Our Rough Draft

I’ll start off this review of Kakushigoto episode 8 by saying that I didn’t really think there was any one gag this week that stood out. They were all pretty average as far as I’m concerned. The best one might have been Tomaruin ruining everything as usual by questioning why reaching 100 chapters is a big deal.

It’s a bit impressive that a character as annoying as Tomaruin was written, though. Sure, there are plenty of annoying characters across the medium of anime, but how many of those were actually written to annoy people on purpose? He doesn’t just convey the idea of an annoying person as a trope-y character would; he really is annoying.

Aside from Tomaruin simply being annoying, the first half of this episode also dealt with the idea that rough drafts are better than finished products. I sure hope that’s the case because all of the posts on this blog are rough drafts. I don’t actually proofread or edit any of this.

The talk of rough drafts starts with Kakushi mentioning that he considers the pencil drafts of his work to be better than the inked-in final product. And while that’s a fair point in itself (I guess, I’m not a mangaka), it’s used to set up that his current family of himself, Hime, and now Roku, is the “final draft.”

Kakushi views the “better” “rough draft” to be himself, Hime, and Hime’s mother (and I guess Roku can still be included). So the theme of this episode is really how there is no “better” version of a family. Though it’s probably fair to say that his wife not dying would be preferable.

Hime’s New Mom

As we’ve seen throughout the previous episodes, there’s not much going on inside of Hime’s head. But if there’s one thing she does think about, it’s her family — specifically how much her father has to do because her mother is no longer in the picture.

This came up twice in episode 8. The first time, Hime decides to decline a birthday party invitation from a girl in her class because she figured that if she went, she would have to invite that girl to her own birthday party. Why is this an issue? Because she doesn’t want to cause her father trouble by making him host a party for her and her friends.

The second time Hime thinks about the state of her family in the episode is when Kakushi invites his cooking teacher into their house for a private lesson. Now, at this point, Hime didn’t actually say what she was thinking. But from her expression and body language we can see that she’s feeling unsure about this new woman being in their house.

Naru isn’t a threat because she’s still in school and is one of Hime’s friends. And if it were Nadila or Ichiko, that also wouldn’t be an issue because they’re Hime’s babysitter and teacher respectively. But she’s only met You once before, and even then it was under strange circumstances — Kakushi brought her to Hime’s sports festival.

So not only is You a relatively unknown woman from Hime’s perspective, but the fact that You and Kakushi are cooking together in their home is also fueling the flames. Hime is probably worried that her father is looking to remarry.

And if we consider why Kakushi remarrying would worry Hime, there are a few reasons. She might think that means Kakushi doesn’t care about Hime’s mother anymore. Or it could mean that Kakushi will have less time to spend with Hime. And it’s also possible Hime thinks he wants to remarry because Hime is too much to handle on his own.

Unfortunate Memories Club

As always, I need to end this episode review by discussing the new developments in the “present” time of the series. At first it didn’t really seem like there was going to be much to talk about in regards to the present this week, but the very end of the episode changed all that.

The first of two things I want to mention here is that we’re given more of a concrete reason for why Kakushi chose to move out of his old house. We don’t yet have a real reason as to why he had the new house built exactly like the old one, but I still think him doing it for Hime’s sake makes sense.

But the reason he moved out of the old house is two-fold. He wanted to move out because living there would remind him of his wife, and he also wanted to move closer to the city to make his work more convenient. The latter reasoning makes more sense to me because the new house is exactly the same anyway — so wouldn’t it still bring those memories back?

What’s even more important than Kakushi’s reason for moving, though, is that we’re shown that his current house is for sale. Or at least I think that was the current house and not the old one — they look the same after all.

If it was the old house, this could be a sign that Kakushi is ready to move on after all these years. But if it was the current house, then that seems to feed into my theory about Kakushi not being around anymore. Why else would that house be for sale?

And before anyone says it could be for sale because he’s moving, do you really think he would sell it even if he was moving? He didn’t sell the old house after moving because that’s where his memories of his wife are. And I don’t think he would sell this house because that’s where his memories of Hime growing up are.

Conclusion

The farther we get into Kakushigoto the more I don’t think it’s going to end well for Kakushig and Hime. But the only tags I’ve seen on this series are slice of life, comedy, and shounen. It’s not as if it’s tagged as a drama, but there are some serious drama undertones to all the present day scenes.

