Yubisaki to Renren Is a Sign of Affection for Deaf Culture and Romance

One anime that has won a lot of fans this season is Yubisaki to Renren, also known as A Sign of Affection, the touching story of a deaf girl who gets swept off her feet by an enigmatic boy she meets on a train. Let’s see why it should be at the top of your watch list this anime season!

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Hear me Out: Why Should You Be Watching Yubisaki to Renren?

A Sign of Affection is the story of Yuki, a girl attending university. She’s approached on a train by a foreigner asking for directions but she demures from answering him, we assume because the Japanese aren’t good at speaking English. When a tall silver-haired boy named Itsuomi comes to her rescue, speaking easily with the foreigner, we learn that Yuki’s situation is special: she’s deaf, totally unable to hear words spoken to her.

This chance meeting slowly blossoms into an adorable romance between the deaf Yuki and the flamboyant Itsuomi, who speaks three languages and regularly makes visits to exotic foreign countries. In addition to the two main characters, we meet Yuki’s protective friend Oushi, and her best friend Rin, who’s romantically gunning for Itsuomi’s cousin Kyouya.

The anime is based on a manga by artist team “suu Morishita,” made up of writer Makiro and artist Nanchiyan. Being a shoujo manga, there are lots of cute gags as we see the world through Yuki’s eyes. The animation is being done by the venerable studio Ajiado.

An Anime That Makes You Think About Deafness

What would it be like to be deaf and not be able to hear the sounds all around you? How would the world look to you? How would you feel about others who could communicate easily and even speak foreign languages? How would you perceive languages like English or German if you couldn’t hear them?

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Yubisaki to Renren does an excellent job of exploring these topics as we experience the silent world through Yuki. We hear the voice inside her heart, giving us a front-row seat as we experience her emotions. Her fascination with her new friend, who regularly travels to other countries. Being in a bar with foreigners and not knowing what language they’re speaking. And slowly falling in love with Itsuomi-kun, listening to the doki doki sound inside her chest.

This isn’t the first anime to explore the topic of deafness, and Kyoto Animation’s A Silent Voice is rightly hailed as a classic that everyone should see. But the themes in that film are so emotionally intense that it’s quite stressful to re-watch. This is a much more relaxing story that fans can chill out to.

I’ve always been interested in language, and in university, I studied linguistics with a focus on bilingualism and child language acquisition. For one of our classes, we had to teach a language class in a foreign language, and several of my classmates opted to do their lesson in American Sign Language. It was fascinating learning how ASL has all the features of a spoken language, including its own grammar and even dialects.

I remember naively thinking how cool it would be if all the world’s deaf people could standardize on one sign language to communicate with. Sadly, standard Japanese Sign Language is totally unrelated to ASL or other sign languages used around the world. Development of sign language in Japan began in 1878, more than a century after the first sign language was created in France.

Yubisaki to Renren is a Classic Japanese Drama

Structurally, A Sign of Affection unfolds much like a classic 12-episode Japanese drama, the kind that used to be king of the entertainment world in Japan. The best dramas were always shown on Mondays at 9 p.m. on Fuji TV, and everyone in Japan watched this time slot. They were so popular that clothes and furniture seen in these “trendy dramas” would be immediately copied, and decades before social media, people measured their lives against the fictional people on their TVs. The cour system that anime follows today was developed so popular actors could be more easily scheduled for these dramas.

These days, Japanese dramas have fallen in popularity for several reasons. First there are “compliance issues.” Broadcast rules and sponsor requirements forbid showing tobacco and alcohol use, require that everyone getting in a car properly put on their seatbelt, and forget trying to have a villain throw his cigarette on the ground for dramatic effect. These rules limit the kinds of stories that can be told. But another reason Japanese dramas faded in popularity is the onslaught of amazing TV from all around the world via streaming platforms. The last Japanese drama I watched was Densha Otoko, the story of an anime otaku who finds love with a rich ojousan type character. I recommend it highly!

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Thanks for reading this blog post about the Yubisaki to Renren anime, a super chill romance anime to unwind with at the end of a long day. What are you watching this season? Tell us in the comments below!