Sag´s mit den Händen 01: Liebe, die keine Worte braucht

カメレオンはてのひらに恋をする 。[Chameleon wa Tenohira ni Koi wo Suru] #1

by Rinteku, Constanze Thede (Translator)

Die Schauspielerei bedeutet Fujinaga die Welt. Doch Absage um Absage haben sein Selbstvertrauen völlig zerstört. Als er Keito kennenlernt, der von Geburt an gehörlos ist, fällt es Fujinaga aber plötzlich ganz leicht, ihm seine Gedanken und Gefühle zu vermitteln. Und obwohl er Mühe hat, sich mit Händen und Füßen in Gebärdensprache zu verständigen, ist Keito von seiner Ausdruckskraft beeindruckt. Hat er also doch Talent, oder warum sonst scheint mit Keito alles so natürlich und einfach?

Eine bewegende und ermutigende Liebesgeschichte, in der ein erfolgloser Schauspieler und ein Student mit eingeschränkter Hörfähigkeit durch Gebärdensprache zueinanderfinden. Autorin und Zeichnerin Rinteku gelingt es in ihrem Boys-Love-Manga, dieses Thema einfühlsam mit einer Lovestory zu verstricken. Sag's mit den Händen ist großes Wohlfühl-Kino für Fans von I Hear The Sunspot, Sag nichts und Eine Nacht voller Sterne.

Genres: Manga, Romance, LGBT, Queer, Yaoi, Boys Love, Graphic Novels

250 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 20, 2025

About the author

Rinteku (Japanese: 厘てく) is a Japanese manga artist best known for the BL Manga, "カメレオンはてのひらに恋をする".

Reviews

[syh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely amazing. Breathtaking. Loved it.

[rory (jess' version) · Rating 5 out of 5]

the art is GORGEOUS. && i love how they really wanted to communicate with each other and they took effort in making their conversation work. if this ain't love, i wonder what is.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Soft and sweet, this transcends its premise to become a story about the importance and beauty of communication in every relationship.

[Rosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review is for the three volumes that are out right now. I got to read this one through Manga Up app. I'm taking advantage of their free points program (which I recommend checking if you don't know about it) and I already have some interesting titles in my library. I got lured to this one through the art at first but the moment I read the blurb (which I rarely do) I was absolutely sold.
I loved how the story between these two develops, and how the author address how similar they both are despite their huge differences. How both crave to be understood and listened to, and how both fear to be misinterpreted.
I was curious to know how the author was going to give the reader a sense of how JSL works in static panels, but it was well done in my opinion. I'm not familiar with JSL, but I am with SSL and I think it was well conveyed.
I also liked how perfect both characters were for each other. Keito and Fujinaga help each other to realise things about themselves and move towards a better future for them. I also liked how the author managed the miscommunications they have. Neither of them makes drama, even when Keito misunderstood Fujinaga answer about him asking to be boyfriends because he signed a lot and too fast, instead they simply try to communicate with each other and move on.
So, I'm a bit further than the three volumes that are currently published because there's some more chapters in the app, I left the story in a good place (not the best, mind you), and I'm looking forward to reading what happens next.

[Krysta ꕤ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Marureviere · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Love in the Palm of His Hand" is one of my favourite BL reads this year. It follows Fujinaga, a struggling third-year actor, and Keito, a deaf freshman as they connect through sign language.

The art really brings their emotions to life. It's so expressive and dynamic.

I particularly love how Rinteku illustrates hand movements since they manage to capture the nuances and subtleties of sign language so well. Also a fan of how the characters' facial expressions are carefully drawn to complement their signing.

Honestly this series is a must-read.

[marcia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This series is off to a wonky start. First of all, the premise is ridiculous. I have a hard time believing that Fujinaga picks up sign language effortlessly just because he's a good actor. On top of that, the mangaka tries so hard to connect Fujinaga's struggles as an actor with Keito's as a deaf person, in that they both have a hard time communicating with others, but that's a stretch. Even so, the leads have good chemistry together and I enjoy seeing their romance develop.

