Yuri Manga: Whispered Words, Volume 3 (English)

March 10th, 2015

ww31Yay!! Woo!! Other terms of exuberance! We have reached Whispered Words, Volume 3, out in English from One Peace Books! Whee!!

But before we celebrate, let us take a look back at how far we’ve come.

In Volume 1, we met Sumika, who is tall, athletic and hopelessly in love with her best friend, Ushio who never even considers Sumika as a possibility. Ushio isn’t trying to be cruel, but she is sure that Sumi is “normal” as she terms it and doesn’t want her to get roped into the negative treatment she’s come to expect from the other students.

In Volume 2, it becomes increasingly obvious to everyone even, eventually, them, that Sumika and Ushio are in love with each other. Even as they start taking tentative steps to be together, life gets in the way.

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In Volume 3 as Sumi, Ushio and their friends all start thinking about graduation, Ushio’s grandmother is injured and asks for Ushio to come and take care of her, potentially splitting her and Sumi apart just as they are starting to have something to stay together for. Ushio’s brother reunites with an old flame and their grandmother puts pressure on them to marry.

While all that is going on, Sumi runs for Student Council President. When rivals for Student Council President use dirty tactics, and a member of the Karate Club gets in a fight, Sumi feels her best action is to remove herself from the contest. To everyone’s surprise, Ushio steps up and takes her place in the election. There can be no underhanded tactics, after all, Ushio’s been out since middle school.

The end of this volume is everything we could really have hoped for. Recognition that life is not easy – it even has some real-life homophobia, so when love wins the day it’s just that much sweeter. It’s a story we’ve been told a million times since we were kids, but it’s rare that we get to see it in a Yuri manga – sure, the real world can be awful, but love makes us strong. And so it does. Also weak. And stupid. But sometimes it works out  and when it does, it’s totally worth it. Just like this manga series.

The third volume goes on sale officially on March 17th. Pre-orders have already shipped.

I promised you – I swore to you – that this manga was worth it. Trust me, the ending is just as much fun in English as it was in Japanese. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Yuri – 10
Service – 1

Overall – 10

Thanks very much to Robert of One Peace books for the review copy, it was even better than I had hoped. ^_^ If you’re still waiting to get a copy of this series, take this opportunity to check the offerings out on the new Yuricon Store, where Volume 1 and Volume 2 are currently listed with multiple vendors and Kindle Editions are also available!

10 Responses

  1. Liz says:

    I per-ordered this ages ago. The ending was so beautiful and sweet! I wish more Yuri manga were like this!

  2. Donald Simmons says:

    Ha ha. We’ve had it out in Canada for two weeks now.

  3. Shannon says:

    Got it too.

    How well did this do for One Peace, I wonder? Any chance they may be considering more Yuri titles?

  4. Pip says:

    Good stuff. It’s easier for me to read on Kindle, though, so I hope Volume 2 and 3 get released on the UK Kindle store soon. I definitely want to support One Peace’s release.

  5. Donald Simmons says:

    Also, how much do I love that on that cover Kiyori is holding curry bread?

  6. Nya says:

    Loved that story thoroughly. I would recommend it to all of my friends if I wasn’t affraid they don’t like it. Because then I’d feel compelled to rant to them about why they are wrong and how this story is THE story I’ve always wanted to read. It reminded me of another Seinen, Maison Ikkoku, which, despite having no girl/girl love whatsoever, has a similar overall feeling of “love is not a path of roses” and a satifying ending that feels right.

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