The Dashing Zaddy and His Icy Protégé, Vol. 1 | BL Manga Review

Bear with me as I try to update my manga review system,,, 😅

Title: The Dashing Zaddy and His Icy Protégé, Vol. 1

Author/Artist: Fumito

Genre: romcom: age gap

Ages/Rating: Mature18+

Publisher: Kodansha

Volume: 1/4 (ongoing)

Release: April 1st, 2025

Order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

An outrageous BL manga about work, unlikely friends, and problems down there! At age 40, Takanashi is in the prime of his life, heading up a high-performing sales team and driving all the ladies crazy. Yet he turns them all down, because he has trouble performing in the bedroom! What will he do when a rising star on his team finds out his secret?!

The second sales division at Itsuboshi Trading Company is headed up by Mr. Takanashi, one of the firm’s top performer and a charismatic knockout at age 40. One of his subordinates is the equally hot, cool and calculating 26-year-old, Hiwatari. Practically every woman at the company has attempted to stir up an office romance with the magnetic Takanashi, but this dashing zaddy has turned them all down, because…he secretly has ED! Meanwhile, Hiwatari seems like a scary robot on the outside, but he’s actually looked up to Takanashi since he started working with him four years ago. When Hiwatari gets a chance to spend the evening with Takanashi, he reveals more than he means to!

An irresistible love comedy between a hot older man with a shameful secret and a cunning underling who becomes an unlikely confidant in his quest to once more stand proud and, ahem…erect!

it’s ridiculous but what can I say I actually enjoyed it!

I was chatting with @yeolliestorytime on Instagram (she mostly reviews manga) about how to review manga. I’ve been struggling a bit—it feels hard to write a good review without spoilers since manga tends to be shorter. She uses a 10-point review system and helped me brainstorm some ideas, so now I present to you… dun dun dundun…

a review on a 1-5 scale

ok well it’s not super fancy yet but I make some cute graphics and jazz it up a bit later~

Characters: 5/5

**Makoto Takanashi aka ‘Dashing Zaddy’**

artist’s X

I loved how different they were and how they both had very distinct personalities.

Art: 5/5

Art was great. I really liked all the expressions & the colors in the first few pages were beautiful (this is not full color).

Story/Plot: 4/5

This was a simple, lighthearted, and fast-paced manga—perfect for age gap romance fans looking for something silly and fun. If you read the blurb and thought it sounded like your kind of thing, chances are you’ll enjoy it.

Writing/Dialogue: 4/5

No complaints. While some parts were a bit cringe, the translation was really well done. I did find some of the sound effects/onomatopoeia pretty funny & bizarre—I posted a few examples below under minor spoilers.

Giggles: 4/5

Pretty funny. I dunno, I think that stupid silly stuff mixed with a bit of dry humor is just totally my kind of humor. That’s probably why I’ve been so into manga lately—it just lines up with what I find funny.

Spice level: 1/5

I thought this was going to be a lot more explicit with how the first chapter went but it was actually much more on the wholesome side. Which is what I prefer so yay! That being said it looks the ‘cure’ for being impotent will be implemented in the next volume so it’ll probably be a lot more spicy.

Secondhand Embarrassment: 5/5 ‼️‼️‼️

I had to stop, do something else, then come back and skip a few pages before I could keep reading lol. I mean, I knew it was gonna be a bit cringey just from the use of “zaddy,” but that one part—OMG 😭😭

CLICK FOR SPOILERS about secondhand embarrassment incident lol

was researching about his ED on his tablet before a meeting than displayed it on the board. I almost passed out LMAO

Okay, if we calculate all that and make some deductions for the secondhand embarrassment… it’s probably around a 3.5. But what the heck—let’s just round up to a 4 because it was old man yaoi and we definitely need more of that lol.