Whisper Me A Love Song – Season 1 Episode 8 Recap & Review

An Old Dream and a Friend

Episode 8 of Whisper Me A Love Song begins where the previous chapter left off with Shiho confronting Aki about her affection for Yori. Aki ensures Shiho that she doesn’t have romantic interest in Yori, but Shiho refuses to believe that. Aki argues her band will earn themselves a concert slot. Shiho attempts to hamper Aki’s morale but Aki refuses to back down. This convinces Shiho to leave Aki alone and depart. 

Aki ponders her altercation with Shiho at home, questions how things will go with her and Yori, and cries into her pillow. Later, Aki tells Mayu, Kaori, and Yori they earned a slot at the concert. Aki also confirms Shiho’s group made it too and feels Shiho wouldn’t have played that well under the SSGIRLS’s umbrella. Yori has a hunch Shiho enjoyed playing with the SSGIRLS back then, but Aki tells Yori that Shiho faked her happiness during that time. 

Yori tells Aki not to take Shiho’s remarks seriously, as it’s possible Shiho had fun with the SSGIRLS. Aki doubts herself and asks Mayu and Kaori if Shiho spoke with them about her reasons for quitting the SSGIRLS. Kaori tells Aki Shiho never opened up to her about that matter nor did Kaori feel like it was right for her to ask Shiho. Therefore, Aki plans to confront Shiho about it herself. 

Aki and Shiho meet up in school. Shiho gives Aki a lackluster response so Aki wagers a bet with Shiho. If the SSGIRLS perform better than Shiho’s group (Laureley) at the concert, Shiho must tell Aki why she quit the SSGIRLS. Later, Himari and Yori meet up somewhere. Himari hands Yori some congratulatory baked goods to celebrate the SSGIRLS’s audition victory. 

As the two go for a stroll, Yori informs Himari that the SSGIRLS are in a band feud. Himari tells Yori that Momoka’s band is in a feud too. Inevitably, Himari realizes Yori and Momoka’s bands are the ones feuding. The two visit a bench and Yori unloads everything she knows about the SSGIRLS’s feud and bet with Laureley to Himari. Yori hopes Himari will cheer for the SSGIRLS. 

Himari’s conflicted because she doesn’t want Laureley to lose. Nonetheless, Himari promises Yori that she’ll root for her during the concert. Himari relays this SSGIRLS and Laureley news to Miki in class the next day. Miki informs Himari about Aki and Shiho’s rocky relationship. Himari wants to find a way to make Shiho, Yori, and Aki become friends. 

Next, Himari visits a restaurant and promises to meet Miki at a particular location later. Shiho greets Himari and Himari finds out Shiho works here. Shiho says she’s only working here to get paid and plans to go pro with Laureley one day. Himari convinces Shiho to tell her why she wants to go pro. We enter a flashback involving a young Shiho. In it, Shiho says she was a talented violinist.

She always felt she’d outclass anyone else because of her talents. One day, she meets Kyou and helps her find her missing stuffed animal. Afterward, the two see each other again at school and discuss things at a nearby park. There, Shiho tells Kyou she dreams of becoming the best violinist ever. Then, at a competition, Kyou reveals to Shiho that she wants to become a guitarist, much to Shiho’s confusion. 

Kyou says her father enticed her to sharpen her violin skills, but she prefers the guitar instead. Shiho says Kyou should focus on perfecting her violin skills if she hopes to defeat her. Then, Shiho observes Kyou’s performance and marvels at her elegant playstyle. From that day onward, Shiho realized Kyou was a better violinist than her. Later, Shiho shoved Kyou aside because Shiho defeated her.

Shiho tells Himari that this was the last time she spoke with Kyou. This event enticed Shiho to practice diligently. Unfortunately, Shiho continued losing against Kyou and gave up on becoming a violinist. Years later, Shiho visits a music store to purchase violin sheet music to improve possibly. However, she returns it out of fear. Then, Shiho notices a guitar and recalls Kyou’s dream of becoming a guitarist. 

The episode closes with Shiho planning to become a famous guitarist, a dream Kyou abandoned. 

The Episode Review

This episode of Whisper Me A Love Song gives fans a look into Shiho’s background. It gives them information on who influenced her to become a professional musician. While her backstory is as basic as a PB&J sandwich, it at least gives audiences an idea of what motivated her to pursue music in the way she does. Simultaneously, it’d be great to see Kyou return to the narrative at some point. 

While we’re rooting for Shiho and Aki to settle their differences, it’d be great for the story to have Kyou and Shiho reconcile too. Shiho aside, this episode’s animation and art quality remain subpar. While the visuals are decent, there were points where character models looked jarring and inconsistent. Moreover, the studio continues to use shortcuts and graphical tricks to keep the anime chugging along. 

Although the animation and art quality isn’t horrendous like January 2024’s The Fire Hunter Season 2, it’s a shame this series isn’t getting the love it deserves. At the same time, some murmurs online suggest the studio behind the project has been having rough times behind the scenes. If that’s the case, we hope the staff suffering from these debacles receive better treatment for their work. 

All in all, this was a fine chapter of Whisper Me A Love Song. We hope matters pick up swimmingly once the series returns from its brief hiatus.