Friday, March 17, 2023

FIF#183-The Way of the House Husband

Legend tells of a powerful Yakuza boss known as “The Immortal Dragon”.  When he suddenly retired and vanished, many feared the worst.  No one could imagine the truth: Tatsu, the Immortal Dragon…has found a new profession as a “House Husband”.  He’s a loyal partner to his wife, Miku; an expert cook; and somehow he is still one of the deadliest men on the streets.  But those hands once used for killing now serve his house and his house alone…this is the Way of the House Husband.
 
I’m just gonna get this out of the way right now, this is one of the best first episodes Ive ever looked at for First Impression Friday.  No joke, I had no idea what to expect going into it but this title was recommended to me long ago by a good friend and I’d been waiting for a chance to check it out.  Well, sixteen minutes later I think I can safely say I just watched the first episode of one of the funniest, feel good Anime I think I’ve ever seen.  Just…wow…holy crap I’m kind of speechless and I cant remember the last time I opened a First Impression of all things just rambling like this.  Guess I should talk about what makes Way of the House Husband such a hilarious success right out of the gate.
 
First off, the animation style.  This isn’t your traditionally animated Anime.  House Husband takes a very comic book, or rather Manga style in this case, approach to its hilarious storytelling.  But unlike some Anime that would just have narraration or sound effects over a long panning shot of a single still (like how Record of Lodoss War worked around a lot of its epic battle scenes), there’s just as much movement as you’d see in a regular show.  The end result is a near flawless marriage of Manga and Anime in a way that really helps this show stand out.  It also makes the humor works all the more with the added sound effect blubs and just the fun way Tatsu’s demeanor can change from menacing to strangely sweet even if there isn’t much difference.  It also helps that each episode is made up of several mini stories that are only a couple minutes long each, so the animation style makes everything digestible and nothing overstays its welcome
 
As for the titular House Husband (his self proclaimed title profession), Tatsu is freaking great.  The more I watched him on screen, the more I saw Tatsu as an Anime equivalent to John Wick (before the revenge spree).  He’s a retired Yakuza Boss who is weirdly both capable and incapable of adapting to civilian life, much less the life of a stay at home husband.  But the dude is committed, I’ll give him that.  The dude will go above and beyond for any simple task from shopping to cooking to getting a birthday gift for his incredibly hot and overworked wife, Miku.  Honestly, the moment that had me laughing myself to death was when Tatsu discovers Miku already has a birthday present he’d gotten for her…and his response is to try and sever his own finger as punishment (only for Miku to punch him out of the room). 
 
Oh man, this is great and I owe my friend a huge thanks for turning me onto this one.  As I said, each episode of Way of the House Husband is only 17 minutes long with a bunch of story segments rolled in.  So it’s easily something I can either binge straight through or jump back to from time to time.  If you think youre life is a bit of a hassle, rest assured, Tatsu’s got all of us beat trying to be the best House Husband possible.  And man when your wife looks as good as Miku, you’d better put in the extra effort.  Also, I did not expect a show with this title to have that awesome of a theme song…even if it takes up a sizeable bit of the episodes runtime, it still slaps and is worth multiple listens.

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