This manga is the spinoff of Don’t Call Me Dirty, which I’m struggling to get into. I read Don’t Call Me Daddy first because I was curious how a romance between two old men was gonna work out.

It just hooked me in first thing.

Don't Call Me Daddy by Gorou Kanbe
Series: Don't Call Me Dirty #2
Published by LOVE x LOVE on 1 June, 2020
Genre: Comedy, Contemporary, Graphic novels, LGBTQ+, M/M romance, Manga, Romance
# pages: 176
Source: Amazon
Goodreads
Rating: ★★★★★

Long before the events of Don't Call Me Dirty, Hanao Kaji and Ryuuji Mita were close friends...

When Ryuuji is left to raise his son Shouji as a single father, Hanao steps up to help him out. At first, their family life is happy and content, but Hanao's true feelings for Ryuuji become more and more difficult for him to ignore. The pressure of staying closeted eventually becomes too much to bear; Hanao leaves, choosing to run from his feelings and his fears of somehow "messing up" Shouji's life when he starts getting teased at school for having two dads.

Years later, when he comes home to care for his aging father and ends up advising Shouji on his blossoming relationship with Hama, Hanao realizes it's time to face his own past... and his future.

Overall thoughts + review

• I was excited by the cute premise of a young man having feelings for his best friend, with whom he was raising a child — like Two and a Half Men, they were roommates with a child, but if it weren’t a sitcom intended for heteronormative patriarchy.
• Then it time-jumped to two old dudes, and I was high-key disappointed because I didn’t understand where this manga was gonna go.
• But then it got fluffy! And I wholeheartedly enjoyed it.
• I read a few reviews after reading this, and I found some people pointing out that sex isn’t required in a relationship. There’s this ridiculous concept that you can’t be a gay ace or lesbian ace, etc. — that asexuality means you want zero romantic relationships, zero sex, etc. But…you have to acknowledge that Kaji was expressing his own needs in a relationship. He’s not asexual. He wants his BFF differently from just cohabiting a space. There was open, solid communication about his needs and wants out of this. It takes guts to speak up about that kind of thing, especially considering how homosexuality was potentially dangerous for them when they were younger and they’re in a whole other country.
• I really loved this manga, and I’m sad that it’s a one-shot.