The Dashing Zaddy and His Icy Protégé Volume 3 Review

“So… how far we goin’, sirs?” The taxi driver to Takanashi and Hiwatari in the back his cab.

A video clip of Makoto Takanashi, the forty-year-old star team leader giving a cookery demonstration at the Itsuboshi Trading ‘appreciation sale’, has gone viral and now everyone wants a piece of the ‘Dashing Zaddy’ or ‘DILF’. It’s good for business but not so good for his younger colleague, Ren Hiwatari, who doesn’t want to share his secret crush with the rest of Japan! Matters reach crunch-point when Takanashi’s address is leaked online and he’s mobbed by adoring fans outside his own front door. Hastily retreating, he takes Hiwatari up on his offer to stay with him until the fuss dies down. Underlying all the excitement and drama, there’s the ongoing issue of Takanashi’s erectile disfunction which – for whatever reason – seems to be less of an issue whenever he’s with Hiwatari. It’s very early days yet and neither man has managed to properly acknowledge what’s going on between them but romance is definitely in the air whenever they’re together.

The next challenge is to arrive at work separately the following day without giving away that they’ve spent the night together (although not ‘together’ in the way that Hiwatari has fantasized about). But things only get worse when Hiwatari and Takanashi end up in the same lift as young Nakaido-kun who, having noticed the scent of the same shampoo, announces to the whole lift, “What if it was Takanashi-san who moved in with Hiwatari-san?” to which both men reply in unison, “Why would that ever happen?!!”

And so, with this third volume, The Dashing Zaddy and His Icy Protégé reveals itself to be the slow-burn BL romcom we’d all been suspecting it was going to be. Good to know that Fumito won’t be in any hurry to let the central relationship develop too fast; this mangaka is quite the tease, setting up all the ‘whoops, I tripped!’ romantic manga clichés a reader could wish for. And because Fumito’s drawings are very attractively done – both male leads are undeniably eye candy and not just for the smitten fans who swarm the Dashing Zaddy at every available opportunity – it looks good as well as teasing out the humour and double entendres at every available opportunity.

And the central ‘will they, won’t they?’ couple? On the one hand we have 26-year-old Hiwatari who, beneath his chilling ice prince exterior, is doing all he can to subdue his raging hormones – contrasted with Takanashi who has all the worldly charm and experience of a suave forty-year-old but whose physical equipment has been letting him down. Rather charmingly honest about his embarrassing condition, Takanashi goes silent during a radio interview when asked about his current love life and finds himself wondering why he couldn’t handle the question with his usual aplomb. He’s been a very attentive lover in all his past relationships with women… but they haven’t worked out. Has he never really been in love before?

A special mention here for Tokyo Tower which again plays an important role, both figuratively (for Takanashi at any rate) and then as the real tower itself!

Nakaido, the youngest member of the team (whose blunder caused problems in Volume 2), is turning out to be quite the character; he has a gift for blithely saying the wrong thing and being blissfully unaware that his faux-pas is causing so much embarrassment to his older colleagues.

The lively translation by Jacqueline Fung for Kodansha captures perfectly the racy tone of the humour and it’s all brought to life by Nicole Roderick’s lettering (including all those SFX). There’s a really helpful two-page introduction with character profiles and the story so far, a smexy bonus story ‘The Icy Prince’s Night’, two 4-panel strips showcasing more of Nakaido’s unfortunate ability to embarrass Hiwatari, an illustrated Afterword and a two-page preview for Volume 4. As this is due out in January, 2026, it’s not long to wait to find out what happens next…

Our review copy from Kodansha was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.