My Brother's Husband, Volume 1 by Gengoroh Tagame
My Rating: ★★★★★
A decade ago, Ryoji moved to Canada and eventually met and fell in love with his husband, Mike. Sadly, Ryoji died a month before the story starts, and Mike has come to visit his in-laws in Japan. He meets his brother-in-law and Ryoji’s twin brother, Yaichi, and his niece, Kana. Mike is in mourning, but he is excited to meet his husband’s family and go to the places that Ryoji always talked about. Yaichi struggles with previous misconceptions about his brother as well as the LGBT community, which he doesn’t know much about, and Kana is excited to have an uncle.
If you heard someone crying while yelling, “My heart!” in the distance, it was probably me while I was reading the first volume of this manga. It’s an incredibly heartwarming as well as sad story that had me clutching my box of tissue. Mike is a new widower and his grief is fresh and raw, which we slowly see as the story progresses. He’s taking the time to get to know his husband’s family as well as visit the places that Ryoji spoke about and frequented during his upbringing. During the story, he answers any questions that Yaichi and Kana ask.
Kana is just a kid and she has many questions, as kids do. She’s sweet and open to learning about the world without judgement. She quickly cares for Mike and is fascinated by the stories he has to share, which also allows her father to learn and receive answers to some of the questions that he wouldn’t dare to ask. Meanwhile, we watch Yaichi struggle with the silent grief of losing his parents as well as his brother, who he was not close with once Ryoji came out to him. We also watch Yaichi struggle with his homophobic thoughts as he learns about Mike as well as Ryoji’s life. As the story progresses, we see him learn and slowly start to accept his brother for who he was. This is a story that I highly recommend.
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