What did you think of episode 8? Did you have a favorite gag of the episode? Do you think Kakushi is really going to remarry? If so, who is he going to choose? And why do you think the house is for sale? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤ down below. Also follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

Inuhoshiki: Dog Wanted

What if Kakushi doesn’t die at the end of Kakushigoto, but instead it’s the dog that dies? I don’t think that’s what’s going to happen, but I get the feeling there would be even more outrage if that were to be the case. Killing off Kakushi is one thing, but they can’t just do that to a dog.

Perhaps I missed it, but I don’t believe the dog was actually given a name within this episode. Instead, he’s simply referred to by Kakushi as “the fourth” in reference to him being the fourth generation of dog within the family (on Hime’s mother’s side).

I’ll discuss Hime’s mother a bit more in the next section of the review, but basically this dog came from Hime’s grandfather.

Since I did this for episode 5, I guess I’ll make a brief discussion of my favorite gag of the episode a regular thing now. And my favorite gag this time around had to do with the “10 Commandments for Dogs” to which Kakushi is reacting in the image above.

But the “10 Commandments for Dogs” isn’t the part I liked the most, that distinction goes to Kakushi’s “10 Commandments for Manga Artists.” While dogs may only live for around 10 years, manga artists only stay relevant for around 10 years. Another one of these commandments is that manga artists will cry from anxiety if they don’t receive letters from fans.

I’d like to list out all 10 of Kakushi’s commandments for you here, but they aren’t already translated for me so it would be way too much effort to do it on my own. It could be done, but I’m so slow at translating kanji that this review would end up going live next week.

The One Who Connects Mother and Child

The “one” who connects mother and child referred to in the title of this chapter is the unnamed dog Hime receives from her grandfather. As we learn, not only have this dog’s ancestors been in the family for generations, the first generation dog belonged to Hime’s mother.

There’s even a painting of Hime’s mother and this first dog that makes its way into Kakushi’s studio. And to the surprise of Kakushi’s underlings, the girl featured in the painting isn’t Hime despite looking exactly like her.

Also, when Kakushi explained that Hime wasn’t the one in the painting, it made me realize for the first time that we don’t actually know Hime’s mother’s name. We don’t even know the name of Hime’s grandfather, which means we don’t know her maiden name either.

Continuing on with Hime’s grandfather, it’s revealed that he was the one who painted the picture of Hime’s mother and the dog. With this knowledge, we can begin to potentially understand why there’s a rift between him and Kakushi.

We already knew that Hime’s grandfather didn’t approve of his daughter marrying a manga artist, but now we have a reason why. It’s because he’s a traditional artist, and he probably views — or at least viewed — manga as not true art. And Kakushi likewise probably disdained him for thinking that manga isn’t real art.

I’m interested to find out if Kakushi’s wife was a more traditional artist who took after her father. I think that if this was the case, we may see something similar happen with Hime in the end. I don’t mean that Hime will be a traditional artist as well, but rather that she’ll take after her father and become a manga artist.

Ichiko-Sensei isn’t Wearing a Tracksuit

As usual, I can’t conclude a Kakushigoto episode review without discussing the “present time” scenes featured at the end. This week there actually wasn’t too much going on in this final scene. But I think there are still some important pieces of information we can take away.

For starters, all of Hime’s childhood friends are still around, and although they don’t go with Hime to check out her old house, they trail her because they’re worried about her (and curious). I did notice that there were four of them this time around, though, and I only remember there being three before.

There were definitely only three of them earlier in this episode, but I mean when I think back to earlier episodes that included them. I think the fourth girl was shown to be one of Hime’s other friends who wasn’t necessarily a part of her tight-knit group.

But of course, the most important part of this scene is that we got to see Ichiko-sensei wearing something other than her track suit. I have to admit, Ichiko with long hair and in a dress is probably the best girl of the series. I already liked her, but she wasn’t a top-tier girl until now.

Okay, but on a more serious note, what can we infer from Ichiko’s presence in this scene, if anything?

She’s obviously here because she too is worried about Hime, so why is that the case? Is it because she’s her former teacher? Probably not. In my mind, there are two major options: Either this is a confirmation that she’s now Hime’s step-mother or she’s here to support Hime because Kakushi died.

I think the step-mother route could be fairly interesting. Perhaps the reason Hime seeks out her old house is specifically because her father has remarried and she wants to feel closer to her real mother.

