Sasayaku You ni Koi wo Utau (Whisper Me a Love Song)

Yori Asanagi is a mature girl in many ways but is still pure when it comes to romance. That sentiment is proven when an underclassman, Himari Kino, suddenly confesses love to her after her band performance at the freshman opening ceremony.

Confused and surprised, Yori asks her friends for consultation, but they tease her by saying that she is experiencing love. Yori soon makes up her mind and tries to return Himari's feelings, but in a twist of events, she realizes that what Himari loved was not her, but her music!

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Sasayaku You ni Koi wo Utau has been published in English as Whisper Me a Love Song by Kodansha USA since October 20, 2020.

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Sasayaku You ni Koi wo Utau

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Characters

Asanagi, Yori

Main

Kino, Himari

Main

Izumi, Shiho

Supporting

Mizuguchi, Aki

Supporting

Tachibana, Kaori

Supporting

Momoka, Satomiya

Supporting

Mizuguchi, Miki

Supporting

Tsutsui, Mari

Supporting

Amasawa, Hajime

Supporting

Reviews

Nov 2, 2023

Reilys

Recommended

Preliminary (44/? eps)

I remember reading this when it was just released and yeah the main couple or the first few volumes is about them being wholesome but for me I didn't really enjoyed because the main couple doesn't appeal me and story with almost not drama is boring to me.
I start to read again after seeing people spamming on the internet AkiShiho and so I started to get interested to them.
Im not good at expressing and my vocabulary is small so I can only say Shiho is indeed the best girl!
She made me fell in love and made the story more interesting (at least for me). I ...

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Mar 19, 2024

shutcardboard

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (47/? eps)

Many other reviews already mentioned it, f*** Shiho and how the author force-changed Himari to force Shiho into the story. Now, to start the review after that much needed statement. Girls Love is probably my 2nd or 3rd most read genre. I am a former super-fan of this manga. It could've been one of the greatest.. if not for chapter 30+.

I won't spoil everything that happened (SapphicQueenMina's review is 100% correct) but instead talk about how the author failed Shiho's introduction, her impact on Himari, how characters were instantly changed to force certain tropes and why all of that is plain terrible writing.

The start was ... great, not much to say. Characters were being established and we got to know a whole lot about the cast and who feels/thinks/wants/can do what. It was incredibly well done and enjoyable even with how many characters there are. The story is mid throughout the whole manga but the events themselves make (or made..) up for that.

Introduce Shiho. Out of nowhere. A seemingly super important asspull character that has ties to everyone, is well known, the best at everything and envied even by the gods. No, I am not joking, sadly. She has such incredibly strong emotions towards many of the cast members, it feels insane to only get to know her/see her act this late in.
But that is not all. There instantly is a nonsense event to tie Himari to her and her group. It suddenly reads like a random hentai-mindbreak-subplot with NTR undertone- one blink and Yori isn't her sole number 1 anymore (not exaggerated). Shiho just does it all better and Himari, in almost EVERY situation from there on, has to make that clear to Yori and everyone else.
Every 1on1 date with Yori? Himari has to talk about Shiho, atleast twice. Having Yori and Shiho play a song? She has to be 10x more focussed, happy and cheering for Shiho than Yori (sadly not exaggerating here). Working for Shiho is the greatest and Shiho is the best. There is a saving grace but more on that later.

Now, how did we get to this point? Himari is literally forced to work for them and develops stockholm syndrome (actually) after 1 chapter. She interacted more with Shiho's band than she ever did with Yori's after 2 chapters. After 5 chapters she knows more about Shiho than Yori (sadly no exaggeration). After 8 chapters Himari did something more important for Shiho/find out something more important about Shiho than she ever did with Yori.
From here on towards the climax of the arc it is Shiho -> Shiho -> Shiho. Just do everything in her might to make Shiho happy and ensure that Shiho has a good life. It legit becomes her life's mission to work for the band. The whole arc has like 2 cute-wholesome moments. Apart from that it is Himari ruining EVERY interaction with Yori. Yori always is but an afterthought when she is with Shiho (90% of panels).
This all also is wholly against Himari as a character. True, she is naive and too kind for her own good. But she would never neglect and hurt Yori to this much of an extent, ever. It is fully done on purpose by the author to force jealousy, multiple times. It might be a common tactic but Himari as a character was ruined in the process.
As for how the arc was resolved? The manager situation was forced to the max by the author. I actually cringed. The whole "what I wanna do in future?" thing already had been addressed. How can the author abuse the Himari character this much..? This is NOT what she wanted. She knows exactly how Yori feels and what she is doing to Yori, too. What the fuck was the author thinking..

