"I Hear the Sunspot" is one of my all time favorite manga series. It's one of the hard to find BLs that has a complex storyline carried out across multiple volumes where many are just about characters that meet and seemingly fall in love (and lust) within seconds of meeting each other. This adaptation wasn't entirely faithful in my opinion, but that was partially due to limited story time and the romance aspect is pretty much a slow burn that never quite catches fire. However, I think it's pretty clear how Taichi and Kohei feel about each other.

Taichi is one of my all time favorite manga characters. He's so passionate, unashamed, protective, and brave. He does his best to understand others and is always looking to make sure no one feels excluded. I think the actor playing him did a pretty great job. I don't know if it was an intentional choice or just the actor's interpretation of Taichi's voice being loud and easy to discern, but I thought he also tried to mimic some of the grandfather's cadence. If intentional, I think that was a pretty cool touch to the character.

Kohei's actor did a great job, as well. Kohei is more of an internal character in the manga and I thought the actor conveyed that well. I wished we'd gotten to include more of the HoH characters he encounters in the manga, but we did get Maya. She's a character that it took some time for me to warm up to in the manga. Unfortunately, some of her development wasn't included in this adaptation with the time limitation, but I am glad they dug into some of her background.

I'm sad we didn't get Ryu or more of Chiba's story. Chiba is one of my favorite characters in this series, but again, time crunch. I really loved the story development between him and Taichi and I really, really, hope that, unlike my favorite live action BL My Love Mix Up/Kieta Hatsukoi, maybe this one can get a second season some how? Maybe? Pretty, pretty please! This adaptation barely scratched the surface of all the story Kohei and Taichi have together.

The romance aspect of his adaptation was not as overt as you'd see in some other BLs. Even Kieta Hatsukoi focused on that aspect more. I don't know if this sort of side step was the actors' comfort level or the production deciding to focus more on the story about a hearing person learning how they can be more mindful of the hearing impaired, but I can imagine someone looking for a BL that's more of a romance might not be super thrilled with how the romance was handled here.

I felt like the runtimes were a bit padded at times with SO many flashbacks, sometimes to moments that literally happened like five minutes prior. It didn't fully take away from my enjoyment, but it was a bit unnecessary at times.

Having watched the film, I personally prefer this drama a lot more. The chemistry between the characters was more developed, the pacing made a lot more sense for the progression of their relationship, and I enjoyed these versions of Kohei and Taichi more.

As a big fan of the manga, I enjoyed this and will be rewatching it. At the same time, I hope they somehow get a second season where the romance is more of a prominent story beat.