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I was impressed enough by A Sign of Affection’s first episode that I had it in first place on my initial ranking for the season. My only point of concern was where it would go in the long term. I’ve seen other romance series that started off strong but fell off, often by inserting forced drama to keep the characters from getting together too quickly. Now that the season is over, I’m happy to report that A Sign of Affection avoided those pitfalls at every step.
At its core, what makes this show good is that it’s just so nice and wholesome. And yet it never gets dull, nor does it feel like pure wish fulfillment. Yes, Itsuomi seems like the perfect guy at first. He’s kind, handsome, intelligent and well-traveled. But when you get to know him better you realize he’s actually kind of a goofball at heart, it’s just not as obvious from his stoic demeanour.
Often in romance series, the protagonist is kind of average, and so you’re left wondering what the love interest sees in them. Yuki is a pretty normal, somewhat shy girl. But she was definitely not uninteresting. And when you hear Itsuomi’s backstory, it makes perfect sense why she’d caught his attention during their first meeting. He started studying different languages because he enjoyed communicating with people, so when he met Yuki he became intrigued by sign language and wanted to learn what her world was like.
And this is another thing that makes the series special. It’s not simply a romance involving a deaf girl. It all ties into larger themes about communication and broadening your horizons. Yuki chose to go to a regular university despite the challenges, and after meeting Itsuomi she wants to go out and see the world. Itsuomi is interested in her because she’s different, but not in a patronizing way, which sets him apart from Oushi. For him it’s no different from when he learned a little German and it allowed him to make friends with other kids at school.
There’s also a lot of attention to detail. You really get a feel for how Yuki has to navigate through daily life. The characters are all college students, so they’re a little more mature than your typical anime high schoolers, even if they don’t have everything sorted out yet. Itsuomi in particular really stood out. You can tell how much he cares about Yuki from the way he treats her. He’s always considerate towards her, making sure she’s included in conversations and that she feels safe and comfortable. When he notices how tense she is when they’re cuddling, he reassures her and gives her time to get adjusted. When he goes to introduce her to his friend, he tells her to give him a sign if she wants to leave.
Still, as nice as it all way, the looming threat of drama was always there, and I kept worrying it would head into a direction I wouldn’t enjoy. First, there’s Oushi, Yuki’s tsundere friend who learned sign language as a child in order to talk to her. He gave off some really bad, overly controlling vibes at first. But while I wouldn’t say I came to like the guy, it did a decent enough job humanizing him. It’s clear that he was being immature, and needed to get over the idea that sign language was something special between him and Yuki. And it was pretty great when Oushi came up to Itsuomi trying to start something, and Itsuomi just said “let’s cut this bullshit” and tried to become friends with him in his usual carefree way.
The other ticking time bomb was Emma, the girl who’d been in love with Itsuomi for years despite his repeated rejections. While Oushi was never a real threat to someone like Itsuomi, I was a bit more worried about Yuki. After all, it’s a common trope to have a jealous rival who’s more assertive and tries to make the protagonist’s life miserable, and I didn’t want Yuki to have to deal with that. Thankfully, it never went there. Itsuomi, Shin, and Emma had to sort it out among themselves, and it all worked out in the end.
The other side characters are likeable too. Rin is a great friend and I liked that she got to get together with Kyouya.
The fact that A Sign of Affection sidesteps all potential drama does mean there aren’t any major obstacles for Yuki and Itsuomi to overcome. But that’s fine. It set out to tell a particular story and it did a very good job at it.