The adaptation has become a complete nightmare, simply put. Its quality dropped drastically after the second episode and was never able to recover. I can't believe some of the things I've read about all the problems everyone involved in this project had to dealt with. They even had to delay the next two episodes a couple of weeks after today's (we'll have two recaps in a row) and the last two don't even have a set date after the announced reschedule. Damn.

List of delays: https://x.com/AIR_News01/status/1796950865561157962

Yeah it's very unfortunate all around. I wish there was some way for them to just call the project off. Then maybe down the road the series could get a rebooted adaption with another studio and staff, or something along those lines.

I didn't think yuri anime could have that many issues/drama. I'm not really in the anime community but is this common in the industry?

I didn't think yuri anime could have that many issues/drama. I'm not really in the anime community but is this common in the industry?

The industry has various problems, last minute production schedules, crunch, and so fourth. The end of Zom 100 was delayed, the end of Wonder Egg Priority was delayed, with some others over the years of course. Another thing with series is sometimes we'll get maybe 1 recap episode to give a production a little more time. Of note though, Zom 100 at least early on was being talked about for various high quality animation scenes. Wonder Egg Priority despite it's story completely falling apart the animation was generally consistently good, and it had a small team from what I know. Both of those series pushed too hard with various ambitious elements. I think Whispering's adaption is one of the roughest I've seen in awhile, especially since it was never trying to be ambitious, and yet everything went wrong with it.

Well now we have a possible reason as to why she stopped tweeting series updates.

I didn't think yuri anime could have that many issues/drama. I'm not really in the anime community but is this common in the industry?

The industry has various problems, last minute production schedules, crunch, and so fourth. The end of Zom 100 was delayed, the end of Wonder Egg Priority was delayed, with some others over the years of course. Another thing with series is sometimes we'll get maybe 1 recap episode to give a production a little more time. Of note though, Zom 100 at least early on was being talked about for various high quality animation scenes. Wonder Egg Priority despite it's story completely falling apart the animation was generally consistently good, and it had a small team from what I know. Both of those series pushed too hard with various ambitious elements. I think Whispering's adaption is one of the roughest I've seen in awhile, especially since it was never trying to be ambitious, and yet everything went wrong with it.

Here's a somewhat related question... is the manga industry also troublesome?

I didn't think yuri anime could have that many issues/drama. I'm not really in the anime community but is this common in the industry?

The industry has various problems, last minute production schedules, crunch, and so fourth. The end of Zom 100 was delayed, the end of Wonder Egg Priority was delayed, with some others over the years of course. Another thing with series is sometimes we'll get maybe 1 recap episode to give a production a little more time. Of note though, Zom 100 at least early on was being talked about for various high quality animation scenes. Wonder Egg Priority despite it's story completely falling apart the animation was generally consistently good, and it had a small team from what I know. Both of those series pushed too hard with various ambitious elements. I think Whispering's adaption is one of the roughest I've seen in awhile, especially since it was never trying to be ambitious, and yet everything went wrong with it.

Here's a somewhat related question... is the manga industry also troublesome?

Honestly I don't think there's an industry that's free of issues, but yeah with manga there's various problems with crunch, sometimes editors not being the best fit for an author and their series, series getting cancelled, various other things. I think one of the biggest issues is the time schedule of weekly series, namely shonen manga, that get 20 pages a week, for years and with often very few breaks. Mangaka often have various health problems.

I didn't think yuri anime could have that many issues/drama. I'm not really in the anime community but is this common in the industry?

The industry has various problems, last minute production schedules, crunch, and so fourth. The end of Zom 100 was delayed, the end of Wonder Egg Priority was delayed, with some others over the years of course. Another thing with series is sometimes we'll get maybe 1 recap episode to give a production a little more time. Of note though, Zom 100 at least early on was being talked about for various high quality animation scenes. Wonder Egg Priority despite it's story completely falling apart the animation was generally consistently good, and it had a small team from what I know. Both of those series pushed too hard with various ambitious elements. I think Whispering's adaption is one of the roughest I've seen in awhile, especially since it was never trying to be ambitious, and yet everything went wrong with it.

