The Dashing Zaddy and His Icy Protégé Volume 5
Sarah •
‘Dashing Zaddy’ Makoto Takanashi and his younger colleague ‘Ice Prince’ Hiwatari have reached a new level of understanding. Takanashi has realized how much he cares for Hiwatari and these feelings have cured his erectile dysfunction! Surely it should be plain sailing for the two of them from now on? So why, just when everything was going so well in their relationship, has everything begun to fall apart?
After a week of Hiwatari avoiding Takanashi, the older man is confused and upset and eventually confides in his boss while they’re practicing golf swings. His boss has some harsh advice for him, reminding him now that he’s nearly forty-one of all the problems that come with middle age. Horrified, Takanashi goes back to their shared apartment to find Hiwatari packing his things. This leads to a massive argument – and before they can sort things out, Takanashi is sent to New York on urgent business. It’s just before Christmas – a romantic time for lovers in Japan – and he can’t even bring himself to text Hiwatari. Is this the end of their relationship?
If you’ve been following the on-off affair between Takanashi and Hiwatari through the last four volumes, you won’t be surprised to learn that the fifth volume is more of the same and then some! By ‘the same’ I mean heartfelt protestations, dramatic statements, over-the-top gestures – this on-off romance is being conducted quadruple fortissimo (for the musicians out there) and dialed up to eleven. And yet, no sooner have the two men spent a night together than everything starts to fall apart. The fun comes from following how mangaka Fumito portrays the absurd lengths that the two go to impress each other, to prove that they can’t be together until they’re worthy of each other etc.
Fumito is obviously having a great time portraying these two attractive men in various states of undress and arousal. Although the mangaka had to abide by some editorial restrictions, as we learn from the afterword in which they protest furiously, ‘A world in which I can’t draw nipples and butt cracks can just go to hell!!!’ and then proceed to offer a bonus story The Zaddy Way that breaks all the editor’s earlier restrictions (with their blessing). Fumito also says that the sixth volume will be the final volume and that feels right. It’s been fun but keeping the right balance between the saucy humour and the romantic love story has been difficult at times as the absurdity nearly always wins out, no matter how gorgeous the drawings are.
Much of the fun in Volume 5 comes from the witty translation by Jacqueline Fung, enhanced as before by Nicole Roderick’s lettering. As well as the sexy bonus story and the mangaka’s illustrated afterword, there are two 4-koma entitled The Dashing Zaddy and His Partner’s Lower Half and, to finish, a two-page preview/promo for the final volume; as a consequence (as you might have guessed) the volume has a Mature 18+ rating. No date yet from Kodansha for Volume 6, but it’s already out in Japan.
Our review copy from Kodansha was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.
