Makeshift Circus / The True State of Manga and Muscles

I still enjoy Kakushigoto, but episode 3 is an example of why I was worried about adding this series to my weekly episode review schedule. There’s just not all that much to talk about in regards to this series each week. But even with that being the case, I still think Kakushigoto is the best anime of the season.

So last week I mentioned that Hime found extra boxes for her birthdays in her father’s studio when she turned 18. That’s apparently not correct. It’s not his studio, but actually their old house. So that should mean that Kakushi is actually alive at that point — contrary to what I thought may be the case.

What happened is that when Kakushi and Hime moved, Kakushi had their new house built exactly like the previous one. We can assume he did this so that Hime wouldn’t be traumatized by moving out of her mother’s house.

This whole thing with Kakushi having two identical houses made me think about a lot of things. My first question was, why did they move in the first place? Can’t Kakushi technically work from wherever? But the answer to that question is actually pretty simple: he’s more successful now so they moved to a nicer area.

We can infer this from the fact that all the other houses in this neighborhood are much nicer than theirs, which as stated, is built to look like their old house.

But the whole thing about the move possibly traumatizing Hime still doesn’t exactly make sense. Of course, this was never said to be the case, but that’s the impression I got. However, I also get the impression Hime never knew her mother, so would the move really have been that big of a deal?

Maybe Kakushi had his new house built just like his old one for his sake, not Hime’s.

Sports Festival

There’s just one downside to my theory about Kakushi building his current home like his old one for his own sake — everything he does is for Hime. In this episode, his devotion to his daughter is most exemplified through his dedication to exercising before her school sports festival.

Of course, it’s the students who compete, not the parents, but Kakushi is worried that he somehow might get called in to participate as well. But he’s not exercising because he’s worried that if that were to happen he would embarrass Hime. No, instead he’s worried that if he’s out of shape everyone — Hime included — will figure out he’s a mangaka.

This sort of outlandish line of reasoning is nothing new for Kakushi, but it does illustrate my point about him doing everything for his daughter, not himself.

After Kakushi gives up on his exercise, he decides to do everything else he can to make Hime’s sports festival a success. That includes things like making her lunch — which he has to be taught how to do — and buying her flowers, because why not?

But the unintended consequence of this is that he also made all the women he asked for help think that he was asking them out. So when he shows up to the sports festival, so do all the women who think he wants them to be Hime’s stepmom.

Also, I’m not actually sure which of the three women I would choose if I was Kakushi. I mean, he’s not viewing any of them in a romantic way, but if he was, and if I were him, then maybe the flower shop girl. The teacher is also a good pick.

High School Idol

But even though I think I’d pick the flower shop girl over the other two women Kakushi “asks out,” the dark horse is Naru Senda, the wannabe high school Idol. Like the other women, it’s clear that Kakushi has no interest in her and is only using her — for his work this time, not Hime.

However, it seems that Naru developed a crush on Kakushi, so I think we’ll be seeing more of her later on in the series. I don’t see her being a main character, but she’ll probably fulfill the same role as her romantic rivals. It would be cool if she joined Kakushi’s company as an assistant, but I don’t see it happening.

Naru aside, can we just talk for a moment about how Hime took some random girl singing in the park and invited her into her home while there were no adults around? Sure, a high school girl who wants to be an idol probably isn’t a threat to Hime. But based on the story we’re told about their meeting, Hime probably needs to learn what stranger danger is.

I guess I shouldn’t really be surprised though considering Hime continues to show us that there’s really nothing going on in her head most of the time. She has a weird dynamic going on. On one hand she’s definitely the most mature of her friends, but on the other, her head is completely empty.

I can see why Kakushi does everything for his daughter. I would also do anything for Hime.

Conclusion

What do you think of Kakushigoto episode 3? Why do you think Kakushi built his new house to be exactly like his old house despite moving into a nicer neighborhood and being able to afford a bigger house? Was it for Hime? Or was it perhaps for himself? And which of the three main women do you think should become Hime’s stepmom? 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.

Beach Sandals and B4 / Don’t Place, Don’t Draw, Don’t Finish Up

Kakushigoto episode 2 was probably better than episode 1. I can’t really pin down any one thing that made this episode better or the previous episode worse, but that’s just how I feel. But since putting my thoughts into words for you to read is kind of my thing, I guess I have to try.