Conclusion

What do you think of Kakushigoto episode 7? Do you think Hime’s mother was a traditional artist like her father? Do you think Kakushi is going to marry Ichiko before the end of the series? And what’s your prediction for what Hime is going to name her new dog? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤ down below. Also follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

School Rucksack

Have I mentioned that the OP for Kakushigoto is great? Normally I’d make some statement about how it’s the best OP of the season, but between you and me, the only seasonal anime I’m actually caught up on right now are the few I’m reviewing weekly. So there are probably better OPs out there I haven’t seen.

The OP aside, episode 6 starts off with Hime receiving a backpack from an unknown person. We’re initially led to believe that she has a stalker of some sort, but later on, it’s revealed that it’s actually just her grandfather on her mother’s side. But despite this mundane twist, it brings up a few questions.

For starters, it doesn’t seem like Hime has any real relationship with her grandfather. It’s possible that she knows him, but I think Hime would be the type of girl to ask to see him if that were the case — and this isn’t something she does. So why doesn’t Hime know her grandfather even though he clearly cares about her?

We don’t have a concrete answer, but it seems to have to do with a rift between Kakushi and the grandfather. The grandfather makes it clear that he never approved of his daughter marrying Kakushi, so that’s one possible explanation.

But this information seemed to come as a surprise to Kakushi, implying that there’s another reason the two don’t get along. It really doesn’t seem like the grandfather is the one who wants to stay away from Hime, so Kakushi must have set that boundary.

My main question now is, was this boundary set before or after Hime’s mother died? Perhaps she was the one who set it.

Kidzania

Did you know that Kidzania is a real place? I didn’t until I looked it up after watching the episode. I thought this was supposed to be a gag amusement park, but no, apparently it’s a real thing. It’s a fun center where kids get to go and try out a variety of different professions.

I have to say that I don’t really get the point of Kidzania though. Of course, it’s great because it allowed us to see Hime in a variety of different outfits. But I mean I don’t really see the practical point of Kidzania as a real place. It’s not like these kids are really going to get an idea of what these professions are like.

And before anyone says that the point is for kids to have fun pretending to do their dream jobs, I get that. But kids already do that at home. Do you really think pretending to be a police officer at Kidzania is going to be any different from wearing a costume at home? What police officer jobs could they possibly do here, paperwork?

I doubt they’re setting up a car chase an arrest for the kids to participate in within this fun center, which means it’s nothing more than playing dress-up and performing mundane tasks.

And that’s also shown by the other jobs Hime says she got to try throughout her day. Sure, the police officer one could be exciting, but the others were a delivery person, fast food worker, and cafe waitress. I’d understand more if it had more exciting jobs, probably in STEM fields, like an astronaut.

That would be more fun and encourage learning to a greater extent. But hey, I guess Hime had a good time. That’s all that matters.

Slice of Life

Every episode we get a little bit more of the scene which I guess is supposed to be the “final” scene of the series. I’ve discussed this multiple times in previous episode reviews, specifically the question regarding where Kakushi is and whether he’s even alive at this point.

It definitely still seems like Kakushi is dead by the time Hime is 17/18, but I think that may be a bit too dark for this series. This is a comedy, not a drama. So while it can have some drama elements, I don’t think we’re going to get a depressing ending in which Hime is all alone.

But continuing on with the idea that there’s going to be drama in this series, this closing scene was proof of that. We got to see what was inside of Hime’s 17th birthday box, and it did not disappoint.

You may recall I assumed the gifts in these boxes from Kakushi would be hand-made by him based on hints we received earlier on in the series. While I was right about that so far, I wasn’t expecting the exact gift that he would be hand-making. Though there are still three more boxes to be opened.

I think in one of the early episodes Kakushi learns how to knit, or sew, or something so that he could make clothes for Hime. Based on that, I assumed she would be getting handmade crafts of some sort. But as it turns out, he drew her a manga for her 17th birthday instead.

This present seems to have two functions. First, it could be Kakushi’s way of revealing his profession to his daughter — although as we find out, it’s not an ecchi manga like he normally draws. That leads into the second function, which is that this manga is a story of how Kakushi (and Hime) wish their life could have been.

It’s a simple, mundane, slice of life manga about a father, a mother, and their daughter living together.

