I Hear the Sunspot

A feel good for the soul

High Points
Visuals: The cinematography was serene and aesthetic, just like most other Japanese BLs. They have a knack for making visuals pleasing to the audience's eyes.

Acting: The acting was phenomenal, pulling you in from the very beginning.

Representation and Relatability: The characters had vulnerabilities and insecurities that they learned to accept and overcome, making them incredibly relatable. From small details to certain personality traits and circumstances, there was something for everyone to connect with.

Endearing and Humorous: The drama kept you engaged throughout with its endearing characters and humorous moments, making it easy to binge-watch in one sitting.

Slow Burn Realism: The romance was a slow burn, focusing on the lives of the main characters beyond their relationship. They grappled with their own personal issues and navigated life together, creating a more realistic portrayal.

Thought-Provoking Themes: The drama explored thought-provoking themes that made you reflect on things you hadn't considered before.

Portrayal of Disability: The portrayal of the main character's disability, being hard of hearing, was well-done. It showcased the challenges faced in an ableist society and how prejudice and systemic barriers can shape one's mindset.

Low Points
Lack of Communication: While the lack of communication was partially due to the main character's disability, it was still a frustrating plot device at times.

Inconsistent Pacing: The pacing was inconsistent, with the first few episodes being fast and engaging, followed by slower episodes filled with flashbacks. This was a problem even in the manga.

Angle Kiss and Lack of Intimacy: While this wasn't a major issue for me, as I enjoyed the strong plot and chemistry between the characters, it might bother some viewers who prefer more intimate scenes.

Unsatisfactory Ending: While the ending was heartwarming, it felt rushed and could have been more fulfilling (or maybe I'm just being fussy pants)

Overall
This drama has a specific target audience. If you're looking for a fast-paced, fairy tale-esque romance, this might not be your cup of tea. However, if you appreciate thought-provoking themes, slow-burn relationships, and a focus on personal growth, it's worth a watch. The series delves into topics like friendship, love, disability, and mental health, exploring how characters overcome life's challenges. While romance is present, it's not the central focus. Instead, the emphasis is on the characters' journeys and their connections to each other. This makes it a heartwarming drama that encourages reflection and offers unique perspectives.

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Their heartbeat of love and life is heard; it is loud and concise

Its first scene from the first episode was a pouring rain and it already had an impact on me, associating with the main couple’s emotional life story. Japanese BLs always give us a heart-fluttering show with a distinguished script, truly a gem to the industry. The concept of “notebook taker” was fresh and adorable. It also showcased the struggles of people with hearing disability.

An elevated narration that focuses on Kohei’s POV. Living his life tenderly and emphasizing that living with special needs does not make someone not normal. It serves as an eye-opener to its audience that they do not desire pity but instead need warmth and embrace to treat them belong to the world.

We also got Taichi’s POV - a jolly young man with a touching background. As a child with divorced parents, this boy manages to be positive in life all thanks to his grandpa. His decision to quit the university is understandable. Education is an important part of someone’s life but not everyone has the privilege to pursue it. He even wears the same shirts revolving with text from different U.S. states throughout the show but still acts beyond grateful for all the delicious meals he has eaten. From taking numerous part-time jobs to fully committing to focus on his new employer which provides a well-compensated salary, earning money became his top priority.

Their chemistry and pairing were adorably great. An energetic cutie meets a shy and reserved lover boy. I love them so much! But as the episodes went by, I felt that the drama failed to provide a romantic progression. They focus on the youth life drama so much that I badly needed to see more of Taichi and Kohei’s slow-burn romance. They should at least give us a more passionate ending for a couple instead of just confessing and finally accepting each other’s feelings. Nevertheless, there’s no doubt that this is one of the top BLs of 2024 that brings authentic charisma and a teary-worthy life story.

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YEARNER OF THE YEAR: Kohei

The series covered the first two editions of the manga and despite being a 25-minute series with 12 episodes, I think they did great in modifying how they will portray the characters and the pacing of the story. I’m not really a fan of the slow-burn trope love story but given the character of Kohei who has a hearing disability and Taichi being unaware of his feelings, it’s inevitable that proper communication would be the hindrance to their relationship hence, slow-burn pacing.

