TL;DR Version:
Now that we’re done with Minato, the story moves to Sakura’s friend Nana. She’s the only friend he’s made since high school, and she is in love with him. Sakura tries to confront her honestly, but the difference between being born Deaf, going Deaf, and having hearing seems to divide everyone. Nana breaks down in front of Aoba and Sakura
Recap:
Flashback to Sakura’s college years. He can’t hear classmates, he can’t understand the police who think he’s wearing earphones while on his bike, and he’s struggling.
At a recruiting seminar for the hearing impaired Sakura first meets his friend, Nana. He can’t sign yet and she notices him watching her. She makes a point of going to him and pulling out the text-to-speech app, for what I’m guessing is the first time he uses it. After trying to act fine, he starts asking her questions and then moves to venting. How he has to apologize for not hearing, for wearing hearing aids, and how alone he feels. People listen to him and try to help by recommending fixes.
Nana is the first person to “listen” to him. She explains she’s been deaf since birth and like anyone who can hear or can’t, she can be sad and she can be happy.
Later, she tries to introduce Sakura to some friends, because he has none and she’s worried. He bolts, feeling he doesn’t fit in with a crowd of Deaf people when he still has some hearing.
In the now, Sakura shows Aoba signs while they have lunch. Nana has texted him about seeing a movie with no reply and starts a voice call. He’s worried and has Aoba pick it up, but Nana hangs up. She texts that it was supposed to be a video call, but she definitely deliberately pressed the voice button.
Sakura explains to Aoba how Nana’s clumsy, and the thing with the backpack that he doesn’t realize Nana also does deliberately. Aoba asks if she’s really just a friend, but doesn’t sign it.
At Aoba’s work, there’s that kinda ominous plot threat that if she gets a full-time job she’ll have to move to a different branch. Meanwhile, Aoba’s brother hangs out with Minato and thanks him for being there for Aoba. I really don’t get them.
Minato and Sakura meet up. Minato brushes Sakura’s worries aside and asks him about Aoba and Nana, and what they know about each other. Sakura calls Aoba someone who is direct and Nana someone deaf from birth who taught him to sign.
Minato says that when describing others, people will say what they like about a person they like, and for someone who is just an acquaintance, they’ll describe the relationship. Which is what Sakura just did. Sakura calls him mean. Minato mentions he’s trying to be cool.
At Aoba’s sign lessons, the teacher confesses to knowing Minato for the last three years, which I didn’t realize. He asks Aoba to describe Sakura and she says he’ll tell her words she likes. Meaning, she’s describing someone she likes.
Minato asks after Sakura’s family, and then we see them. Mom is ready to toss all his CDs without asking, which would infuriate me. His sister is upset, and takes them instead, getting her Dad to help move them to her room. She cries as she looks at them.
Nana gazes adoringly at a cute blue purse and gets a text from Sakura about meeting up. She’s excited, but things turn sour when he wants to talk about Aoba. He explains what happened with Minato and Aoba and she guilts him for causing the breakup.
She tells him that she wants him to be with someone who is Deaf, because they’ll be able to relate. Sakura turns it back on her, that he could hear once and Nana can’t relate to that. Nana agrees, none of them can understand each other.
That night, Nana has a dream where she has the purse and also can hear. She sees Sakura across the street and calls him, and they talk. When she wakes up, she tracks Aoba down to the sign language class and asks her to have a conversation.
Despite Sakura calling her direct, Aoba seems unable to meet Nana’s eyes at first. Nana asks after Aoba’s sign language learning, and Aoba explains that Sakura is correcting her. Nana explains that she taught Sakura, which Aoba knows, and that it feels like her precious gift is being regifted. Nana wants to know what Sakura’s voice sounds like and tells Aoba about her dreams of being able to hear her loved one’s voice. The dream will never come true even if her love comes true. And now she doesn’t think her love will come true either. She runs away crying.
We get to see a flashback of her and Sakura signing in a library, talking when others can. Sakura said his goal with signing was to be able to be understood by her.
Sakura sees Nane outside and calls her to get her attention, asking what’s wrong. She just puts the phone to her head. Aoba watches a little ways away.
Thoughts:
I continue to love the way it explores communication and people’s personal experiences.
There were several places in this episode that felt a bit more melodrama reality than real to me. Minato talking to Sakura about Aoba and Nana. Aoba talking to the sign language teacher about Minato and Sakura. Nana confronts Aoba. But as unreal as those scenes felt in some ways, they were there to illustrate important points. That not all experiences within certain minority communities are the same. That you can be happy and sad no matter what, and we got to see Nana be both happy and sad.
So while realistically, I don’t like Nana confronting Aoba for something she has no control over, I appreciated that scene anyway.
The earlier scenes with Sakura tugged at my heart. Again, my hearing loss isn’t as profound as his but several of the things he talked about dealing with as it progressed were very familiar to me. It can be very alienating not to be able to hear people and yet, it can also make you feel responsible. I have smiled and nodded many times rather than try, yet again, to understand someone.
Meanwhile, I can only hope there will be an episode that focuses on Aoba’s brother so we can understand what his weird deal is.