The Way of the Househusband

The Way of the Househusband is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kousuke Oono. Published in the online manga magazine Kurage Bunch since 2018, The Way of the Househusband follows an ex-yakuza member who retires from crime to become a househusband. The series was adapted into a live-action television drama by Nippon TV in 2020.
An original net animation series produced by J.C.Staff was released from April to October 2021 on Netflix. A second season premiered in January 2023.

WWW kuragebunch.com/episode/1...𝕏 gokushufu_drama IG gokushufu_drama Fandom gokushufudou:Gokushufudou...

Synopsis

Tatsu, an infamous and feared yakuza boss nicknamed "the Immortal Dragon", retires from crime to become a househusband so that he can support Miku, his kyariaūman wife. The episodic series depicts a variety of comedic scenarios, typically wherein Tatsu's banal domestic work as a househusband is juxtaposed against his intimidating personality and appearance, and his frequent run-ins with former yakuza associates and rivals.

Characters

; Tatsu
; Miku
; Masa
; Torajirō
; Hibari Torii
; Gin
; Young Yakuza Lieutenant
; Chairperson
; Policemen
; Former Yakuza Boss
; Bob
; Gōda
; Koharu
; Yukari Ōmae
; Himawari

Media

Manga

The Way of the Househusband, written and illustrated by Kousuke Oono, was initially published on the Shinchosha's online manga magazine Kurage Bunch as a five chapter limited series from February 23 to March 23, 2018, but became popular enough to be serialized as an ongoing series, starting on May 18 of the same year. It has been collected into sixteen tankōbon volumes by Shinchosha.
In North America, Viz Media announced it had acquired the rights to publish an English-language translation of the series in February 2019, the first volume of which was published in September of that year.

Promotional videos

Multiple motion comic videos have been produced to promote the release of the series' tankōbon volumes. The videos feature Kenjiro Tsuda as the voice of Tatsu, Kenichi Suzumura as the voice of Masa, Yoshimasa Hosoya as the voice of Torajiro, and Subaru Kimura as the voice of G-Goda.
In December 2019, a live-action promotional video adapting scenes from The Way of the Househusband was produced to commemorate the series reaching 1.2 million copies in print. The video stars Tsuda reprising his role as Tatsu and Maaya Sakamoto as Miku, and is co-directed by Tsuda and Hayato Yazaki.

Television drama

On July 8, 2020, Nippon TV announced that it would adapt The Way of the Househusband into a live-action television drama, which premiered in October 2020. The series stars Hiroshi Tamaki as Tatsu, is produced by, and features as director and as screenplay writer.

Episodes

On July 29, 2021, Netflix announced that they would be releasing their own live-action adaptation special titled The Ingenuity of the Househusband. This special was released on August 29, 2021, starring Kenjiro Tsuda as himself, who previously voiced Tatsu in the anime adaptation and manga promotional videos.

Anime

At the Netflix Anime Festival on October 26, 2020, an original net animation anime series adaptation of The Way of the Househusband was announced. The series is produced by J.C.Staff and directed by Chiaki Kon, with Susumu Yamakawa handling the series' scripts. Kenjiro Tsuda reprised his role as Tatsu from the manga promotional videos. The series was released on April 8, 2021. A second part of the series was released on October 7, 2021. The opening theme is "Shufu no Michi", while the ending theme is "Gokushufukaidō", both performed by Uchikubigokumon-Dōkōkai. A second season was announced at the Netflix Tudum Japan event on September 25, 2022. It premiered on January 1, 2023.

Episodes

Season 1 (2021)

Season 2 (2023)

Film

On November 3, 2021, Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan announced a live-action film set to be released on Summer 2022, with Tōichirō Rutō returning as director. Hiroshi Tamaki, Haruna Kawaguchi, Jun Shison, Tamaki Shiratori, Naoto Takenaka, Izumi Inamori, Kenichi Takitō, Yūta Furukawa, Junpei Yasui, Tina Tamashiro, Megumi, and Michiko Tanaka will also return as their characters from the television drama. On February 24, 2022, it was revealed that Kōtarō Yoshida as Kondō, Yumi Adachi as Shiraishi-sensei, Marika Matsumoto as Koharu, Kenta Izuka as Yamamoto, Tomoko Fujita as Katō, Kunito Watanabe as Kazuma and Yua Shinkawa as Kasumi joined the cast.

Reception

Critical reception

The Way of the Househusband has been positively received by critics. Reviewing the first volume of the series for Polygon, writer Julia Lee called The Way of the Househusband "the perfect blend of comedy and action" and "a nice, silly pick-me-up manga." Anime News Network gave the series 4.5 out of 5 stars, calling it "confident and expertly paced, with gorgeous artwork and perfect comic timing." Conversely, Reuben Baron of Comic Book Resources summarized the series as having a "cute premise, but not one with a ton of variation," though he offered praise for the quality of its art.
The anime series, while originally highly anticipated, was heavily criticized for its limited animation, which resembled a motion comic rather than anime. Meanwhile, in the Chinese version which was released on bilibili, the tattoos were completely removed due to television censorship in China.

Sales

By December 2019, The Way of the Househusband had 1.2 million copies in print. In Oricon's sales rankings, the first volume of The Way of the Househusband had sold 95,637 copies by September 2018, while the second volume had sold 143,051 copies by January 2019. The first volume of the English-language translation of the series placed sixteenth in Nielsen BookScan's best-selling graphic novels for adults in September 2019.

Awards