yeah there´s been several animes with delays, quality issues, etc heck even the 2nd season of jujutsu kaisen had a lot of problems, but in all of my years watching anime i´ve never seen an adaptation crash and burn so bad, really sad that happened to sasakoi, considering how well the maho ako anime did despite the limited resources it had

last edited at Jun 3, 2024 11:02PM

yeah there´s been several animes with delays, quality issues, etc heck even the 2nd season of jujutsu kaisen had a lot of problems, but in all of my years watching anime i´ve never seen an adaptation crash and burn so bad, really sad that happened to sasakoi, considering how well the maho ako anime did despite the limited resources it had

Maho Ako was on my mind with this situation as well. Putting aside Maho Ako's low budget, differences between manga and anime, and so fourth, I saw people having fun with the anime adaption. I also saw people getting into the manga because they enjoyed the anime. So I'd consider that a success for the series overall. I haven't really seen much of that with Whispering's adaption, and it's unfortunate.

yeah there´s been several animes with delays, quality issues, etc heck even the 2nd season of jujutsu kaisen had a lot of problems, but in all of my years watching anime i´ve never seen an adaptation crash and burn so bad, really sad that happened to sasakoi, considering how well the maho ako anime did despite the limited resources it had

Maho Ako was on my mind with this situation as well. Putting aside Maho Ako's low budget, differences between manga and anime, and so fourth, I saw people having fun with the anime adaption. I also saw people getting into the manga because they enjoyed the anime. So I'd consider that a success for the series overall. I haven't really seen much of that with Whispering's adaption, and it's unfortunate.

Yeah it's the goal to have people getting into the source material because of a good adaptation, but sometimes people will check the source material if an adaptation is downright awful.

Whispering You a Love Song has a bad adaptation but I've seen worse...even this season. Unnamed Memory is stuffing 3 LNs worth of content into 12 episodes. Absolute madness.
It's clear as day to everyone watching that the anime is just shitting the bed with adapting the story. But source material readers fill the discussion threads with "check out the LNs!" and I've been seeing a number of comments in the lightnovels subreddit saying they got into the LN because of the anime.
And it's very good story...for a het romance. Good enough to make people abandon the shit-show anime and switch over to the LN.

Unfortunately for Whispering You a Love Song, it's just a "normal" bad adaption and not truly awful. There's plenty of watchers that claim to not see issues with the anime.
So there's probably not too many new readers as a result. I recently reread the manga on Mangadex and there were almost zero recent comments for earlier chapters from new readers. Seems most new watchers won't be checking out the manga until after the anime finishes airing.

yeah there´s been several animes with delays, quality issues, etc heck even the 2nd season of jujutsu kaisen had a lot of problems, but in all of my years watching anime i´ve never seen an adaptation crash and burn so bad, really sad that happened to sasakoi, considering how well the maho ako anime did despite the limited resources it had

Maho Ako was on my mind with this situation as well. Putting aside Maho Ako's low budget, differences between manga and anime, and so fourth, I saw people having fun with the anime adaption. I also saw people getting into the manga because they enjoyed the anime. So I'd consider that a success for the series overall. I haven't really seen much of that with Whispering's adaption, and it's unfortunate.

Yeah it's the goal to have people getting into the source material because of a good adaptation, but sometimes people will check the source material if an adaptation is downright awful.

Whispering You a Love Song has a bad adaptation but I've seen worse...even this season. Unnamed Memory is stuffing 3 LNs worth of content into 12 episodes. Absolute madness.
It's clear as day to everyone watching that the anime is just shitting the bed with adapting the story. But source material readers fill the discussion threads with "check out the LNs!" and I've been seeing a number of comments in the lightnovels subreddit saying they got into the LN because of the anime.
And it's very good story...for a het romance. Good enough to make people abandon the shit-show anime and switch over to the LN.

Unfortunately for Whispering You a Love Song, it's just a "normal" bad adaption and not truly awful. There's plenty of watchers that claim to not see issues with the anime.
So there's probably not too many new readers as a result. I recently reread the manga on Mangadex and there were almost zero recent comments for earlier chapters from new readers. Seems most new watchers won't be checking out the manga until after the anime finishes airing.

I've heard Unnamed Memory is very rushed with it's adaption of the story, but at least it's production doesn't seem to just be on fire. The previous Twitter link I posted says Whispering on June 8th and 15th will have recap episodes, so double recap back to back, and then we're getting episode 9 on the 22nd, episode 10 on the 29th, and then 11 and 12 are delayed until further notice. To me that's worse, but I don't think it needs to be a competition either as it's unfortunate for both series.

I wonder why studios have to wait until the anime premieres to draw. For example, an anime that premieres in April is only drawn 2-3 eps in advance, then shows and draws the remaining eps at the same time. Why don't they draw it in advance from January, then just check it again, dub it, and show it in April?

