REVIEW: ‘The Way of the Househusband,’ Season 2 Still Struggles

The Way of the Househusband Season 2 from J.C. Staff based on the manga, continues to chronicle the everyday misadventures of former yakuza strong man turned househusband Tatsu. Along with his wife Miku and his friend Masa, Tatsu delivers his own unique style of energy to everyday situations and challenges.

While the series presents its second season as 5 roughly 20-minute episodes, this is deceptive. Rather, each episode is made up of a string of smaller, unrelated episodes that are book-ended by credits. These mini-episodes have no connection to each other and give the series the same feeling as reading a series of comic strips from a newspaper. And much like that classic print media, The Way of the Househusband Season 2 rarely delivers anything more than some small doses of cuteness.

Hinging ultimately on Tatsu’s over-the-top reactions to everything that goes on around him, this series suffers from relying on the same joke over and over again. Something mundane happens, Tatsu grossly overreacts, a “funny” outcome ensues, rinse and repeat. While some moments elicit a minor chuckle here and there, they never actually manage to incite true laughter.

Despite the series’ overreliance on its main character’s single big gimmick, there are a few sequences that allow some of the show’s other characters to carry the spotlight. While their effectiveness isn’t much higher where the humor is concerned, the change-up allows reinvigorated energy to come in during the roughly hour and a half it takes to watch the entire season.

The only aspect that makes any ground against the largely failed humor is the show’s undeniable sweetness. Even when the laughs aren’t hitting, the viewer is treated to some charming moments that can warm the soul. From a flailing attempt to entertain a sick child at a hospital to helping their landlord pull weeds, Tatsu and his friends do deliver the bright side of humanity in many of these short-length stories.

The other place that the series fails to land on is its visuals. The animation throughout The Way of the Househusband Season 2 is minimalist at best. The lack of movement gives much of the series a feeling that is more akin to the old flash series I watched online in the early 2000s than professional animation today. While I overall didn’t care for this approach, but I can see what the creators were going for with it. It feels like they wanted to make some form of halfway point between manga and anime in an attempt to keep the adaptation true to its roots. However, in this case, I feel like it’s trying to cling to the wrong elements and hurting the final product.

The Way of the Househusband Season 2 delivers little to recommend. Its frantic pace and bite-sized, unconnected stories never allow anything of real interest to develop. Rather, it feels like the comedic equivalent of a shotgun blast. Firing tons of small jokes in the viewers’ direction, hoping something manages to hit the target. Sadly, little manages to accomplish that here.

The Way of the Househusband Season 2 is streaming now on Netflix.