My Brother's Husband, Volume 1

At least in my admittedly limited experience, there's a surfeit of queer literature that is heavy or deep in emotional and political scope. My Brother's Husband, instead, focuses on the small things, the everyday interactions that come with being gay in a heteronormative world. I think it's particular interesting that at least in volume 1, we're mostly seeing Yaichi's perspective; Mike is a less developed character. It's not common that we get the internal monologues and worries and decisions and conflicts from the family member who is beginning to deal with and process having a gay brother-in-law. Tagame's writing and art does brilliantly in making these thoughts both poignant and heartwarming. It also succeeds in injecting some comedy, which made reading Kana's reactions in particular thoroughly enjoyable. In the end, I take the volume as a reminder not to catastrophise about these small interactions; that opening up can hurt but reaps its rewards.

 This was a heartwarming story about family, prejudice, cultural differences, and acceptance. Yiachi has a hard time accepting the foreigner in his home, but his open minded daughter Kana loves her new found Uncle Mike and helps convince her dad that Mike is great and to stop seeing things in a bad way. He start to open his mind. I love Yaichi reflection on different scenes and understanding what it means to be gay. Absolutely adored this!