I normally don’t write reviews, but I am now because this anime is getting a lot of unnecessary hate. This anime has a clear vision on what it wants to accomplish, and accomplishes it. It’s a short and sweet comedy about a former legendary yakuza member who now works as a house-husband. It’s funny, it’s entertaining, and I had a great time watching it. The characters are simple yet memorable. The voice acting is phenomenal, and this is by far one of Tsuda Kenjiro’s best performances. Now, the elephant in the room - the animation in this show is minimal. Things only move when they haveto. Otherwise, they sit still like a manga panel. It may be a bit jarring at first - I was initially surprised and almost angry when I realized that this was what the anime was going to be as well. However, as I continued to watch it, I began to see that this wasn’t a big problem at all. In fact, I enjoyed the different direction they took, as it felt more lighthearted and charming. It just so happens that the simple animation style works just fine with a comedy anime like this, where most of the jokes are found in the dialogue. They still animated slapstick and action scenes like when Tatsu would do his thing with the kitchen knife or slap Masa in the face as well. Animation still exists when necessary.
A lot of the people who hate on this anime seem to be people who just couldn’t get over the animation. I understand why one may be unable to get used to it, but just because you don’t like the animation doesn’t mean you should ignore everything else that makes this anime good. The anime also very closely follows its source material, and could seem just like a slideshow of colored manga panels. To that, I’d say: yes, it kind of is sometimes. However, the jokes are still delivered well, the voice acting is great, and overall it’s an enjoyable show that can be finished in just about an hour. I also personally thought that it would be great if people welcomed this style of animation, which would mean studios could possibly adapt more unique and “risky” stories into anime without needing to spend so much time and money, and possibly go on with fully animating it depending on the reception.
I won’t be one of those people who just tell you to be grateful with what you got, because I’m personally against that kind of mindset. After all, I know a lot of Gokushufudou fans including myself were expecting a more traditional, fully animated show. However, whether you’ll choose to continue being angry and bash on the glorified slideshow or choose to give it a proper chance to find a genuinely wholesome and entertaining anime is up to you.
Recommended
The way of the house husband is by far and away the best comedy to ever come out of Japan, and I will not rest until each and every one of my friends has experienced its gut-busting glory. A short and sweet story about a terrifying yakuza subverting expectations with a short and sweet anime, and I honestly cannot wait for season 2. I am seeing several people complaining about the adaptation, but honestly, I found it perfectly fitting for the kind of story Gokushufudou wants to tell, and whitout Netflix, I and most everyone would have never even paid the manga any mind. This isthe same thing that happened with One Punch Man season 2, with picky fans upset they didn't get an all-star animation team to turn short gags into sakuga, and completely missing the fact that the heart and soul of the comedy remained not only intact, but stronger than ever.
Yes, the animation is sparse and the visuals are nowhere as detailed as the source material, but the voice acting, soundtrack, and directing more than make up for it, doubling down on the hillarious writing and unique atmosphere Kosuke Ono so expertly crafted.
Also, can we take a moment to appreciate the opening and ending tracks? They alone work wonders to elevate the material and set the mood for the antics to come. I cannot fathom consuming this story without them, and I pity those poor souls who have.
Watch this if you are a man, and bring forth your inner house husband!
Not Recommended
Oh man, this one was one of my biggest disappointments of 2021. It even made me ask the question of “does this count as anime?” Well, we’ll get into all of that with my review of Gokushufudou and if this adaptation of the amazing manga of the same name is worth your time or not. So Gokushufudou follows Tatsu. He’s an ex-yakuza that used to be feared as the “Immortal Dragon,” but now he is a humble and professional househusband. It shows you his day-to-day life as a househusband and his interactions with the people that know him as the Immortal Dragon, his wife, and otherpeople in his neighbourhood, or end up interacting with him. It’s a rather simple plot and can set up some good jokes. On it’s own here, it's a solid set-up for its jokes to work.
The characters are all a strange cast of people. You have Tatsu, a man who’s a professional househusband and doing regular day to day activities while still looking and speaking like a yakuza, Miku who’s Tatsu’s wife and has a Policure obsession, but is also caring for Tatsu and is trying her best to do cooking and other things like that, and Masa who’s Tatsu’s sworn brother and is still following him because he believes that the way of the yakuza and the way of the househusband are opposite sides of the same coin. The only personality between the three most important characters is Tatsu. The other two have that simple explanation I wrote as their entire character and it’s not shown much beyond that. The interactions between these main three make up a good portion of the jokes.
The animation was well, not exactly there. You know those teasers and trailers they make for promoting anime or just the manga itself? The ones where they photoshop the characters so that it’s just the characters, then throw words and sound over it so that it's just a video without much movement. Imagine that, but there’s no detail in the drawings and the lip flaps move this time. That’s the extent of the animation they have provided. It makes me wonder if this even classifies as anime. It has all of the elements of anime, except for the animation part and it’s just disappointing considering the jokes are good. The animation is the main thing taking away from the jokes too. It’s kind of so bad to look at that you’re distracted from the joke.
The art style of the anime was also really bad. It’s like the production staff traced the manga, but only traced the thick lines and made it worse. The colours were also quite bland and were generally a single colour without any gradients or anything. In addition, the lighting was also just kinda bad.
The soundtrack of Gokushufudou was rather generic. The music worked in places for it to work, but it’s often the same tracks and gets rather repetitive.
The sound design in Gokushufudou was also depressing. It’s like stock sound effects placed over what’s happening.
The voice acting was the saving grace of this entire show tbh. The voice acting was really good. It was super over-the-top and allowed for the over-the-top comedic scenarios to take as much of an effect as the animation and sound design allowed for.
Overall, this anime was not a good adaptation of the source material or a good anime in general. The jokes are good by themselves and are heightened even further because of the voice acting, but the animation, soundtrack, and sound design took away a lot of the fun you’d have with the show because they were distractingly bad.
