The Spring 2023 Manga Guide

Love's in Sight!

What's It About? 

Eighteen-year-old high school dropout Morio Kurokawa is the local bad boy, sporting his piercings and scars like badges. His entire life changes, however, when he meets Yukiko Akaza, a second-year at the local high school for the blind. Yukiko's impaired vision means that she's not put off by his appearance, and she quickly sees through his tough guy persona, and when she realizes that he doesn't just see her as a walking disability, the two begin to grow closer even if her protective older sister Izumi isn't sure that this is a good thing.

Love's in Sight! has a story and art by Uoyama, with English translation by Nova Skipper, with touch-up and lettering by Kyla Aiko. Viz released its first volume both digitally and physically on April 18.

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

There is one very clear risk this series runs, and that's using Yukiko for inspiration porn. “Inspiration porn” is a term adjacent to the dreaded manic pixie dream girl – it describes a style of storytelling that casts a disabled person as somehow inspiring to an able-bodied person by showing how they overcome obstacles. It frames living with a disability as somehow less-than, and to call it problematic is to understate the matter. Love in Sight certainly skirts the line a few times, and there's a good chance that this will be a “your mileage may vary” sort of series. From my position (invisible disabilities and a parent with visible disabilities), this volume doesn't cross that line, in part by acknowledging that the line exists in the first place.

Mostly this is down to two elements of the story: Yukiko's older sister Izumi and Morio's visit to a video rental store. The latter scene is at greater risk of veering into dangerous territory, although it is framed much more as being about inclusivity and accessibility in general rather than anything else. Morio, who has recently gone to the movies with Yukiko and learned about adaptive technology like audio descriptions and the fact that reading white text on black is easier for the visually impaired (Yukiko is legally blind but has some sight), is aghast when he pops into a video store on impulse and finds it only has a self-checkout. He immediately takes the clerk to task, who brushes him off with statements about how blind people don't watch movies, and eventually gets through to the store manager when the manager's elderly grandmother turns out to also benefit from accommodations. It's framed as being about making sure that everyone has both access and dignity, and it works pretty well, especially because the romance plot is more about personalities and connecting with another human than anything else.

In the afterword, creator Uoyama says that part of the goal of this manga was to let people know that everyone's just a person. That comes across clearly, from the way the video store overlooks the elderly as a major customer base to Izumi's fears holding Yukiko back to the uncomplicated romance plot. There's also a strong flavor of learning to acknowledge other perspectives, such as when an old woman tells Morio that his facial scar doesn't even really register for her because she grew up during WWII and knew plenty of people with scars. There are also some really fun details in the translation, such as how Morio's “sparkle” sound effects are written as “spar kill,” and the decision to localize the title rather than just translating it (Yanki-kun to Hakujo Girl identifies Yukiko by her cane, which isn't great) was a solid one. On the whole, this is a good book, and if it skirts too close to the line a few times, I think it may end up getting more right than wrong as it gets its feet more firmly underneath it.

Jean-Karlo Lemus

Rating:

Odd-couple romances are an easy way to suck people into your romance manga, but Love's in Sight! has a great twist: while Kurokawa is scary and has a nasty-looking scar, Akaza is legally blind. The rest of the manga does toe the line on being didactic, but given how many of these matters are still fairly unknown to people in Japan I think it's fine being a bit educational with folks. An extended part of the middle of the series not only goes over how a video rental store can be more accessible to people (not just the visually-impaired, but also the elderly), but also over how wanting to protect a disabled person can hurt more than it helps. Love's in Sight! does a great job of showing that for all of the difficulties in her life, Akaza is still capable of having a full and rich life, and Kurokawa's affection is just a small part of that. Also, she and Kurokawa are a pair of dumb, dumb teenagers so seeing them metaphorically faceplant while navigating their emotions is endlessly fun.

With a strong leading couple, plenty of laughs, and a lot to say about equity for the disabled, Love's in Sight! is a fantastic read. Definitely a strong recommendation.

MrAJCosplay

Rating:

Given how a lot of media often portrays people with physical inhibitions, I admittedly was a little bit cautious going into Love's in Sight!. Little did I know that this would end up being probably one of the more wholesome and enjoyable series that I read for the sake of this guide. Not only is it incredibly sweet with its romance between our delinquent main character and his blind tsundere love interest, but it even shows a moderate level of respect for the blind. At the very least this comes off as a piece that was decently researched and has a basic understanding of the difference in accessibility between someone who can and cannot see. We have a delinquent main character that's oftentimes judged because of the scar on his face but falling in love with this blind girl not only leads him to pursue a more respectable life compared to what he had before, but his actions even end up directly impacting those around him. He ends up highlighting the privilege that a lot of people end up taking for granted and how sometimes you don't often think about things like accessibility until the problems end up impacting someone that you love and care about. The fact that this cute story was able to communicate this in a very understandable way with a very simple presentation is noteworthy and I will definitely be checking out future installments of this series moving forward.