Posted by OP Sequence
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OP: Chiisana Hibi「ちいさな日々」 by Flumpool
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「かくしごと / ねがいごと」 (Kakushigoto / Negaigoto)
“Secret / Wish”
Kakushigoto is an ambitious comedy that aims to capture the struggles a father would have with wanting to give their child an embellished view of what they do for a living. Although the show’s sense of humor is fairly simplistic in being about the ways Kakushi goes above and beyond to make sure his daughter Hime never knows about his job as the author of several bawdy ecchi manga series’, there is a melancholic tone that Episode 01 flirts with as it gives us context on the anime’s emotional core.
For the most part, Kakushigoto is a series about preserving one’s legacy. The first scene of Episode 01 has Hime inheriting the key to a shack several years into the future to find his secret stash of work tools he had used to create ecchi over the years.
It’s unclear whether he retired or passed away, but to know Hime had one lasting impression of her father that was a complete fabrication before she opened up the vault does give the show’s comedy a biting sting to it. It’s comical to see him bungling around and dedicating every fiber of his being to keep her from discovering his vulgar side. But at the same time, Kakushi knows that it would be complicated for his daughter to have the knowledge that her father makes art that she is far too young to read or comprehend. As the only shred of innocence in Kakushi’s life, he fights tooth-and-nail to preserve such innocence by keeping everything about his job a secret no matter how respectable his work is as a prolific mangaka who is an expert in his craft.
There is also the underlying implication that he’s successfully deceived his little daughter until she was eighteen, calling into question whether Hime would be within her right to be angry at her father for spending her entire childhood and adolescence lying to her about his job. Is it unfair that Kakushi never gave his daughter a chance to have the slightest inkling of what he does for a living? Or is there such a thing as a necessary lie needed to make sure that you won’t be remembered by those around you for your less savory traits?
It’s the intro alone that helps set the tone for how its jokes will come across given that most of the humor contemplates the validity of his legacy. Characters like Hime’s elementary school teacher Ichiko Rokujou find his occupation respectable, but his genre-of-choice makes him contemplate whether he should veer towards what’s popular nowadays.
The jokes that land is ones that tinker around with this idea as he looks towards a manga like Shingeki no Kyojin as inspiration to make a mainstream dark action series. And as he finds ways to keep his job a secret, Hime and her friends start to see the parallels between how the mysterious Kakushi carries himself and the characters of a dark action manga.
So far, Kakushigoto is shaping up to be a fun anime to follow week-by-week to see what predicaments that Kakushi will get stuck in to preserve his secret. There are hints at a deeper plot with how much Kakushi has to grapple with as a single parent, but it appears that a majority of the anime will capture the hectic mad dash that Kakushi makes to ensure that Hime doesn’t find out who he is. It’s also a relief to see another Kumeta Koji series get adapted with Kamiya Hiroshi on-board as the protagonist. Whether you share the same joy or really want to see a goofy yet sentimental anime, Kakushigoto is shaping up to be one of the top comedies this season.
ED Sequence
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ED: Kimi wa Tenneshoku 「君は天然色」 by Ootaki Eiichi
Looks better than Tower of God lol
This looks like it’ll be a favorite of mine.
I absolutely loved Zetsubou Sensei, and still can’t rewatch it without laughing so hard it hurts
When they went into Starbucks, I was nearly crying
Now, I’ve seen some legitimate criticism, that this kind of humor relies heavily on wordplay, so yeah, if you don’t have at least a basic understanding the Japanese language, then a lot of these are going to go right over your head. Personally, I can’t speak Japanese fluently, but I’ve done enough watching of raws and subtitles that I can very much enjoy these jokes.
I have a feeling I’ll be looking forward to this every week going forward.
I have read those critiques as well and they resonate if you’re not too into Kumeta’s material.
While Zetsubou-sensei was hilarious, there were some jokes lost in translation because of how many were based in puns. By Season 3, you had more jokes based around puns than from societal woes.
The same love for pun humor is present through Kakushigoto as much. It can be a hurdle if it’s not your thing or if the language barrier makes it distracting enough to need a translation book to get to the joke.
That being said, once you have a basic idea for what Kumeta is going for with a joke, it helps to make the pun humor come off as more clever than distracting. It also helps that Kumeta peppers his work with a proper balance of pun humor and humor related to popular culture.
It’s Kamiya-sama, I watch. =)
But this is the type of genre I’ll watch regardless. I expect tissues in the future.
Is it wrong for me to egarly anticipate for them to do the classic Itoshiki sensei “ZETSUBOUSHITA~”?
I would like to add, this was fun, but also strange to watch, as it really looked like they just took Zetsubou characters and transplanted them straight over, though they were made younger in a couple places. Uchouten Kazoku,had similar designs but its own feel. This is straight up Zetsubou rebranded.
Not that I’m complaining mind you. I loved it. If it works…
Uchouten Kazoku felt different from Kumeta’s main work because he was only responsible for character designs. It was a story from Tomihiko Morimi (the author of Tatami Galaxy), so you had the combination of his caliber of storytelling and Kumeta’s flowy, quirky artstyle.
For Kumeta’s comedies, what you’ll be expecting are strange eccentric characters interacting with the world around them by mocking modern society and tinkering around with puns. It is easy to see the anime as a more wholesome Zetsubou Sensei without the macabre nature of following a suicidal teacher, but it is definitely something you would watch to scratch an itch for more of that instead of something more meaningful or compelling like Uchouten Kazoku.
Its been a while since I laughed so hard for an episode one like this. I’m totally looking forward to this one.
Oshapi LOL!!
Drinks with names like spells!
This show is real good!
Just the easy to watch light hearted show I’m looking for.