It was really satisfying when Taichi confessed his feelings to Kohei. He finally accepted that his decision to become a better person— to dream and to have a purpose in life— was because of Kohei. I just wished they KISSED considering how they yearned for each other and the viewers deserved it also after waiting for months. Yes, they hugged but it felt so empty.

The series needs a continuation— a season 2. That glimpse at the end, of how they flirt with each other, I want to see more of that and how they are going to manage their relationship as a couple. I want to see their sweet moments!!! I'm tired of crying and being frustrated every episode!!!

Also, the OST captured the essence of the scenes!!!

Romance is not dead thanks to Kohei and Taichi.

If there’s no second season of this series, I want to see another Motoki-Tora BL pleek!

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Whispers of the Heart: A Journey of Unspoken Love

It began with the aroma of a meal, one finding satisfaction in eating, the other in watching. Their bond, a delicate thread of fate, grew stronger as they carefully explored their own and each other’s hearts. Even as one’s hearing faded, the other remained a constant source of light.

Taichi, usually so carefree, diligently took notes for Kohei, capturing essential knowledge.

Kohei, mindful of Taichi’s comfort, quietly restrained his passion.

We, silent witnesses to their love, are deeply moved by their journey and await Taichi’s awakening.

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A Nothing Burger of a Show

I watched “Silhouette of Your Voice,” the movie adaptation of the same manga, a day before the first episode of this series aired. I found the movie a bit boring as the plot felt like a whole lot of nothing, but I chalked this up to the limitations of its runtime and that a series fleshing out the plot would greatly improve on an honestly interesting story. I don’t want to say I was sorely mistaken as I think the potential is still there, but this series definitely failed to do much else with the plot compared to the film.

There’s really no excuse for this series to be as long as it is with so little going on. After watching all 12 episodes, I can’t even really tell you anything new I learned about the characters that I didn’t already know after the first two. These characters feel extremely two-dimensional which is disappointing as they have so much potential. All I know about Kouhei is he can’t hear and he feels sad because he’s different. All I know about Taichi is he loves to eat and… well, that’s about it.

Even though Taichi serves as the main character of this series, I cannot, for the life of me, understand why (outside of the idea that he is the stand-in for the hearing able-bodied audience.) He’s extremely boring as a character and the choices he makes and the actions he takes make little sense to me. Maybe it’s his actor’s fault, but Taichi always just has this completely expressionless, borderline bored look on his face whenever anything is happening. The entire series I could not tell if he was developing feelings for Kouhei because, every time Taichi looks at him, he looks bored out of his mind! It’s really a shame because I found Kouhei’s actor pretty decent especially when it comes to emotional scenes.

Even worse, all of the side characters felt pointless to the story, doing the exact opposite of progressing the plot. The only side character of any actual significance is Maya, whose purpose I didn’t really understand. She kind of just seemed like Stock Female Character In BL That Drives A Wedge Between The Two Leads And Gets Audiences Angry #372827. I think most people agree her backstory added nothing to the plot (if there even is one at this point.)

Also, I am totally fine with a lack of physical affection in romance dramas if there is enough drama and plot to make up for it. For example, there wasn’t even a kiss in “Cherry Magic” but there was enough of an interesting plot and intriguing drama that most audiences don’t care. In “I Hear The Sunspot,” I feel like they had an even bigger chance than “Cherry Magic” to have a really interesting and compelling plot to make up for the lack of a *proper* kiss and yet they completely fumbled the ball. Somehow this is a romance drama that failed at both romance and drama.

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Could be better but still is a masterpiece

There's no denying that Japan knows how to create a simple series, but so full of emotions and beauty that it's impossible not to fall in love. And here it's no different.

The series does have its problems, and the lack of romantic development, the camera trick to hide the kiss and the lack of scenes of them as lovers is something that really disappoints.

However, none of this takes away from the merits of this series. The script is full of nuances, it has a slow development, but it allows the characters to develop naturally. And what characters! Kohei and Taichi are so real, so passionate, so fun, so interesting and brilliantly played.

The acting here is the strong point. Both actors (as well as the rest of the cast) deliver a visual performance and the chemistry between them, the looks, the gestures, everything is impeccable.

The direction and cinematography also deserve to be highlighted. The series is beautiful and the scenes are very well composed.

I understand those who say that the series dragged on and created too many problems until they got together, and I agree with that. But at no point did the series leave me bored or frustrated.

