I Hear the Sunspot follows two college students, one with a severe hearing disability which requires him to have a personal notetaker, and the other is an average moderately popular guy who takes up the position.

My Thoughts: Overall I really enjoyed this story for its slice of life qualities. Each read was a slightly dramatic, humorous, and pleasant. I found myself being contented with the random whims of these moody/immature teens and the clashes that immaturity has with Kousuke's (the teacher's) adult friend group. Overall I'd recommend to anyone who wants a light/pleasant/and largely positive following of a cute relationship. What I find most interesting about this series is the significant age gap (16 and 28) between the two main characters and how its negotiated throughout the narrative arc. Many dramatic moments of people almost exposing their forbidden love in the school where Kousuke works and Masahiro is a student, but throughout the 12 installments so far out we see Masahiro's sexual confidence increase and his ability to take charge in the relationship increase. Obviously in a real scenario this highschool student to teacher relationship would be rife with power inequities and potential for abuse/codependency, however, in the context of this manga (which is of course fantasy) I enjoyed tagging along for this arch of sexual maturity enabled by the presence of a dominant older figure (Kousuke). I think this trope is appealing to many readers for its themes of having a dashing mature figure lead someone into the scary world that is adolescence. More to come about this series :)

Genres/Themes: Romance, Slice of Life, Low Stakes Drama.

SFW (mostly) no direct nudity and only a couple of light depictions of sexual acts in each volume.

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