Read it all (Chapter 35 currently) in a couple of days, what a great manga. I love the art style, the mangaka draws them in a cute manner that still retains some seriousness to it. The backgrounds are great, but I also think it's because I'm biased for that "old castle" look of the school - this ancient architecture. Also, Mimi's hair looks so cute and fluffy.

Sheena seriously grew on me over the story, Mimi was my favorite character but I now find them both interesting and fun. Sheena starting out as a "deadweight" of sorts and then putting effort into her abilities is what got me, how she's willimg to try now and get better... and for Mimi, how can I not adore it? It's so gentle...

The side characters are okay but I find that when it focuses on them for too long, I keep wishing that it would go back to the main leads. And this mostly happens to Ali, maybe because she appears more often than the rest? I was more interested in Seiran than her, so the scenes with the pair were more interesting to me, but after that one passed away, well, we only really get Ali by herself when she does appear.

The story and world make me feel so invested, there's the saying that a book can make you travel anywhere, and this manga surely hits that spot for me. I always read it on my tablet at night at the comfort of my bed with all the lights off, and it feels cozy to read this. I feel like I am there and also curious about things, wanting to learn more and paying attention to what they have to say.

The story is somewhat like a Harry Potter-esque setting but with a war going on, a little more gore at times and the yuri element.

I cried pretty hard at the confession scene in Chapter 34, I can't explain why. It felt personal to me, like I could relate to it, but I'm not sure the reason for it. Is it because of all their struggles? Mimi being so innocent? Me being so invested? Sheena's internal monologues? I didn't cry anywhere else... so far anyway. I felt a little of it when Seiran vanished, but tears didn't come out. Anyway, the whole scene was done beautifully. The storyboard, the dialogue, the drawings. The way Sheena asked to go for a walk, it all connected so well to me.

The only negative things I have to say is that the combat/fighting scenes can be confusing at times for me to follow or understand exactly what is happening. There are very few cases where I also felt this during "calm" scenes, I think the mangaka shines best when they are doing the latter.

And the other thing is that there are very few times where I'm not exactly sure who is speaking. There is also this single page where I wasn't sure if Sheena spoke the words in the middle, but this was on me. I kept looking and looking, wondering if she did say it out loud, and my interpretation is that she didn't. The reason why I thought she did was Mimi's face right after the dialogue, but then I concluded that she actually made that face because of the tears in-between the words.

And something else that bothers me is how sometimes the mangaka draws the eyes in a way that makes it look like the characters have tears on them when in reality they don't. But all of these are just minor inconveniences.

Lastly, it's a question. I noticed that sometimes Mimi will refer to herself as "I" or "me", I'm just wondering if that's accurate to the original script? Most of the time it's getting translated as her using her own name, so it throws me off and makes me curious when she doesn't.

Looks like Miki is still questioning herself over it and we get nothing concrete. At least Ayaka is not suffering anymore... for now.

I was hoping for Shiho to be in the cooking club at the end but alas.

Not sure if it's an issue on my end but I can't see the "Source" button on the top right.

I need more.

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?

There's the question of... would we rather have one season where it ends abruptly and then "never" get a second season to continue the rest of the story just like a lot of other yuri anime, or would we prefer having them rush the adaptation to fit that major key point of the manga (AkiShiho's reconciliation) in this one and only season?

Even if EP12 ends with YoriHima's kiss, there'd still be several unsolved issues at that point. I've been assuming it would end at that scene, but I also think it would be abrupt to end it there. Not like it's the first time with yuri anime, though.

I can't help but compare it to YagaKimi's anime in that regard, if it does end in that fireworks scene.

About EP7: I didn't re-read the manga chapters last week to prepare for the new episode, so I didn't even notice they completely cut Ch. 19. It felt like the flashback scenes were of higher quality than most of the rest - and I'm really used to Shiho's voice now. There were some really beautiful shots in this episode, even though the awkwardness was still around.

The performance at the end was both good and bad, but I think the Laureley/Lorelei song itself was the highlight. It was also cute to hear Yori signing the ED theme which is sang by Himari instead... the VAs of the music didn't even sound too different to me this time. But now I need that Meritocracy song to be officially released so I can listen to it on repeat...

