Sasameki Koto

I think we all know how painful it can be to love someone who doesn't love you back. I certainly do, and I don't think I've ever seen an anime series that depicted the loneliness--and very rarely the joy--of one-sided love as well as the shojou ai romcom Sasameki Koto did.

I began watching Sasameki Koto at the very beginning of the year, around the same time I started Junjou Romantica. I could not have picked a better first shojou ai series. Although it is basicly about the love between two girls, it is way lighter and more fun then some of the more dramatic shojou ai series out there, making it a perfect introduction to the genre.

Sumika Murasame is an intelegent, tough as nails highschooler with a big problem: she has fallen in love with another female, her best friend, Ushio Kazama. The problem isn't that Ushio doesn't like girls--in fact, she's absoluely crazy about them--the problem is that Ushio only likes "cute" girls. Small, weak, shy girls that one would feel compelled to protect. Sumika, being unusually tall and a martial arts expert, does not at all meet this description.

Sasameki Koto presented a very simple story, and was able to do a lot with it. Something different happened every episode, and they managed to bring in very satisfying romantic scenes and wonderful comedy without being too unrealistic. The only problem was that some episodes had no real significance, and could have been skipped over in order to make room for a decent ending. Note before you watch Sasameki Koto that the ending is very abrupt, and will probably leave you unsatisfied and thinking 'That's it?'

The characters made this series what it was. Each character was unique and quirky, and you pretty much had to love every one of them. We start out with the two mains, Sumika and Ushio, and their friend, the happy-go-lucky Kiyori. Later, we are introduced to Akemiya, a dorky boy with a huge crush on Sumika, Tomoe and Miyako, a lesbian couple who hopelessly attempt to start a school club for lesbian girls, and Aoi, a passionate fan of a series of yuri novels. The characters are all very well developed, and it's very entertaining to watch them in their everyday lives.

The main reason I like Sasameki Koto is that you can feel the characters' emotions as if they are your own. There are several scenes in this series that will make one think "I've felt that way before." The series manages to perfectly execute the drama of one sided love without being melodramatic, and seeing as this is a Highschool story, this is a major accomplishment. read more

First of all i want to say that "Sasameki koto" was my first Shoujo-ai anime and because of that it kind of changed my view on Shoujo-ai series and all that girl+girl thing.

Story: "sasameki koto" tells us a story about love which seems strange to many of us and that love is between girls no that love which we call "friends" but real love , feelings and wanting to be with some one. The story revolves around few girls Kazama, Ushio and Murasame, Sumika also their many friends which they encounter. Murasame Sumika feel in love with her best Friend Kazama Ushio who falls in love with all the "cute" girls she see, for Murasame its the worst thing that can happen because she isn't the "cute" type if you think about it shes more like guy shes tall , strong and also knows karate ... well in other words the opposite of the type that Kazama likes because of that Murasama suffers alot. She also suffers because of seeing Kazama always getting hurt by other girls ... and getting her heart broken. Story goes into many misunderstandings and alot more sufferings but only to be relieved by some humor and joy of main characters "after bad things happens there are always something good awaiting". When going further into story we see some development of feelings from both sides still that was a mystery for me because it was my first Shoujo-ai anime ... with that i got into it and wanted to see more. Because of that i came across even more changes in their characteristics after some time i noticed Jealousy coming from Kazama who i thought had no interests in Murasame. With that i will end my review.

Art: Well art is beautiful all the characters are beautifully drawn and all the atmosphere is warm.

Characters: It was a wonderful character development and characteristics of each protagonist every moment of jealousy and such was shown nicely.

Enjoyment: well i enjoyed these series alot because it was my first shoujo-ai anime.

Overall: its a great love story which makes some difference from these plain every day anime romances which we see happening and after 4 eps you can already tell what will happen in the end ... I would suggest to watch this if you ain't against girls love!.
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Ahh, my very first Shoujou ai Anime... What I would give to remove the show in my brain and watch it again to get that "first time" feeling.


Story 9/10
Sumika Murasame, a high school girl is secretly in love with her best friend Ushio Kazama. Unfortunately, Ushio only likes girls that are cute and small. Sumi is not cute, tall and very athletic. The anime follows exactly the plot of the manga version of the same name (Except episode 12). If this was a stand-alone anime then story rating would have been lower due to the ending of the show (the ending of the show was the ending of manga version volume 1). Since they were following the manga version's plot, it's getting a high rating. I've read the manga version until the end and it was wonderful.


Art 8/10
The show has a great animation with few minor flaws that are not distracting.


Sound 6/10
It's getting a low rating because they keep using it every episode. It eventually got annoying and this also tells me that they're not good at coming up with new soundtrack


Character 8/10
The characters in the show(and manga) are well developed.. You have Sumika, a tall and athletic girl. She is the main protagonist of the show and she is Ushio's best friend since middle school. You have Ushio, a lesbian girl who likes "cute" girls. She and Sumika met in middle school and has been best friends ever since. You have other supporting characters but I'm not going to list them.