In this episode we got to see Kakushi being an even crazier parent than before. And while I get that a lot of people are probably drawn to this series by the fact that Hime is cute, Kakushi is really the star of the show. When I say that I don’t simply mean that he gets the most screen time (although he does), but more the fact that everything is from his perspective.

It’s only during the opening scene of episode 1 and the the closing scene of this episode where we really get inside Hime’s head. Most of the time we don’t know what she’s thinking, and that’s something this episode made a point of which I want to touch on later.

Probably my favorite gag of the episode was when Kakushi was attempting to make sure everything went right for Hime during her school field trip. Obviously all of his attempts to make his daughter fit in with the other students failed, but his failures weren’t the entertaining part. The entertaining part was the lengths he went to.

For example, when he learns that the children are going to catch rhinoceros beetles, he has one of his employees go to a store to buy the biggest one he can find. The idea here is that Kakushi is worried that Hime will be the only student not to catch one, so he’s going to plant a large one somewhere she can find it.

Also when Kakushi learns Hime is in charge of curry spices, he hires an Indian curry chef to take a taxi out into the mountains in order to “help.”

Father and Daughter

To anyone who has watched this series up to this point, it should be obvious that Kakushi and Hime are complete opposites. Kakushi is constantly thinking and worrying about Hime, and Hime is apparently thinking about nothing at all.

I loved how over the course of the episode Kakushi went from denying there was anything wrong with Hime staring blankly into space to accepting the fact his daughter might be on the slow side when she asks him to sew her some glasses.

Also, while this isn’t really related to the relationship between Kakushi and Hime, I still think he’s basically just an adult Araragi. The crazy ways Kakushi overreacts when Hime is involved reminds me so much of Araragi interacting with Mayoi. And there’s no way the image below isn’t supposed to be referencing the fact that Hiroshi Kamiya voices both Kakushi and Araragi.

Hime is a strange character simply because we know so little about what she thinks of the world around her. We know she loves her father, and that compared to her friends she’s relatively mature. But as this episode showed, even Kakushi doesn’t know what she’s really thinking at any given moment.

Is she interested in learning more about his job? Although she’s been told that he’s just some salaryman, it doesn’t appear that she’s ever pressed her father for more information. And how does she feel about the fact that she doesn’t have a mother? Does that bother her? Does she even remember her mother?

The ending of the episode gives us a little glimpse into Hime’s mind when she admits that she never really pressed her father for information on anything — so there could be much more than just his job he was hiding from her.

Where’s Kakushi?

Something I didn’t really think to much about from the scene at the start of episode 1 was the fact that Kakushi was nowhere to be found. It was as though he gave Hime the key to his storage room and then left her to find out what was inside on her own.

That explanation made sense to me considering the fact I don’t really see Kakushi wanting to be there when his daughter learns of his profession. However, the ending scene of this episode appeared to be hinting at a darker backdrop to that opening scene.

Is Kakushi dead by the time Hime turns 18?

If you’ve seen Violet Evergarden, the boxes which Hime finds in the closet should make sense. These boxes are all numbered up to 16, and they each apparently contain a present for Hime. We can assume they were left behind by Hime’s mother upon her passing, and Hime is supposed to open one each year.

However, it’s odd that at the age of 10 is when she discovers these boxes. According to Hime, she opened boxes 1 through 10, implying her father never gave them to her before for whatever reason. But when Hime opens Kakushi’s studio once she’s 18, she finds four more numbered boxes.

We can assume Kakushi put these boxes together for his daughter after the events of this episode when he learns how to sew. But, isn’t that kind of strange for him to do that if he knows he’ll still be around? And why is his studio abandoned? It looks like nobody has used it in years.

Also, Hime is referring to how she never asked him more questions as if she’s unable to ask him them anymore. So is Kakushi dead?

Conclusion

I’d like to think Kakushigoto isn’t going to “hit us right in the feels” like that, but honestly, at this point that’s what I’m expecting. Either way I’ll enjoy the series, but I’m really interested to see which direction it ends up going in. What do you think? Is Kakushi dead in the “present?” And if not, where is he? 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.

Secrets / Wishes

I couldn’t find the title of this first episode, so I’m just going to assume it’s “Hidden Things” since that’s technically the English name of this series. But anyway, here we are with the first episode review for Kakushigoto, which I wasn’t sure I was going to be reviewing weekly until I watched it.