Conclusion

What did you think of Kakushigoto episode 6? Why do you think Hime’s grandfather is estranged? Also, do you think Kidzania sounds like somewhere you would have had fun as a 10-year-old? And, what are your predictions for the end of the series? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤ down below. Also follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

Everyone Gets Their Turn in the End

Of all the episodes so far, I think Kakushigoto episode 5 had my favorite gags. And somewhat surprising was that all of the gags I enjoyed the most from this episode involved Hime. Sure, Hime’s cute, but I didn’t really see her as the main comedic element of the series — that would be Kakushi.

The best gag from the first half of the episode involved both main characters, though. This was when Kakushi says he doesn’t want to be a judge for a manuscript competition even though it’s his duty, then he goes home and Hime mentions how performing your duty is important, and the next day he’s all gung-ho about doing it.

But my favorite part of that whole gag was Hime, a 10-year-old, saying that if people don’t perform their duties society is going to crumble.

I’ve mentioned this multiple times in previous episode reviews, but Hime has a pretty interesting split in her personality. On one hand, as we see through this gag, she’s extremely mature for her age. But on the other, as we see when she gets stuck in a stack of boxes, she basically has zero brain function.

Moving back over to Kakushi, I also really liked the scene where he was attempting to give feedback on Kakeru’s manuscript. The fact that Kakushi is a mangaka and yet couldn’t give proper feedback was used as a gag, but it’s also a good representation of how difficult it is to explain things you’ve naturally learned through exposure or trial and error.

So while it’s funny that Kakushi can’t even explain his job to someone at first, the point here is that while he’s a professional, he had to learn his craft on his own.

You’re Spending the Night!

The second half of the episode is all about Kakushi having to be locked away by his editor so that some last-minute changes can be made to his manga. This is a trope commonly seen throughout anime in which editors are depicted, with one of my favorite depictions of the trope coming from A Sister’s All You Need.

It’s not too often that I link back to a review from 2017, I hope you appreciate how much the quality has improved.

But while Kakushi is locked in a hotel room with an ever-increasing number of his staff, Hime is “home alone.” Or at least Kakushi believes she’s home alone, because the nanny, Nadila, was only supposed to be there for two hours. However, Nadila returns in the end, and Hime too finds herself with an ever-increasing presence in the house.

Once again, Naru makes an appearance, and at this point I think she may be the most frequently seen supporting character outside of Kakushi’s company. And of course, that’s not a complaint. I think Naru is probably my favorite supporting character of the series, even though they’re all good in their own rite.

But the real reason I wanted to bring up both Nadila and Naru is that the two of them, along with Hime, created my favorite gag of the whole episode. As you should be well aware, Naru is an aspiring idol. And Hime has some ideas about how you’re supposed to act in front of an idol which set this gag up perfectly.

Upon learning that it’s Naru’s birthday, Hime is about to ask how old she is before remembering that you aren’t supposed to ask idols their age. However, Nadila then asks and Naru answers the question — leaving poor Hime to question everything she ever knew about idols and the world.

Where is Kakushi Gotou?

Over the past few weeks I’ve been going back and forth regarding what I think happened to Kakushi at the end of the series (in “present time” scenes at the end of the episodes). At first I thought Hime was visiting his dilapidated studio, meaning he was dead. Then it was revealed that’s actually his old house, so I changed my mind.

But at the end of this episode we get a scene which seems to imply that Kakushi is dead after all.

To set the scene, allow me to start by reminding you of something I mentioned a few episodes ago (I’m not sure in which episode review it was) which I didn’t think was supposed to be some big reveal. That is, of course, the fact that the boxes for Hime labeled 17 through 20 are from Kakushi, not Hime’s mother like boxes 1 through 16 were.

Based on Hime’s realization that this is the case in this episode, I think that was supposed to be a surprise for the viewers as well. But if you remember, those extra boxes were first shown to us at the end of the episode in which Kakushi decides to learn how to make presents for Hime himself, implying whatever is inside those boxes is made by him.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, the fact that Hime is so overcome by emotion when she realizes these new boxes are from her father hints at the fact that he’s no longer around. The other boxes were presents from her dead mother, so the only reason I see her having this kind of response is if her father is now dead too.

I won’t be surprised if the next episode includes a scene that makes me change my mind again.