Unnamed Memory is stuffing 3 LNs worth of content into 12 episodes. Absolute madness.

But I think it's normal for an anime series to adapt 3-4 LN volumes in 12 eps, most series are like that.

I wonder why studios have to wait until the anime premieres to draw. For example, an anime that premieres in April is only drawn 2-3 eps in advance, then shows and draws the remaining eps at the same time. Why don't they draw it in advance from January, then just check it again, dub it, and show it in April?

Because with so many anime being made nowadays studios are booked years in advance and genuinely don't have enough time to finish animating the entire thing before episode 1 premieres. They are that busy.

Exceptions do exist though. My Next Life as a Villainess didn't get delayed during the COVID-19 pandemic because the studio managed to finish the entire season before it started airing.

Unnamed Memory is stuffing 3 LNs worth of content into 12 episodes. Absolute madness.

But I think it's normal for an anime series to adapt 3-4 LN volumes in 12 eps, most series are like that.

I'm not sure about that, from what I saw people saying the adaption for Unnamed Memory cuts out a ton and ruins a lot of the build up, pacing, and so fourth. Where it's a genuinely bad adaption.

Also on that note I think Whispering's adaption even outside of the animation just doesn't handle the story well either.

I wonder why studios have to wait until the anime premieres to draw. For example, an anime that premieres in April is only drawn 2-3 eps in advance, then shows and draws the remaining eps at the same time. Why don't they draw it in advance from January, then just check it again, dub it, and show it in April?

Because with so many anime being made nowadays studios are booked years in advance and genuinely don't have enough time to finish animating the entire thing before episode 1 premieres. They are that busy.

Exceptions do exist though. My Next Life as a Villainess didn't get delayed during the COVID-19 pandemic because the studio managed to finish the entire season before it started airing.

Yeah there are certain anime that are completed in advance, but unfortunately I think time crunch is more common.

Also on that note I think Whispering's adaption even outside of the animation just doesn't handle the story well either.

The animation crew seems desperate to squeeze in as much Shiho/Aki content as possible, likely owing to its popularity. Adding an additional ED might be a clear sign of that and I always expected the focus to be split between the two couples. This would be perfectly fine. However, it's obvious the production doesn't have their act together. The cuts, the animation, and the pacing are too rushed and frantic, as though they really want to get somewhere no matter how they get there. I feel for the animators. Hopefully, this "break" can salvage some of what is left. I also hope they don't intend to fit the entire arc into one season. I don't know what kind of madness would make anyone think that's a good idea and for marketing purposes, I'd expect ending the season mid-arc would be the safer route to increased manga sales.

Edit: and all the information about working conditions and outsourced teams is depressing.

last edited at Jun 5, 2024 3:14PM

Also on that note I think Whispering's adaption even outside of the animation just doesn't handle the story well either.

The animation crew seems desperate to squeeze in as much Shiho/Aki content as possible, likely owing to its popularity. Adding an additional ED might be a clear sign of that and I always expected the focus to be split between the two couples. However, it's obvious the production doesn't have their act together. I feel for the animators. Hopefully, this "break" can salvage some of what is left. I also hope they don't intend to fit the entire arc into one season. I don't know what kind of madness would make anyone think that's a good idea and for marketing purposes, I'd think ending the season mid-arc would drive manga sales more.

Yeah a present the anime definitely gives a feeling of Shiho/Aki being the most important dynamic, though I will say the Shiho ED was kinda neat and I at least like the song.

Also on that note I think Whispering's adaption even outside of the animation just doesn't handle the story well either.

The animation crew seems desperate to squeeze in as much Shiho/Aki content as possible, likely owing to its popularity. Adding an additional ED might be a clear sign of that and I always expected the focus to be split between the two couples. However, it's obvious the production doesn't have their act together. I feel for the animators. Hopefully, this "break" can salvage some of what is left. I also hope they don't intend to fit the entire arc into one season. I don't know what kind of madness would make anyone think that's a good idea and for marketing purposes, I'd think ending the season mid-arc would drive manga sales more.

Yeah a present the anime definitely gives a feeling of Shiho/Aki being the most important dynamic, though I will say the Shiho ED was kinda neat and I at least like the song.

