The Anime Romance More Charming Than Anything Hollywood Has Done In Years

This anime focuses on Itose Yuki, a deaf student in college, and Itsuomi Nagi, another college student who loves learning languages and traveling. As the the two start to learn more about each other, they end up falling in love.

Or at least, that’s how I thought it would be. In reality, the show is pretty much Insta-love, especially for Itose. When she meets Itsuomi, who not only helps her on the train one day but actually wants to learn sign, she doesn’t spare much time before crushing hard on the man.

I am definitely not a fan of Insta-love, and I was a little against the first few episodes of A Sign of Affection initially. However, the further I dived into the show, the more I understood Itose’s reasoning.

Being deaf, it’s harder for her to make real connections. Only two other people have bothered to learn to sign for her–one she doesn’t talk to anymore and one is a childhood friend who only uses it to insult her. Even her own parents only ever sign a few words here and there, if any, and other people tend to baby her or stay away because of her challenges.

So when she finds someone who not only helps her out but actively tries to learn signs to talk to her instead of relying on lip-reading or texts, it’s a pretty big deal. And that’s not all he brings to the table. Itsuomi spends most of his time traveling to other countries, helping out communities.

As he shares the details of these experiences with Itose, she starts to realize how much she wants to travel and broaden her horizons. Once given the goal, she starts to work hard at achieving it, even trying to find a job and get a passport, despite the struggles stacked against her.

A Sign of Affection and A Silent Voice are often compared to one another, as they both feature a deaf female protagonist. However, there are stark differences between these two. While both show the way they struggle with daily life, being deaf, their experiences are very different.

In A Silent Voice, the main character ends up bullied and suffers severe depression during her journey towards forgiving and overcoming her past. In comparison, Itsose in A Sign of Affection does have difficulties, but she’s more sheltered, especially when younger, and has more positive memories growing up.

Murano Yuuta (Kamisama Kiss, Doraemon) and Ajia-do Studios (Kimono Jihen, Ascendance of a Bookworm) come together to make this cute romance come to life. It was originally a manga by Morishita Shuu first released in 2019.

A Sign of Affection isn’t a dramatic love story full of misunderstandings and tension at every turn. It’s a soft romance that is much more realistic. The series, while definitely a romance, focuses a lot on Itose’s growth as she learns to bridge language barriers, stand up for herself, and push through difficulties to get what she wants.

That’s not to say the show is perfect. While I do appreciate how Itsuomi treats Itose and their relationship, he’s not my favorite character.

Throughout most of the season, he seems rather indifferent to Itose, and like he’s more using her to learn a language than spending time with her because he cares. He’s also overly touchy and sometimes pretty rude to her other friends, though he gets better later on.

GFR SCORE

Despite these qualms, A Sign of Affection is a pretty good anime. I’d rank it a 3.5, solely because of my qualms with Itsuomi in the beginning. Despite my lower score, this show is highly rated on My Anime List, with an average score of 8.27.

If you’re looking for a cute romance with strong disability representation, you can watch A Sign of Affection on Crunchyroll.