Love Unseen Beneath the Clear Night Sky – Episode 1

What’s it about? Shut-in college student Sorano’s life takes an unexpected turn when he meets a blind girl named Koharu at a campus party. Initially reluctant to get involved, he becomes intrigued by her wish to see fireworks, and grows closer to her as he realizes they share a class.

They say comparison is the thief of joy, and I’m really feeling it with this episode. Ultimately it’s a bland yet sweet start to a story that I think, genuinely, has its heart in the right place, but suffers by its similarities and contrasts to other shows. I kept thinking “oh, this fits into this common narrative pattern, how annoying” or “hey, this reminds me of this other series that handled the same ideas way better”. On the one hand, what a joy to have multiple romance anime with disabled leads to compare and contrast to one another! But it still didn’t stop the grating elements of Love Unseen from, well, grating on me.

Perspective is a key factor with stories like these, and its always pertinent to ask whose point-of-view the narrative is embedded in and who, through those eyes, we’re being invited to look at. I couldn’t shake the thought that I’d be much more interested in this story if Koharu was the protagonist, and the audience was invited into her headspace and her POV, following her daily life and seeing her college ambitions (and vending machine drink preferences) from within. Instead the storytelling is anchored in Sorano’s perspective, which means we’re positioned as outside observers to Koharu and her experience, only understanding it as we learn about it from afar through the lens of a boy who sees her as a love interest.

That’s not to say that this storytelling choice is voyeuristic or anything, just that Koharu is firmly positioned as a character to look at through a protagonist who’s clearly designed to be an Everyman (right down to his character design, which is remarkably interchangeable with about a hundred other young anime men!). It’s an entirely different vibe and structure to something like A Sign of Affection or The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife which both let their disabled characters be the protagonist and the focal point of the story, trusting the audience to relate to and empathize with them even if we may not share their exact experiences. Having enjoyed both of these other series, Love Unseen and its more normative POV feels like a let-down.

At worst, it makes Koharu feel like a teaching tool, with Sorano the audience stand-in for viewers with no assumed knowledge. Some naivety is to be expected from a sighted person who has apparently never met a blind person before, but some of his actions are downright bumbling, opening the door wiiiide for an explanation of how this or that works for the audience’s benefit. It’s not necessarily ableist writing in and of itself, but many of these scenes feel clumsy, and the extent to which Koharu is willing to joyfully explain that “even visually handicapped people like me can still do most of the things everyone else can!” starts to feel condescending.

At best, it’s still just… frustrating, especially given how bland and self-sorry Sorano is. He’s self-consciously self-conscious and misanthropic, and spends his first few minutes of screentime complaining under his breath about how he doesn’t want to stand out, doesn’t want to socialize, and doesn’t understand nor like most people. I suspect I’m predisposed to finding the guy irritating, as my patience with this kind of archetypal male anime protagonist ran out a few years ago now, but his establishing-character moments just set him up as a pain in the butt rather than a relatable introvert. Especially since Koharu has been so clearly positioned as the whimsical love interest who will open up his worldview and drag him out of his shell.

All that being said, there’s room for improvement here, and I think subsequent episodes could still build something nice off this somewhat tropey and wonky introduction. Koharu herself seems like a perfectly charming character, and while I wish the story would give her a more interesting and likeable boyfriend, what it can do to enhance this budding romance is open up the storytelling and give her more of a narrative voice. My heart is open; I also had the “who’s telling the story and who are we looking at?” concern about the early chapters of The Moon on a Rainy Night, but that manga put in the work, won me back over, and became one of my favorite yuri series. I doubt Love Unseen can work quite the same magic and make quite the same turnaround, but hey, never say never.

At the end of the day, anime starring disabled characters are so few and far between that each one ought to be celebrated, even as we give it the appropriate amount of scrutiny for how it handles its sensitive subject matter and treats its marginalized characters. I think there’s potential in Love Unseen Beneath the Clear Night Sky, and I think there could be something to like here even if this premiere hasn’t won me over. Maybe I’ll give it a couple more episodes to see how Koharu evolves and if she gets more time in the spotlight.