Whisper Me a Love Song

Episode 3

It may not be on purpose, but this episode of Whisper Me a Love Song does an outstanding job of illustrating what it can feel like to be asexual in an allosexual world. After Yori's confession, Himari is struggling with what to do. She knows that Yori's “love” isn't the same one she feels, and she's also trying to come to grips with the difference between romantic and sexual attraction. Her friend Miki's attempts to help with that end up confusing the issue more because her metric is “do you want to hug and kiss her,” which could indicate sexual attraction, but not romantic. All Himari knows is that she doesn't feel the same way she sees other people, and this difference has nearly gotten her in trouble before and made her feel detached from her class.

Again, I can't say with any certainty that this is what Eku Takeshima was going for when she created the story, but even if she didn't, there's something nice about seeing it play out on the screen. Himari's voice actor tones down the breathiness of her musings, which also helps us to see Himari as a whole person, not just the perky high school first-year throwing herself headlong into things she doesn't fully understand. Himari's bouncy earnestness may have attracted Yori, but she will have to learn to appreciate her more somber side as well, and the way Himari handles the fraught question of whether or not she can or wants to date Yori offers the perfect opportunity. Yori may not fully understand what Himari's talking about – there's a bit of a sense that she may be turning some of it out in her panic – but she knows she still wants to make a relationship work if there's any chance.

Although most of this episode features both girls mulling things over and stuck in their respective quagmires, it also is the episode that starts things moving forward. Himari's decision to try and figure out if she can learn to feel the same kind of “love” Yori does is a big step for her, and it shows how much Yori means to her that she's willing to try. Meanwhile, Yori takes Himari's decision as her chance to try to make her fall in love, and that means stepping out of her comfort zone. After all, Yori's singing brought her to Himari's attention in the first place, so what better way to ensure a continuing fascination than by taking Aki up on joining her band? It's the kind of logic that I think many of us employed as teenagers (it worked once, why not again?), but for Yori, it's more than that. Much like Himari is trying to sort out her romantic orientation, Yori is going to see if singing with a band is something she actually wants to do. Both girls aren't quite using each other as the excuse they need to think about these things, but it's not necessarily a bad thing if they are. All relationships, romantic or otherwise, can help us to try new things or to take a chance on something that previously felt like a no-go, and if the band and romance work out for the girls, so much the better. Even if their relationship doesn't go anywhere, they'll at least have a better sense of who they are and what they like.

The only person who stands to suffer from this is Aki. We saw last week that she's very likely been nursing a crush on Yori, so discovering that she's joining the band to woo Himari could prove very painful. We already know that the group has lost one singer, and Aki could be setting herself up for an even more traumatic break if she accepts Yori's request, and I think we know she's going to. Nothing is ever as clear-cut as it seems, as Himari realizes this week. The question is how you deal with the ragged edges.

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Whisper Me a Love Song is currently streaming on HIDIVE.