Heartwarming and Heartbreaking all at once.

Oh man, this just ripped my heart out but in a sorta enjoyable way?

Yaichi is a pretty typical work-from-home dad in Japan who works from home to care for his daughter, Kana. He and Kana’s mother, Natsuki, are still in contact and see each other often, which seems to be both and good and bad thing for Kana, as she has obviously (to me) developed issues with abandonment. Their life structure is throw off balance by the arrival of Mike Flanagan, a burly man who was married to Yaichi’s twin brother, Ryoji. Ryoji and his family had a falling out over his sexual identity and thus hadn’t been back to Japan before his death.

Mike shows up to mourn his lost love in a way. He promised Ryoji he would go see all the places they wanted to visit in Japan before he died, and this is his opportunity to fufil that promise. I don’t want to talk to much about the plots of these two volumes as I think these is a beautiful series to take in and read. I found myself warmed and heartbroken over and over, but never once regretted picking this up to read. Yaichi is forced to confront his predudices against homosexuality as well as his strained relationship with his brother and the fact that he probably didn’t do enough to support him when the family turned their back on him.

This series also confronts children in a great way, and how Kana becomes educated on gay people through Mike entering her life, as well as her realizing not all people, even those we love who are good people, are treated the same in society. Kana being open to accepting Mike makes Yaichi more open to doing the same, defending homosexuality to Kana’s teacher when it is brought up. Slowly everyone acknolwedges their own issues as they try to navigate things together, even if it’s awkward. They also go into grief quite a lot in volume 2, and it is incredibly moving and poignant. Mike grives for the love of his life, Yaichi for the brother he wish he had done more for, and Kana for the uncle she never knew.

I cannot recommend this more highly.

Title: My Brother’s Husband
Author: Gengoroh Tagame
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 352 // 352
ISBN: 9781101871515 // 9781101871539

Three Descriptors: Heartwarming, Heavy, Moving

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