When we left Himari and Yori-sempai at the end of Volume 3, they had finally, officially begun to date. I don’t know why this series was graced with continuation after the conclusion of Story A, but I am deeply thankful.

So here we are, in Whisper Me a Love Song, Volume 4, in which Yori and Himari negotiate the shape of their relationship, and we get a whole new plot! How exciting! Seriously.

First, though, Himari and Yori need to figure out how they want to be with one another and for one another. There are a few missteps, but they work it out pretty clearly by, wait for it, talking with one another. Crazy, right? Like that ever happens in a manga. When that happened and we were only halfway through the volume, I figured something was up. Any other manga, them not talking would have been the whole story.

So, when Yori admits to trying to be a “cool” date partner and Himari belly laughs and thinks that’s adorable, I knew we could sit back and relax. And, so the story heads into the tension filled Battle of the Bands arc that is still developing in monthly issues of Comic Yuri Hime, the January issue of which is waiting for me in the bookstore.

The first thing Takeshima-sensei does for this arc is give SSGirls a rival band. Woooo~~~ It’s great, too, because as the story plays out, there are a LOT of complicated personal relationships involved that criss-cross these two group and make for a fun story. Except for one thing. One person. Shiho. We finally meet Shiho and the more I spend time with her, the more I want to sit that girl down and give her a stern talking to. However, so far Takeshima-sensei hasn’t let me down and I trust that the story is going in the right direction.

The art has firmed up into an absurdly cute and wholesome style that really works for this series. Kodansha’s team continues to provide me with translation and character voice that sounds so real, I can *hear* the characters as I read. Terrific work, especially by Jennifer Skarupa for doing excellent retouch and lettering (I see you working on those word balloons behind the characters heads) and Kevin Steinbach for an approachable translation.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 9
Service – 0
Yuri – 8

Overall – 8

Whisper Me a Love Song continues to charm and delight…and now the Battle of the Bands is heading our way. Is there anything more high school than that? (Well, yeah, there’s the school musical and prom, and finals and whatever, but you know what I mean. ^_^)