Manga Mavericks

I think our guest is a translator! Oh, who am I kidding? You already know he is! Leo McDonagh is a multimedia translator who's worked on innumerable projects, including two incredible standout queer manga, Okura’s heartwarming I Think Our Son is Gay and Keito Gaku’s empowering Boys Run the Riot! It’s a rare occasion that two remarkable and resonant queer manga such as these both come out within weeks of each other, much less sharing the same translator, and we really wanted to celebrate the occasion by spotlighting these works and getting Leo’s intimate insights on them! Leo shares his career journey as a translator, and his perspective on both series as their translator and as a gay transman who can appreciate and relate with both series in different ways. We talk in-depth about how both works explore and speak to real-world struggles queer youth face with optimism and encouragement, defying heteronormative social structures with community and validation, and how resonant and important these messages are