Love in the Palm of His Hand Volume 1 Review
“Even though I know Japanese… I can’t hear my voice. I lose confidence when people don’t understand me. It hurts when I can’t be understood.” Keito
Student Fujinaga Aoi is a member of the Sea Breeze Drama Troupe – but just can’t get a break; constantly cast in the same role (or not cast at all), directors keep telling him that he stands out way too much when he acts and dominates the stage. Just when he’s despairing of ever realizing his acting dream, a chance encounter on the train with another student, Keito Maejima, causes him to reassess the way he looks at the world. Keito is congenitally deaf and mostly communicates through sign language, although he longs to be able to use speech much more. Keito also demonstrates some sign language to Fujinaga, who is instantly interested. Keito later introduces him to two fellow students who act as registered note takers to help the hard of hearing keep up with lectures. They also belong to the sign language club and tell Fujinaga that he’s really good at ‘CL’ (Classifiers). “They’re signs used to convey unique things or expressions that describe objects or situations.” In other words, his gift for expressing himself through facial expressions and gestures is a means of communication that Keito (and others) can understand.
The two young men seem to have made an instinctive connection and already understand each other on a deep, non-verbal level. Fujinaga is still struggling to reconcile his acting ambitions with the harsh reality that he’s been told to rein in his way of expressing himself and become a team player in the drama troupe. People think that everything I do is too much. The one thing I do know… is that the world I want to be part of doesn’t want me. Is this what despair feels like? However, meeting Keito makes him realize that maybe his gift can be put to good use in a different way…
The arrival of Rinteku’s Love in the Palm of His Hand in English has been eagerly anticipated as its reputation precedes it – and it doesn’t disappoint! The story of two young men – one of whom is deaf – meeting by chance and forming a friendship that then deepens into a relationship has many points in common with Yuki Fumino’s ongoing Boys’ Love series I Hear the Sunspot but has very different relationship dynamics. Keito in Love in the Palm of His Hand has been deaf since birth whereas Kohei in I Hear the Sunspot lost his hearing at around eleven due to an illness. And Fujinaga, the aspiring actor, is far more sensitive and self-aware than the ebullient, relentlessly positive Taichi. Comparisons can only go so far, because both mangaka (apart from focusing on hearing-impaired main characters) have very different stories to tell. But Rinteku’s art is just as accomplished as Yuki Fumino’s and just as skilful at conveying what her characters are feeling; her distinctive style often relies on close-ups, showing expressive eyes (reflecting back to us how Keito ‘reads’ people’s expressions).
Another difference when it comes to communication between the two main protagonists is the emphasis on sign language. The mangaka tells us in her afterword that she spent a long time studying and practicing drawing the language for signing. The Japanese use two different systems, Keito explains to Fujinaga: Japanese Sign Language (JSL) and Signed Japanese. The differences, uses and complications are further explained in one of the helpful Line-style chats in ‘Keito’s World’ between the chapters. Born actor Fujinaga understands instinctively and is very quick to pick up the necessary basics. And Rinteku’s accomplished drawings of hands and signing is illuminating, adding a vital extra element to the story.
This is the second manga by Rinteku to be published in English; the first is the very different but likable two-story volume Delivery for You! (2017) from Tokyopop (the mangaka’s name was given as Teku Rin).
Square Enix Manga are bringing this appealing series to us in mass market format (like Smoking Behind the Supermarket) and an attractive colour image is included at the front. The translation by Jacqueline Fung flows really well, dealing effortlessly with the sign-language specifics of the original text. And the lettering by Kyla Aiko helps to convey the different modes of speech employed by the characters; the slight wonky rendering of letters when Keito is speaking aloud tells us straight away that, in spite, of being profoundly deaf and never having ‘heard’ the pitch rise and fall of other people conversing, he’s doing his utmost best to communicate through speech.
However, there’s one heart-stopping scene in Chapter 3 ‘The Heat Burning in His Palm’ that brings home how difficult it is for Keito and others who are hearing impaired to cope with the complications of contemporary life. He and Fujinaga are on a train when a thunderstorm breaks overhead and a lightning strike plunges the carriages into utter darkness and comes to a sudden stop. Unable to hear the messages relayed by the driver to the passengers and unable to see Fujinaga’s face to lip-read, he also drops his smartphone. Rinteku shows us his (utterly relatable) moment of sheer panic and confusion as he doesn’t know what’s happened and has no means of finding out. Then Fujinaga reaches out to him in the pitch darkness and tells him what’s happened in a text via his own phone; no surprise, then, that Keito kisses him. From then on, no matter how self-confident Keito shows himself to be, it’s difficult not to feel a pang of concern for him, having glimpsed how alarming and isolating that sudden plunge into darkness would be for someone with no hearing. It’s a major turning point, though, for both Keito and Fujinaga, as is emphasized by the side story at the end of the volume ‘Can’t Go Back to Being Friends’, Chapter 4, but this time told from Keito’s point of view.
It’s going to be fascinating to watch how Rinteku explores the development of these two characters, both as individuals and as they embark on a relationship. Both young men are endearing and sometimes painfully eager to make themselves heard in very different contexts. There’s a two-page trailer for Volume 2 (due out in October) at the end of this volume and the series is ongoing at three volumes in Japan so far. We’ve already seen Fujinaga begin to change, thanks to Keito’s influence, so the promise of the beginning of the ‘stage play arc’ is very enticing indeed. Recommended!
Rinteku© Square Enix
Read a free preview at the publisher’s website here.
Our review copy from Square Enix Manga was supplied by Turnaround Comics (Turnaround Publisher Services).