Taichi teaching Kohei how to say his name in sign language, Kohei telling the teacher's jokes so that Taichi wouldn't be left out, Taichi saying he loves Kohei in sign language, this series has such beautiful and silent scenes, but they carry so much weight and devotion that it's impossible not to fall in love with them.

It has its problems, but it's still a masterpiece and a series that shows people with disabilities in a respectful way, in a light and stylish plot and with exemplary performances.

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Beautiful story

I watched the movie a year or so ago and wished it had gone a little bit further. I felt it stopped right in the middle of a perfectly good story. I was so excited to find out they were making it into a drama and adding more story to it.

I personally love this story because it hit really close to home. I am friends with multiple deaf/hard of hearing people and have seen them experience similar issues. I thoroughly enjoy seeing Taichi stand up for Kohei the way he does. The character development is really strong and frankly realistic. The show does a really good job at progressing the story without making unrealistic character changes (ex. randomly changing their values to change the plot).

The acting through the entire show was wonderful. The story itself was beautiful. I am definitely gonna rewatch this with one of my HoH friends. <3

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A Finely Tuned, Wonderfully Acted Drama

I rarely cry during dramas but this one brought me to tears a few times. It is not traumatic rather it treated its characters sympathetically and humanely without flinching from the difficulties they were experiencing. Full disclosure, I'd read the manga and was amazed by how closely this drama aligned to both the scenes in the manga and the characterizations. I loved that about it. Both lead actors were so authentic that I never doubted their intentions or jumped out of my suspension of disbelief. The side characters were overall positive and sympathetic and the filming was quite lovely especially the summer days on the roof when Kohei feeds Taichi.

I've seen a few reviews on here that were unhappy with the lack of romantic development but, as with the drama, I found Taichi's acceptance of his own feelings and of Kohei to be slow and sweet and realistic. I highly recommend this drama.

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totally worth watching

I Hear The Sunspot 2024 was an amazing drama. I really enjoyed watching it. The feelings were so genuine; I could truly feel them. It made me wonder how life can possibly be from someone else’s perspective. I love that it showed us that people don’t want to be treated differently or pitied but instead want to be counted as normal members of society.

The drama didn’t only carry beautiful messages and make us concerned; it also helped us understand what love truly is. I could feel the love. I wish everyone finds someone they want to change this world to a better place for. I hope someone comes into everyone’s life who can show them the way they want to take steps, grow, and glow.

Talented cast, beautiful story. All I can say is that I adored it.

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An Amazing Drama about Overcoming Disabilities with a Hint of Romance

Hidamari ga Kikoeru is a drama about overcoming disabilities with a hint of romance. The drama tackles Kohei’s hearing-impairment and how Taichi gives him the strength to overcome his disabilities. Kohei falling for Taichi is just a lucky bonus.

•❅✧❅✦ Story ✦❅✧❅•

The drama tackles the heavy topic of deafness and how it’s a spectrum. It discusses how those who are hearing-impaired and considered deaf, but not deaf enough to actually be deaf, struggle to fit into not only the deaf society, but also the able-bodied society. The drama looks into how difficult and lonely being hearing-impaired can be and how there is not enough support for those that are hearing-impaired in comparison with those that don’t have any hearing at all. The best part of the drama is that it doesn’t get too preachy about it. Taichi is used as a tool to prevent the preachiness. He is just straight forward and not interested in learning about the deaf community. His only motivation is to help Kohei, so he doesn’t bother learning about the deaf community, only learning what Kohei teaches him, and only getting involved to help Kohei.

•❅✧❅✦ Manga vs Drama ✦❅✧❅•

While the manga is still ongoing as of writing, it’s so much better than the drama. The drama only covers until the beginning of Taichi’s employment at sign, so right when Kohei and Taichi begin dating. It’s after this where we start learning more about Kohei’s disability and how dark his future is because of how so society is made for those that are only 100% deaf. Taichi starts to play a bigger role in opening up Kohei’s future by learning more about the deaf community. Their relationship also endures some challenges due to Kohei’s deafness, but they also grow stronger as a couple together.
I could talk about the manga forever because it’s so good! Even though it’s not completed yet, it’s so good!