Also, they love that whole orange coloring from the time around the sunset. Since I mentioned YagaMiki above... it also has a lot of orange in it. Almost feels like "orange" is similar to the "aquarium" at times.

I saw some more opinions around such as:
1. Aki meddled with Miki's past relationship which is why she broke up and is upset with Aki and even jealous of her current relationship with Shiho.
2. Miki was upset because the group rushed in during the confession and/or that Aki gets to let "everyone" know about Ayaka's feelings but Miki had to keep Aki's feelings for Yori a secret.
3. Miki thinks Aki is trying to "get rid of her" by helping Ayaka, so that Aki can be with Shiho and give less time to Miki and/or Miki wants more attention from Aki ever since she started dating Shiho.

It's fun to see what everyone thinks, there's so many different interpretations.

The incestious feeling is also a possibility, but I like to think that the mangaka did this on purpose, leaving it open like that and also get the reader to think about incest (which I didn't but a lot of people did, apparently). For the effect, you know.

We don't really know too much about Miki so I'm expecting there to be some chapters where they will show the past, similar to the Shiho chapters that were about Kyou.

And finally, am I right in saying that Aki was part of some drama/angst during this whole manga so far? The start, with the YoriHima arc, it was her hidden feelings for Yori. During the entire Shiho arc, it was her stress from Shiho's actions. In the current AkiShiho arc, it's because of Shiho generally not believing her (I suppose this has ended now?) and Aki dating Shiho even without having romantic feelings. And this new AyaMiki arc, it's Miki being angry at her.

As ironic as it may sound, it feels like Aki is the mangaka's favorite character.

She was crying at the last page when she remembered Aki saying she's dating Shiho and wanted to support the girl who confessed to Miki. What do you think this scene is trying to imply?

In my opinion, Miki is upset because Aki decided to date Shiho who hurt her (Aki's) feelings deeply with all the drama we know about. She probably has too many emotions to deal with right now for that reason, which is why she was most likely going to tell Ayaka that she didn't want to start anything yet, Miki said she felt happy about the confession after all.

Miki yelled "You're the worst" not towards Ayaka but Aki instead because Aki said she wanted to support Ayaka (and AyaMiki), which is exactly what Miki would be thinking about when it comes to Aki all this time - wanting to support her. Expect, she may feel convoluted at the thought of "supporting" AkiShiho since Miki is possibly the one character who knows it best about how much Aki has suffered due to living in the same house.

Additionally, because Miki yelled "You're the worst" in front of Ayaka, and she did not say anything to Aki in this chapter, I'm expecting there to be a misunderstanding with Ayaka where she will think it was directed towards her, and Aki will again be unaware about what is happening. Maybe if Miki ends up telling Aki (or someone else like Himari?) about this Shiho issue, then perhaps Shiho would speak with Miki, but that would probably be much later since this is only the start of the drama.

That was my impression.

About this work not feeling realistic: I actually think this story is quite realistic given the context - they are teenagers who wear their feelings on their wrists and are too embarrassed to speak them out loud. I'd say the only unrealistic thing is how the majority of the cast has fallen in love at first sight, but that is the motif of this series after all... the hitomebore.

I NEED MORE OF THIS SO BADLY. THE ART STYLE FITS THE MOOD OF THE MANGA SO WELL, THE CHARACTERS WEAR STYLISH CLOTHES, THEY ARE ALSO LOVELY THOUGH I GET CONFUSED WITH THE SIDE ONES SOMETIMES. I LOVE THE DEPRESSING FEELING, AND KIKU IS GREAT BUT SENA IS TOO (I ALREADY SAID THE CHARACTERS ARE LOVELY). THE WAY IT'S A SLOW BURN REALLY GETS ME, I LOVE IT SO MUCH.

EP5 was GREAT! It captivated me throughout the whole thing, the animations were good 99% of the time too, my only complaint would be at the scene where YoriHima are walking back together, specifically the parts where they are actually walking and not standing still. But I seriously didn't mind it at all compared to EP3.

