In 2018, NHK produced the three-episode drama My Brother’s Husband, based on the 2014 manga of the same name by artist Gengoroh Tagame. Called Otouto no Otto in Japanese, it is a story about the difficulties of acceptance, overcoming prejudice, and how grown can come from anywhere, and happen to anyone.
Typically known for his BDSM artwork, Tagame’s manga received critical acclaim for his thoughtful and delicate story, alongside his trademark excellent artwork. So how does the live action adaptation stack up?
Plot Summary
Beginning in flashback, a young Yaichi Origuchi boasts to his younger brother Ryoji that he has a girlfriend, and that Ryoji must be jealous. After Ryoji tells his twin brother that he is gay and runs, an older Ryoji awakes from his dream. He has been dreaming about his brother because today a guest is arriving: Mike Flanagan.
Mike was Ryoji’s husband, but Ryoji, who moved to Canada to study and never returned, passed away not long before the start of the story. Mike visits Yaichi not only to meet his extended family for the first time, but also to see where Ryoji grew up, and to fulfil a promise.
Yaichi is initially nervous: Mike is a large and imposing physically, even if his personality is soft and sweet. Despite Yaichi’s apprehension (he has never met Mike before, nor any gay person except for his brother), Yaichi’s daughter Kana is filled with curiosity for her new uncle.
As the three spend more time together, Yaichi begins to learn that, although he and Ryoji became distant after the latter’s coming out, Ryoji talked about him all the time, recounting their exploits. Kana’s questions about and for Mike allow Yaichi to see him from a more innocent perspective, and reflect on his own prejudices — as well as deal with the prejudices of others in their small town.
📺 Where to watch: NHK On Demand
Impressions
The show does an excellent job of revealing how, even in people who are not actively homophobic, the ingrained prejudices that are learned as children, and which persist into adulthood and throughout society, negatively affect individuals and families. However, it also makes a point to demonstrate that these learned behaviours can be unlearned, and that change is never too late.
Yaichi’s initial nervousness about sharing his house with Mike is amplified by how similar he is in looks to his late brother, and he worries that Mike will become attached to him. This kind of casual homophobia (“I don’t mind if people are gay, as long as they don’t do it around me!”) has been prevalent for decades around the world. While it is now more frowned on in the west, it can still be pervasive in Japan, where sexuality is often thought of as a private matter, especially in smaller towns and neighbourhoods.
So it is that it becomes rewarding to see Yaichi change as the gentle giant that is Mike, who slowly wins him over (with more than a little help from the persistently happy and excitable Kana) and becomes more open minded — the second episode’s reflection that “just a few days ago, I would never have gone to an onsen with him” to reflecting on the unfairness of how LGBTQ+ people are treated in Japan. His growth, developed evenly across the series, is tinged with sadness, knowing that he could have experienced these feelings towards his brother, as well.
Mike’s presence also attracts attention from other people on their small town: a young boy struggling with his sexuality, who comes to Mike for advice; and a bigoted mother who forbids her daughter from visiting Kana, afraid that Mike will be a bad influence. These may seem like blunt story beats, but the show handles them deftly and delicately, a rarity in Japanese dramas, where subtlety is never a guarantee.
Performances
Ryuta Sato’s portrayal of Yaichi is excellent. Sato gives a soulful performance as a brother who remains guilty over not having made amends with his brother. His growing openness and trust in Mike — and in himself — are reflected in Sato’s acting, which becomes looser and more relaxed as the mini-series goes on.
The way that he demonstrates the emotions of someone who doesn’t change from being a latent homophobe to a proud ally in one moment, but step by step, is well-realized and convincing, making him easy to cheer for.
On the other side, we have his daughter Kana, played by Maharu Nemoto. Excitable and enthusiastic, she gives a strong performance, and it’s easy to see why her father begins to open up. Child actors can often be awkward, but Nemoto does very well in her role.
Mike is portrayed by Estonian former sumo wrestler Baruto Kaito. He easily embodies the kindness and sheer size of the character, and looks as though he has stepped out of the pages of the manga. Until the final episode, he is very much a side character — an influential one, but we rarely get a chance to see things from his perspective. This changes in the final episode, where we get more scenes from his perspective.
Kaito does a fine job of speaking Japanese in such a manner that one could believe that, while he studied Japanese at university, this is his first time in the country, and so is a little awkward at it (having lived in Japan for a long time, Kaito is doubtless fluent in real life). However, I must confessed I laughed a little when he spoke in English, and unfortunately his accent was quite far from Canadian!
Conclusion
This is an excellent series, with terrific performances from skilled actors that deftly portray a story of love, family, and the struggles of LGBTQ+ people in Japan, where sometimes whispers can be more oppressive than shouts. This is an easy recommendation.