Shiho herself is a rather flat character. She hates everyone and everything. Doesn't elaborate but won't leave (not very chad of her). Her character climaxes in a sob story out of left field that just feels forced and exposed at the wrongest of times. It feels like a cheap attempt to give her depth, explain why she is such a stuck up b**** and to further tie down Himari to her and her band all in one.
Other than that she is the average poor tormented damsel in distress that has to fight the whole world and can't get anything for free in life. Well, apart from one thing. The forced side-character happy ending trope. But it's whatever at this point. Any writing that includes Shiho somehow instantly turns to shit and into the most generic random ass cliche treasure trove.

The saving grace. Yori. It straight up is the character Yori. Every character that interacts with Shiho or talks about her or just smells her needs to turn into a rabid dog out for drama cliche and tropes. But not Yori.
We get some deep insight into her mind, how she handles the whole Himari-selfNTR-situation, what music is to her, friendship is to her, competition is to her, what she wants from the future and so much more. A light in the darkest night.
We see her hurt multiple times, the reason always Himari. But Himari doesn't grow or develop anymore. We get to know that she knows what she is doing and that there are some complex feelings involved but at the end of the day it goes so far and is so incredibly out of character that it feels like "the author said she HAS to do all that so that is why". Lame.
Yori is "a perfect character" but also just works "perfectly as a character". So beautifully and well done. She is too good and understanding for ch30+ Himari. I do think she let Himari off infinitely times too easy but whatever. Just have her be happy now, please.

Final verdict? Read this is you like forced drama and character changes that sour the reading experience. I typed "forced" like 30 times but it just is that. Almost everything established in the first 30 chapters was thrown out.
It clearly isn't complete trash but the introduction of a singular character and failure in handling said character and characters around them ruined pretty much 75% of what the manga had to offer. IMO that is embarrassing and a huge oversight.
Have fun until chapter 30, tho!

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May 23, 2021

spenc1

Not Recommended

Preliminary (7/? eps)

First review fellas, you know the drill.

Whispering You a Love Song is a pretty unoriginal romance. It steals story elements from Bloom into You and character design from Oregairu, but unoriginality isn't always a bad thing. But in this case, it is.

spoiler warning for bloom into you.

Story: the story is just copy and paste from Bloom into You but without the depth and underlying meaning that bloom into you has. It uses the lack of understanding of love in BIY as a plot convenience rather than to tell a story. The way I see it, the only positive quality the story has is that ...

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Poll: Sasayaku You ni Koi wo Utau Chapter 31 Discussion luinthoron - Mar 20, 2022	7 replies	by musicman31 »» Today, 12:22 AM
Beyond Chapter 35 AuthorityofWeeb - Apr 14	2 replies	by AuthorityofWeeb »» Apr 14, 1:20 PM
Poll: Sasayaku You ni Koi wo Utau Chapter 48 Discussion shutcardboard - Mar 21	4 replies	by Ahopiyo »» Mar 24, 6:55 AM
Poll: Sasayaku You ni Koi wo Utau Chapter 47 Discussion LlawlietL_ - Dec 23, 2023	10 replies	by TakedaYuto »» Jan 22, 8:39 AM
Poll: Sasayaku You ni Koi wo Utau Chapter 46 Discussion ARK-13 - Nov 19, 2023	3 replies	by Shiihoo »» Dec 21, 2023 8:26 PM

Sasayaku You ni Koi wo Utau
Whisper Me a Love Song
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Sasayaku You ni Koi wo Utau
Whisper Me a Love Song
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