I also thought they adapted this episode differently than the rest, where we have a couple of completely original scenes, it's great as a manga reader since you may see something entirely new. They also removed some things just like the other episodes until now - such as Aki's small dialogue at the start as she is leaving the room; she doesn't tell Himari to keep it a secret, or the Momoka scene after she "meets" Yori for the first time, she doesn't talk about how she recognizes Yori, etc.

The SSGIRLS scene with Himari was just too adorable, I was smiling the whole way through, talk about some inner healing for me. But I disliked how they adapted the part where Himari grabbed onto her own chest, I wish her expression was more like in the manga. The still images of AkiYori in that scene also disappointed me a bit, one of them is among my favorite pages in the whole manga (the first one) - Yori looks so handsome, but in the anime, I didn't find her as beautiful. I actually thought Aki was the handsome one in that frame, attaching images for comparison's sake.

This is the manga drawing I was talking about, in regards to being one of my favorites. Look at how handsome Yori looks in it, and Aki in the anime.

I think it's the eyes in the manga, it delivers a harsher feeling IMO. Plus, you can see her hand on her chest still.

BUT! It's alright. The voice acting, the colors, the background imagery, the animation, THE BACKGROUND MUSIC! I don't see people talking about the BGM at all. I loved it in that AkiYori scene above, and other tracks are so cute as well. The track that plays when YoriHima are walking back, or the track that starts playing when Aki is introducing Himari to the SSGIRLS, or when Shiho is describing the SSGIRLS at the end, or when Himari tells Yori that they can go together to the date, and, and... it's all perfect. I really hope they release those tracks later on.

And I'm already getting used to Shiho's voice, too. Anyway, it's already starting to get too long and I could seriously talk even more about this EP. I'm completely normal about it and I can't WAIT for the next one!

I can't remember if I said this when the chapter just came out, but after "Shiho-chan has disappeared..." in chapter 41 I was legitimately worried she had jumped off the roof or got hit by a truck (or threatened to). I felt Kyou dying kind of opened the gate for this manga to do that kind of thing, but at the same time it's not like I actively hated Shiho to the point of wishing for her to be killed like some others here.

I thought the same on a re-read, the author could have turned the whole part that Himari was looking for Shiho into an inner monologue about her fears over that happening, especially since she knew about the Kyou story.

Starting to date someone with that condition without knowing if you will end up having genuine romantic feelings is simply irresponsible.

Hence why they are teenagers, can't exactly expect them to be responsible.

Well, adults can also be just as irresponsible or worse, but you get what I mean.

much better animation-wise

Really? I didn't notice any remarkable improvement. I mean, this one was outsourced as well, so I wasn't expecting anything to begin with.

I thought this one was similar to EP2, with EP1 being the one where they went all in so far in my opinion. In EP3, the characters look bad/strange to me in a lot of scenes, like when Miki is patting Himari in the classroom - when she turns slightly, her face and body look so unnatural...

In EP4, we've also got new characters. Momoka for example always looked great to me in every scene she appears in.

Also, a bit off-topic to EP4 but I don't mind those transitions they do, nor the aspect ratio changes.

Is Aki taller than Shiho? The panels are inconsistent sometimes

Yes, supposedly. Sometimes Shiho is almost as tall as Aki, but the height gap between them was bigger early on.

Another thing is how sometimes Aki and Miki are missing their moles, but you may not notice it when reading for the first time.

Shiho's voice threw me off, I thought it would be a little deeper, even somewhat like Yori's voice. It will take some getting used to for me. I was also a bit skeptical about Aki's voice at first but now it sounds "just like Aki" to me, if that makes sense. Also, I thought it was Mari at first when Shiho spoke in her scene, before appearing on the frame.

Momoka's voice suits her well though.

EP4 was much better animation-wise, only the scene where the SS Girls were playing was done... in a questinable way. Shiho also looked a little strange to me once she picked up her phone, but I can live with that. Also, I don't know if it was it just me, but the BGM felt a little too loud in the scene where YoriHima are at the rooftop near the start, and Himari almost says she "loves" Yori.

I actually forgot that Shiho appears this early, it was in the Vol.2 Extra. I thought she only made a physical appearance on Chapter 15.

