A Sign of Affection

This romantic shojo series is centred on Yuki Itose, a deaf university student. She can lip read but also communicates using Japanese Sign Language and text. One day, on a train, she meets Itsuomi Nagi, a well-travelled fellow student, and they form a friendship that quickly blossoms into a romance as she helps him learn how to sign. Some drama is added to proceedings by Oshi, a childhood friend of Yuki's who has strong feelings for her and doesn't approve of Itsoumi.

I thought this was a really sweet series. It is very different from most anime series I've watched. It is rare to have a deaf character in any film or series let alone something animated. The story feels very real; there is little or no real danger and it is firmly grounded in the real world. While there are amusing moments there aren't obvious gags. The character designs are good as is the animation. The latter is particularly important as sign language requires far more work to animate that the lip flaps of spoken dialogue. Overall I'd recommend tthis to anime fans looking for something a bit different.

These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.