Fall (/Spring) 2024 Anime Overview: Whisper Me a Love Song (Patreon)

Premise: Himari sees her cool upperclassman, Yori, perform with a band and she falls in love with her music. She confesses her love of Yori’s music, and Yori mistakes it as Himari confessing to being in love with Yori herself. Yori falls head over heels for Himari at first sight, but will the two girls be able to move forward when they learn they’ve misunderstood the other?

Whisper Me a Love Song is a very sweet, heartwarming romance with some intriguing side characters going through their own drama.

The initial misunderstanding doesn't overstay its welcome. After that, we get a huge focus on Himari trying to figure out if she has feelings for Yori, acknowledging that not all people feel attraction and love right off the bat. And sometimes, that feeling can be different from the ways other people feel love and attraction!

 For Himari, this means she needs to spend time with Yori and develop a bond with her before she can figure out if she's in love. It’s very easy to read her as somewhere on the asexual spectrum, and I think the show does a good job handling her feelings, while also acknowledging that it puts Yori in a tough position.

There’s also some love triangle drama because Yori’s best friend, Aki, has a crush on her. However, the issue is handled in a forthright, empathetic manner and is a fully rounded sympathetic character. Then Aki gets in her own lesbian drama with a former friend, and I’ll admit I found this fraught romance full of hurt feelings, grief, and betrayal more compelling than the main couple. What can I say, I love girls who are kind of mean! Fortunately, these characters get the focus they deserve, with the second half of the anime being their story.

Whisper Me didn’t exactly blow my socks off, but it’s a good romance with likeable characters. And for those who don’t like hypersexualization/fanservice, there’s pretty much none of that. I enjoyed the sweetness, and I enjoyed the drama.

All of that makes it such a shame that the anime had such a rough time of it. Yuri anime in general famously gets the short end of the stick- Most yuri don’t get second seasons, they often don't get a lot of resources allocated to them, the animation quality is low a lot of the time…but poor Whisper Me a Love Song probably takes to gold when it comes to yuri production woes. The anime actually premiered in Spring 2024, but the last two episodes only came out at the end of December 2024, hence the delay with this review. And the studio making the anime basically went bankrupt.

The struggles the studio was going through are very much reflected in the animation, which has a hard time holding together as the anime goes on, with a lot of still frames and off model shots. There’s definitely some clever shortcuts used (like imitating comic panels to help the still shots come off a little more artistic) and I can tell the director is doing their best. But it is a little depressing to watch.

An anime focusing on a band having good music and scenes of the girls playing their hearts out is a must, but the music for Whisper Me is just kind of there with not a lot of energy behind it. There are exceptions—when the rival bound comes out to challenge the main characters with their music, their song is way more of a bop and you can feel the energy. The songs in the last episode sounded cool and had energy too, though they’re kind of crammed in there with dialogue over them so you can’t really enjoy the music. Of course, musical tastes can differ-- maybe you'll love all the music, even if I don't!

And don't get me wrong, Whisper Me a Love Song doesn’t look horrible, and the songs aren’t bad by any means. It’s very watchable. However…this is normally the part where I’d usually say the manga might be a better option, but actually, I do think it would be a good idea to watch this. Knowing how much strife the animators and staff went through to make this makes me want to recognize their work…especially since some cool things about the anime still shine through. It’s a scrappy little thing, but that’s kind of endearing. 

But you should definitely read the manga too. Especially since this is unlikely to get a second season, and there’s a lot more of the story.

I really want to see a world where anime staff and animators aren’t put into such awful positions, where no one overworks their staff. I want us to give yuri anime the time and resources it deserves, so the staff can be treated well, even if that means it takes longer to get it. I know there’s animators out there striving for this. Please remember to support them as much as you're able, because they’re the real victims in production collapses like this one.

And also, take a little time out of your day to experience a sweet lesbian romance with lovable characters, whichever medium you choose! Whisper Me a Love Song deserves to be enjoyed.