Love Unseen Beneath the Clear Night Sky starts with a very common romance-drama template: a boy who likes to keep to himself meets a girl who takes on the world despite her hardships, and said boy slowly opens up because of said girl, falling in love. I love a good classic romance, but I had my reservations about where this roadmap would lead, especially with the anime’s foreboding tone early on. But the halfway point of Kakeru and Fuyutsuki’s story pleasantly surprised me, and their persevering love enchanted me far more than I thought it would.
When Kakeru Sorano first meets Koharu Fuyutsuki at a college drinking party, he isn’t sure how to go about their acquaintance. For one thing, Fuyutsuki is blind, and his lack of knowledge about her disability gives him pause in deepening their interactions. As the two continue to cross paths both in and out of school, Kakeru contends with the harm in his hypervigilance and falls more in love with the girl he gets to know. But just when it seems like their romantic feelings will align, a sudden rift tears them apart as Fuyutsuki gets diagnosed with cancer.
Given how the story began, I had a lot of fears about how our main characters would end up. Kakeru’s early bungles had me worried he’d swing too far in the opposite direction and develop a savior complex. Fuyutsuki’s abrupt cold demeanor when she talked about death had me worried she’d die by her own hand, with the show resorting to a depressing, trauma-porn narrative for disabled people. To my relief, both worries were premature, and all of my predictions were shot down after the reveal of Fuyutsuki’s cancer resurgence. Though he can be persistent about visiting her at the hospital, Kakeru understands that there are limits to what he can do for Fuyutsuki and her health. He merely wants to alleviate some of her pain and, once he catches on to her pretending to have amnesia, to be the support he recognizes that she’s depriving herself of.
Early Kakeru bothered me precisely because he poked at such human vulnerabilities; he’s the perfect representation of the awkward, clumsy naiveté we possess when first confronted with our own prejudices and shortcomings. Still, the Kakeru that we see grow over the 12 episodes doesn’t stick by Fuyutsuki out of pity or self-righteousness. If anything, it’s because he pities himself that he initially shies away from her. Witnessing Fuyutsuki embrace the difficulties thrown her way, whether related to her blindness or not, and still have the diligence to explore the world around her, forces Kakeru to confront his own stagnation. His own repertoire has been the same for years: Keep his head down. Mind his own business. Blend into the crowd. He’s yet to break out of his shell since his parents’ divorce in his early childhood.
Eventually, this self-pity diffuses as Fuyutsuki’s joy rubs off on him, igniting a spark he’d previously lost. It’s Fuyutsuki who makes him stronger — and when the script inevitably flips, with Fuyutsuki struggling to cling to that optimism, Kakeru requites the strength she always gave him. Contrary to my fears, Kakeru and Fuyutsuki’s story is all about happiness, and the light we can bring to each other if we are willing to take the time to reach it together.
It’s a touching message, but not the most groundbreaking. What elevates Love Unseen for me, then, despite its potentially cliché storyline, is the anime’s exquisite use of Kakeru’s narration and inner monologue. Even before Kakeru fully sheds his naiveté, he makes an effort to describe the things he sees to Fuyutsuki when they’re together, whether it’s the immediate obstacles in front of her or the sprawling scenery he wants them to bask in together. This narration resides even when Fuyutsuki is no longer in his presence, Kakeru soliloquizing as he cognizes both the physical space and the headspace he occupies.
More than other anime I’ve seen, Love Unseen makes its story more accessible to those that may be mainly listening in. The narration has as much detail as the animation itself, but it doesn’t feel overwrought or stilted because it’s posited as Kakeru’s musings and not merely a caption for each frame. This choice makes it so that we are able to both see and hear Kakeru’s development as he matures.
A particular scene that stuck with me is a rather small one in episode 10, where Kakeru, lonely in his dorm room with his roommate Narumi gone for the summer, texts their friend Hayase to ask if she’s free, reading the texts aloud as he types them. Hayase’s responses have no voiceover, neither from her nor Kakeru; they just appear on Kakeru’s phone screen. You won’t get the full context of their exchange if you’re consuming only through your ears. But what the anime does get across with this half-verbalized conversation is that Kakeru deliberately chooses to monologue — a conscious habit he works on even in a room with only him present, so that it’ll naturally come to him when he eventually sees Fuyutsuki again.
Visually speaking, I also enjoyed the decent chunks of the anime from Fuyutsuki’s perspective. The animation constructs how the world looks and feels for Fuyutsuki through the ivory haze she ambles through and even recontextualizes scenes we already saw through Kakeru’s eyes through her own lens. I loved the reenvisioning of their boat date from Fuyutsuki’s point of view, with Kakeru’s incantational descriptions etching the outline of the world in her mind’s eye. From Kakeru’s perspective, we know he’s still overthinking how to be a good friend to Fuyutsuki. Meanwhile, from Fuyutsuki’s perspective, Kakeru’s glaring flaws are barely registered. Kindness is an inherent part of him in her eyes, and she’s enamored by it as someone who has experienced much colder encounters.
Even in the face of Kakeru’s kindness, there are moments where Fuyutsuki lashes out when his gestures aren’t fully receptive to her lived experience. How can he tell her to hold out and that things will end up okay, when she’s the one feeling all this pain? Kakeru may be the main character of Love Unseen, but Fuyutsuki is the true center of this story, and I’m glad the show steers clear of making Kakeru and his emotions the protagonist of Fuyutsuki’s life. The situation of her sudden cancer diagnosis is understandably difficult for him and the rest of their friends, but it’s undoubtedly the most difficult for her.
The best thing they can do is support each other. Even with its predictable plot, Love Unseen manages to pull at my heartstrings with just how human everyone feels. Kakeru doesn’t recognize his unhealthy thought processes at first, but still his instinct is to be kind and do what he can to learn more about Fuyutsuki’s life. Narumi and Hayase are much more natural at accommodating others, from when they first meet Fuyutsuki to when they set up multiple ways to watch the fireworks for the children unable to leave the hospital. Still, they’re awkward when it comes to cheering one another up. Kakeru, Fuyutsuki, Narumi, and Hayase bump heads over their different coping mechanisms, but they look out for each other all the same.
Most of all, I love how full Fuyutsuki is as a character. She loves fireworks. She’s exceptionally good at playing the piano. She is blind. She studies computer science. She likes the movie Titanic and likes her milk tea with lots of sugar. She’s beaten cancer before, and she’s in the process of beating it again. Perhaps this is a low bar, but I liked how Fuyutsuki was defined by a multitude of things, rather than a singular identity that had its symbolism bashed in.
My final kudos for the night go out to the (albeit small) glimpse Love Unseen gives into the construction of fireworks. I am admittedly still traumatized by the bowling anime that taught nothing about bowling, so I didn’t expect this show, which isn’t necessarily about fireworks, to use pyrotechnics as anything more than a frivolous motif. Not only do we get to see how the big fireworks are made, but we get to see Kakeru and Hayase try their hand at making their own sparklers to later share with Fuyutsuki. It’s yet another testament to the care behind this production, taking time to display the intricate wonders of Fuyutsuki’s simple interest. On both the largest and smallest scales, Love Unseen reminds us that learning more about something or someone is one of the most fruitful privileges we can exercise during our short burst of time here.
