One of the most legendary Yakuza alive has gone into hiding, but not on an island, or bunker.
No, Tatsu AKA The Immortal Dragon has found the perfect role to retire from the criminal underworld into obscurity: stay-at-home husband, or as a Househusband. Hilarity ensues throughout each episode of this series as Tatsu’s gangster skillsets overlap surprisingly well with that of a homemaker.
On the surface simple, and easy for anyone to enjoy, The Way of the Houshusband (TWotH) has a surprising amount of depth, and will endear you with its slick mixture of action and humor.
It makes for a great starter anime series for newcomers, as well as light fare for the more experienced anime crowd. Its source material is still in print.
What’s the Manga for The Way of the Househusband?
The original manga, first published in 2018, is called 極主夫道 or Gokushufudō. It’s both written and illustrated by Kousuke Oono, and has been a regular feature of Kurage Brunch magazine since its first run.
It has been published into eight volumes in Japanese, but only one volume has been translated into English as of this writing. It’s also worth mentioning that the manga has one of the greatest author notes of all time.
The formatting and story telling pace of a serialized publication reflects in the show which takes eighteen minutes and divides it into four episodes rather than two.
Why is The Way of the Househusband Good?
While you could cite a variety of different reasons, there are two major reasons TWotH succeeds as a show.
Formatting – The Strength of Short Episodes
The Way of the House Husband being formatted into four smaller stories within eighteen minutes makes the show much more palpable for new audiences. If there’s an episode that just isn’t hitting it’s over quick, and there’s a good chance the next one wins them over.
Episodes start with Tatsu and Miku, but quickly involve old friends and foes, and even follow the perspective of their pet cat Gin who gets into her own brand of mischief while out and about in the neighborhood. Overall, the short stories within each episode help to save the tempo from any low notes.
Committing to the Bit
The other major strength of the show (and something that all forms of media can learn from) is that it doesn’t try to be something its not. Tatsu isn’t a character foil for toxic masculinity or a statement about the difficulty of housework.
His character, and the situations he finds himself in are the results of the thought experiment, “What if a gangster’s skillset perfectly overlapped with that of a house-husband?” There’s nothing wrong with having a message in your media, but often these messages are ham-fisted into dialogue rather than gradually revealed through actions, and outcomes.
For example, here’s how that “violence isn’t the way to protect what’s precious to you” scene referenced earlier in this post played out.
Where Can I Watch Way of the Househusband?
The English animated series was developed by Netflix, and is currently available only on the Netflix streaming platform. It was released in two “seasons” but is only listed as one on the platform.
There are 10 episodes that can fly by in the course of an evening, but the good news is that they hold up on the rewatch.
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