Only The Ring Finger Knows Volume 2: The Left Hand Dreams of Him (Yaoi Novel) (v. 2) (Paperback)

by Satoru Kannagi (Author), Hotaru Odagiri (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Yuichi, who has just been accepted into an extremely prestigious national university, has planned a vacation for his exam-ridden boyfriend, Wataru. Looking to raise money for the trip, Yuichi agrees to a short-term job with his college senior Asaka, whose cool attitude and mature personality makes for an uncanny resemblance to Yuichi himself. Taking a liking to Wataru, Asaka makes no effort to hide his interest and advances. How long will Yuichi be able to contain his frustration and jealousy?!

Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing (July 19, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569708851
• ISBN-13: 978-1569708859
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #552,953 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great story, but..., July 20, 2006

By	T. LaPonte "mo" (Connecticut) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

...DMP needs to proofread their novel translations! Geez. I can't tell you, since I actually lost count, how many easily identifiable mistakes were in this printed novel. I actually think this one had more than the first novel for this series. It wasn't that there were mispelled words, no. I'm sure DMP ran MS Word Spellcheck on it at some point, but that seems to be where they ended. There were words that were obviously meant to be other words and numerous mistakes that I could believe someone who did not read and write English as a first language would make grammatically. I would hope that a major publisher of yaoi manga in America would hire someone to do the job of an editor and fix these kinds of things, though. The translation was a little awkward, but I'm not about to blame the fact that English and Japanese are such different languages on the publisher. I can however complain that the writing style in the translation lacked cohesiveness. Sometimes thoughts were in quotations, but often they were not, and as the reader I had to spend more time trying to figure out who was saying what, or if they were saying it at all. It also seemed that in a number of the instances where thoughts were not quoted, that they originally had been, because the first letter in those thoughts was still capitalized. There were also a lot of punctuation mistakes. Some of them were unfinished sentences, and a few seemed to be the result of a paragraph or sentence being broken in the middle, but the punctuation to correct this not being added.

Also, related to this is the seemingly out of place illustrations in this volume. In the first volume the illustrations popped on the pages at just the right moments for the events they depicted, but in volume two they are often either several pages too early or too late. Odagiri does the illustrations again, and again they are beautiful. The color illustrations at the beginning of the book are even wonderful enough to make me want to have them as a poster on my wall.

Anyway, aside from my nitpicking it really isn't a bad read. My heart has a little place carved out for Yuichi and Wataru's love for each other (one of the more beautifully written in the genre), and I always enjoy reading their adventures. The story really is beautiful. It is not that anything is overwhelmingly surprising or exciting, but I would have to settle on "inspiring." This lovely couple makes you want to believe that everything, despite obstacles, fighting and misunderstandings, is going to turn out just fine.

The Left Hand Dreams of Him is a true sequel to the first novel, so if you aren't familiar with the first book, you might want to read that before giving this one a try. This one was written after the manga version, so that little extra side story that Odagiri wrote for the end of the manga makes some cameo appearances in this volume (a couple parts towards the end of the book were laugh out loud funny).

Volume two of the OTRFK novel series takes place almost a year after the first story. Yuichi is in college and Wataru is about to get busy with his exams in a couple months, much like Yuichi had been back in part two of the first novel, so Yuichi plans a vacation. To do this he has to make some money, so he gets a job working for his senior, who bears a striking resemblance to himself in both appearance and personality. This of course creates a lot of drama for the couple. Part two, Eternity of the Palm, takes place during the vacation itself, and another person comes to try to stand in the way of Yuichi and Wataru's relationship, so they have their hands full even as they try to relax and enjoy themselves away from the prying eyes of Tokyo and their lives there.

As far as graphic content goes, Kannagi has a beautifully descriptive style that lends itself to being vague enough not to feel erotic, but clear enough to be entirely romantic when it comes to the lovemaking scenes of our heroes (of which which there are numerous in this volume).

I give it four stars because of the awkward translation, but otherwise a wonderful story. If you liked the first novel, I highly recommend continuing through the series. I know I will be ordering volume three just as soon as it comes out.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For all OtRFK fans., August 1, 2006

By	Tiffany Vu (California, USA) - See all my reviews

First of all, I'm very disappointed with DMP's editing of the context... So many missing quotation marks... and some lines that are supposed to be /thoughts/ aren't even italicized or anything. Some of the translation was a bit rough and awkward in diction as well... but, that part I can excuse since they try to translate as literal as possible. Please keep in mind that English and Japanese writing styles differ, and it is impossible to translate so that it fits the English reading mind 100%. I do wish they keep honorifics though... One mistake they're still repeating is the placement of the illustrations... sometimes they appear few pages before the scene actually happens, and sometimes after it happens. At the very least, I was hoping the layout be correct, but apparently not.

As for the actual story itself, despite all those technical errors, I just totally love the couple even more now! Kazuki and Wataru in here is so... precious Kannagi-sensei's writing is romantic, deep, and insightful. The relationship between K and W is just so down-to-earth, and their worries and struggles are really realistic. (It is clearly an example that plot-movement is more important than loads of fanservice)

In the second chapter, for once we see Kazuki being troubled, and it's Wataru who reassures him - since it has always been the other way around. As LKK stated, we begin to see flaws in Kazuki's character, so now their relationship feels even more reciprocal. Not only that, but the new characters Asaka and Shohei feel very necessary to the plot even if they are side casts.

And as always, I love Odagiri-sensei's illustrations to death.

If you're looking for smut-type of plot, or even action filled drama, you definitely won't find here. Rather, the events that happen in the novel are really normal and typical, but it's how they effect Kazuki and Wataru that are the highlights - it's the ever fluctuating and strengthening of their relationship that really matters.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Why is it that sequels are never as good?, November 2, 2006

By	A. Lee "Raigeki" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I really enjoyed the first book much more than the sequel. The whole process of getting together and doing it for the first time is so awkward and goofy, it came across as being realistic and very amusing.

However, in the sequel our couple have been together for a year, but are still stepping on each other's toes. Wataru gets friendly with Kazuki's cool and smooth talking upperclassman, basically allowing the other guy to pursue him and rousing Kazuki's jealousy. You'd think that after a year Kazuki would know Wataru well enough to realize that he's just dense and naive, and go easy on him instead of stirring up needless drama. There is some really cheesy dialogue on par with Star Wars III. The ending is also unoriginal: they make up and make out, which is how the first two arcs ended.

In the next arc, our couple are on vacation. Maybe this is due to the lackluster translation, but the passages about their activities are quite dull and even boring. I got sick of reading about how cool Kazuki looks and how people always turn his way. There are some cute moments, like when Kazuki suddenly kisses Wataru in the car, shocking some grade school onlookers, but for the most part I would press fast forward, so to speak. When Kazuki's brother finally appears and declares opposition, it's rather anticlimactic. The narrative talks about how impressive and intimidating he is, but this did not come across in anything he says. The couple's reaction to the brother's threat is sweet, though. I don't want to give it away, but this arc has a very satisfying conclusion.

Overall I feel that the book suffers from inflated text and cliche situations, but the characters are just so appealing that I will have to read the third volume and reread parts of this one, too!