Winter atmosphere
Due to constant visual, color and image associations, Love at Your Fingertips is often perceived poetically. This is also achieved through the heroine's internal dialogues, in which she tries to understand what exactly she feels and what these emotions are like. Since the main character's name Yuki is translated from Japanese as "snow", she only has winter associations with love. Even the opening monologue sets a snowy atmosphere:
"I wonder if love is like snow? Does it envelop you just as silently? Does it cover the whole world around you, changing it beyond recognition?"
The action takes place in the city of Saitama, part of the Tokyo metropolitan area. Winters there are mild, so the characters can walk outside without hats and overly massive down jackets. Instead, they prefer warm sweaters, massive scarves, and winter coats. Such looks make the atmosphere warmer. And Itsuomi's constant travels around Southeast Asia, which the main character watches through correspondence, are reminiscent of a winter vacation in warm countries, where friends and colleagues regularly go.
But the most important factor that makes Love at Your Fingertips so warming despite its winter setting is love. As mentioned above, it is strongly associated with the cold season, so it differs from the usual passionate depiction. Instead of a rapid abundance of feelings and emotions, the relationship between Yuki and the other characters is more restrained, but at the same time fits well into the theory of the five love languages: constant words of encouragement, spending time together, small gifts to each other, as well as actions and touches.
The relationships themselves develop quickly. The main characters confess to each other already in the first half of the season – but their interactions are limited to small events: learning sign language, endless correspondence, shopping trips and evening walks through the Japanese suburbs.