The Way of the Househusband Review – Netflix

For those of you who have interacted with the BAYOG crew, you know we are avid enjoyers of comedy, especially those comedies with overpowered or otherwise mighty characters in out of place scenarios like The Devil is A Part-Timer or The Hero Who Returned Remains the Strongest in the Modern World. Gokushufudo or The Way of the Househusband has been a favorite manga for the good Mindy and myself for this very reason, as it tracks the infamous yakuza, Tatsu “The Immortal Dragon” in his life as a civilian househusband to his loving office worker wife Miku. Complete with the little cat, Gin, his life as a househuband would appear to be the everyday dream, except for the fact he still has the look, feel, and aura of a yakuza.

The above screenshot is from our dear Tatsu making a desperate run to Miku to give her the bento she left at home. His suspicious attire and speed at which he was biking away drew the attention of the police and this encounter sets the tone for the entirety of Gokushufudo. The majority of this show is told in short 3-4 minute skits of such encounters with one off characters like shady door to door salesmen or recurring characters in the form of other law enforcement or former yakuza. One of the more entertaining of the cast in this category is Masa, Tatsu’s former junior in the family. Masa turns out to be quite an entertaining character who eventually decides to follow Tatsu once again as his sworn brother in the way of the househusband.

While they captured the tone, humor, and art of The Way of the Househusband, the animation in and of itself leaves very much to be desired. For those of you who follow comedy anime might be aware of a classic called Cromartie High School, another hilarious show but was only barely one step up from a slideshow. Gokushufudo does much of the same, in that it is essentially a series of stills, that are shaken to simulate movement and pans and rotations to make you think more was being animated. Besides the mouths, little more than a few items moved in the actual animation, with one such example being a knife being twirled which was clearly just a spinning animation over a static hand drawn and moved up and down. One of the most hilarious moments of the show where Tatsu gets a new member of the crew in the form of a Roomba is spoiled by it being a terrible CG animation.

Animation aside, the voice acting and audio was still entertaining in English and as I type this up I also have it playing dubbed. The low episode count (5) and duration (16-17 minutes each epi) make this a quick watch and will leave you wanting more Way of the Househusband in general, and I highly recommend reading the manga. However, I personally am going to be watching the live action with better and higher hopes than what this left me with. Its still a great animation with funny jokes and bits, and if you’d never read Gokushufudo before, I highly recommend. Just make sure you warn off anyone who may be a bit of an anime snob that the animation will leave you wanting. Overall I rank The Way of the Househusband a solid 7 pinkies cut off as punishment out of 10.