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PurplePeopleEater

  • Joined May 18, 2014
  • 30 / F

I Hear the Sunspot

Dec 10, 2016

The story is really good. It brings up a lot of good points, like how the hard of hearing and the deaf aren't the same, how it's possible for people with normal hearing and poor hearing to communicate effectively, how important it is to get to know someone, and a lot of other things. One that really hit me was how others tended to think that people with poor hearing were more fortunate than people who are completely deaf. I can really relate to that. I have mental disorders, but not the ones bad enough for me to need special classes or anything extreme. I have autism, but it's high functioning so it's not as severe. It's a lot like being hard of hearing. Both are in the middle. Neither is at the normal end or the extreme end and so both are often left out or ignored. The ones in the middle tend to be expected to just go along like the normal people and are suposedly better off. I wouldn't say it's worse than being on the extreme end, but I don't think it's better. People can accept extremes better than smaller differences. To them, it's not a big deal in their eyes. The ones in the middle are just looking for pity or aren't working hard enough or whatever. They can be normal, but choose not to be. It's wrong, but people often think like that because the difference isn't huge enough to make it seem impossible. As the manga shows, there were many options to help the deaf, but those hard of hearing were treated seperately and many expected them to act how a deaf person does (rely more on sign language, not be able to speak well, etc) or act like someone without hearing issues at all. They were expected to go one way or the other and if they didn't, there was almost nothing for them. However, the main character doesn't see it that way. After he meets a schoolmate who is hard of hearing, he understands it's not the same thing, but it is still just as serious and important to consider. He wants to help both the deaf and the hard of hearing.

The manga is shounen-ai, but the author apparently didn't know it was supposed to be until after it started. So suddenly, a bit of shounen-ai like circumstances happen. I think the story itself could have been shounen-ai without the sudden kissing and stuff. It was kind of obvious the author wasn't good or wasn't experienced enough at writing BL and the story wasn't intended to go that route. The added kissing felt forced and awkward. The fact it was rare and it was the only thing that was plainly obvious as BL made it more awkward. It should have stuck to a more implied relationship without the kissing, or left the kiss till the very very end (although the last bit looked like it hadn't finished yet...). 

Overall, the manga was a bit hard to follow sometimes. Granted, I'm not all that experienced with manga...partially because I avoided it for so long partly because I had a hard time following some. I know how to read, but sometimes I can't tell the characters apart or who is saying what. That wasn't the problem with this manga much though. It was more a problem of figuring out the time gaps because it seemed that time passed but I didn't see anything saying how much. Then again, I'm reading a translated version online so it could be that.

The artwork is good and I could tell the most important characters apart. The characters were simple enough to not need a ton of development but complicated enough to not be dull or flat. Their development as shounen-ai characters was bumpy and barely existing but as characters in general, they developed well. 

8/10 story
7.5/10 art
8/10 characters
8/10 overall

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