The Dashing Zaddy and His Icy Protégé
The manga series for fans of BL and older men.
Disclaimer: This copy of The Dashing Zaddy and His Icy Protégé was sent over by Kodansha for review consideration. All thoughts are my own. This series is also rated Mature and is not suitable for minors.
You know what the world needs more of? BL manga with old men. We need more zaddies! More old man yaoi! Well if you’re in the mood for a series featuring an older man, then look no further than The Dashing Zaddy and His Icy Protégé by Fumito. In this series we follow a 40 year-old hunk with dashing good looks and a suave personality and his 26 year-old subordinate who’s icy personality scares everyone at the office. This manga series has it all- good looking men, round butts, and erectile disfunction!
Genre: BL, comedy, romance
Age Rating: Mature 18+
Publisher: Kodansha
Status: Ongoing, 1 volume out in English
Synopsis:
One day when Hiwatari was a child dealing with stress caused by his father’s employment, he was graced by the presence of an older man from a partner company that extended his hand to help him. The older man gave him his business card and told him that he was not alone- that moment changed Hiwatari’s life and he clung to that business card and the dream to follow in this older man’s footsteps.
The story begins when Hiwatari is now a 26 year-old man working in the sales department under his role-model, the now 40 year-old Takanashi who is a certified zaddy that has all the ladies and Hiwatari swooning over him. Takanashi has it all- confidence, a killer jawline, sophistication, success… the one thing he doesn’t have is the ability to get it up. Yes, the man can no longer get it up and is suffering with erectile disfunction.
Meanwhile, Hiwatari is living in his own fantasy working alongside Takanashi. One night he gets the opportunity to get closer to his idol and man crush, but he may have gotten a little more than what he bargain for.
Favorite Things:
Takanashi: The 40 year-old man definitely lives up to his zaddy title. The man is gorgeous! And not only that, he’s also incredibly funny although it mostly comes from him freaking out over random things. As an older lady, it was great seeing and reading about an older man. I know I shouldn’t have been laughing at his erectile disfunction, but his overdramatic reactions over losing his ability to get his tower up were so funny.
Comedy: The comedy in this series was so good! At times it reminded me a bit of Cherry Magic, especially whenever we see Hiwatari freaking out about how hot Takanashi is. While some of the internal dialogue is very reminiscent of Cherry Magic because we are dealing with Takanashi who’s 40 and some supporting characters that are older, we do get to see some topics explored that we don’t often see in manga. Poking fun at having erectile disfunction, being called a DILF, and suffering from hot flashes were pretty refreshing to see.
Older Characters: I already mentioned Takanashi who is 40 years-old but we also meet more characters who are older. In this volume we get to meet Seiko Goto, the beautiful 53 year-old female director who’s the definition of a boss lady and is also extremely flirtatious. We also get to meet some members of a rival team who are jealous of Takanashi’s looks and success at work.
Notable Things:
Age Gap: At the end of volume 1, the mangaka acknowledges that this series is an age gap series approached in a legal way. I am usually not a fan of large age gaps but in this series I didn’t feel weirded out by it. Takanashi was 25 when Hiwatari was just an 11 year-old kid, and when we meet them as adults Takanashi is 40 and Hiwatari is 26. That being said, it does appear that Hiwatari had admiration for Takanashi as a child which eventually turned into a crush as he grew older. I do like that this series does follow Hiwatari as a grown adult who is exploring his romantic thoughts about Takanashi.
Rating: ★★★★★ / 5
This was such a fun read! It was one of those reads that got me to open up Line Chat and text my friends about how much I enjoyed it. I am definitely going to be picking up The Dashing Zaddy and His Icy Protégé volume 2 whenever it comes out because I need more Takanashi in my life!!
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