Sasameki Koto
Whispered Words

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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 prevents ... them 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 times ... Takashi 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 boring ... at 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.

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's ... climax! 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 main ... characters. 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 and ... are 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 are ... both heartwarming and sometimes comedic. I would highly recommend reading this manga if you enjoyed the anime!

!english is not my first language
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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. It ... helped 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.