User:Kappanjoe/My Brother's Husband sandbox

Plot (Implemented)
Yaichi (弥一) is a stay-at-home single father, who lives with his daughter Kana (夏菜). Mike Flanagan (マイク・フラナガン Maiku Furanagan), a Canadian married to the late Ryōji (涼二) (Yaichi's estranged twin brother), rings Yaichi's doorbell. Mike has traveled to Japan in order to pay his respects to Yaichi and his family. Kana comes home from school to meet Mike, and is surprised to learn that not only did her father have an identical twin, but also that it was possible for him to marry another man in Canada. At first, Kana receives this news with intrigue, but Yaichi is not interested because of Mike's homosexuality. Kana immediately considers Mike as a member of the family, and insists that he stay with them for a while. Yaichi imagines outright rejecting the idea, but accepts anyway.

Yaichi and Kana adjust to living with someone from a different culture during Mike's stay. Yaichi begins to confront his old attitudes throughout the series as he learns more about Mike, as he learns about his brother Ryōji through Mike's experience being married to him, as he examines his own family structure, and as he observes the behaviors of other people.

Characters (Implemented)

 * Yaichi (弥一)
 * Yaichi is the protagonist of the story. He is a stay-at-home father, and is divorced from Kana's mother, Natsuki. He claims fault for he and Natsuki having divorced. He earns a living as the landlord of an apartment building left to him by his parents. His twin brother Ryōji recently died, so he begrudingly allows his late brother's husband Mike Flanagan to stay in his home while he comes to visit Japan to pay respects to Yaichi and his family.
 * As he imagines how he would react if his own daughter were gay, he decides that he would never reject her for that. However, he realizes that although he didn't reject his brother Ryōji in this way either, they still ended up becoming estranged from one another. This leads him to consider that silence itself could be interpreted as rejection, as opposed to vocal acceptance.


 * Kana (夏菜)
 * Kana is Yaichi's and Natsuki's daughter, and niece of Mike Flanagan and Ryōji. Until Mike Flanagan came to visit their home, she was unaware of his existence. She misses having her mother around at home full-time, but attempts to hide her loneliness from her father, prompting him to include her mother more in her life. As she and Mike spend more time together, she becomes very fond of him. One of Kana's friends at school ostracizes her because her mother perceives Mike as a "negative influence."


 * Mike Flanagan (マイク・フラナガン)
 * Mike Flanagan is the husband of Yaichi's deceased brother Ryōji. He comes to Japan to pay respects to Yaichi and his family. He and Ryōji met through a dating app, but Mike attests that it was at a party. At one point, a neighborhood kid seeks Mike out to confess his homosexuality, and Mike helps him reconcile with his sexual orientation.
 * Later in the story, Yaichi introduces Mike to a high school friend of Ryōji's, Katō. Katō, talking to Yaichi, refers to Mike as "Ryo-kun's... that." Mike and Katō later go to dinner together, and Katō confirms that he identifies as gay, but chooses to keep his sexual orientation a secret indefinitely. Mike becomes upset because of the lengths to which Katō went in order to keep his orientation secret, thinking to himself that secrets only lead to more secrets. Katō confesses to Mike that he held an unrequited love for Ryōji. As they part ways, Mike requests that he and Katō no longer speak to one another, even if they were to run into each other in person.


 * Ryōji (涼二)
 * Ryōji is the brother of Yaichi, and the deceased husband of Mike Flanagan. He died in an accident while living in Canada. After coming out as gay to his brother Yaichi when they were younger, their relationship became estranged. His friend from high school, Katō, visits Yaichi and returns some belongings that Ryōji lent him. He reveals to mike that he was Ryōji's only gay friend in high school.


 * Natsuki (なつき)
 * Natsuki is the ex-wife of Yaichi, and the mother of Kana. She appears periodically throughout the story. Although they are divorced, her relationship with Yaichi remains amicable. She points out to Yaichi that prejudice in Japan against homosexual people might exist, even if it is less visible than in other cultures.

Manga
The manga was serialized in Futabasha's seinen manga magazine Monthly Action starting in November 2014. It is licensed in North America by Pantheon Books, which published the first two volumes in an omnibus edition on May 2, 2017. The second two volumes will be released in an omnibus edition on September 18, 2018. The manga has also been licensed in France by Delcourt under its Akata label.

Live-action TV drama
A three-episode live-action adaptation of My Brother's Husband was announced in December 2017, and aired in March 2018. The series, which was directed by Teruyuki Yoshida and Yukihiro Toda, starred Ryuta Sato as Yaichi and Baruto Kaito as Mike, and appeared on NHK BS Premium.

Change Notes

 * Lengthened the existing "Plot" section
 * Added a "Characters" section
 * Compiled existing "Release" and "Media" sections
 * Considered adding a "Reception" section, but it already exists and contains plenty of reviews
 * Existing suggested sources (listed below) that were provided on the original article's talk page didn't have anything to add that wasn't already included (from what I could tell)

Sources (from original article's Talk page)

 * Some interviews in Japanese I found: Huffington Post, Kai-You, Konomanga, ITmedia.


 * Something about the first volume being reprinted: Buzzap. Opencooper (talk) 18:41, 10 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Thanks for sending these over. However, I don't speak Japanese. If there is anyone here who can read these and uses these sources accurately, please add them where appropriate. ISD (talk) 20:48, 10 June 2017 (UTC)