[AC's · Rating 5 out of 5]

Keito Maejima, the man you are

[Cassiereads · Rating 5 out of 5]

this😭was😭so😭beautiful😭

[⋆ ࣪˖ ִֶָ sel ་༘࿐ · Rating 3 out of 5]

So tender and beautiful.

[Imanewreader ✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

rep - deaf mc with hearing aid, sign language, mlm

oh. wow. that was beautiful. i love how they naturally understood each other at the begining without necesserally speaking sign language at firt.
their relationship has a pretty solid (and beautiful) base. i can"t wait for their future !!

[Fraaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to read something like "A Sign of Affection" in BL, read this. Highly recommended!

[Maria Cecilia · Rating 5 out of 5]

El verdadero PEAK del romance. Necesito leer YA MISMO los otros.

[Snowdrop · Rating 5 out of 5]

Le fait que ça soit ENFIN publié en France ?!?!??(!!(!

AMEN.

LISEZ PAR PITIÉ, c’est si doux, vraiment mon coup de cœur depuis un looooooooong moment (☆_☆)

[salma · Rating 4 out of 5]

They're adorable I love them so much, there's only 16 chapters so far I need more...

[Rachael ༊·˚ · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I've never got to listen so well with my eyes before."

So... where to start with this? This was really an experience like no other, somehow. Maybe because I haven't seen a book with such detail - in the art, in the little details that come with signing, with creating an experience that can be universally understood regardless if you are part of the community / know or have interacted with people from it - that could have butterflies swimming in my stomach in one chapter and close to tears in the next. Maybe because the communication is unparalleled, for all that could have happened with two individuals from such vastly different backgrounds and walks of life. Maybe it was just that their chemistry had me hooked from the first panel. I don't really know. But I feel this is the kind where it can be really hard to spoil? In the sense that it's hard to put it into words in the first place, all the emotion that came with the story (a bit like sign itself HAHA, if that makes any sense).

"Because you said you wouldn't mind if it's me."

And while I've never learned much sign language before (heck, I still can't remember all the letters, but I can remember absolute random ones like signing MBS and cable car ;-;), I was definitely left awestruck regardless at how vivid this book is. Aside from the story itself (beautiful, by the way), genuinely the amount of things happening in each panel? The level of detail in the characters' expressions?? And that's putting aside all those that involve Keito or literally anyone signing, because wow the mangaka can really draw hands :0 ...This is definitely making me wish I could pick up SgSL soon but WELP I don't think my uni's having classes anytime soon ;-;

Before I met Keito, I thought that sign language was just a way to speak with your hands. But, what we're using to converse isn't our hands. It's our eyes.

But truly I cried so many different times from the sheer beauty of this book, more than anything else. It would honestly be a masterpiece to see in real life. And the amount of evident care that had gone into this story, as much(? little??) as happens in this volume, truly sets high hopes for me for the following volumes! Kind of sucks I got hooked while it's still releasing BUT I'm hoping I get to follow this through till its end :)) I loved Keito and Fujinaga's interactions so much, and AHHHH I am honestly rooting for them, they are adorable together and, even before that, they are really captivating to see together when they communicate.

"I... I can't sign like this, Keito."
"That's fine. You can use one hand to sign."
"I don't know how. Plus you're holding my dominant hand hostage."
"Then I'll look at your face. I'll read your lips. I'll read everything."

[Kamons · Rating 4 out of 5]

อยากจะใช้คำว่าสวยงามกับเล่มนี้ได้ป่ะคะ อ่านแล้วมันอิ่มใจไปหมดโดยเฉพาะกับความสัมพันธ์ของคนทั้งคู่

[Avani · Rating 4 out of 5]

4⭐️
This was so cute!! I love how different it is❤️

[ais · Rating 3 out of 5]

cute

[⚡eli⚡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

"To think that just what I've always wanted to hear would come from someone I just met."

Love in the Palm of His Hand is a charming BL manga, about the growing relationship between Keito, a deaf freshman student, and Fujinaga, a struggling 3rd year actor, and the journey how they connect trough sign language (I've read 3 volumes, and the 4th one will be out next year).

