Sasameki Koto

As an avid yuri fan, LA likes looking at all spectrum of a genre, be it the serious melodramatic kind or the more laid back slice of life look, Sasameki Koto itches LA's latter... Sasameki Koto is the story of one Sumika Murasame voiced by Ayahi Takagaki, a tall, tough girl who is in love with Ushio Kazama voiced by Megumi Takamoto who loves cute things and cute things...you can see where the "obstacle" is in this yuri relationship, of course other characters comes into light as the "Girls Club" is formed in which most of the cast is swept into but by the end they are all friends by the end of it....but the main focus clearly goes into Ushio and Sumika's blooming relationship or if they can both mutually have feelings for one another. Sasameki Koto starts off rather serious though, having a third wheel ALREADY in the form of Chizuka Nishikigi voiced by Saori Hayami and having Sumika be by Ushio's side with the melodrama at hand whilst also trying to get closer to Ushio in the process, once that is out of the however Sasameki Koto takes on a much more comedic, slice of life approach to it's episodes, both developing Ushio and Sumika along with the cast of the Girls Club that joins. The main cast excluding the main yuri couple does get their moment in the spotlight at times, from Masaki "Akemi-chan" Akemiya voiced by Ayaka Shimizu and his butt monkey ways (who has a crush on Sumika), to the brazen yuri duo of Miyako Tamae voiced by Chiwa Saito and Tomoe Hachisuka voiced by Hitomi Harada that were the catalyst to Girls Club forming as well as Tomoe knowing quite naturally of Sumika's crush on Ushio and finally Azusa Aoi voiced by Mayuki Makiguchi being the shy type BUT is also a yuri doujinshi creator. Akemiya though being the only prominent guy in the anime, is nothing but a butt monkey to the entire cast and as we know quite clearly of Sumika's love is ALL towards Ushio..he never had a chance but getting some development in the form of how his *ahem* quirk came about through his sister Manaka voiced by Ayana Taketatsu is sufficient enough in LA's eyes. Miyako is the typical two-faced cutezy yet not girl with a quick temper in contrast to Tomoe's cool and collected yet wildly sharp personalities, they are something of a foil to Ushio and SUmika's friendship/relationship. Azusa as a character was something of an obstacle for Sumika at first but as Azusa assessed the situation she got herself into, she became a much more less restrictive character though at the expense of her interests (*cough*) AND lastly Kiyori Torioi voiced by Emiri Katou is the comedic relief character with the genki personality down pat and is initially Ushio and Sumika's best friend and was all throughout the anime. Sasameki Koto is something of character-driven story mainly focusing on Ushio and Sumika and to that, Ushio as a character is pretty vanilla in all honesty in which she has some grasp of Sumika's feelings but not in it's entirety but by the end of it, LA felt like she had an inkling of the sorts, as for Sumika, well she thinks of Ushio almost 24/7 and sometimes that can make her seem rude or impulsive many times (though some times it's taken for laughs) but that just shows she REALLY cares for Ushio and considering the anime has the major focus and narrative focus on Sumika LA can let...some...of this slide. Thing is, LA thought Sumika was LA's favorite character even with some of the character flaws LA mentioned abut her, her drive to wanting to make her relationship with Ushio not only work out in tough times but to bloom further is commendable to say the least...LA just wished she was at least slightly more courteous to the other members, which she does to some extent by the end of it. In terms of animation by AIC, the animation was just decent...nothing horrible or derpy but also nothing too grand, AIC just the basis of the typical anime look from the 2000's from the character designs and background and well was just decent. To be honest the animation is the least impressive thing LA found out, but "not impressive" is not an insult to Sasameki Koto's animation as well as the typical anime style at the time. Sasameki Koto also has the comedic facial reactions also in and again that didn't make the animation bad, actually LA was expecting it. ALl in all, the animation done by AIC was slightly average but not much to praise besides no derpiness and it was consistent. Voice work on the other hand is something different, LA didn't even notice so many noticeable voice actors in this anime before they got famous (or were famous at the time), like Cihwa Saito as Miyako, SAORI HAYAMI as Chizuka, Hitomi Harada as Tomoe and Emiri Katou as Kiyori, in which LA was most surprised by Saori Hayami and Hitomi Harada in their respective roles. The main voice cast was great to be expected for such an anime and yes...like favorite characters...LA liked Ayahi Takagaki's performance all round so she easily got MVP (pretty much Sumika being a Chris Yukine before Chris Yukine vocals). Sasameki Koto is not an overly dramatic yuri love story and that is totally fine as it plays to it's strengths of being a comedy slice of life anime involving yuri, mainly from MOST of the cast and for the most part with all the fluff and playing around the anime does, it not only develop it's characters with interesting quirks but also gives us an inkling towards the main romance focus...which -sigh- doesn't get any resolution by the end of anime thus LA's "inkling" and really LA can look at the anime's ending in two ways, a "read the manga" pessimistic look at it or to look at the ending's ""inkling" as something will happen to Ushio and Sumika or they mutually know but just can't say it...and have an optimistic view on it but LA felt for both really, like the ending doesn't outright ruin the anime as it was pretty low key with ALOT of yuri nudges here and there and with Sumika's devotion to Ushio being a rather strong ship tease for the "one true pairing" that LA felt torn by it's ending but weirdly satisfied even if the ending didn't give us a resolution. Sasameki Koto has it's flaws sure from the ok animation and many intentional character flaws and especially with the ending it gave us but for what Sasameki Koto does which is mainly centered towards it's characters, then it did a good job on that hand and shows that yuri animes doesn't need constant melodrama to make a yuri anime, but Sasameki Koto keeps it's strengths too close to it's sleeve is what is LA getting at. Sasameki Koto is but a look at the daily lives of these girls (and one boy) and how they deal with and or their relationships in their lives, one step at a time and to that LA says that...it's fine.

