Tsukiya

The yakuza babysitter gets all mopey due to the events of last volume and needs a kick in the ass to get back on track. Then the rest of the book is back to the slice-of-life and warm-and-fuzzy stuff where the book prefers to live.

I liked this outing, but it's so sedate I'm verging toward two-stars and dropping the series. I see it's already up to 11 volumes in Japan, and I just can't imagine what else there is to say with these characters, but I'll let it string me along a bit more for now.… (mehr)

I didn't realize how big a sub-genre yakuza domesticity is. This is the fourth one I've come across in recent years after The Way of the Househusband, Hinamatsuri, and Sakamoto Days.

Kirishima, the toughest yakuza in his organization, is handpicked by the boss to babysit his young daughter in the absence of her mother. From mobster to manny! But unlike the other titles I mentioned, this one doesn't go for nearly as much broad and campy action/comedy, preferring to dwell on the warm and fuzzy awwwwwww moments of relationship developments with the sweet little girl and the supposedly hard men around her. It's nice.

I like seeing the translator getting cover credit -- you don't see that often on manga -- but it feels a little odd that her name takes up more space on the cover than the person who wrote and drew the book.… (mehr)