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Main Characters
Yaichi Origuchi
Click to see Yaichi in the TV drama
Played in the TV drama by: Ryuta Sato
A single dad raising his daughter Kana in his old family house, in the urban area of Tokyo. Twin brother to Ryoji and ex-husband to Natsuki.
- Ambiguously Gay: He and Mike share a couple of scenes with blatant Homoerotic Subtext. This might also explain why his marriage to Natsuki didn't work out, and why he cannot explain what "loving each other" means.
- Amicable Exes: With Natsuki, to the point that Mike wonders why they divorced.
- Character Development: During Mike's stay in Japan, he learns to let go of his latent homophobia, stand up for his brother-in-law, make amends with the memory of his brother and accept Mike into his family.
- Fanservice: While Justified and with Censor Steam in full effect, in a pair of scenes we get to see his fit, muscular body in good detail.
- Good Parents: He devotes his life to Kana, and in return she adores him.
- Happily Married: Averted, before the divorce he and Natsuki used to argue a lot.
- House Husband: He is bringing up Kana at home after the divorce, which he feels a bit of an inferiority complex about.
- Imagine Spot: Several, about what he really wants to say or what he fears might happen. He does eventually go through with his thoughts in order to defend Kana and Mike in front of the girl's teacher.
- Jerkass Realization: He finally realises that Ryoji's behaviour hadn't really changed after he came out, it was himself that drove his brother away by being cold and distant.
- Promotion to Parent: He took care of Ryoji after their parents' death.
- Supreme Chef: Despite his constant belittling of himself, every character who tastes his cooking wastes no words in extolling his abilities (and the food looks indeed really nice in the artwork).
- Unable to Cry: He wasn't able to cry at his parents' funeral, and he wasn't either when he got news of his brother's death.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Both with Natsuki and Mike, though nothing comes out of it.
Mike Flanagan
Click to see Mike in the TV drama
Played in the TV drama by: Baruto Kaito (Kaido Höövelson)
A Canadian man and Ryoji's husband, he comes to Japan to visit his family-in-law after Ryoji tragically dies.
- The Bear: Mike is a stout, hairy man who fulfils all the stereotypes of this gay subculture.
- Beneath the Mask: When he opens up in more intimate situations, it becomes clear how much Ryoji's death has left him in grief.
- Big Beautiful Man: In the TV drama, where he is less muscular and more plump.
- Big Fun: More muscular than fat, but definitely a truckload of energy.
- Cool Uncle: Full stop!
- Courteous Canadian: Mike is super nice and polite while he's in Japan and apologizes a lot, befitting of the "Canadians are nice" stereotype. That said, he doesn't talk in any stereotypical Canadian way though that's mostly because he's speaking Japanese most of the time.
- Cry into Chest: When he comes home late and drunk, he mistakes Yaichi for Ryoji, falls on the futon on top of him, and tearfully asks him why did he had to die while enacting this trope.
- Fanservice: More so than Yaichi, he is seen in all of his naked glory from the back in a shower scene, and frontal (with a towel covering his nether regions) during the Hot Springs Episode.
- Fiery Redhead: In the TV drama.
- Friend to All Children: He instantly takes a liking to Kana, which she openly reciprocates, and goes along well with her friends.
- The Glomp: Does this to Yaichi at their first meeting, to Yaichi's embarrassment.
- Gratuitous English: Being Canadian, he is prone to this. Obviously Averted in the English translation.
- Happily Married: With Ryoji, before his death.
- Manly Gay: A hairy, muscular guy who lifts weights, doesn't act effeminate, and insists, to Kana's Innocently Insensitive query, that both he and Ryoji were "husbands" in the marriage.
- Manly Tears: In his Cry into Chest moment.
- Mentor in Queerness: He ends up playing this role towards Kazuya.
- No Sense of Personal Space: He appears like this to Yaichi, being very prone to hugs and such. However, it's more a case of Culture Clash given Japan's more reserved attitude towards personal contact.
- Occidental Otaku: He speaks Japanese fluently and is very interested in Japanese culture. It's implied that this is how Ryoji and he first met.
- Parental Substitute: Towards Kana, despite both of her parents being alive and very much caring (even if Natsuki has very little time to spend with her).
- He also helps Kazuya in coming to terms with his homosexuality, establishing a friendship with the young boy.
- Settle for Sibling: Ultimately averted, but Yaichi's exact resemblance to Ryoji sometimes creates embarrassment between him and Mike.
Kana Origuchi
Click to see Kana in the TV drama
Played in the TV drama by: Maharu Nemoto
Yaichi and Natsuki's young daughter.
- Beneath the Mask: Despite her cheerful exterior, she still betrays some hurt from her parents' fights before the divorce, and once confides to Mike that she would like to be with her mother more often.
- Genki Girl: Oh boy. The kid's a ball of energy, all the time.