First things first. My "reviews" system is explained on a blog entry. Which can be found through my profile. ------ ✦Story Couldn't decide between giving it total 5 or 6. But I did manage to finish it without dying to boredom.. so I guess it was good enough? Anyhow.. I felt as story maybe didn't have as much progression as I hoped for. But I did love the gag element and how the main girl was basically typical ecchi harem show male protagonist. Just the female version, meaning that keeping the distance, yet getting overly excited over simple things. Anyhow.. story did offer some a bit more enjoyable shoujo ai/yuri aspect than most "stage play" feel yuri anime. That usually have this "ojou-sama" vibe or just way too annoying "stage play" feel. Not fan of those, I mean yuri is nice, but for some reason how most of yuri stuff is made, is quite boring for me. Aside that I found that story was wrapped up in a quite weak way or maybe in a sense even open-ended Point being, story was okay, it was a bit different that typical shoujo ai/yuri series. Had enough things happening, some cute moments, some sad moments, lots of gag moments and so on. So In my book. It was good enough. ✦Art & Sound Well.. typical issue with art. It's quite old and I cannot really remember if for those years, it was good or bad art. So, thus I give it 6, meaning it was good enough. Nothing else to say regarding that. As for sound, it had few nice soundtracks, but for the most part didn't notice them much. Issue with OST.. in a lot of cases you have to listen to them separately, where sometimes you discover that Anime had really good tracks, but not noticeable at all in the Anime itself. But, in the end sound/ost/music was good enough. ✦Character Well, I did mentioned the main girl. Basically an ecchi harem protagonist, female edition. And the second main girl is a bit of a selfish ahem.., basically "women mind sometimes is just wtf..." She was a bit of a tease as well. Kinda pulling around and never saying anything herself.. and then just build up drama and end up blaming others. Basically. There were also quite some interesting sidekicks. I cannot remember the names, but we had pretensions poet who acts like narcissistic prince. Then we have a cute moeblob who is actually an absolute nightmare. And kinda a straight act girl that goes at her own pace at things. Bunch of other characters as well, but those probably were the most worthy to mention. So again.. I found the characters quite okay, their development did exist to some point. But couldn't really grow into them or like as much. Thus the "good enough". ✦Enjoyment & Overall "good enough". Sums it up. It was semi-interesting lesbian Anime with a bit of a different approach than the stereotypical yuri Anime. Which was a nice thing.