Even before this season began, I knew Kakushigoto was going to be the best anime — and after watching episode 1 I think that was a safe bet. The reason I knew it was going to be good is because the two main characters are voiced by some of my favorite voice actors, Hiroshi Kamiya and Rie Takahashi.

I still like Kana Hanazawa as a female voice actor more than Rie, but Rie is definitely up there.

This series also has some other fairly popular voice actors you may know, such as Emiri Katou, Maaya Uchida, and Daisuke Namikawa just to name a few.

This first episode sets up the concept of the story with an introductory scene which takes place in the “present.” In this scene, Hime Gotou has turned 18, and for her birthday her father has given her the key to his secret lair where he keeps his work.

Up until this point, Hime didn’t know what her father did for a living, and on this day she learns that he’s a hentai, or at least ecchi, mangaka (manga author/artist). We then go back in time, and the rest of the series is going to be about Kakushi Gotou hiding this secret from his daughter because he thinks she’ll think less of him for it.

I should also mention that the manga for this series just finished in March if you’re interested in checking it out.

Kakushi Gotou

I guess I can’t really talk about Kakushi Gotou without first explaining kakushigoto (and kaku shi-goto). Basically the series title, the protagonist’s name, and the protagonist’s secret he’s hiding from his daughter are all one giant play on words.

Kakushi Gotou is the protagonist of the series. Kakushigoto means secret. And kaku shi-goto means profession or work. So Kakushi Gotou’s kakushigoto is his kaku shi-goto.

And, himegoto can also mean secret, while Hime Gotou is Kakushi Gotou’s daughter — which I guess is referencing that she’s the one he’s keeping this secret from.

If you’re familiar with my love of the Monogatari series, you’ll know that I really enjoy Japanese wordplay. So of course, this whole Kakushigoto thing is highly amusing to me. I don’t much care for English puns, but if you make an anime series that’s just one giant pun, I’m all in.

So speaking of the Monogatari series, you may have noticed that Kakushi is is voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya, the same guy who voices Koyomi Araragi. What I like about this is that so far, Kakushi really does look like an older Araragi, and he almost acts like him too.

He doesn’t have the same, dry, internal monologue that Koyomi has, but the way he reacts to various situations is pretty similar. And based on Koyomi’s personality, I could see him ending up as an ecchi mangaka — although that’s more of a Nadeko thing.

Also, Hiroshi voices Nozomu Itoshiki, the protagonist of Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei (which has been on my list of anime to watch for a very long time). I bring this up because Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei is also written by the same author as Kakushigoto, Kouji Kumeta.

Meguro River Detective Agency

I don’t know if the Meguro River Detective Agency is going to be something which is carried throughout the series, but I hope it is. This is the make believe detective agency created by Hime and three of her friends, Silvia, Hina, and Riko, in order to find out the identity of the man who saved a cat from drowning.

Of course, that man is none other than Kakushi. So while he’s trying to hide his true identity from his daughter, she and her friends are trying to reveal the identity of a “hero” who turns out to also be him.

But what I really like about the parts of the episode which focused on Hime and her friends is that you get the feeling Hime wouldn’t really care that her father is an ecchi mangaka if she found out. She loves her father no matter what and just wants him to be happy.

This idea is really driven home by two very different scenes. The first is when Hime is asking her friends about a project she can do at home to make her dad happy. She ends up writing down a wish for him to one day become important because that’s what she believes he wants.

The other scene is when the Meguro River Detective Agency heads out in search of the hero and stumbles into a Starbucks. Here, all of Hime’s friends are very into their fantasy and believe the Starbucks is some witch’s lair which serves drinks to monsters. Hime, however, recognizes that it’s just a Starbucks, which shows that she’s more mature and down to Earth.

Really, Hime would probably be proud of her father’s profession considering every adult in the series, including Hime’s teacher, is a huge fan of Kakushi’s work. Kind of like the opposite of Ao-chan.

Conclusion

So far, I love Kakushigoto, and I’m sure it will end up being my highest rated anime of the season. It’s a bit too early to say it will be my highest rated of the year considering some other series I know are coming out, but I expect it to be a contender.

But what did you think of the first episode? Are you as optimistic about the series as I am? Is there another anime you expect will be the best of the season? 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.