A Sign of Affection

Episode 8

I always like it when characters feel like they have a real history to them. While the conflict of a story might work best in the present tense, having characters with pre-established motivations and relationships is an important ingredient in making them feel like real, relatable people. That's invaluable as we begin exploring the extended cast, and find out just how long all this mess with Emma and Shin has been going on. Yuki might be a mere eight episodes into her whirlwind romance, but Itsuomi's been living in his complicated romantic drama for something like six seasons.

That context goes a long way in explaining the gnarled, volatile emotions that have long been bubbling around Itsuomi's non-Yuki relationships, but it's also incredibly funny when you think about it. Shin had been pining for Emma while silently waiting for her and Itsuomi to ride off into the sunset someday, only for a girl he'd never met to show up on his doorstep holding his best friend's hand. This man has had a front-row seat to Sam & Diane from Cheers for years, and all of a sudden this adorable little Frasier shows up to nervously sign “hello” from behind her fancy scarf. That's gotta be surreal.

I'm also partial to Shin's backstory because I have a thing for awkward teenagers who sublimate their mixed-up emotions into music, and Shin fits the bill perfectly. While loving music is a common character trait, it's interesting as a factor that alienates Shin from Yuki, a vector they will never be able to bond over, on top of all the baggage this trio is carrying around. I'm curious if that might get expanded upon when these forces inevitably come into conflict. In the meantime, it's just a cute way to endear us to him and swiftly establish his crush on Emma. Sharing wired earphones is just one of those Cinematic Teen Romance things that always works, right up there with sharing an umbrella under the snow, or sitting on the hood of a car and looking up at the stars. It's cute that the CD they end up bonding over is a collection of piano pieces by the anime's main composer and I'm interested in the track Shin was listening from his phone. If anyone recognizes it, hit me up.

This trip down memory lane does a lot to explain how Itsuomi's friend group wound up in such an uncomfortable holding pattern while tying it into the show's grander themes of communication. It's not yet clear why Emma is so doggedly resolute in pursuing Itsuomi romantically, but it's obvious that part of the problem is Shin's unwillingness to express his feelings. He's convinced that his love is doomed, and too scared to be outright rejected, so he's remained in stasis, fixated on his feelings for Emma until he's isolated himself from any other romantic interests. Furthermore, it's left him incapable of being a good friend. He can't even break the harsh news about Itsuomi's new relationship to her, because he's too afraid to bear the bad news and likely caught up in whether or not this could be his “in” with her. Saying this dude is down bad would be a true understatement. My guy is down atrocious. Down apocalyptic.

It's a potent counterbalance to the relative ease with which Yuki and Itsuomi's relationship is progressing. While our central couple gets to enjoy the butterflies of first love and prod at their romantic boundaries with relative comfort, Shin, Emma, and Oushi are left to struggle with all the pangs of unrequited love and bad decision-making that keep most fictional couples from getting together. This will all doubtlessly intersect with our lovebirds eventually, but for now it's strong and human character writing that's done wonders in fleshing out Shin as a character, and my biggest ask for the coming episodes is that we'll get the same treatment for Emma soon. Right now, she's mostly positioned as The Other Girl, and we've mostly seen her at her worst. While that might be her role in this particular story, it would be a lot more interesting to learn just what makes her tick. If nothing else, it would make the inevitable collision we're building towards mean that much more.

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A Sign of Affection is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.