The biggest plus in this manga is the expressive artwork showing different forms of communication. Even ''overexpression'' has its own perks. For example, in this story, Keito appreciates Fujinaga’s expressive personality, helping him see value in the dramatic acting style others criticize him for, while Fujinaga’s eagerness to learn sign language makes Keito feel understood and cared for. The first volume was alright. Nothing crazy - just a normal start for wholesome and tad dramatic series.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was so cute!! I feel like it moved a little fast. Like one second they're meeting and the next they're dating lol. There's a heavy focus on sign language and understanding each other, which I liked. It was really sweet and I liked their relationship dynamic a lot. I'm looking forward to the next book.

[Carla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Son tan tiernos 😭💗

[ツツ]

I don't usually read romance but this one is pretty smooth with tiny relational hiccups quickly resolved. much of that quick resolution comes from keito being high touch, and honestly, touch often reduces awkwardness because it is a per-verbal channel for signaling acceptance, co-regulating, and stabilizing before words catch up.

Keito is a high touch person like me, which makes me wonder was my interest in sign language, despite no incentive or feedback loop to learn, partly connected to being high-touch? Perhaps somatic bonding makes more sense to me. I can sign easily 'nice to meet you,' but hate to say it. Ironically, i used to think i only wanted high abstraction bonding. I also wonder if people with strong kinetic abilities are more likely to be high touch? Theatre/acting ppl are evidently skewed high touch.

That brings me to the other half of the pairing, Aoi. he's always been a theater kid and is actively acting, but his high touch only shows up in the bonus content. In the main story, he’s mostly passive and resistant. that push-pull dynamic mirrors the chasing/chased, predator/prey, cat/mouse romantic scripts we keep reproducing, consuming, encouraging, even participating; and insist on producing when there's not even consistency to speak of such as in this story. People don’t seem to want equity; instead, we glamorize and repackage power asymmetry as romance.

from May 2024 to August 2025, I discovered I can speak much better if I don’t look at people’s faces or try to manipulate my own into expressions. sign language requires requires direct eye contact while reading signs through peripheral vision (wtf). With my growing competence (or just a trade off?) in both the speaking and signing world, i feel like i belong to neither.

I might take up JSL one day if i ever reach fluency in ASL. i'm very interested in embodied/visual iconography, such as mudras, kabuki, etc. Japanese culture seems unusually disciplined in embodied/visual expression, so I’m curious how that influences and translates into JSL.

the way this book explains classifiers is a little confusing, if not misleading, or it's just bad translation:

"THEY'RE SIGNS USED TO CONVEY UNIQUE THINGS OR EXPRESSIONS THAT DESCRIBE OBJECTS OR SITUATIONS. THAT'S WHY IT'S DIFFERENT FOR EVERY PERSON."

classifiers are conventionalized handshapes that stand for categories of objects, which can then be moved around in signing space to show action, position, or interaction. Some scholars even prefer to call them depicting constructions rather than classifiers, because they’re halfway between language and pantomime.

i haven't come across name signs irl, it seems deaf/hoh folks don't introduce themselves with them, even to each other. (a name sign is typically given by members of the Deaf community, reflecting either a personal feature or a trait.)


visual book 14 (manga) of 2025

[Alexiouss · Rating 5 out of 5]

J'adore, je suis faible pour ce genre de romance.

La façon dont ils essayent toujours de communiquer quoi qu'il arrive ? C'est trop beau, ils sont choux. Vraiment, je manque sûrement d'objectivité et tant pis 💅🏾

C'est doux et ça fait du bien au moral, si on a bien aimé 'A sign of affection' franchement il faut le tenter !

[Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 ⭐

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was honestly kind of thin in this one. I never fully understood Fujinaga's motivations: he loves acting, so his dream is to be a movie or tv star, but he fails auditions repeatedly because he only knows how to act like he's on stage. Meaning, full-body movements and projecting to the farthest seats in the audience.

I get that he's upset no one appreciates him in his auditions but...they're not wrong. You have to tone down your acting to reach a different type of viewer for different formats. And it sounds like he overacts on stage, too, to the point where even his close friend won't give him any serious roles, leaving him the big loud dramatic comic relief types.

