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.