One of my goals this year is to read more comics in translation. A lot of what is entering my eyeholes is manga, and though I would ultimately like to learn enough Japanese to at least get the gist of original editions, learning a language takes time and there’s simply too much good stuff to wait a year or two to get into it.

I’m still a a manga newb and, as such, am perpetually on the hunt for recommendations; I discovered Kousuke Oono’s The Way of the Househusband via a colleague, and I will now be taking every single one of her suggestions going forward because this series, along with I Married My Best Friend to Shut My Parents Up by Kodama Naoko, is the standard by which I will be judging all comedy manga going forward.

Once known as The Immortal Dragon, Tatsu has given up his position as the Yakuza’s most notorious assassin and become a househusband. He’s taught himself to make Instagram-worthy bento boxes, to find the best deal on anything from produce to Policure figurines, to obliterate blood stains from a white shirt, and to get the dust out of corners better than a robot vacuum.

He’s content in his new life, proud of his wife’s career, and thoroughly enjoying his weekly yoga classes, but, unfortunately, not everyone from his past is happy to let sleeping dragons practice downward dog. Every time he leaves his apartment, someone recognizes The Immortal Dragon and tries to make his reputation by taking the former killer down.

Why do I love it? Because in a world of Dour and Serious™ comics, of heroes in peril and damsels in distress, The Way of the Househusband is unabashedly, wonderfully absurd, and it wants you to revel in that absurdity. Kousuke Oono wants you to laugh at this strange, wild world his characters inhabit and at the fact that his protagonist knows that 100 yen is a deal on cabbage and can beat a man with a high-powered rifle to death with that very same cabbage. We can laugh at an adorable executive who wants the sports car and her tattooed, scarred husband who can snap necks and wants a minivan. And yes, we can laugh as Tatsu teaches a child to bury a broken toy like a body and then bakes him cookies.

Because it’s so weird that it works. Sometimes, life is absurd. Maybe it isn’t former-Yakuza-gets-hit-in-the-face-with-a-wine-bottle-while-trying-to-catch-the-rice-cooker-when-the-cat-knocks-it-off-the-counter weird, but it is weird. And sometimes, when you’re in the middle of it, you forget to laugh.

The Way of the Househusband will remind you that it’s okay to take a second out to do that. It will remind you that when things are awkward and weird, sometimes there’s a reason for it, and sometimes there’s no reason at all. We are all beginners every day and sometimes we do stupid things, and those things won’t seem nearly as bad if we can snort laugh at the rustic artisan pizza on the floor and just order takeout.

The fatigue is real in this year 2020, and fighting it is harder than it’s ever been. We can’t look away for too long lest we lose sight of the impending avalanche, but the beauty of being part of a group – a family – is that some of us can watch while others rest. One way to get a few moment of peace is to find a reason to laugh. The Way of the Househusband will give you a thousand.

The Way of the Househusband Vols. 1 & 2 are available in translation from VIZ Media. Vol. 3 is set to release May 19, 2020.