Enjoyment 9/10
I really enjoyed the show. There are 2 things depicted in this show. What it feels like to be in love with your best friend and if society will accept you because you're lesbian/gay.



Overall 9/10
It's got a great story, great character development and a great animation. I recommend you watch the anime first so you don't have to read the first 12 chapters of the manga version. If you're not planning to read the manga at all then don't bother watching this show. The manga picks up where the show exactly left.



Pros:
-Great story
-Great characters
-Realistically depicts the lesbian relationship
-Took its time to explain things


Cons:
-

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There's nothing wrong with dabbling into some lighthearted yuri, yaoi, or whatever other interesting subgenres the romance tag has to offer. It’s nice to branch out and explore different types of love and how anime handles it every once and awhile. It would be even better if the show actually ended up being something rather good or turned out to be something special, but unfortunately I can’t say that for Whispered Words.

Also known as Sasameki Koto, this anime follows a protagonist named Sumika as she attends school (where else?) with her childhood friend Ushio, whom Sumika secretly has feelings for. Ushio of course has no clue and lives out her school years feeling no shame whatsoever to being attracted to particularly cute young girls. As the show moves on, they find other girls in similar situations in regards to same gender love, and eventually a ragtag club is formed around these themes.

The show is basically the journey the two leads have before the club is formed, and once that happens the show shifts into whatever they decide to do in their daily lives, with sprinkled explorations of common yuri issues or ideas. In that sense it’s a very simplistic anime, but there were many times where it felt almost too simplistic. Nearing the end, less episodes were focused on serious topics and more on trying to drag the show out for its 13 episode run with very slow fillers and pacing that would lose to a snail in a race. Even though they address the topics at hand in a respectful light half the time, that didn’t stop the inclusion of a couple typical service shots or cheap attempts for comedy. By the halfway point, it had devolved into the same common anime scenes, tropes, and scenarios. It’s nothing extremely severe, but not mentioning it would be like telling a white lie. As predictable plot points come and go, and petty attempts for drama pile up, the show decides to finish up on a very unsatisfying conclusion, if you could even call it that. Even though more famous ones are out there like Berserk or Evangelion (both of which are wrongly accused anyway), I would gladly nominate this show for having one of the worst final episodes in anime. But despite a horrible finale, during the first few episodes where everything at least felt somewhat natural, I did like sitting back and enjoying a very easygoing show with simple, but likable characters. Aside from that, however, the real meat of the show as it goes on doesn’t turn out anything remarkable at all.

The characters weren’t as horribly handled as the story, but sadly they aren’t much to talk about. They’re sort of likable, and that’s about it. When you step back and look at the whole cast, there isn’t anything special, but for what they were, they seemed pretty balanced and tame. They were perfect to just spend some time with. Also noticeable is a couple yuri character tropes or reused personalities and scenes. Let’s just say it’s easy to pick out some archetypes that would fit with certain Sailor Soldiers or Rose Bride Duelists. The bad news is that while certain developments happen in the show to make each of them grow a little bit, when the anime closes out, it feels like nothing happened to them at all. Nothing changed, nothing was very impactful, and sadly there was very little chemistry in the little bits of romance that it had. I can give them credit that they’re at least tolerable to take in, unlike other stereotypical anime casts that end up being a chore to watch. Not the worst characters, just fairly forgettable.

Animation was done by AIC, with help from a couple smaller studios, which I find interesting considering the animation was pretty bad. Aside from a few spare moments, it doesn’t get very creative or expressive, Overall, the visuals move just like any other below average anime, which definitely isn’t a compliment. The background work looks okay, and at least they had some sense of atmosphere at the beginning and at select parts in the latter half. For a show that didn’t offer much in the writing department and moves at the pace of a disabled snail, I’ll take some honest atmosphere any day.

Both the OP and the ED were pretty stale to say the least. Background music was likewise, just some nice calming tunes, nothing too eye popping. Some select tracks were used to over-glorify particular situations, and while it’s understandable why they’re used for some attempt at impact, they ended up feeling very out of place or over the top. So unfortunately sound department doesn’t get much either, and when everything adds up, this show feels particularly stagnant and sluggish. What started out as a lighthearted show turned into another uninspired and stereotypical filler anime for a studio that just decided to skimp on all production aspects. Combined with a weak script, this really brings the show down much more than it should.

Fun fact, this was one of the very first anime shows I completed. Back when I was testing the waters trying to find what anime could offer, this came and went in a day and I didn’t think much of it. It doesn’t really surprise me that when I saw more and more, this show would fall lower and lower on the quality spectrum. It’s pretty abysmal at this point, but I guess I’ll keep it in a special place as a show that I had a relaxing time with for just a little while. In terms of anime as a whole, Whispered Words really is nothing special once it’s done and over with, but for someone just stumbling onto anime, I really am glad I watched it early on.

I give this anime a score of 2.8/10 (1.5 stars) and a Highly Unrecommended rating. read more