![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
My Brother's Husband
Closing out the month with another manga review, this time for My Brother's Husband.
This was an amazing story, and highly recommended! It's by Gengoroh Tagame, who is best known for writing explicit gay manga about big beefy guys having BDSM sex. However, this one has no sex at all and is actually pretty family friendly. It's shelved in the adult fiction section at the local library, but I think it could easily be shelved in the Young Adult section, and even younger kids could probably relate to the character of Kana.
There are very minor spoilers below the cut, but nothing that isn't obvious from the official summary.
The main character is Yaichi, single dad to young daughter Kana. He has been semi-estranged from his late twin brother Ryoji--there was no big fight, they just quietly drifted apart as they grew older, and though Yaichi claims that it wasn't due to his brother being gay, that probably did have something to do with it. Ryoji had been living abroad, and one day his Canadian husband Mike unexpectedly shows up Yaichi's house, wanting to explore Ryoji's past and the place where he grew up. Kana is surprised but delighted to discover that she has an uncle, and at her insistence, Yaichi reluctantly invites Mike to stay with them while he's in Japan.
Yaichi isn't really a bad guy, but he's got a lot of prejudices and misconceptions that he never questioned until meeting Mike. Kana, however, is young enough to have no preconceptions: she's surprised that men could get married to each other, but easily accepts it, and is less interested in the "men getting married" part than she is in getting a new uncle. Watching Kana interact with Mike (who is an easygoing, lovable guy who is great with Kana and equally delighted to get a new niece), Yaichi begins to question his prejudices, and gradually begins to accept Mike as family.
It's a slow process, and he we see that he has a lot of rude and offensive opinions about Mike at first, although for politeness's sake, he mostly keeps them unvoiced. Some reviewers found it hard to like Yaichi because of this, but I thought that it was realistic--moreso than if he were instantly accepting. I'll admit, there were times when I wanted to smack him upside the head, but I did enjoy watching his personal growth, and how he realizes how wrong his prejudices are as he gets to know Mike as a real person rather than just a vague, generalized concept of what gay people are like.
This was labeled as "volume 1," but so far there's no word on when volume 2 is coming out in English. There was no big cliffhanger, and it was a very satisfying read, but it's also clear that Yaichi still has some issues to work out regarding his brother that Mike will probably help with. I loved all the characters so much, and the sense of Mike becoming family to Kana and Yaichi, that I can't wait to read more of it.
This is such a tender and heartwarming story, that I still find it a little hard to believe that it's a Tagame manga! There are a couple of scenes of Yaichi and Mike in the shower (separately, not together) that felt, as other reviewers have noted, a little fanservicey because they're drawn in such loving detail, but it's definitely a story about family, not sex or romance. Although...I would not be averse to reading fanfic where Yaichi and Mike get together, though I'm pretty sure that will not happen in canon, as Yaichi seems to be completely straight. But he and Kana and Mike make such a nice family together that I'm really surprised not to find any fic for it on A03. Too late to nominate it for this Yuletide, but maybe next year?
This was an amazing story, and highly recommended! It's by Gengoroh Tagame, who is best known for writing explicit gay manga about big beefy guys having BDSM sex. However, this one has no sex at all and is actually pretty family friendly. It's shelved in the adult fiction section at the local library, but I think it could easily be shelved in the Young Adult section, and even younger kids could probably relate to the character of Kana.
There are very minor spoilers below the cut, but nothing that isn't obvious from the official summary.
The main character is Yaichi, single dad to young daughter Kana. He has been semi-estranged from his late twin brother Ryoji--there was no big fight, they just quietly drifted apart as they grew older, and though Yaichi claims that it wasn't due to his brother being gay, that probably did have something to do with it. Ryoji had been living abroad, and one day his Canadian husband Mike unexpectedly shows up Yaichi's house, wanting to explore Ryoji's past and the place where he grew up. Kana is surprised but delighted to discover that she has an uncle, and at her insistence, Yaichi reluctantly invites Mike to stay with them while he's in Japan.
Yaichi isn't really a bad guy, but he's got a lot of prejudices and misconceptions that he never questioned until meeting Mike. Kana, however, is young enough to have no preconceptions: she's surprised that men could get married to each other, but easily accepts it, and is less interested in the "men getting married" part than she is in getting a new uncle. Watching Kana interact with Mike (who is an easygoing, lovable guy who is great with Kana and equally delighted to get a new niece), Yaichi begins to question his prejudices, and gradually begins to accept Mike as family.
It's a slow process, and he we see that he has a lot of rude and offensive opinions about Mike at first, although for politeness's sake, he mostly keeps them unvoiced. Some reviewers found it hard to like Yaichi because of this, but I thought that it was realistic--moreso than if he were instantly accepting. I'll admit, there were times when I wanted to smack him upside the head, but I did enjoy watching his personal growth, and how he realizes how wrong his prejudices are as he gets to know Mike as a real person rather than just a vague, generalized concept of what gay people are like.
This was labeled as "volume 1," but so far there's no word on when volume 2 is coming out in English. There was no big cliffhanger, and it was a very satisfying read, but it's also clear that Yaichi still has some issues to work out regarding his brother that Mike will probably help with. I loved all the characters so much, and the sense of Mike becoming family to Kana and Yaichi, that I can't wait to read more of it.
This is such a tender and heartwarming story, that I still find it a little hard to believe that it's a Tagame manga! There are a couple of scenes of Yaichi and Mike in the shower (separately, not together) that felt, as other reviewers have noted, a little fanservicey because they're drawn in such loving detail, but it's definitely a story about family, not sex or romance. Although...I would not be averse to reading fanfic where Yaichi and Mike get together, though I'm pretty sure that will not happen in canon, as Yaichi seems to be completely straight. But he and Kana and Mike make such a nice family together that I'm really surprised not to find any fic for it on A03. Too late to nominate it for this Yuletide, but maybe next year?