The Way of the Househusband, Vol. 2 by Kousuke Oono
Series Name: The Way of the House Husband
Genres: Comedy, Contemporary, Slice of Life
Intended Age Group: Older Teen
Publisher: Viz
Edition: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-9747-1044-7
Rating: 3.5/5
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Description from the Book
The legendary yakuza “the Immortal Dragon” has washed his hands of the gangster life for something far more dangerous – becoming a househusband! Cleaning, laundry, grocery, shopping, cooking… These days he’s doing everything he can to succeed as man of the house, if it doesn’t kill him first! The cozy yakuza comedy continues!
Personal & Info
I’m learning Japanese with a phone app, and only recently started on it. I have designated days where I MUST work on blog related things, even if it’s just reading without actually posting anything. The day I read this, I was addicted to my Japanese app and had to make myself stop. Thankfully, this book is funny enough that I was giggling after the first couple pages. That made it so much easier to tear myself away from my phone for a while to get stuff done.
Characters
Tatsu and his wife Miku are the primary characters for each volume, but mostly Tatsu.
Masa will probably be making constant appearances. He doesn’t seem to do much aside from be amazed by Tatsu.
Tatsu spends his free time with a group of housewives. They will probably be frequent characters as a group. None of them have any names as of yet.
Story & Thoughts
I don’t think this one is quite as funny as the first volume. The book is still slice of life stories, but I don’t think they hit quite the same. They still make me giggle a little, so it earns a three and a half instead of just a three.
Tatsu is teaching Masa some househusband skills, which he doesn’t seem entirely interested in. That leads to some funny moments as Tatsu gets intense about subjects and Masa is just like, whatever bro. I think he appreciates the usefulness of the skills, but not necessarily the doing them himself part.
This volume shows how unreasonable some of Tatsu’s criteria for making simple choices is. He blows things out of proportion due to his background, because he wants everything to be safe to an unreasonable extent. I’m not sure how Miku puts up with it.
The in-laws come for a visit. The ones from Miku’s side of the family. I find it surprising they approve of Tatsu. Most parents would probably be appalled if their daughter brought home a gang member, retired or not.
I love how well Tatsu gets along with the other housewives. Obviously, they think he’s a little strange, but they seem fond of him. The parts where he does activities with them are some of the best parts of this volume, in my opinion.