English Dub Review: The Way of the Househusband Season One

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Tatsu is a former yakuza and he’s a househusband now. He goes about his days learning recipes and going to market with his points card. However he’s not just any ordinary yakuza, he’s the Immortal Dragon who single-handedly beat up ten offices of his rival group in a single night before vanishing. He loves his wife, Miku, and protects his turf in his own way. His daily life gets more exciting as former friends and enemies find him again.

Our Take:

The Way of the House Husband is a short five-episode series of the manga. Each episode has six short episodes of Tatsu’s day with other characters. There isn’t a specific order, but the stories are all entertaining enough to continue. The opening is intense and not quite what I expected from a comedy and slice-of-life anime, but it does fit his yakuza demeanor. There are occasional nods to Tatsu’s work as a house husband with the cute lunches and coupons. The ending was similar to the cat walking in the sunset while the guitar plays in the background.

The anime doesn’t even do the bare minimum of what you would expect from an anime. The only movement you see is the transitions, the character’s mouths moving, and the characters move when the scene calls for it. It’s quite disappointing to see the series’s animation like this. It’s like watching a colored slideshow of the manga with voices included. However, the voice acting was good and fit the characters well. Tatsu’s voice actor, Jonah Scott portrays Tatsu’s intimidating demeanor well. The character designs are unique and have a bit of a variety. Tatsu wearing that apron over his suit was cute with the mismatch of his intimidating demeanor.

The anime shows the daily struggles of Tatsu from cleaning the apartment to the madness of a bargain sale. However, half the time the episodes are a hit or a miss when it comes to enjoying the comedy. Those conflicts are minor and easily solved within the short episode. The short episode length makes it easier to digest some of the duller parts of the episodes, but the show lacks a longer conflict to keep me interested.

Tatsu’s intimidating demeanor causes a few misunderstandings for people that don’t know him, but it works well. He takes his experiences and mannerisms from being a yakuza and applies them to his life as a househusband like his cleaning and knife skills. Speaking of his knife skills, his cooking makes me hungry with how amazing it looks. Another example is Tatsu casually mentioning what the yoga poses remind him of in his old yakuza days. Additionally, he uses a metal briefcase to transport his wife’s lunch and refers to the chairperson of his neighborhood committee as Boss Lady. The car shopping episode offers a glimpse into the dangers of his former occupation with Tatsu’s paranoia. Admittedly it makes me more curious about how long he was in the business and how he got out.

On the other hand, he picks up a hoarding habit, and later he has to sell his goods at the flea market. He picks up minor things like DIY and sewing as a househusband which helps in his run-in with old friends and enemies. The duality makes his character interesting in how he’s settling in the normalcy of his neighborhood.

His wife, Miku is a normal lady who works as a designer. She’s also a horrible cook and decorator. Her hobby for the anime Policure is confusing for the former yakuza, but Tatsu tries to make her happy. He even goes as far as wearing a cute Policure apron that is obviously too small for him at the mall. On the downside there’s isn’t much we know about her. Other than the fact that she’s has parents and that she’s got the strength to pummel Tatsu out the window. If the anime continues I hope they flesh her character out a bit more. It would be better than watching their cat, Gin going out on adventures.

Tatsu’s love for his wife is cute like when he proudly states that nothing makes him happier than when his wife is smiling because of a toy he won at a market stamp rally. Admittedly I’m curious about how they met and how he fell in love with her despite his bloody occupation. One scene implies that they met around the time he single-handedly beat up ten offices of his rival group in a night. However, that brief image isn’t enough to fill in the gap of their relationship. Miku’s nickname for him is cute though. Any interaction between them is wholesome and funny. The cockroach episode was a riot for me on how it ended.

Then there are the yakuza from Tatsu’s former life. A former rival and minor members of different yakuza bring different moments in the episodes. For example, Tatsu bumps into a yakuza while going to a bargain sale and wraps them up in the madness. That episode ends up as a heartwarming one surprisingly enough. His rival gets out of jail and runs a crepe stand. They have a food duel and post their delicious dishes on social media. It’s intense and a little funny on how serious they are about it.

Even when a member of his group comes looking for him to return to the group. However, the guy realizes that Tatsu found a place to belong to with the housewives and their normal world. It’s interesting how the two worlds intersect in the anime with these short encounters. Looking back it’s interesting that Miku only interacts with Masa, Tatsu’s junior member from his yakuza days when it’s Tatsu’s birthday.

Overall it was nice to see the characters get voices. However, the animation could have been more animated, and the comedic moments are either a hit or a miss. If there’s going to be more, I hope they explore more about Tatsu’s past and his relationship with Miku.