Review by Ian Keogh

Kousuke Oono’s covers really sell the series premise. Tatsu, or the Immortal Dragon as he’s known to some, is a former Yakuza gangster who’s renounced his previous life and has settled down with his partner Miku to become a househusband while she works. The covers are an ideal mixture of a potentially dangerous man in a domestic situation.

The nine stories supplied in The Way of the Househusband 1 all followed the theme of simmering tension supplied by the threat of explosion when a lethal man encounters domestic problems, and that’s the route followed here, except more imaginatively. A supporting cast introduced in the first volume are more proactively used, and the humour is more expansive. Encounters with other gangsters are now based on reputation only, an example being a chapter in which Tatsu is trying to sell some goods at the junk market. When the local thugs start demanding protection money from others Oono has Tatsu innocently try to sell them household goods that they interpret as threats, but they’re not going to mess with his fearsome reputation. Masa, the gangster he persuaded to reform in the first volume is seen several times, once taken to task for not sorting his washing before putting it in the machine.

Oono accentuates the comedy by always having Tatsu inappropriately dressed for a gangster, his apron or tracksuit featuring daft cartoon animals, as per the sample art of him attending an aerobics class. While not quite as obsessive about reality as Jiro Taniguchi, Oono is an incredibly precise artist who supplies some gorgeously drawn locations even if they are everyday sights. That, of course, would only be in Japan, and the English language translations deliver a slightly exotic beauty.

Other funny chapters concern Tastsu always alert to danger, and there’s a brilliantly heartwarming story about him just going out and tossing a baseball around with his father in law. What’s obvious, but unsaid is how this was something the young Tatsu never experienced with his own father. It’s charmingly followed up in the short stories following the main collection.

These again open with the activities of Gin the household cat and conclude with a look at some current gangsters in a ridiculous situation.

This is a far stronger selection than the first volume, with Oono seeing more possibilities and having a better idea of Tatsu’s priorities. The Way of the Househusband 3 delivers another nine episodes.