English Dub Review: A Sign of Affection “Someone is thinking of someone”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Yuki, now fully aware of her feelings for Itsuomi, begins trying to teach him sign language at his request, but is jealous of another girl who is acting clingy towards him. She needn’t worry though, as in private, he rebuffs all of her advancements.

OUR TAKE

We hit the ground running starting with this episode as the two leads continue getting closer to one another. Yuki has now embraced that she is in love with the hot guy who is also clearly very much into her, so much so that he is turning down other girls who he could easily get together with. The reasons for Yuki’s attraction to Itsuomi are fairly obvious, especially as she is our perspective character. He’s tall, handsome, well traveled, interested in things that make her unique, and listens to her, someone who seemed like they weren’t getting much attention from folks because of her disability. From Itsuomi, his reasons are a little less obvious, but it seems like Yuki offers something that he hasn’t gotten from the other women in his life. And having seen the other end of this in a lot of other romcom and harem anime, the idea of the hot and intelligent stranger taking notice and interest in the seemingly boring nobody (with a disability!) is an understandable angle to write for. I guess I just hope that, as the story goes on, we’ll start seeing them more as equals and learn more about Itsuomi.

We also have our first two clear competitors for either of them. Well, I say “competitors”, but it’s already obvious that Yuki and Itsuomi are going to get together no matter what, barring some horrible twist of fate or tragedy. Yuki’s childhood friend Oshi is clearly not going to like Itsuomi when they meet (which will apparently be next episode), but even now, he’s had a very prickly but protective attitude towards Yuki for a long time. He’s also designed hot enough that having that childhood friend be a potential suitor is also clearly part of the fantasy for this kind of story, even if he’s never considered as a potential love interest. Meanwhile, the girl Yuki sees as a possible rival is drawn to look pretty average, with Itsuomi being very dismissive and patronizing towards her, and I could definitely see the appeal in having someone I was attracted to be already so devoted to me simply not seeing any other suitors, so THAT is also part of the genre trappings too. So yeah, Yuki and Itsuomi is already inevitable, but does that mean the tension in the series is already null and void? Or maybe I’m not looking at the goals and objectives of this kind of story the wrong way and I’m gonna learn something soon and well enough. I guess we’ll see as we continue into the second quarter of A Sign of Affection.