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A Silent Voice was one of the first, for me, that revealed a sort of "sub-genre" of shows to me that was lead or supported by a character with some sort of disability. Movies like Josee, and the Tiger and the Fish and A Silent Voice don't need to take up too much time lamenting or reminding you that this is such. This, too, is made clear in A Sign of Affection. However, Yuki being deaf and it being an important factor to the story and romance to this show is a complete stretch.

For the first half of the show, the only sign language ... that you really see is from Oushi, Yuki's childhood best friend. Every character just speaks as normal and Yuki is expected to read their lips. It's even stated that even Yuki's own parents DO NOT use sign language with her. What? You're telling me the girl who has been deaf her whole life only used sign language at her deaf school? Her parents expected her learn exactly what they were saying by lip reading when she was a toddler, child and teenager? How did she learn what lip movements make what sounds? In deaf school?

Because of this, Yuki's deafness is hardly a factor and matters little to the surrounding cast (aside from MAYBE the two love interests) as they can just "talk to her normally." Sign language is used only as a means to reveal to the audience who is dedicated enough to form a long-lasting relationship with Yuki. Who would guess that the only two characters who would do this are the two love interests?

Itsuomi is rather creepy for the first half of the show. Part of this isn't his fault, rather it's the poor writing from the show to push this "mysterious, handsome guy who travels a lot" narrative that he has. Outside of this narrative, he really has no interesting points about him other than he can speak a lot of languages? It's almost BORING that he's popular amongst his peers because it only seems this way because he's able to speak so many languages. Often times he reminded me of Morita from Honey and Clover. The mysterious traveling subplot was boring and only made sense until they revealed the reasoning for it toward the end of the show. He begins to make up for his lack of personality once Yuki and him begin dating, but it really isn't by much. He even stays somewhat creepy in the way he talks to Yuki and how he begins to act- the weird touching, the random kisses, the weird PDA (which even seems to weird out Yuki? So, why is it in the show?), they're all incredibly weird and feel forced because, "the audience wants a kiss!"

Despite being the lead, Yuki is often incredibly frustrating to watch. She makes it very clear that she is in love with Itsuomi by the second or third episode, but almost seems... reluctant to initiate a relationship with him? She acts like a teenager and the only time she engages in what feels like real, genuine human conversation is when she's talking to Oushi. Outside of that she's either too nervous to say anything of substance (literally every time she's around Itsuomi) or is just talked at. This is all because she's deaf, like she exists as a way to let the other characters use her to continue the plot (even if it's outside of her own relationship).

Suffice it to say, Oushi deserved better. The other side characters felt useless and did nothing but to let the writers say, "Look! These main characters have friends!" but did nothing to actually make them interesting or worth talking about, especially Emma. Despite this, the romance has okay points and there are times where I can see why the show is as well-liked as it is. Overall, I would say it could almost achieve a 7, but falls flat in so many departments. It's a pretty show with pretty crappy writing.