Please note this review is intended to be read by those that have finished watching A Sign of Affection and while care has been taken to minimize story related spoilers there may still be some present within character analysis. You have been warned.
Based on a popular manga series of the same name Yubisaki to Renren known popularly to fans as A Sign of Affection is a romance and drama genre anime that gives us the unique opportunity to see what would happen if one day a young woman who as a result of being born deaf and having developed a timid personality that had served to create a sense of distance between herself and her peers was given the opportunity to experience one of the many moments that she thought she never would have been able to experience.
What if after ascending to a public university that our dear heroine Yuki were to have a chance encounter with a man who not only cares little about her disability but instead showed great interest in learning more about her as a person. What would happen if during their time together that both developed strong feelings for each other over their mutual desires to both see more of the world around them but also more importantly get to know the people around them more deeply.
Just how far would this new bond of theirs go as they embark on a new journey of discovery as they learn more about not only the world around them but also about each other as well.
In an ideal world everyone, regardless of their needs and circumstance, should be treated equally by those around them. But sadly, in our society, this is not always the case and those who have disabilities often find themselves sidelined from their peers and in the process be denied the opportunities that their peers can readily access and in doing so be denied the opportunity to grow as individuals.
In this, the series’ primary premise served to provide us with an excellent opportunity to see the kind of challenges that one such an individual in the form of Yuki has to face in her daily life as she navigates the society around her. This on top of the romance aspect of the series narrative as well as the focus on nonverbal communication methods that Yuki has to use to communicate effectively with others in order to build bonds with them, I felt truly made this series a most curious one and a series that truly stood out from the series that premiered this season.
Cast of characters
Yuki Itose
Yuki Itose is one of the main characters of the series and serves as the series’ primary protagonist. A 19-year-old university student who’s currently in her second year Yuki though from her initial appearances was seen to be a normal young adult who’s going through her last year of education before embarking fully into the working world. For Yuki this is far from the truth for Yuki had the grave misfortune to be born with congenital hearing loss that had made her childhood a challenging one when compared to her peers. While the loss of one of her core senses would have made the majority of people a moody person who was liable to resent those around her that possessed them Yuki for her part was shown to display none of this. Instead, Yuki while a quiet, calm, and composed girl who was a tad hesitant to enter unfamiliar situations was nonetheless someone who was kind, polite and a considerate person who approached each new day with a positive mindset and was someone who took each new day the best, she could.
As the series progressed and Yuki’s bond with those around her improved it can be seen that beneath Yuki’s constant smile that she was also someone who had plenty of insecurities of her own that until entering university had ensured that she had somewhat of a lonely life due to her disability.
In the beginning Yuki, while a quiet and kind person, was nonetheless someone who was shown to have low self-confidence and as a result was someone who found it difficult to bond with her peers in university as a result. Indeed, with the exception of her best friend Rin and her childhood friend Oshi at the start of the series Yuki’s circle of friends was relatively limited and while she didn’t avoid people, she nonetheless displayed a marked reluctance to involve herself in situations that had the potential to get complicated as we saw in the opening ep. However, this soon changed as a result of a fortunate encounter with a dashing stranger in the form of Itsuomi who had saved Yuki from a potentially tricky situation during her morning commute. This encounter was to have a profound impact upon her as for the first time in her life Yuki had encountered someone that not only interested her greatly due to his vast life experience as well as having the kind of freedom that allowed him to visit various locales seemingly at will but also more importantly in her eyes make an effort to understand her as a person by learning how to better communicate with her by learning how to use sign language and lip read actions that most people Yuki had met to that point seldom bothered. While Yuki’s base quiet and reserved self would largely remain the same as a result of the strong bonds that she had forged with Rin and later Itsuomi Yuki was able to truly appreciate not just how beautiful the physical world around her was but also in the process of this made her realize not just how important such bonds were to one’s life but also of the kind of joy and happiness that can come from bonding with those that you care about as you spend time having fun together. And in the process introducing a light that would not only banish the fears that Yuki and her friends had but also light them a path that would allow them to improve upon themselves as they traverse a new path in the book called life.
