Yaichi’s brother Ryoji died, and now Ryoji’s Canadian husband Mike has come to visit him in Japan. Yaichi is not one hundred percent comfortable with Mike’s presence despite how much his daughter, Kana, loves having her foreign uncle over for a visit. Over the next several days, Mike and Yaichi connect about Ryoji, learn new things about each other, and Yaichi learns more about his biases and unlearns some bad habits.
My Brother’s Husband by Gengoroh Tagame is a really really sweet story about a man growing in his understanding of homosexuality through the innocence of his daughter. Kana leads the story of Yaichi’s growth by mirroring his thoughts… except saying them out loud. She asks questions, makes comments, and pries Mike about being gay in the most sincere and gentle way that only a kid can. This allows Yaichi to get the answers to his questions without feeling rude or intrusive, and it also allows any reader to do the same.
Kana acts as a resource for the audience, a gauge, her reactions, her responses, her questions, are natural questions that a child may have when encountering homosexuality for the first time and they provide an opportunity for the audience to learn from her and by her.
I thought this was a solid, sweet, story that is really positive and good for the LGBTQ community. I think that it’s really more for people who are trying to accept homosexuality or have a hard time accepting it. As a bisexual woman, I appreciate the story, but don’t think I was the target demographic and that’s why I give it 4.5 stars. It’s by no means bad, but it didn’t serve me in anyway beyond the cute art style.
Just Read It 