Only the Ring Finger Knows (Yaoi) 
asked by stonefox on November 19, 2006 8:54 PM
At Wataru Fujii's high school, it's all the rage to wear paired rings with the girl you love. Wataru wears one though he is single, and one day inadvertently discovers that his ring pairs up with that of tall, handsome, and smart Yuichi Kazuki, the senior classman idolized by the entire school. Though Kazuki has a reputation for being kind to all, when dealing with Wataru, he is strangely harsh. Their paired rings somehow draw them together and the two alternately clash and attract, as they must sort out their budding feelings for each other.
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Absolutely beautiful story and georgeous art. Very romantic. I re-read this manga over and over again. I love it so much that I ordered the novels from Amazon to know how the relationship between Wataru and Kazuki progresses. I'm happy DMP published the English translation of the novels. I already pre-ordered the 3rd novel, which will be released October 30th. Can't wait!
reviewed by harrypotter on November 25, 2006 4:57 PM
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This manga is meant to be, on all counts, a cute, short, shounen-ai story. It's based on a novel series (released only in Japan, of course) that probably fleshes out the characters a lot better than what was managed in just one volume of manga.
First, about the manga itself. It's the story of a high school boy who randomly happens to have the same ring as one of the most popular boys in school (an upperclassman, at that). Since this upperclassman is constantly rude to our poor main character, he is of course completely bewildered, yet he slowly finds himself falling for the older boy. The two main characters are the only ones who really matter. The best friend completely disappears from the story after the first two chapters or so, and all females are delegated to either being "vengeful bitch" or "supportive friend." On top of that, there is a lot of that frustrating "He just confessed to me, but I wonder if he really truly does love me but I bet actually not" that goes on in a lot of shounen-ai manga.
I have to admit that Hotaru Odagiri's art style is gorgeous -- as long as you're only looking at the characters. The boys are as pretty as they come, and they like to stand in a lot of blank space. You will get maybe one shot of a background for each scene, and after that it's all screen tones of various kinds. To me, that just speaks of laziness on the artist's part.
Now, while I admit to having enjoyed the manga despite all of the flaws I've pointed out so far, there is one very jarring thing about this manga. The translators opted to remove all references to the Japanese language, which is usually a good thing -- no random "kawaii"s or "baka"s thrown in there (something I did see in the Marmelade Boy manga). However, since this is a Japanese high school setting, they stumbled across the problem of what to do with all the honorifics. Instead of just gracefully removing them and leaving it at that, they replaced them with English "equivalents." Now, "Mr. Kazuki" might be approriate in an office, but in high school... well, not even in college would I address my classmates like that. Girls with crushes on the main character would constantly swoon about "Mr. Kazuki." (Which, I will assume, was "senpai" in the Japanese version.) To top it all off, at one point the older character tells the younger one to call him "SIR Kazuki." While I realize he was trying to be obnoxiously rude, it sounds so completely out of place I just had to roll my eyes.
I thought it was a nice touch that they left the dustcover on the book, but would have liked it more if they hadn't oversized the book and had at least removed the Japanese text from the cover itself.
It's a cute read, but definitely not worth the $13 they want you to shell out for it.
First, about the manga itself. It's the story of a high school boy who randomly happens to have the same ring as one of the most popular boys in school (an upperclassman, at that). Since this upperclassman is constantly rude to our poor main character, he is of course completely bewildered, yet he slowly finds himself falling for the older boy. The two main characters are the only ones who really matter. The best friend completely disappears from the story after the first two chapters or so, and all females are delegated to either being "vengeful bitch" or "supportive friend." On top of that, there is a lot of that frustrating "He just confessed to me, but I wonder if he really truly does love me but I bet actually not" that goes on in a lot of shounen-ai manga.
I have to admit that Hotaru Odagiri's art style is gorgeous -- as long as you're only looking at the characters. The boys are as pretty as they come, and they like to stand in a lot of blank space. You will get maybe one shot of a background for each scene, and after that it's all screen tones of various kinds. To me, that just speaks of laziness on the artist's part.
Now, while I admit to having enjoyed the manga despite all of the flaws I've pointed out so far, there is one very jarring thing about this manga. The translators opted to remove all references to the Japanese language, which is usually a good thing -- no random "kawaii"s or "baka"s thrown in there (something I did see in the Marmelade Boy manga). However, since this is a Japanese high school setting, they stumbled across the problem of what to do with all the honorifics. Instead of just gracefully removing them and leaving it at that, they replaced them with English "equivalents." Now, "Mr. Kazuki" might be approriate in an office, but in high school... well, not even in college would I address my classmates like that. Girls with crushes on the main character would constantly swoon about "Mr. Kazuki." (Which, I will assume, was "senpai" in the Japanese version.) To top it all off, at one point the older character tells the younger one to call him "SIR Kazuki." While I realize he was trying to be obnoxiously rude, it sounds so completely out of place I just had to roll my eyes.
I thought it was a nice touch that they left the dustcover on the book, but would have liked it more if they hadn't oversized the book and had at least removed the Japanese text from the cover itself.
It's a cute read, but definitely not worth the $13 they want you to shell out for it.
reviewed by jazzman on November 29, 2006 6:42 AM
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art: **** very pretty
production: ***** dmps manga are among the best!
story: ** 1/2
while the manga does have very pretty art, and the editing & printing jobs are top notch, i found the story to be somewhat dissapointing.although well self-contained, the story was cliche and a little too saccharine sweet for my liking; the lead may as well have been a girl (this coming from a fan of bl ^^;).
not to say the story is bad; just overhyped - if i knew what it was like, i would not have bought it...
recommended to people who like fluffy, cliche, utterly predictable, simple, sickly sweet, innocent stories; if ur tastes are a little more sophisticated, look elsewhere.
production: ***** dmps manga are among the best!
story: ** 1/2
while the manga does have very pretty art, and the editing & printing jobs are top notch, i found the story to be somewhat dissapointing.although well self-contained, the story was cliche and a little too saccharine sweet for my liking; the lead may as well have been a girl (this coming from a fan of bl ^^;).
not to say the story is bad; just overhyped - if i knew what it was like, i would not have bought it...
recommended to people who like fluffy, cliche, utterly predictable, simple, sickly sweet, innocent stories; if ur tastes are a little more sophisticated, look elsewhere.
reviewed by iread on November 29, 2006 5:57 PM