I see myself in Sumika. I discovered this work when I was discovering myself as a person who likes another person without caring about gender, and at the same time I was in love with some girl that I knew she would never look at me the same way. So, even with the rushed ending, Sasameki Koto means a lot to me. Ithelped me understand myself as I am: A tall sapphic with an angry face, but with a butter heart. Just like Sumika!

Anyway, I liked the comments about prejudice against queer people (even if it was way too superficial, it's not common to see in a manga). Was just good to read, I know it has its problems, but I can't ignore my personal feelings while I'm writing about this. Sasameki Koto just means a lot to me, Murasame Sumika helped me a lot to accept myself as I am. I'll carry this manga forever in my heart.

It was alright. I did enjoy it, but at the same time it ends up getting very confusing and disjointed near the end. Stuff starts to feel like it's happening out of sequence or completely randomly with no pretext or reason at all. There were quite a few times where I thought maybe I had missed a chapter or skipped a page by accident or something and it ended up just being strange story progression. The confession itself literally appears as a flashback... yep, you read that right, the main confession is only ever shown in a flashback that the main character has while thinkingabout how she's so embarrassed about how badly the confession went. Also, they were already dating before the official confession and then later in the story after the confession they say they aren't even dating????? Even the ending was rather confusing; it resolves a bunch of smaller side-stories pertaining to side-characters except some are from the perspective of university, some are from graduation day, some are from some random point in the future. It also has a snapshot of the main characters leaving school on graduation day after already resolving their story with them being at another character's wedding that would've happened a fair bit after graduation? Overall, I did enjoy it, but it isn't anything particularly special and it felt like the pacing was really weird leading to a somewhat confusing read.

Day 19/30 of the Yurithon: Unfortunately, this is just another one of those days where I didn't have enough time to fit the Yurithon into. Regardless, I'll be trying to pump this review out to the best of my ability. It was such a shame too; I was really enjoying "Whispered Words" for the whole five chapters I was able to read properly. I think this may be the first yuri so far to tackle the relationship between the main characters from a totally different starting position; Murasame has unrequited love for Kazama, and is just trying to make her fall in love with her. Iguess that might sound a bit similar to the premise of "Villainess", "Lonely Girl", "Whisper Me" and "SQ", but I think "Whispered Words" is inherently different due to so much of the plot's focus being on the main character's unrequited love. In "Villainess", I just couldn't buy how Claire could fall in love with Rae. In "Lonely Girl", the unrequited love isn't really an integral part of the story. In "Whisper Me", the love is technically reciprocated by Kino (just a different type of love). And in "SQ", Sun Jing just has a basic school-girl crush which initiates the romance. But in "Whispered Words", it's established that Kazama likes girls (so none of that "we can't be together because we're girls" schtick), but she just likes cuter girls (i.e., not Murasame). The set-up allows for a reasonable and logical build-up to a romantic relationship between Murasame and Kazama, but with just one Great-Wall-of-China-esque hurdle that needs to be passed. The feeling of unrequited love is demonstrated by Murasame to the T, embodying almost every thought and emotion that goes through one's head when being stuck in this pretty-much inescapable rut. Murasame's unrequited love yielded daydreams, mild annoyances, refusal to accept facts, literal prayers on Kazama's downfall so she couldn't find love, but also pain when Kazama suffered because of love. I felt what Murasame felt; so close, yet so far to her dream. But besides all that romance bullshit, I really enjoyed the dialogue and humour of this manga. The girls just get up to the dumbest, but somewhat justifiable, shit and every character interaction shines. But holy shit, this manga is unfathomably hard to read. It could be translated into hieroglyphics and I'd honestly be able to interpret it a hell of a lot better. There are some panels (yes, individual panels) with 3 different types of text from one character, not even including the onomatopoeia. That doesn't really matter though; I was heavily invested in the story and characters, and I'll definitely have to return to this yuri. But given the track record of yuri published before 2011 (sans "Kase-san"), I'm praying that "Whispered Words" will be able to continue strong and finish strong; I'd hate for a story about unrequited love between two girls, to become a story of lost love to me.

Okay first of all, besides all, i liked this story, would i recommend reading it... eeehr... if there is nothing else in your to-read list, yeah sure you can, but you have to consider this: even tho this is a nice story... it has way to many problems. First of all, gonna say this, if the drama is because two people are not being honest with each other or just because of lack of communication... is not drama, is dragging the story for no reason. Lot of romance stories has the same problem, all the drama and the conflict in the story starts because someone saidor heard something and misunderstood it and instead of talking and clarifying things, they start avoiding each other. Or worst, one of them realices they have feelings for the other and instead of being honest, they start distancing from that person because "they dont want to be a bother"... And i understand that stories needs drama and needs conflict, but if the solution of that is just "talking it out" then it just a waste of time.

This manga is a waste of time, the author spends waaaay too much time relying in the "lets not have them talk to each other and keep them as far as we can from each other so the problems wont get fixed", also has one of the most anticlimactic confessions i've read in a long time, in EVERY love story, the confession is one if not the most important part, the most awaited one, and you cannot have it just in the background while another story from secondary characters is happening, also going back and forward from present to past... it was so poorly written, i was like "wait... that was it?" it was so meaningless that literally little to nothing happens after it, they start just moving the rest of the story forward.... idk man i expected more after waiting more than 40 chapters for it... And even if the end was ok, it left so many things unsolved that the story feels unfinished, rushed...

Just go read something else, is a good story but there are way better out there.