merl.mclaughlin - 2015-02-08 03:23:07

It's a shoujo ai with fantastic characters and pretty good writing, but a disappointing ending as there's close to no closure.  I loved this anime, but I'm really disappointed by the ending - I guess, as others have said, you should read the manga, but I'd have to say don't pass up the anime either. The production is still great, and I thoroughly enjoyed it even though I'm pretty disappointed in the ending. At the same time though, I'm invested enough in the characters that I'd like to go and read the manga, at least from the point of the anime ending.

bechtelar.marge - 2015-02-07 00:40:35

[Old review is old.]

Whispered Words (or Sasameki Koto, whatever floats your boat) is the rare kind of yuri anime that doesn’t pander to the fetish fanboys, yet has virtually no merit as a show for anyone looking for an honest yuri story. It’d be rather nice if some honest gay romance show proved itself to be something special, but this one is so surprisingly drab that it ranks right next to those shows that DO fetishize yuri.

The show begins with the journey that the two leads (both with questioning attraction for girls and each other) have together before a club is formed, and once that happens, the show shifts into daily life mischief with sprinkled commonplace episodic struggles. It’s a very simplistic anime, to the point where it’s over-simplicity is a big red flag. The focus on serious topics disintegrates as they drag the show out with very slow fillers and muddy pacing. The topics addressed are treated respectfully half the time, but partnered with cheap jokes and fanservice otherwise. As predictable stories come and go and petty attempts for drama pile up, the show finishes up on an extremely unsatisfying conclusion. Though more famous ones exist, like Berserk or Evangelion (both of which are wrongly accused anyway), Whispered Words is a contender for worst “finale” in some hypothetical contest of mine. While I liked sitting back and enjoying the first few easygoing episodes, the meat of the anime doesn’t turn out to be anything remarkable by the end of it.

The cast is too tame and forgettable for me to talk about beyond slight variations in their likability. Yuri character tropes and even specific scenes are pretty easy to spot, matching superficial personalities portrayed by certain Sailor Soldiers or Rose Bride Duelists. Weak development overall isn’t very impactful and there was never any significant chemistry between the romantic subjects for me to like the characters as couples either. While they aren’t a complete chore to watch, unlike other stereotypical anime casts, they’re still a fairly forgettable group of characters in a show without a story, turning out a near-complete snoozefest.

AIC did animation with help from a few smaller studios, though that didn’t help anything. There aren’t any moments of creativity in the swamp of immeasurably dull art, and a tiny sense of atmosphere at the start of the show doesn’t alleviate the rest of the bad qualities. On a good day I’d say the music was stale, with select tracks used to over-glorify situations that felt too overthetop to stomach well. So sadly, the production gets some pretty low marks too, combined with the vapid script to bring this harmless little lesbian show down much more than it ought to.

As a fun fact, being a damn short review, this was one of the very first anime shows I completed. Back when I was testing the waters to find out what anime as a medium could offer, this came and went in a day and I didn’t think much of it. Unsurprisingly, it fell lower and lower on the quality spectrum as I took in more and more, reaching this sad destination at the very bottom of the anime barrel. I guess it’s in a personal place as that one thing I saw and liked okay way back when, but now it is truthfully nil for me and you as a potential satisfactory show.

Whispered Words (2009):
2.8/10