Love’s in Sight! is a four-panel manga series featuring a visually impaired female protagonist and the delinquent who becomes her love interest.

Love’s in Sight! Volume One
Written by: Uoyama
Publisher: Media Factory
English Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: April 18, 2023

The volume opens by introducing an 18-year-old boy named Morio Kurokawa, a delinquent and high school dropout who has a reputation for being mean. One day, a visually impaired 16-year-old girl named Yukiko Akaza is trying to use the tactile sidewalk and finds Morio blocking her way. She jabs her cane into his ass and tells him to move. When she has a conversation with Morio and learns he has a scar, she touches his face and is legitimately concerned about it. When she does this, Morio blushes and becomes putty in her hands. After this, Morio starts following Yukiko around and trying to protect her. This leads to Yukiko asking Morio out on a “date,” in the hopes that he’ll lose interest and leave her alone when he sees how much work it is to date someone with her impairment.

However, even though the “date” is a little awkward at times, Morio discovers that Yukiko can enjoy going to a movie by following along with audio descriptions, which starts opening his eyes to the fact that even though Yukiko’s vision may be impaired, it doesn’t mean she can’t enjoy the same things as individuals without a visual impairment. And Yukiko finds that even though this “date” was meant to chase off Morio, she has a good time and wants to continue being around him.

After meeting Yukiko and getting to know her, Morio decides he wants to try to get a job. Unfortunately, due to a scar by his eye that he acquired during a fight with another delinquent, employers decide he looks too scary for a customer service job and refuse to hire him. Yukiko doesn’t truly understand the prejudice he’s receiving, since she can’t clearly see his face, but she has an interesting way of looking at the situation that gives Morio confidence to continue trying to look for work in the next town over.

While job hunting in the other town, he comes across a video store and becomes upset when he discovers that it primarily relies on customers using a self-checkout kiosk and has a limited in store staff, since this is inconvenient for Yukiko and others with visual impairments. It was awesome to see Morio, the former delinquent, turn into an advocate for Yukiko and others with visual impairments. Thanks to the fact that Morio’s former rival is a manager at the store, and that Morio helps his former rival’s grandmother and her friends at the store even though he’s not an employee, the former rival gets Morio a job. With this new job, Morio is able to start working with the staff to make the store is more accessible to visually impaired patrons.

Near the end of the volume, we are introduced to Yukiko’s older sister, Izumi, who is taking care of Yukiko while attending college. We see that Izumi cares about her sister but can also be overprotective because she has a hard time realizing who Yukiko is beyond her disability. But with help from Morio, Yukiko is able to start making her sister see that there’s more to her than just her visual impairment and that she’s not as helpless as Izumi thinks.

As I read Love’s in Sight! Volume One, the story grabbed me rather quickly when Yukiko was introduced and discovering that one of the main protagonists has a disability. And the Morio we meet at the beginning of the series doesn’t initially come across like he’s going to be a typical protagonist. Even though he does evolve and change as a character over the course of Volume One, he still comes across as an atypical protagonist. Obviously, the change in his character doesn’t happen overnight, so he has awkward moments as he’s still learning how to interact with Yukiko and finding ways to make it easier for the two of them to interact. In a lot of ways, though, they’re both “others” in our society: Yukiko’s visual impairment makes her “different,” and the way Morio looks scary to others makes him “different.” They both encounter prejudice and misunderstandings, although it’s for very different reasons, and I like this contrast between these two characters.

I thought the relationship and interactions between Morio and Yukiko were amusing and engaging, and those interactions endeared me to them. I enjoyed what I read in Volume One, and I’m hoping to have the opportunity to read future volumes of the series to see if it can continue to be as strong as what I saw here.

When it comes to the art, one thing I noticed and appreciated is that there are occasional panels where Uoyama is drawing the panel from Yukiko’s point of view, so there are few, if any details, to the drawings. For a manga that has a protagonist with a visual impairment, I thought this was a great touch and acknowledges that Yukiko’s impairment is more than just a fact that the reader has to accept. I think that being able to see a scene from Yukiko’s perspective on occasion adds weight to her visual impairment. I also thought that Uoyama did a great job of designing all of the characters, and they each have a distinct look that works perfectly with their personalities.

In the author’s note at the end of the volume, Uoyama mentions that they wrote this manga so more people can understand that people with disabilities are not unapproachable and are right beside us. I think that with Volume One, they have succeeded in this goal. It’s also stated that Love’s in Sight! is Uoyama’s first work, and I find it impressive that they were able to launch their career with a title like this one.

If you’re a fan of shojo manga, you’ll likely enjoy what Love’s in Sight! has to offer. This is a title I would also recommend to manga readers who appreciate or are looking for stories that feature a character with a disability that portrays the character in a positive light.

The reviewer was provided a review copy by VIZ Media

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