On mobile (phone specifically, not tablet), when I'm reading a chapter, the numbers for each page are not displayed on the left. I can only tap on the sides of the image to either go to the very next or last page. Is it possible to add those numbers back, even if it needs to be below the image? Sometimes I want to quickly jump back to an earlier page to recall something or for whatever other reason.

Also, do you think there should be a report feature for forum comments?

Yep, EP3 was a disaster in comparison to the first two. EP2 also had a few hiccups but this one looked very awkward in multiple scenes, it was especially sad to me during the YoriHima scene at the rooftop near the end which is meant to be a sweet and emotional moment, but I was distracted by the animation.

I'm not sure if you all noticed, but there is a clear flaw during the SS Girls scene in the classroom; when Yori is distracted, her sleeves are long, but when she gets up and walks off, her sleeves are suddenly short on the next cut.

I was reading online that apparently the person behind the music segments is the same for all episodes, so those should stay similar to what we saw in EP1.

Randomly saw this and I just had to share it here:

My current guess is that the anime will cover the first 5 volumes and finish at the start of the sixth, after the bet is made.

Same here, I think it'll be similar to YagaKimi where the characters kept talking about the play that would happen but then the anime ended and we never got to see it, here they will probably start talking about the concert contest and the whole deal AkiShiho made based on who wins, but I'm expecting the anime to end around the time before that concert happens.

About EP2: It appears that since Vol.1 of the manga released, LINE added a feature to add friends via scanning a QR Code, the anime got changed to show this instead since supposedly the feature to "put the phones together" became obsolete? It's fun to see the anime change to keep up with what's happening IRL.

Also, that QR Code on Yori's phone does work, it shows a text in Japanese that says "Thank you for watching Whisper Me a Love Song!" if you scan it.

EP2 overall was nice but it only made me want more, at least there is something to look forward to every weekend.

I heard that Seto Asami (Yori's VA) is not the one who sings SSGIRLS' songs. If that's true, then why doesn't the studio just let Asami sing instead of hiring more people (or hire a VA who can both voice and sing, many VAs meet those two conditions).

It's not just her, Shiho also has a separate VA just like Yori: Sui Mizukami.

For clarification, the singing voice for SSGIRLS (or SSGILRS as it is hilariously mispelled in ep1's credits) is Kana Sasakura (so maybe they chose her for the "sasayaku" wordplay).

Now I'm confused, I was under the assumption that Kana Sasakura sang everything that played in EP1, which includes the ED song. Did Asami Seto sing the song Yori played on the rooftop at the end of EP1?

Also, looking back at the first few chapters there was a bit of an art shift/early installment weirdness because Yori looks almost unrecognizable compared to later on, and I think the anime skewed towards the "later on" style.

I thought the same because I also went back after seeing that small difference in the scene I posted above to confirm that it was exclusive to the anime. The manga looked a lot cuter art style-wise. It became "cooler" and "sharper", so to speak, as time went on and still to this day. Personally, I prefer the later/current style. I also can't help but think it's Takeshima Eku-sensei's signature style. You know when mangakas draw each other's characters, and you can tell who is the artist of the piece based on the art style alone? That's what I mean by signature style.

SHIHO IS A DISASTER LESBIAN AND AKI IS HAVING FUN TEASING HER AND I AM PERFECTLY NORMAL ABOUT THAT STUFF.

Remember Shiho comes in very early (chapter 15), so it would be harder (and odd pacing) not to have her and Aki's dynamics as part of a 12-episode season.

I hope you are right, I've been deliriously assuming that the anime will end right when Shiho appears at the end of Chapter 15 for some reason...

I noticed a small difference in EP1 from the manga where, in the scene in which the SSGIRLS are talking about Yori's feelings to Himari in the classroom, Aki does a surprised gaze once Yori spills her feelings. The reader only knows about Aki's feelings towards Yori a little later in the manga, right? But the anime is already setting that up in EP1. At least, that's what I assume the gaze would imply to a non-manga reader.

Maybe we'll see something like that in some Shiho scenes as well? I'm not sure how "obvious" Shiho was to manga readers as the chapters were originally coming out because I'm biased; I already knew about the whole "enemies to lovers" thing that was going to happen between AkiShiho before I started reading.