Conclusion

What did you think of Kakushigoto episode 5? Were the gags in this episode any better than those which have come before? And if not, which episode was your favorite so far? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤ down below. Also follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

Normale Namae / Komawari Sketch

As always, episode 4 of Kakushigoto was good. The first half of the episode focused on Kakushi not liking his pen name because, well, it’s just his normal name. This is obviously problematic for him because he’s worried that it could lead to Hime discovering that he’s a mangaka.

But while Kakushi is worrying about how to change his pen name — something his editors won’t allow because it would destroy his brand recognition — Hime is using his name to read his fortune. And as it turns out, Kakushi has extremely high luck in every area except artistic ability.

And although this is supposed to be a joke at his expense, let’s read too far into it instead. Perhaps Kakushi’s artistic luck being so low is a reflection of the fact that he’s actually a good artist; luck has nothing to do with it. This would also explain why the rest of his luck stats are high, because although art is the only thing he’s good at, everything else seems to work out for him too.

We then also get the scene of Hime and Nadila, the maid, doing some voodoo fortune-telling. I’m not entirely sure about the gag that accompanied this scene about all the local mangaka being persuaded to change their pen names by a fortune teller, but maybe one of you can enlighten me.

My guess is that this is just a jab at authors constantly wanting to update their pen names, but the whole fortune teller thing seemed oddly specific.

Naru’s Art Class

I was surprised to see my favorite girl, Naru Senda, again so soon. Was that just last week that we were introduced to her? I feel like it was two weeks ago. But still, I didn’t expect her to make very many appearances.

In this episode, Naru appears as a teacher in an art class meant for children which Kakushi signs up for. He does this because he’s not confident with his scenery drawing, and he needs to impress Hime while helping her with her art project. He also needs to learn how to draw things in a non-manga style.

But none of that information about Kakushi is what matters. What matters here is that Naru is the art teacher and she’s apparently pretty good at drawing scenery. She’s even won a few contests, and Kakushi acknowledged her abilities.

So why does that part matter? Well, last week when I suggested that Naru probably wouldn’t be around too much in this series, I mentioned that she isn’t an apprentice at Kakushi’s studio. However, that doesn’t seem like such a far fetched idea anymore.

We know that Naru is a talented artist, and we know that she apparently specializes in scenery. We also know that Kakushi’s apprentice in charge of drawing all of the scenery in his manga is prone to injuring his drawing arm. So does this create an opening for Naru to join the team?

I now think that’s a very likely scenario.

Sure, the apprentice injuring his arm was a good setup for Kakushi to utilize the technique he learned from Hime. That is, drawing a scene from the perspective of an animal so they don’t have to draw the animal itself, but still imply its existence. The guy who draws the scenery is also the one who draws animals.

But it’s also extremely convenient that the background artist just hurt his arm again right after we learned that Naru can also draw backgrounds.

Zoo Date

The zoo date had a lot of good content all wrapped into one section of the episode. It had Hime’s teacher mistakenly thinking Kakushi and her were going on a date at the zoo, her students mistakenly thinking she was on a date by herself because her partner had died, and, of course, baby Hime.

Starting with that first point, I still love how Kakushi is basically a harem anime protagonist. He has all these women falling for him, and yet he’s completely oblivious to their intentions. But unlike a normal harem protagonist, he’s not just some kid who can’t read the room, he’s too focused on making his daughter happy.

I’m still curious about whether or not he actually will end up with any of these women though. I don’t think he will, but it’s always a possibility. As I mentioned last week, though, I think Naru is out of the question. And we can probably cross of Nadila and the girls who work for Kakushi too.

The second part of the zoo scene was my favorite, where Hime’s classmates get the wrong idea about their teacher. Their initial impression of her being alone at the zoo was correct, but when she denied that this was the case, that’s when their minds ran wild.

Also, I wasn’t really paying attention to them, but were these two of Hime’s friends from the first episode? I’m not going to go back to check, so you can let me know in the comments.

Finally, we have baby Hime, which is basically the same as current Hime but smaller and dressed like a bear. She still has the same blank expression on her face, so we can assume her head has been completely empty ever since she was born. Also, her mother is still around in this scene, so I’m not quite sure when she died.

Conclusion

What did you think of Kakushigoto episode 4? Will Naru end up joining Kakushi’s studio? Will Hime’s teacher ever get to go on a real date with Kakushi? And, on a scale from 10 to 10, how cute is baby Hime? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤ down below. Also follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.