It looks like Aoi Hana, except with a bit les budget and les serious story. Goos drawing, music, and story is okey except its seems like writter got tilted on episode 8. And here i was thinking that Aoi Hana delivery was weak. In this anime there is no apples delivery at all. Basically 2 girls kind of like each other then 12 episodes long nothing happen and that is it! This is a good anime but i feel like im being trolled. Its the weakest romance i have seen ever. Extra about original manga: Well i just got manga and after going thru it i understand why this anime feel so unfinished and why there will never be a season 2. Basically anime only tells story of first 2 volumes of manga but to be honest story dosnt realy progres much in manga as well. What worth mentioning is that manga got realy sh.. after volume 5. Author got out of ideas but wanted to keep manga going so characters start to act weird. Like say "i want to be with you and i dont care about karate at all was just doing it because i live in dojo but i realy just want to be with you all time" then next day "well im going to open a dojo club so we not gona see us much now, byebye" and like "i dont want to work in school at all, i just want to be with you" then next day "oh i got into working in school by mistake, i dont realy have to do it but ill do it all sommer anyway so, byebye" and sh like this keep happening, then there is endles stories about side characters nobody cares about and even a story about karate and just dancing around actual story and trolling. Then in like last pages they hug and kis once and that is it. But to this point you lose interest in this manga because you feel that writter has lost it and even characters themself dosnt care about what gona happen to them and if then dont care why should you. Interesting up till volume 5 this tory vas very enjoyable and i would even give it 10 of 10 but author managed to destroy his own work to a point where i just want to blacklist this author.

I enjoyed this. The cast of characters in this is by far the strong point of the entire show. All the characters react in an actual human way. They don't freak out cause they thought someone liked them but turns out they didn't. The comedy is also pretty good. The boy that acts like cross dresses i kind of just wish they had him be a chick instead. Just something that annoys me. The ending left a lot to be desired. A lot of unresolved issues. Really wish they would both just say their feelings for each other. Overall a pretty good show that probably should've gotten an OVA.

"Argghhhh" maybe this is all I can say when I see the end If you look at this anime from beginning to end, can not be trusted if the score listed in the MAL is not large Story = 7 - an unusual romance story, I can say the element of yuri in this anime is not too thick, just friendship and love here is balanced and the comedic elements that exist are quite solid. Where the main actors here love each other kind of kiss but only limited kiss, and they are more concerned with friendship, and when there is a problem that comes will be immediately immediately resolved, not linger and silence. But the lack of story value in this anime is too focused on 1 main cast so that others are not too displayed in the maximum and the end is not good in my opinion / somewhat responsibility Art = 7 -maybe the art aspect is good enough just still not good seen from the atmosphere of Background Sound = 8 I love the placement of music to the scenes that are given quite appropriate The chant that he listened to when near the end of the episode per episode did little to make certain feelings emerge Chara = 7 The outer appearance of the main characters shown is normal but More value is in the nature of the characters that make me laugh Enjoyment = 8 From the beginning to the end of the episode I just enjoy it Elements of romance and comedy that is the value of more Overall = 8 If only the ending is given is not the responsibility may be I will give score 9 on this anime

So I won't lie, this anime has its flaws, but it's for people who like something calm, slow, and uncomplicated. It's very gentle, some might even say too gentle at times, but I like it and I think it has its own personality. Sometimes the characters are a bit simple and very predictable, especially in the first half and after the introduction of a new character. Oh, speaking of character development, I think that despite other flaws, this is the worst aspect. Most of the new characters are annoying at first, but everything resolves itself later. This was the case with practically all the newly introduced characters except the main two. Honestly, some people think the ending is bad and ends with nothing more than a few smiles. But I think a bit differently. We also have moments like that in life, and in my opinion, it shows one of the important aspects of love: caring for someone's well-being and the fear and anxiety when we don't know what's happening to our loved one. In my opinion, it's a very nice ending, but it won't be to everyone's taste. They could have made a few more episodes, but I'll still accept this ending. This anime is definitely not perfect, and it's clearly very low budget, but that doesn't bother me. Despite its simplicity sometimes, it shows what it should show and express. I would overall recommend this and definitely recommend it for people who enjoy slow-paced and gentle animes (and , of course, like yuri).