Itsuomi Nagi
Itsuomi Nagi is one of the main characters of the series and serves as the main male lead of the series. A 22-year-old sophomore that attends the same public university that Yuki and Rin attend where he studies international culture studies Itsuomi from his initial appearances was seen to be a calm, composed and intelligent person that while appearing cold and difficult to approach by those that don’t know him was nonetheless someone that was shown to be popular among his peers at the university due in no small part to his life experience. While Itsuomi’s tall stature and cool nature did at times serve to create a sense of distance between him and those that don’t know him this within the series was balanced out with the fact that unlike most people his age Itsuomi was someone that had already been to plenty of other countries worldwide and in doing so had managed to gain not only a mastery of multiple languages but also in the process been able to observe and the appreciate the different cultures that existed around the world. While serving well to allow Itsuomi to expand his worldview and appreciate the beauty of the world around him this unique life experience of his also while serving to make him someone who was keen to explore other countries and learn about their cultures also allowed him to develop and refine his senses and easily deduce when those around him require his attention even when they haven’t yet expressed any desire to his help.
As the series progresses and Itsuomi’s personality is gradually expanded upon as a result of his encounters with and subsequent bonding with Yuki his personality gradually changes. While Itsuomi’s cool and levelheaded nature largely remains the same the sense of aloofness that he shows to others while not completely vanishing is instead replaced by his friendly and caring nature towards those that he cares about which is especially apparent in his developing bonds with Yuki. This nature of his that until now had largely been hidden behind his base personality was complemented by both his hardworking nature and his earnest quest to self-improve himself by learning new languages and about the culture and customs of other countries which while allowing him to visit many countries and make many new friends also allowed him to forge strong bonds with those people around him that he cared about as shown in the strong bonds he’s forged with both Yuki and his two childhood friends Ema and Shin.
However, this at times was offset by his rather direct nature in which Itsuomi doesn’t seem conscious of the idea of one’s personal space which when combined with his tendency to get too involved in the affairs of others can often to lead to interesting situations even with the best of intentions with how he resolved the Oshi situation being an excellent example. However in my eyes this combination of traits I felt was what made him such an intriguing character as while he may appear aloof to those who don’t him to those who do know him as a person Itsuomi can be seen to be the best possible friend because not only does he care deeply about them but he also was not afraid to press issues if he feels that his friends are hiding their pain from him a kind of friend that I believe everyone should have at least one among their cohorts.
At the same time, his unique life experience and earnest desire to self-improve himself I felt while doing well in establishing a solid foundation for himself also allowed him to see those around him differently which in the context of eliminating biases and discrimination towards others was especially useful as it ensures that Itsuomi would treat everyone that he encounters along the way the same. This is most apparent in the fact that in their initial meeting, Itsuomi’s impression of Yuki wasn’t someone that could cause trouble for him but rather one that was akin to a clear glass that was not only fun to speak to but also someone that he can learn a lot from which while being a unique way of seeing a girl was as it turned out also an excellent way of creating the foundation for their eventual bond.
AMV
In terms of animation, I felt that the series' overall animation as well as its character designs were excellently done and made great usage of not only simplicity but also of usage of colour to denote the world that Yuki sees when she’s alone as well as help distinguish individual characters within the narrative an aspect that while simple helped reinforce one of the series central themes.
One of the most unique aspects of this series was the fact that the main heroine was deaf and as such required an alternate method of allowing her thoughts to be conveyed to the audience. In this I felt that the usage of a combination of sign language, text messages, social media and Lip reading while performing its role flawlessly also served as a highly educational experience as it served to show us how people that were deaf communicate with others as well as the challenges that people that are deaf can face when communicating with people that have barriers in place that prevent such skills from being used with this notable moment being demonstrated well in ep11.