- Innocently Insensitive: She is this all the time, with her innocently curious questions about the nature of gayness.
Yaichi's family and friends
Natsuki Hirata
Played in the TV drama by: Yuri Nakamura
Yaichi's ex-wife and Kana's mother, she nonetheless tries to be present in her daughter's life as much as she can.
- Amicable Exes: With Yaichi: she sometimes spends the night at his house, and they go on a two-day holiday with Kana and Mike in the Hot Springs Episode.
- Good Parents: She definitely is one too, despite her very limited time off-work.
- Married to the Job: She literally defines herself as this.
- No Longer with Us: Between her photo in Yaichi's house being from when Kana was still a baby and unfortunate word choices by Kana while telling Mike about her, the first few chapters make it look like she is dead, to the point that Mike gets the idea as well. When Natsuki shows up very much alive to Mike's surprise, she correctly guesses that the photo had something to do with it.
- Only Sane Man: Downplayed, but Natsuki easily waves away Yaichi's worries about his relationship with Mike and his fears about not being a good parent to Kana.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: There are shades of this between her and Yaichi, but more one-sided on her part.
Ryoji Origuchi
Played in the TV drama by: Ryuta Sato
Yaichi's twin brother. After they lost their parents, he came out to Yaichi and grew progressively distant from him, until emigrating to Canada fifteen years before. There, he fell in love with and married Mike, before passing away.
- Bury Your Gays: He died a month before Mike's arrival in Japan.
- Dead Person Conversation: Yaichi has a couple of imaginary conversations with him through the reflection in the bathroom mirror.
- The Faceless: Downplayed Trope—being Yaichi's identical twin, we don't "need" to see his face to know what it looks like. Near the end we finally see some photos on Mike's tablet, but flashbacks throughout the story only show him silhouetted or from behind, while Yaichi has a few imaginary conversations with his reflection.
- The Man in the Mirror Talks Back: There are a couple of fantasy sequences where Yaichi's reflection in the bathroom mirror talks to him as Ryoji.
- Posthumous Character: His passing is what drives Mike to make the trip to Japan at last.
- Sorry, I'm Gay: Not towards a seduction attempt, but his coming out to Yaichi when the latter pesters him about his love life can count as this trope.
- Supreme Chef: Just like his brother, according to Mike.
Katoyan ("Kato")
Played in the TV drama by: Tohru Nomaguchi
Yaichi and Ryoji's former classmate. He was Ryoji's only gay friend during their youth, and still keeps his homosexuality a secret from everybody.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Confesses to Mike that he had a crush on Ryoji, who never got to discover.
- Armoured Closet Gay
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: Ryoji's, again.
Kana's friends and their families
Yuki Shinohara
Played in the TV drama by: Nanaka Hirao
Kana's best friend, the school's library helper.
- Bookworm: She volunteers at the school library and gives Kana a copy of Romeo and Juliet she just read.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Belittles Tomo's intelligence non-stop, but she is very clever and loves hearing Mike's stories about people marrying who they love.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Yuki is this, being able to autonomously realise that homosexual couples aren't different from straight couples and definitely not a "bad influence", despite what her mother might (or might not) have said.
- It helps, too, that she read Romeo and Juliet - which definitely isn't a children's book - on her own. Granted, it might have been a simplified version, but still...
Yuki's mother
Played in the TV drama by: Asako Kobayashi
She briefly shows up when Yaichi goes grocery shopping, nervously acknowledging him then leaving.
- Ambiguous Situation: Invoked: did she really tell Yuki that Mike is a bad influence, or was she misquoted? Her nervousness towards Yaichi in her brief appearance seems to prove the former.
- Straw Character: She serves to illustrate Japan's latent attitude towards the LGBT+ population, and for Yaichi to question himself about his role as the parent of a potentially homosexual daughter.
Tomoya "Tomo" Ogawa
Played in the TV drama by: TBA
Yuki and Kana's male friend.
- The Chew Toy: Is on the receiving end of Yuki's continuous volley of insults.
- Two Girls and a Guy: His two best friends are Kana and Yuki.
Kazuya Ogawa
Played in the TV drama by: Kika Kobayashi
Tomo's fifteen-year-old older brother. After Tomo tells his family about Kana's gay uncle, Kazuya tries to meet up with him to discuss his sexuality.
- Coming-Out Story: The subplot relating to him, who is inspired by Mike's presence in the neighbourhood to come out and adopt him as a mentor.
- Gayngst: Well. Sadly, Mike tells Yaichi that poor Kazuya will have to endure more of this, despite having just revealed his secret to the two of them.
- Luminescent Blush: When Mike asks him if he fancies one of his friends. Mike takes this as a "yes" answer.
- Stalker without a Crush: He misses class and loiters around Yaichi's house to try and meet Mike. He is first seen by Natsuki, and later gets caught by Yaichi.