Unfortunately, the manga is still way better than the drama. The drama does a good job in getting most of the plot points, but there are a few plot points that are missing. For example, Maya was brought in as a foil to Kohei. However, the drama didn’t really incorporate her relationship with Yoko. In the manga, Yoko becomes interested in Maya, so he talks to her a lot. She pretends to hear him, but she actually doesn’t. Taichi scolds her saying that she shouldn’t be rude by pretending to hear him because he’s talking to her because he has something to say to her. This scene left an impact on me while reading the manga. It’s sad that the scene and her relationship with Yoko was left out in favor of making it seem like she wants to date Kohei.

Another scene that was skipped was Kohei getting lost while trying to find Taichi’s house and meeting Taichi’s grandpa. It really showed how far Kohei was willing to go for Taichi and showed more of Taichi’s relationship with his grandpa.

•❅✧❅✦ Drama vs Movie ✦❅✧❅•

In terms of plot and romance the drama was better. The movie only had a little over an hour to fit everything from Kohei’s disability to their romance. The drama had 12 episodes to explore all of their issues. However, when it comes to the characters and their chemistry together, the movie was so much better.

The characters in the movie seem to embody more of Kohei and Taichi than the drama. Taichi is more loud and annoying, and literally looks dense, but he shows more expressions of concern for Kohei. Similarly, while movie Kohei is less expressive, he seems to genuinely be in love with Taichi and just wants Taichi to be by his side with no strings attached. It’s because of this genuine side to their characters they have better chemistry.

Overall, while I like how the drama expanded on the story, I personally think the movie was far more superior despite its flaws with the plot. Personally, I think Movie Taichi would fit better with Drama Kohei. While watching this drama I kept wishing Movie Taichi would appear. I didn't think too much about Movie Kohei though... So maybe Drama Kohei is better? What do you think?

•❅✧❅✦ Acting ✦❅✧❅•

While I'll sing praises to the story and plot, and even Kohei's actor, I'll have to pull a couple of points due to Taichi's acting.

Taichi’s character is really this drama’s downfall. The drama’s plot is amazing, and Kohei’s actor is also great. However, Taichi and his actor doesn’t really fit the role he is supposed to play. Taichi is supposed to be loud, annoying, and dense. This Taichi, however, isn’t loud or annoying. He does talk with a loud voice occasionally and the way he talks isn’t really annoying, but the biggest issue is that he tends to speak with a normal voice. His voice isn’t different from those around him, so it’s hard to imagine how Kohei can only hear Taichi’s voice. Also, Taichi’s actor doesn’t really come off as dense, so scenes where Taichi can’t pick up Kohei’s cues tend to come off as “doing it for the plot.” Lastly, he seems to have a hard time playing off Kohei's actor, so they lacked chemistry. The whole time I watched the drama I wished Movie Taichi was on screen, which I shouldn't be doing. Kohei's actor was great though!

•❅✧❅✦ Overall ✦❅✧❅•

Hidamari ga Kikoeru is a nice drama. It has an interesting storyline and amazing characters. It is a little slow-paced, but if you can get past that, it’s a nice drama.
From Kohei’s struggles and Taichi’s straightforwardness and willingness to help adapt to Kohei, it’s something everyone needs to see. It’s really great to see a romance drama on overcoming disabilities without getting too preachy, or too “He can overcome this because of this person.”

As a fan of the manga, I think the manga is far more superior than the drama or movie, but if I had to recommend an adaptation to watch, I would recommend the drama. However, if you’ve already read the manga, I definitely recommend watching the movie and drama. I’d love to discuss plot points and characters with you… Especially which Taichi or which Kohei you prefer!

