Kakushigoto Episode 10

Kakushigoto Episode 10

Kakushi in Critical Condition

Last week I made a prediction about Kakushi’s fate based on the preview for this episode. My prediction was way off, but that’s probably what the preview was going for. Kakushi wasn’t in any sort of accident and didn’t come down with a serious illness; he just got a cold from overworking himself at the end of the year.

Normally Kakushi isn’t one to overwork himself. But Hime won them a stay at an Inn over the winter break, so he worked extra hard to get his manuscripts done before then. I’ll discuss what happens at the inn in the next section, but first I need to complain about a trope in anime.

When Kakushi comes down with his cold, he’s bedridden and all of his staff and the women who are in love with him come to his side to watch over him. This was actually used for a pretty good gag with Tomaruin believing that Kakushi was critically ill.

Why else would everyone he knows be surrounding his bed in silence?

You Shiokoshi and Kumi Jouro from the anime series Kakushigoto
You Shiokoshi and Kumi Jouro

But while Tomaruin reading the room and believing Kakushi was dying is a good joke, it’s actually based on a trope featured prominently in anime. When someone comes down with a cold, they’re always bedridden and so weak that they can’t do anything.

I don’t know about you, but a cold has never put me in that state. In fact, unless your immune system is compromised in some way, even the flu shouldn’t do that to you. Sure, you’ll feel tired and terrible, but you won’t be literally helpless.

This is just one of those things that happen in anime I can’t wrap my head around. It’s sort of explained by Eastern culture, but not really.

The Ghost of Izu

The hot springs inn Kakushi, Hime, and Roku win a trip to is known as Izu. It’s a historic hot spring location that still holds a number of secrets from its past. And the most important of those secrets is that one room is supposedly haunted by the ghost of an author who died while writing at the inn.

This whole thing about the hot springs being haunted isn’t really all that important, but it does set up what I’ll be discussing in the next section. For the author who died at the inn, this mysterious and tragic death served to elevate his status as a writer.

But when Kakushi makes a joke about something similar happening to him, Rasuna comments that it wouldn’t work the same way for a gag mangaka. If something tragic were to happen to a gag mangaka, their career would effectively be over because they’re supposed to be funny, not tragic.

Keep that in mind for later.

Ichiko Rokujou from the anime series Kakushigoto
Ichiko Rokujou

Some other things that happen at the inn are Rasuna and Ami being recruited by Kakushi to watch over Hime and everyone in the inn attempting to get Kakushi to reveal his secret. I thought the direction they were going with the latter was that the hot springs have some sort of power that makes people reveal secrets. But that wasn’t the case.

The part with Rasuna and Ami was pretty good, though. Kakushi went out of his way to pay for them to stay at the inn too because he didn’t want Hime to be unattended in the women’s public bath. But Hime only spends about five minutes in there, so he ended up hiring them for nothing.

A Fatal Blow to a Gag Manga Artist

At the end of episode 10, we finally learn what happened to Kakushi to make him “disappear.” Kakushi wasn’t injured. He didn’t come down with a serious illness. And he didn’t die. Instead, he quit being a mangaka because he believed he could no longer make his audience laugh.

The reason he believes this is because his readers, and the wider world, learned of his tragic past. This is where you’re supposed to remember the setup from earlier regarding mangaka and tragic events that took place at the inn.

I have to admit, I didn’t see this coming at all. While we weren’t explicitly told what this tragic event was, we can assume it has to do with the death of his wife. We actually don’t know how she died yet, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility for her to have died in some sort of accident.

As for what that accident is, it’s implied to have been either an airplane or boat crash out at see. The newspaper article Kakushi is seen looking at when the episode ends mentions something about the search still being on for those missing from the crash. Either his wife definitively died in this crash, or her body was never recovered.

Kakushi reading a newspaper from the anime series Kakushigoto
Kakushi reading a newspaper

I have two opposing predictions to make regarding the end of this series. I really don’t think it’s going to end on a depressing note, so something’s going to happen to lighten the mood at the end.

One possibility is that Hime convinces Kakushi to restart his mangaka career. I think that with Hime’s support, Kakushi would be able to overcome anything, so this could be a happy and hopeful end despite the revelation about Kakushi’s wife.

The other possibility is that Kakushi’s wife never died and she makes a reappearance at the end of the series. This may seem far-fetched, but there are a lot of things pointing to this being the case:

  1. We know that the search for survivors is still ongoing (unless that was an old newspaper). But even if it’s not ongoing, it told us that not all the bodies were recovered, so there’s still hope.
  2. Kakushi hasn’t been interested in any of the other women in his life who are interested in him. This makes it much easier for him to be reunited with his wife in the end.
  3. We’re never shown the grave of his wife. You’d think there would have been a scene of Kakushi and Hime visiting a grave, but there hasn’t been one. This could imply her body wasn’t one recovered, which lends credibility to the possibility of her still being alive.

Conclusion

What are your thoughts on Kakushigoto episode 10? Mainly, what did you think happened to Kakushi before the truth was revealed? And how do you think the series is going to end? Will Kakushi become a mangaka once again? Will his wife return? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

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My review of the next episode is available here.

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