I watched A Sign of Affection after Rent-A-Girlfriend, and for the first few episodes, the change of pace was lovely. Here was a cosy romance where I could actually see things moving forward. I thought, “Why can’t more romance anime do this?” By the second half of the season, I had a slightly inconvenient answer to my own question. Turns out I quite enjoy wondering whether two people will get together. I like the chase and tease maybe… not sure. I am as confused as the main character in the manga these days.
The anime follows Yuki, a deaf university student who meets Itsuomi on a train. He travels a lot and speaks three languages, but he doesn’t know how to sign. As they get to know each other, he starts learning from her. There’s a nice detail behind that part of the story: suu Morishita, the duo behind the original manga, worked with a deaf sign language adviser who shared her own everyday experiences with them. It was a fresh yet very predictable for me…
What makes those early episodes work for me is that learning to sign gives Itsuomi a way to show he’s interested before either of them has to say how they feel. Yuki is curious about all the places he’s been; he wants her to teach him something. You can see why they’d both want a second conversation. And when Yuki does want to know where she stands with him, she gets an answer. We’re only six episodes in. I’d allowed considerably longer.
Mind you, look at what I’d just finished watching. In Rent-A-Girlfriend, Kazuya is a student who falls for Chizuru, the girlfriend he originally hired. I spent a fair bit of that series wishing he’d tell her how he felt. Then, in my review, I asked Chizuru to put the poor boy out of his misery and tell him. So when Yuki and Itsuomi actually got on with it, I could hardly complain.
I enjoyed seeing Itsuomi introduce Yuki to a friend as his girlfriend. We so often wait until the last episode for a couple to get together that we barely see them be a couple. Here, we get that time. The surprise was how differently I felt when the credits came up. Early on, I wanted another episode to find out what would happen between them.
Then I got to episode 12, went looking for season two and found out there was only one season. All 12 episodes aired in 2024, and there’s been no official announcement about a second season yet. The manga carries on with Yuki and Itsuomi’s story, but for now I’m happy to treat the anime as a lovely little romance I enjoyed watching once. Still, for someone who thought they got together a bit too quickly, I was surprisingly disappointed when I ran out of episodes.
I’d recommend A Sign of Affection for a cosy evening. It’s warm, straightforward and gives its romance room to go somewhere. I’d have happily spent another episode or two on those early days, though. There’s something rather nice about knowing you fancy someone and trying to work out whether they’ve been finding excuses to see you too.
As for Kazuya, I still think he should tell Chizuru. I said I missed the chase, mate. I didn’t say I had all year.
When is the next season of Rent-A-Girlfriend coming by the way 🙁
aKi Malik
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