Saturday, October 29, 2022

Saturday Splash Page #44

 
"The Cleaner", in The Way of the Househusband vol. 1, chapter 6, by Kousuke Oono 

There's apparently a term to describe a series like Way of the Househusband: gap moe. Basically, that the series plays on the difference between what you expect based on appearances. I think that's pretty much all it does.

Tatsu is a yakuza legend, "The Immortal Dragon", who still basically dresses like it, minus his Shiba Inu apron. So while he does perfectly innocuous things like try to entertain a neighbor's kid, or sing "Happy Birthday" to his wife, it's presented as looking really intimidating or creepy. Oono often draws Tatsu with his head tilted at an odd angle, so that he peers down at people through dark sunglasses. He uses a different, scratchy font when Tatsu is speaking in what I assume is meant to be a threatening or creepy tone, even if he's just asking the door-to-door salesman if he can test these knives the guy's hawking.

That's basically the entire manga, Tatsu going about the business of being a househusband who talks like a former gangster while everyone else gets freaked out by him. To be clear, Tatsu's presented very devoted to the task and his wife. He's apparently pretty good at cleaning, baking, growing his own herb garden (which the cops assume is weed), being active in the community swap meet or yoga practice. It's just his way of speaking and acting unnerve people.

Oono added more former yakuza to the cast in later volumes, like a lady boss that now worked at a grocery store, but it's still basically the same gag. Her yelling you're not going to disrespect her by not getting your points card punched or whatever. I bought the first two volumes, but one was enough.

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