To be perfectly frank, that's not a flaw in the people around him. That's a limitation in his acting ability, if he's not able to adjust to fit different roles, moods, settings, etc. His big decision at the end of this volume - giving up on tv and movies to stay on stage! - is...nice, and definitely suits him better, but he also needs to learn how to improve his theatre acting, too.

So I dunno...I didn't totally connect with the whole "he's misunderstood like Keito" storyline attempt. Keito is Deaf, moving through a largely hearing world, and wanting desperately to be able to communicate with everyone around him. Everything about his character was pretty good; it's a decent balance thus far of him being confident in who he is and comfortable in settings where he can speak his native language, and also wanting to speak with and be understood by others, like Fujinaga, who can hear and have never considered that others around them can't.

Fujinaga actually starts out fairly selfish, although he does improve as he goes on. Like Keito, I appreciate that once he gets that Keito is fully Deaf and that sign language is his primary language, he throws himself into learning how to communicate more effectively with him. The best scene, I think, was when Keito felt so much happiness over how focused Fujinaga is when it comes to talking to him.

Keito doesn't want people to give up on repeating themselves - or asking him to repeat what he's saying - until the conversation flows more smoothly. "It's fine, you don't need to understand what I'm saying" can seem like someone being "nice," but it's exactly the opposite, because you're cutting someone out of communication that you just have to put a little more effort into.

Fujinaga throws his entire being into everything he does, which makes him such an over-the-top actor, but also someone Keito really, really enjoys being around. While the romantic side of their relationship really kicks off due to a misunderstanding - Keito only catching the tail end of something Fujinaga was saying - their chemistry is good, and there were some really lovely dynamics near the end of this volume.

So while it's a little bit messy trying to get off the ground, it does hold promise, and I'm interested to see where it goes, with them getting together so early on. Even if I'm less invested in Fujinaga's acting career...that seemed like a sort of shoehorned element that will maybe work better in the story as it goes on. I was getting the impression he was maybe going to become a sign language interpreter or something, but nope.

I did learn some more things about sign language, which is neat; I didn't know about the whole CL thing, which makes it all sound super complex. Even if sign language was a mandatory language in school - which it should be, honestly - it seems like it'd be pretty hard to actually become fluent in it, since there are so many different variations. And that's not even factoring in adding in different languages. If that continues to be more of a story element - Fujinaga learning all the different ways of communicating in sign - that'll be neat.

[Ayxan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ahhh so amazing!! I've got sooo many butterflies each chapter, omg. They're so cute and they're chemistry is just... damn!! <333

But also: the hands! The sign language!
The artist really went all out. Not to mention how hard hands are to draw, but even more difficult when it's the focus and you're using them to communicate. The attention to detail is amazing. Huge props to them. Hope they got a raise for that.

The author has a tendency to make things overly dramatic, which makes it quite fast-paced and also a bit unrealistic. Overall, it is very slice of life, but then you have those random near-death moments/scenarios, that no person experiences in just one week.
Unless you're a character from a play, maybe. (Wait... maybe that was the point?)
But apart from that, they are very cute!

The beginning was quite funny, with Aoi thinking Keito is Napalese! XDD
But it's cool how ready he was to learn JSL for Keito and as well how fast he picked up on it.

Their inner monologues do get quite emotional; some of the quotes were both inspiring and tear-wrenching. It's good they found each other, they really are each other's rock. But they still need to learn to properly communicate, not just because of the language barrier, but also cause they can be very stubborn.

Overall, very good rep! There are other signing people too, who are either deaf too or can hear normally, but sign whenever Keito is present. I also learned something new about sign language: CL! Very interesting.

And also: no homophobia or heteronormativity at all! <3

Can't wait until Volume 2 is translated, ahhh I wish it was already TwT

-18.07.2024

[Cath T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved, loved, loved! Not only is the artwork beautiful but the story and characters are so well done. The chemistry is natural and so sweet, I screamed during the train scene.

Need the second volume immediately!

[Cheyenne Davey · Rating 5 out of 5]

truly adorable story! the deaf representation is wonderful to see. watching them grow together and learn to understand each other is beautiful. the art is stunning as well.
a beautiful feel good story. can't wait for vol 2

[Blue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely gorgeous book!