PRIDE MONTH 2024! Despite constant pushback from non-progressive elements, there’s been a forward momentum to the concepts of gay marriage and equality in the law in many countries in recent decades. It’s important, though, to acknowledge that official recognition of same-sex relationships is something that remains a long way off for many queer couples. Yuta Yagi’s Why I Adopted My Husband is a fascinating look at this issue from the perspective of two gay men in a relationship in Japan where gay marriage is not legally recognised. Touching on themes also covered in Gengoroh Tagame’s My Brother’s Husband it explores a loophole in the law that allows queer couples to become legally connected by one of them adopting the other.
This 128-page manga volume is a complete entity in itself and consists of twenty short strips about the lives of creator Yagi and his partner Kyota. Despite there being only a few months difference in their ages Kyota is forced to adopt Yuta to ensure that certain legal rights are in place that wouldn’t be otherwise – inheritance, for example, or the autonomy to make medical decisions on behalf of each should the need arise.
Why I Adopted My Husband is presented as a series of interconnected but often self-contained episodes that begin with the background information of how Yuta and Kyota met at a Comiket comic market. In addition to exploring the legalities that are positively affected by the adoption process Yagi also provides commentary on having to come out to family because of the registration changes in their statuses, erroneous presumptions that their sexuality was an accepted secret, parental reactions, and the advantages that adoption provides in effectively allowing them to live as couple without announcing it in a society that is still extremely judgemental.
Each strip contains informational asides and the volume is interspersed with short essays giving extra context to events. Yagi’s cartooning is busy and full of energy, with a sliding scale of realism adeptly suited to capture different emotional extremes. There’s a kind of fantasy comedy here that can slip into sequences to great effect. A discussion about the adoption with his father turning into a video game metaphor, for example.
Why I Adopted My Husband is about the joyousness of the couple’s relationship and yet there’s a sadness inherent in the idea that the pair have to continually find ways to adapt and work around their partnership that in an ideal world they shouldn’t have to. Yagi’s afterword statement that “this book was not made with the intention to endorse or promote same-sex marriage” may come as disappointing to some readers but it still remains an extremely interesting look into the realities of life as a queer couple in Japan.
Yuta Yagi (W/A), Katie Kimura (T) • Tokyopop
Review by Andy Oliver
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