Talking about the anime:

EP1 of the anime was great, the animation and quality of the artwork were better than I expected. The voices also match the characters well, the singing felt a little off to me at first because the voice sounded a little too different, but the second time she (Yori) sang at the rooftop with Himari, it was amazing.

I liked the scene where the SS Girls were sitting down and their legs were each positioned differently which shows a bit of character/personality for each of them.

I thought there could have been more chibi moments, but that's okay. What I can't get over is how few puppy ears we saw. It was only one time... I hope they show it more often in the next episodes.

The Yori VA is incredible, when Himari asks Yori if it's okay for her to sing, and she makes this "Ah..." noise, it's perfect. Also, the scene where Himari says she will be at the rooftop every day, I loved the voice acting there from the two of them and the cute background music.

I was surprised that the ED showed the tension between Aki and Shiho, will that even fit in those twelve episodes?

SrNevik and Akaii, sorry for the late reply and thank you for the suggestions!

Today is Aki's birthday (April 12) and tomorrow the anime will air (April 13).

The time Shiho left, Aki only felt angry because she was betrayed, upset because she didn't know the real reason why Shiho left. After that, Aki learned about Shiho's feelings, plus Yori had a girlfriend (Aki still had to test to see if he had ended his love with Yori or not) before deciding to date (to test her feeling) with Shiho. I think if Yori didn't have a girlfriend, Aki would probably refuse when she found out that Shiho had feelings for her. Therefore, there should be one more arc for the AkiShiho couple to develop their relationship, stopping here would seem too awkward.

I don't think angry is the correct word there, it's more like upset. From my perspective, Aki was upset that Shiho left, she was never truly angry at Shiho because she still wanted to be friends.

Aki didn't know the real reason why Shiho left, but she wanted to believe Shiho was lying because to her, the moments they spent together were not fake. The "What if" about Yori not dating Himari could be true - though as we've seen, Aki had already lost her feelings for Yori, she just didn't realize it and kept thinking she was still in love until she held Yori's hand. Did that happen because Himari appeared in the picture? Then again, Shiho did not stop loving Aki even after she realized that Aki was interested in Yori.

I don't think Aki was ever going to make a move on Yori in this highschool phase, especially since Yori came off to her as someone who doesn't "do love", so to speak. Actually, it's ironic how the senpais do not say their true feelings until they are pressured, while Himari, the kouhai, just said it to Yori without fear. But I suppose this was one of the dramas early on where Himari was not sure if her love was a couple's love. Still, she said it, right? Compared to Shiho, who needed so much stress and frustration to build up to say it, and Aki, who never said it to Yori.

I think Aki's feelings for Shiho have always been strong, especially after Shiho left. In my opinion, Aki caught romantic feelings for Yori in a natural manner while Shiho was still present, meaning that Shiho did not impress her heart just by "being there". Once Aki lost both Yori (to Himari) and Shiho (her leaving), she kept chasing Shiho but not Yori. Aki could absolutely have been a villain of sorts in this story and attempted to jeopardize Yori's relationship, but she chose to let it go. Does this mean that Aki is just nice? Or does it mean that her love is not that strong? Does she just want to have Yori by her side? If she truly was in love, wouldn't she at the very least have confessed after Himari came into play?

Meanwhile, whenever the topic is about Shiho, Aki goes out of her way to attempt to get her back. She becomes stubborn, annoying (to Shiho), and just puts herself in front of Shiho. She is not afraid to tell her that she wants her back, and after Shiho confessed, her feelings became all scrambled. I think she might even see a little of herself in Shiho, since she also hid her feelings from Yori.

The vibe I get is that Aki used to regard Shiho akin to a little sister she wanted to take care of, and only started seeing her in a different light when Shiho confessed to her, post-fallout.

It's like this, basically. Aki started seeing Shiho as a "woman" after she confessed, hence why she was not afraid to kiss her at the beach. I think her strong feelings of wanting Shiho to be around coupled with Shiho's confession will make Aki fall in love with Shiho. Not to mention that she gets to see Shiho embarassed (cute) and finally being honest, like when Aki asked her if she is in love at the beach... and Shiho just said it without fear.

Aki will finally meet the real Shiho, a Shiho only she can see.

last edited at Apr 14, 2024 2:14AM

Cute.