![]() He even actively resists offers to join a sign language group during the early parts of I Hear the Sunspot. Kohei’s own opposition to anything that might further distance himself from the hearing world is a contributing factor to his inability to enter the Deaf community. People within the Deaf community may be deaf or hard of hearing, although not all deaf of hard of hearing individuals identify as Deaf. Being deaf or hard of hearing simply refers to levels of hearing loss, with deafness meaning one has little to no hearing and hard of hearing extending to lesser degrees of hearing loss. Members of the Deaf community tend to not view themselves as disabled, instead viewing their deafness as being a difference in lived experience. The Deaf community has its own culture and utilizes sign language for communication. Proper-noun “Deaf” refers to a community of individuals who self-identify with the label of Deaf. In order to understand the nuances of depicting Deaf, deaf, and hard of hearing issues, it is crucial to understand the distinctions between the three categories. Yet, by making Kohei hard of hearing, Fumino creates a platform for Deaf issues in I Hear the Sunspot. Not only are the protagonists of I Hear the Sunspot gay men who are not over-sexualized or confined to the background but are also fully developed characters with individual lives.ĭeaf representation is another area of diversity that sometimes falls short. This comprehensive depiction of characters is an acknowledgement of the personhood that queer people possess. Kohei and Taichi have traits beyond their sexuality. They spend time with characters other than each other, maintaining relationships with family, friends, and coworkers. Both are presented with other hurdles relating to meals, jobs, college, and family. They experience jealousy alongside the desire for each other’s happiness and company.įurthermore, I Hear the Sunspot is not consumed by the romance between Kohei and Taichi. They quarrel as most couples do, navigating both petty and life-altering matters with a combination of compassion and miscommunication. The friendship becomes romance as the two protagonists stumble awkwardly through the discomfort and misunderstandings that come with trying to convey those feelings and renegotiate the boundaries of their relationship.Īs their relationship develops, they struggle with keeping their relationship closeted, avoiding discussing their love lives in detail with their family and friends. From there, what starts out as something resembling a business exchange slowly evolves into a tentative friendship. Upon learning that Kohei is in need of a notetaker, Taichi offers to fulfill the role in exchange for more lunches. Instead, their relationship is allowed to progress and face setbacks at a leisurely pace that comes across as relatively realistic.Īfter Taichi seems to quite literally fall from the sky, Kohei offers his lunch to a clearly-hungry Taichi. Neither character is an object to be displayed behind other characters or mishandled for sexual fantasy. Author Yuki Fumino avoids perpetrating such misrepresentation in I Hear the Sunspot through her depictions of Kohei and Taichi. The art is really improved, it's so different from the maybe a little rough stile of the first series.Portraying LGBTQ+ characters in manga is sometimes a tightrope walk over pitfalls such as over-sexualization, relegating characters to token minority status, and ignoring the LGBTQ+ facet of their existence entirely. I didn't really like the story about Ena, I found it a little bit forced and not very inserted in the main story and generally it doesn't go super well with the vibe of the series in myy opinio. Time has passed since the first volume of the first series and Taichi and Kohei have now new challenges in their relationship ( without unnecessary drama When finally I got to read this I was very pleased, Yuki Fumino took this opportunity to really work on character development in her slow burn attitude. I'm a long time fan of this series and when this was announced I was pretty surprised, because the end of the limit series was a very good ending with two fluffy extra chapter,and I was pretty satisfied with that, so I was a little worried about how the story could go on.
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