Oh Yuki is so freaking cuteeeeeee~! What a sweetheart! The girl has fallen in love and the way she gets excited and how flustered she gets around Itsuomi is absolutely adorable. Not to mention the freaking headpats from Itsuomi!
It was such mood to see her misinterpret words like “maou’ when Itsuomi was saying ‘Laos’! Man this sort of thing happens all the time. I like to describe it like a game of wheel of fortune: fill in the blanks to this word or sentence! Sometimes I’d just pause for a hot minute because I’m 100% certain i misheard that and based on the context I did catch, I try to solve the puzzle.
This week we learn about the small world Yuki grew up in. Oushi has confirmed despite wearing hearing-aids, Yuki still can’t hear anything. Up until college, Yuki attended a dedicated school of deaf, where there was only four students in her class. Once she graduated and it was time to look for colleges, she realized just how big the world was and couldn’t wait to step into it. And that itself is a beautiful thing.
So when Oushi comes along and tells her things like “Why did she have to come to college?” It really came off as terribly rude and insensitive. Like, why shouldn’t she? Because she’s deaf? I get that Oushi’s very overprotective of her. They’ve been friends since childhood, and he clearly cares about her deeply, especially having made the effort to learn sign language and become as fluent as he is. We know he has a good heart, especially when he was able to communicate to a deaf individual who didn’t realize that his fare didn’t register and was being called to get it checked properly. But still, it’s not a good mindset to classify the deaf as a group of people who need to be protected and should stay in a place where they are safe and not leave. Like what the heck. What are we supposed to be? Caged birds? Why should we have to subject ourselves to such a small world? It’s a selfish thought. I also find it distasteful of him to be so distrustful towards Rin and Itsuomi. Rin became friends with Yuki through being her note-taker for class. While she still doesn’t know all the rules yet for the things one should and shouldn’t do, she’s willing to learn and adapt.
That said, I’m under the impression that Oushi seems to be jealous of the fact that Yuki is quite obviously attracted to Itsuomi. He known her long enough that he probably sees what’s going on, and seeing that Itsuomi is willing to learn sign language probably strikes a nerve of losing that one thing that kind of makes him special to Yuki (being that one friend of hearing who is fluent in sign language). That said, I do feel like Oushi may potentially serve as Itsuomi’s foil: As someone who believes Yuki’s world should stay small VS Itsuomi introducing her to a larger world).
Anyhow, now that Yuki has realized she has fallen in love with Itsuomi, it’s an exciting experience. Her world is expanding further, and most of all, she has really come to enjoy seeing the places Itsuomi travels to here and there and in-between. Like damn, this guy just returned from visiting Canada right? And now he just went off to Luo for like what seems to be a weekend, and now he’s back again! It’s actually pretty admirable how some people can do this. It must be such an incredible experience.
It was very sweet of him to bring her back a souvenir, but perhaps the sweetest thing she got was seeing him use some sign language he has taken up on the side. He has certainly been putting practice in. I find it quite impressive how he immediately puts it into practice when he sees something new.
Overall another really great episode. They decided to add speech this time instead of putting subtitles when Oushi and Yuki were conversing through sign language, and while I appreciated the silence in the first episode, I don’t mind that they’ve switch to this, while still having quieter moment for more heavier lines like the ‘why did you come to college’ drop. Either way, I’m really enjoy this!
