3 Best Movies to Watch by Kaede Hondo

With its slice-of-life approach, A Sign of Affection immediately tugs at the heartstrings with its sweet romance between a deaf university student and a multilingual traveller from manga duo Suu Morishita. The anime adaptation sees the world in Yuki’s eyes, with delicately lined shapes and pink-tinted watercolor paired with Sumire Morohoshi’s sweet voice, and it’s lovely to see the unjaded, kind way she interprets the world. The series does have some of the familiar romance tropes, like love triangles, wingman friends, and the glowy, bokeh lighting, but it’s sort of the point in this charming show. A Sign of Affection likens the careful, hesitant way of falling in love with the way Yuki interacts with the world, or rather, the reactions abled people have to her disability.

Genre: Animation, Comedy, Drama

Actor: Kaede Hondo, Nao Toyama, Ryota Osaka, Sumire Morohoshi, Takeo Otsuka, Tasuku Hatanaka, Yu Miyazaki

This series feels classic and cute, but also really questionable. It has whimsical fantasy elements injected into its main sports journey format that is easy to care about, and especially commendable given the fact that it circles around the dramatization of a sport as dry as golf. But the dynamic between Gawain and Ms. Kiria (at least in the early going) is unwatchably weird and can be cause to just dip from the show. Makes you wonder who this show is for, because while everything feels like well-done albeit tired untouchable-young-protagonist tropes, there is that promise of freaky humor that gets in the way and serves no real purpose, as if conceding that golf wasn’t a good enough hook.

Genre: Animation, Drama

Actor: Atsumi Tanezaki, Eiji Takemoto, Kaede Hondo, Katsuyuki Konishi, Misaki Kuno, Shunsuke Takeuchi, You Taichi, Yumi Uchiyama, Yumiri Hanamori, Yuto Uemura

Rating: TV-PG

Being reincarnated as a vending machine is, admittedly, a good hook. But when you're watching a machine fight frogs in a new dimension, the plot starts to lose you. At its core, it's an easy watch, without any nefarious characters (yet), but even though Boxxo always finds a way to utilize the powers of his new vending machine body and has a genuine, endearing personality, the gimmick doesn't hold attention past that. It is a wholesome isekai adventure, but the vending machine-loving vending machine isn't as memorable as you'd think.

Genre: Action & Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Actor: Jun Fukuyama, Kaede Hondo