The way of the apron is a comedy with a former yakuza. The work immediately received numerous recognition from audiences and critics and also won the Eisner Award 2020 for best humorous publication. However, this is just one of many similar works that have filled the pages of various magazines since the 1990s. Let’s get to know them.
The stories focused on Yakuza, this is a Japanese criminal organization that has existed since the 1960s but focuses on the criminal nature of its protagonists in action or thriller stories.
The story considered the forerunner to the yakuza comedy subgenre is the 1997 manga Great teacher Onikuza, written by Tooru Fujisawa, this work is the sequel to Shonan Junai Gumi and follows the story of Eikichi Onizuka, who was originally part of a gang of motorcyclists and decides to leave them as a teacher. Although the decision to become a teacher was not made out of noble intentions, Onizuka is with his unusual teaching methods and his unique view of life He will come into contact with the students to solve their problems, but also to provide a variety of fun for the reader. I also leave you our review of Great Teacher Onizuka.
We can find another example of this subgenre by jumping a few years. In 2002 the publication of “My bride is a mermaid“by Tahiko Kimura, whose story tells of a boy named Nagasumi, who is saved from drowning by a mermaid who is part of a yakuza family and who decides to marry her to escape the strict laws of the people at sea Members of the Japanese crime, used the Style features typical of yakuza comedy in the opposite way putting a normal person in bizarre situations, which makes them more of a modern isekai opera set in another world.
Recently, in 2011, another manga was moderately successful on the Shonen Jump website: Nisekoi by Naoshi Komi. In this series, the protagonists Raku Ichijou and Chitoge Kirisaki are part of the yakuza families who, despite the two boys who don’t get along, decided to put them together to avoid war.
There Separation between a normal life and that of the yakuza makes this work great fun and La via del Apron seems no exception. What do you think about it? I also remind you that Netflix announced an animated adaptation for La via del apron.