Whispering Words has some decent aspects, but all in all, it doesn't do anything to really stick out. Story: Whispering Words is a Shoujo-Ai, taking place in a high school where we meet our main characters, Sumika and Ushio. They've known each other for a while now, however, Sumika's developed a pretty hard crush on Ushio, who is completely oblivious to this. We view the everyday lives of these characters, and those around them, until we see what ultimately comes of their relationship. The beginning starts out strong and we get a strong sense of how our two characters are and where we want to be. The main problem here is that the plot doesn't proceed save for some baby steps. Don't get me wrong. The finale is great and was really touching. But it feels like the type of episode that should be somewhere in the middle. This clearly shows that they know what makes up a good episode, but there just aren't enough of these moments. The characters get very involved and I honestly enjoyed it. But they explored Sumika and Ushio's relationship at such a slow pace, that there wasn't a satisfying conclusion at the end. Series like these tend to have very long term stories and unfortunately, they just can't fit together in a thirteen episode series. This is what the entire anime felt like it was suppose to aim towards and it didn't get close enough. (5/10) Characters: The characters as a whole are mostly hit or miss for me. Sumika's the class representative, though she doesn't really come off as super popular to us. She's very athletic due to her previous involvement in the karate studio that her dad runs. As previously mentioned, she has a crush on Ushio, but has a very difficult time summing up the courage to tell her. She is actually pretty reserved until one of her friends does something that would make her outburst, akin to a character like Naruto. It did get on my nerves a few times, just because it was getting more frequent the more the series went on. However, she does have strong morals and does look out for her family and friends. However, the finale does not do justice to her character. Sumika's best friend, Ushio makes it pretty well known that she likes girls, which is already different from many other series within the genre. However, she openly makes it known that she likes, what she calls, "cute" girls. She clearly judges more on appearance than anything else. This isn't a problem really, as this doesn't interfere with the plot too much. She lives with her brother, where she mostly acts as the responsible one. However, past these, we don't get a ton of insight into Ushio's life. Kiyori is a strange one. She's one of Sumika and Ushio's friends, and she's in a lot of scenes but... she doesn't add much. Her personality is somewhat predictable and she doesn't even act upon what she sees between her two friends. Introduced about halfway through, Azusa is an aspiring writer that Sumika helps shortly after she's brought into the main story. She isn't noticed much in school because of her mostly reserved nature, but she has great aspirations. In the middle of the story, her and two other characters act as observers to Sumika and Ushio's complicated relationship with each other and while she makes a key observation on the bus once, I wish they followed this up. Tomoe & Miyako are a pair of Sumika's classmates that are (but not really, secretly) dating, they attempt to form a "Girl's Club" as a passable club. Miyako's kind of a follower, while also being a little nosy, but Tomoe's a perfect compliment to her, Tomoe, like Azusa, notices Sumika's problems about halfway through, but again, this doesn't accelerate the plot as much as you'd like. This makes me wonder what the point of introducing this pair into the plot was because they don't add much if the end goal approaches so sluggishly. Masaki is another minor character and his point to the plot is actually very clear. He adds an interesting layer to some of the episodes and I actually found myself liking him quite a bit. I kind of wonder if they had more to his characters should this series have continued, but he had some comedic relief in some small spots here or there. Sumika's really the only one who interacts with him much though. This cast has some fantastic characters and some... less than fantastic ones. The problem is that character development on a lot of them was absent in places I would have liked to see more. Some of the side characters are introduced well into the series, so this limits room to develop them, but Sumika and Ushio didn't develop nearly as much as I would have liked. (6/10) Art: Keeping in mind that this series is over ten years old, the art was mostly fine. They did tend to use still-pictures during the transition scenes, but it never got in the way of anything. There were no obvious problems here. (7/10) Sound: I really didn't care for the short track that reoccurred in the the OST. It obviously felt like a light track, but I felt like it stuck out too much and didn't add enough - or wasn't used in the right spots. Furthermore, I didn't care for either the OP or ED. The voice cast were fine - as with most Japanese voice cast. Like the art, no obvious problems there. (7/10) Overall Enjoyment: I have a hard time giving this a strong rating, just because it had such potential and very little of it was followed up on. We've had a few series where the plot feels stunted due to the short series length, and it's really tough to swallow each time. When you develop your characters so little, especially together, you're going to have a tough time engaging your audience. (6/10)