If you were to look back into the past and see yourself going through the most difficult moments of your life, what would you think? What would you like to say to yourself to reassure yourself?
What Ryousuke Nanasaki does in his novel (and the manga of the same name) Until I meet my husband it’s really a retrospective of the life he lived – starting from childhood to adulthood – as a gay man in the early 2000s in Japan. Nanasaki looks behind him and retraces the pain, the small progress, the rejections and the successes he experienced before becoming the person he is today: a man proud of his identity and his sexuality.
The search for “normality”
Ryousuke Nanasaki was born in Hokkaido, a fascinating region in northern Japan rich in natural beauty, but very far – geographically and metaphorically – from the lively life of the largest metropolis in the world, Tokyo, famous for its eccentricity and modernity.
The story of Until I meet my husband it starts right from school, the first place where Nanasaki comes face to face with the world, with each other. Between games and recreations, however, Nanasaki has all eyes on you.
“Don’t stand there playing puppets with the females!”
His male companions shout, mocking him. Soon the teasing increases, leading to a not at all pleasant escalation. It is one day in particular that radically changes the perception that little Ryousuke had of himself.
«So, do you think Nanasaki is a fagot? Why do you call it that? I think he is absolutely a child normal»
Here it is. It’s that very word, normal, which causes Nanasaki’s heart to sink. Is it possible that he isn’t normal? But he feels like the others, he sees himself like the others, what would be abnormal about him?
«I started to think I was strange. Of having something wrong”
Trapped in this constant sense of confusion and estrangement, Ryosuke spends his childhood and adolescence in limbo. Full of rejection for his sexual identity, seeking approval and acceptance from his peers. An adolescence in search of normality but marked by profound unhappiness. But, despite these difficulties, Ryousuke manages to see the light once he moves to the eclectic Tokyo, where he will discover how much easier it will be for him to embrace that side of himself that he has always kept hidden.
Between unrequited love, adolescent crises and experiences that he would never have imagined he would live through, Ryousuke tells us step by step about his life and his growth. In the name of an ever greater self-awareness, combined with a pride in one’s sexuality, his search for happiness and true love accompanies us throughout all the pages of the work.
A difficult path
Ryousuke’s story certainly has a happy ending, but his has been a bumpy and not always easy path to undertake.
The difficulties that Ryousuke tells us about are primarily of a sentimental and romantic nature, but are always closely linked to the pressing judgment of society. Whether it is through unrequited love or difficult coming out, what the reader gets is always the enormous effort that people from the LGBTQI+ community have to make to be accepted by the rest of the world. As if their simple existence must pass under the control and scrutiny of the rest of society.
In a constant struggle between hiding one’s identity at the bottom of a drawer and freeing oneself as quickly as possible from the constraints imposed.
What shines through most, especially in the novel, is precisely this difficulty constant that the queer people they had (and must) face to be accepted. Ryousuke tells us this well, not only through his personal life but also through that of people close to him.
«While I was talking to Kenji, I imagined the scene of the two of us going back in a time machine.or in middle school and we hugged our past selves tightly, reassuring them.”it will all be fine”. Of course, we couldn’t go out of our way and tell them that a bright future awaited them. For that we need to make further progress.”
His activist work makes Ryousuke a effective narratora real megaphone for the people who share his hardships every day. Inconveniences due to Japanese culture and societystill very closed on issues of social rights, together with its judicial system. In fact, what inspired Ryosuke to write this novel was his revolutionary act of legally joining his partner. Thanks to a ceremony and a private – but still official – partnership contract, the couple confirmed their dream of being able to call each other each other’s husband.
Furthermore, in 2015, Ryousuke and her husband founded the Onlus LGBT Community Edogawa which offers various activities for the local community. By increasingly increasing its members, it has managed to achieve very important goals. In 2019, thanks to a petition delivered to the Edogawa administration, the non-profit organization managed to make some municipal properties accessible to homosexual couples. Furthermore, in the same prefecture, the system came into force on April 1st partnership.
Between novel and comic
The project of Until I meet my husband was lucky enough to enjoy enormous success. This allowed the novel to be published as a manga published by Star Comics. Nanasaki’s story is brought to life by the pen of Yoshi Tsukizukian author who had already ventured into the genre of boys love.
His very simple style with delicate but incisive features meets perfectly with Nanasaki’s narration. The drawing like this clear and delicate brings the protagonists of Ryousuke’s life story to life, making his tale even more vivid and moving
The advice, however, is to combine reading the manga with that of the novel. If, in fact, the manga has as its strong point the emotional impact given by the visual representation of the story, the novel turns out more thorough and detailed. Be careful, this doesn’t mean a more boring read, far from it.
The reading is smooth, delicate and often funny. From the author’s words the emotion that lies behind the su fully shines through
or story. Furthermore, Nanasaki manages to balance bitterest moments to funny jokesthen arriving at the very sweet conclusion in which he talks about the beautiful wedding ceremony and the activity of the non-profit organization.
What makes the two works so enjoyable is the simple and sincere language of a man who lays himself bare in front of readers. This very intimate narrative style it conveys a sense of familiarity with the author, allowing us to empathize even more with his experience. The book becomes a sort of diary in which the author’s memories join streams of consciousness and reflections on love, loneliness and society.
In short, we recommend a 360-degree reading experience in order to fully appreciate the personal story of a man who fought for the right of many people to achieve the happiness they desired.
«The contempt I felt towards myself and my homosexuality had left me with quite a bit of suffering and unrequited love, but by proceeding along the path I had taken, even though the journey was considerably longer, in the end I managed to reach happiness. With this I don’t want to praise my successes, but to point out that even a person like me can do it. Now I’m here to shout to the world my immense happiness (…) My wish is that this book can instill at least a little hope, security and self-confidence in all readers who feel the way I felt at the time »
#INBREVE
A cry of hope, between activism and love
The sweetness mixed with realism of the story of Ryousuke Nanasaki, gay activist and founder of a wedding planning agency, sends a message of hope for all people in the LGBTQI+ community. A delicate and sincere novel that finds a perfect representation in the manga of the same name illustrated by Yoshi Tsukizuki.
Tags: manga adaptation, activism, LGBTIAQ+ activists, boy’s love, short novel, manga chapter, LGBTIAQ+ community, homosexual couple, Edogawa, LGBTIAQ+, manga, marriage, romance, romantic, novel, Ryousuke Nanasaki, star comics, tokyo, Until I meet my husband