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Had to rewatch it

I Hear The Sunspots is a coming of age romance story adapted from the manga HIdamari ga Kikoeru. The story follows 2 boys who are in their first few years of college. Sagawa Taichi, a boy who's recently been fired from his part time job. Taichi is known for being a loud person with a cheerful persona. The second main protagonist of the story is Sugihara Kohei, a handsome and intelligent boy who’s hard of hearing. Kohei spends most of the time alone due to his disability, sometimes being a liability. The two males first intertwine when Taichi, who gathered all the coins in his wallet, bought a soda. Unfortunately for him he dropped the soda the minute it was in his hands and it began to roll down a hill. Chasing after his precious soda he spent all his pennies on, Taichi trips and falls down this small hidden hill and takes a tumble before landing straight on his back. That’s when he first sees Kohei, who is sitting on a roof of sorts, and is about to eat his lunch. Taichi apologizes for disturbing his peace before his eyes settle on Kohei’s lunch. Taichi is a big back and constantly hungry so with no shame he pleads with his eyes to have a bite of the delicious food Kohei has in his hands. Kohei offers all of the food to Taichi, and without shame Taichi accepts. Without saying a word Kohei grabs his things and dips. Curious about the mysterious person he’s just met, Taichi asks his friends if they know who he is. Supposedly, Kohei is well known around the school for his handsome looks, and it’s also a well known fact that he is hard of hearing. Then Taichi’s friends show him a flyer to be a notetaker for the hard of hearing which strikes a spark in Taichi’s mind. The next day Taichi finds himself in the place where he first met Kohei. He takes a seat beside Kohei and returns the lunch box that Kohei had left with him the day prior. Taichi shares how he’s heard about him around school and says he’d want to work as his note taker. He soon discovers that you need to go through training to do it officially. That’s where Kohei suggests the idea of not making it official and instead of actually being paid his reward would be a lunch. As the big fatty Taichi is, he accepted the offer with less then no hesitation marking the beginning of their mutually beneficial relationship.
I absolutely loved this series. It wasn't what I had really expected to like much because the first time I saw it I did not feel interested at all. I read the synopsis but my only thoughts were too much plot because at the time I had just wanted a plain and simple romance. I’ve now come to realize that when I think I want a plain and simple romance it really calls for a beautiful, deep, character driven show. This show was perfect in so many ways and it did have its flaws but I believe that they were overweight. The first thing I want to acknowledge is the actors. The actors were perfect for this role and I cannot imagine anyone else playing these characters like they are quite literally them. I have read the manga but I’ve only read it after I had watched the whole entire series so I’d say my perception might be biased but I adore the live action much more compared to the manga. Though nothing can surpass the original, my heart yearned for me to watch the show once more while I was reading the manga which did not fill the void. That is why I’m watching it once again, which speaks millions of words for me because I rarely re-watch shows and if I do it’s usually when a year has at least passed. Back to the actors. They are perfect for the roles and they are splendid actors. Phenomenal. They encapsulated the characters and became the characters like you know and the actor did their job when you cannot dissociate them from their roles. Secondly, what I loved about this show was the slowburn. The show was on such a thin line of romance and a simple bromance that if you had just taken away the scene where Kohei kissed Taichi it really would have passed as a bromance. Watching it again just really shows that this scene really changed the whole plot of the show. It’s like in those bromance series where all you could think is will they kiss or not and they never do, but this time they actually did. I think that’s one thing I appreciate about the story so much because it keeps this lingering feeling of yearning throughout the whole show. Kohei confessed around the middle of the series but even then Taichi is still figuring out his feelings of friendship or love? It also shows such an emphasis that Taichi was Kohei’s friend and a dear friend to him before he even realized his feelings and the same could be said about Kohei to Taichi. I believe that even if this show focused just on the friendship I still would’ve loved it because their friendship and just the chemistry the actors have feel so real. Though there are so many things I love, it does have its downsides. First, would that be the ending, like where’s season 2? It just leaves so much to be wondered and sometimes I enjoy it but I feel like we rarely see the characters together to even make up an imagination of their own. Instead of wondering what their futures together would be like It’s more of a will they even have a future together? Next, I also hate their little friendship break up era or whatever they had going on. I know that it moved the plot forward and it’s also quite realistic because I also believe Taichi would drop out of university, I don’t enjoy the stage where they rarely talked. Lastly, I hate Maya because she caused a riff in their relationship which I believe to be so out of character for them. Their whole miscommunication era seemed so out of character considering Taichi was such an enthusiast for talking to each other and sharing their feelings with each other which was the reason why Kohei told him how he felt. I just think that the characters would have developed on their own without another person making them develop.
I would recommend this show for everyone. I think there is nothing that can go wrong with watching it. You might not be guaranteed to love it, but I can guarantee that you’d at least like it. I also think this is such a good show for a non-bl watcher to start off with. It’s nothing too freaky but the friendship between the leads is good enough to keep you focused the whole time. The actors are also eye candy, and the setting is beautiful. It's just overall a well rounded show.

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