It seems like there are people in the anime team who are fans of Shiho. Most of the scenes with Shiho are more beautiful than average (at least compared to Yori and Himari). ED 2 of Shiho's band is drawn in much more detail and beauty than ED 1. ED 1's art looks like a manhua, while Yori and Himari are drawn exactly like Yukino and Yui in OreGairu. I think Aki and Shiho's past scene is the best scene of this series, if there is no breakthrough in quality after the delay.

Also on that note I think Whispering's adaption even outside of the animation just doesn't handle the story well either.

The animation crew seems desperate to squeeze in as much Shiho/Aki content as possible, likely owing to its popularity. Adding an additional ED might be a clear sign of that and I always expected the focus to be split between the two couples. However, it's obvious the production doesn't have their act together. I feel for the animators. Hopefully, this "break" can salvage some of what is left. I also hope they don't intend to fit the entire arc into one season. I don't know what kind of madness would make anyone think that's a good idea and for marketing purposes, I'd think ending the season mid-arc would drive manga sales more.

Yeah a present the anime definitely gives a feeling of Shiho/Aki being the most important dynamic, though I will say the Shiho ED was kinda neat and I at least like the song.

It seems like there are people in the anime team who are fans of Shiho. Most of the scenes with Shiho are more beautiful than average (at least compared to Yori and Himari). ED 2 of Shiho's band is drawn in much more detail and beauty than ED 1. ED 1's art looks like a manhua, while Yori and Himari are drawn exactly like Yukino and Yui in OreGairu. I think Aki and Shiho's past scene is the best scene of this series, if there is no breakthrough in quality after the delay.

I wouldn't say they are fans. Instead, they understand how the manga series (and it's characters) has been received and use that knowledge to anticipate what the audience will likely want to see represented well. This helps them identify which scenes and moments need to be impactful. For instance, they knew the Shiho band scene had to be executed well.

It's more of a strategy for allocating budgets and focusing on key elements. They just fuck up literally everything else and it makes the whole product messy as a result. I haven't been so bothered by an adaptation in a long while. If the leaks are true, that animation team (and all the alleged outsourced teams) have been put through a grinder.

last edited at Jun 6, 2024 9:55AM

The short explanation is that Shiho's the best part of the manga and some of the staff knows so they're giving her parts more attention as a result. They know what's important.

The longer explanation is one I can't give since I've actually not watched recent episodes and may drop the anime because it's a disappointing adaptation. SrNevik seems to have the right of it though.

So what ?It's now unpopular to prefer Hima/Yori ?

So what ?It's now unpopular to prefer Hima/Yori ?

How did you get that from anything discussed here? Both couples are popular. Anyone can like whichever.

last edited at Jun 6, 2024 11:58AM

So what ?It's now unpopular to prefer Hima/Yori ?

How did you get that from anything discussed here? Both couples are popular. Anyone can like whichever.

So why there is a favor treatement for the anime budget ?

So what ?It's now unpopular to prefer Hima/Yori ?

How did you get that from anything discussed here? Both couples are popular. Anyone can like whichever.

So why there is a favor treatement for the anime budget ?

I don't like how my earlier response sounds, so I'll apologize for that. Reading it now, it sounds a bit rude and I didn't mean for that.

As for your question I wouldn't call it favorable. The anime is just treating Aki/Shiho as part of the ensemble of 4 main characters with YoriHima and that's about what they should do. Series with multiple main characters will often play around with EDs and such. So it's not favorable, just equal. I guess, it would only be surprising if someone still thinks Shiho/Aki are just side characters with an extended arc, or if they still underestimate their popularity and reception. The issue is with everything else production is doing.

last edited at Jun 6, 2024 1:53PM

So why there is a favor treatement for the anime budget ?

What "favor treatment" are you talking about? Did you even watch the latest episode? Because I'm genuinely confused about your statement.

For instance, they knew the Shiho band scene had to be executed well.

I don't think that they achieved that goal, unfortunately.
In the Whispering Discord, a person who has been working on the project explained why that scene (well, both Shiho's and Yori's band performances) had so many inconsistencies and issues.

last edited at Jun 8, 2024 1:15PM

So why there is a favor treatement for the anime budget ?

What "favor treatment" are you talking about? Did you even watch the latest episode? Because I'm genuinely confused about your statement.

Was a follow-up on Nevik answer.

Next chapter (raw) is out and looks like the incest route is real?! https://imgur.com/a/sasakoi-chapter-50-raws-TO8QAyj

last edited at Jun 17, 2024 6:13PM