Complementing this display of nonverbal communication methods within the series was an excellent combination of effective facial animations that did an excellent job of showing the reactions of the cast to their developing bonds and the insight into the importance of sound in the form of both surface sounds and voice tone that is seen differently by those that are deaf of hearing. This aspect when used in combination with the locations that the cast visited over the course of the series, I felt not only conveyed effectively the developing bonds that were being forged between the cast but also of the kind of joy and happiness that can come from enjoying the beauty that comes from not just the bonds but also from being able to make happy memories together with those that you care about which I felt was a nice contrast to the sense of difficulty that those that are deaf of hearing often find themselves in within society that can harm their mental health.
Music-wise wise the series made use of one opening and ending theme which was Yuki no Ne (The sound of Snow) that was performed by Novelbright and Snowspring which was performed by ChoQMay respectively. Both of these songs while excellent ones I felt helped convey a different set of feelings and emotions with the former being both a catchy one but also showing well the kind of power that can come from forging strong bonds with those around you that can arise from the simplest of encounters in the world. This OP I felt featured a great usage of not only grayscale and colour that showed the sense of contrast that Yuki experienced in life up to that point but also themes of fated encounters, revelation, and renewal of one’s desire to take a new path in one’s life not just for Yuki but for each member of the cast as well a fact that was conveyed greatly from the get go with how the cast was arranged at the start and how each was featured as the song started. The series ending theme Snowspring while just as catchy as the OP I felt did well to showcase the simple everyday actions that Yuki and co-experience in their day-to-day lives that in my eyes show well that in life even the simplest moments can change a life and bring a sense of joy to one’s life. While not the first time I had seen this I felt that the ending theme was also notable in that it also featured within it the ep preview for the next episode that I felt further enhanced the impact that the ending theme had on the audience.
Voice acting-wise wise I felt that overall, the series' main voice cast all did an excellent job at portraying their assigned characters whether they were main or supporting ones. In particular, I felt that Sumire Morohoshi and Yu Miyazaki deserve special praise as I felt that their respective portrayals of the main leads of Yuki and Itsuomi were excellent and really served to make the series narrative and their bonding moments within it that much more memorable. With regards to the supporting cast, I felt that Kaede Hondo, Ryota Osaka and Nao Toyama all did an excellent job at portraying the characters of Rin, Kyoya Nagi and Ema Nakasono though I wish that Ema’s character was better developed as I felt that Nao didn’t have much to work on when she was portraying Ema.
Overall conclusion
In overall A Sign of Affection, I felt was an excellent anime that had among its main strong points a unique premise, excellent narrative, well-designed and developed characters, heartwarming, and cute bonding moments between the cast and solid voice acting of the main and supporting characters that really brought the characters to life and made each of their connections that much more magical. The combination of a narrative that featured a unique variant of the girl meets boy romance story type with the themes of bonding with someone that can only use nonverbal communication methods such as Lip reading and sign language I felt was one that was both novel and highly educational as not only was the tale of bonding between Yuki and Itsuomi heartwarming and cute but seeing both of them in their desire to know more about each other by seeing the world from their POV’s only served to enhance the tale by showing us the kind of struggles that those that have disabilities have to deal with in their day to day routines as they try their best to live their lives in a society that’s often unkind to them.
One other aspect of the series that I particularly liked was its insight into the strong support networks that everyone regardless of whether they have disabilities or not should be able to call upon when they need it and in Yuki’s case this within the series was handled excellently via Rin. At the same time while my opinion of Oshi was not a particularly good one the sense of overprotectiveness that he displayed towards Yuki was certainly one that was understandable and was something that I liked seeing in the series as it served to show that even in societies that can at times treat those that have disabilities as second-class citizens that there would always be those that would step in and help them when needed.
In overall as a final score I would say that A Sign of Affection easily deserves a final overall score of 9/10 for it was a tale that was not just sweet, cute and heartwarming but also one that was not only highly educational and showed us not only how much did those that were hard of hearing had to work to have a semblance of normally within their lives but also how much light and colour one can bring into their lives when they have great friends and love interests that care about them. While the overall tale is a simple one sometimes simplicity creates the best and most enjoyable tales.