Kakushigoto | First Impressions

So, I am now 6 episodes into Kakushigoto and for the most part, I feel like this anime has been all over the place. There are some really boring and messy episodes for sure, and it makes it really easy to see the several flaws of the anime, because when they mess up, they really mess up. But when there are good episodes, then the “good” episodes tend to be extremely well thought out and do a great job as correcting their “messy” episodes.

Kakushigoto, is about Goto hiding his job of being a manga artist from his 10 year old daughter named Hime. Goto does his best to hide it through any means necessary, because for starters, he’s embarrassed of his occupation and because he doesn’t want his daughter to know that he draws very inappropriate manga. Why does Goto want to hide his career from his daughter? it is because he wants his daughter to live a normal and ordinary life. Which is hard to do when you’re trying to hide a big secret from the person whom you love the most.

Not much is given in terms of context, but we do know that Goto is a single parent, and that Hime’s mother and her father were/are members of the upper class in Japan. This is shown a various points of the anime whether that be through flashbacks etc. But I generally think that it’s implied.

As this anime is a Slice of Life, Comedy, Shounen, you get what I consider to be a very unbalanced anime, even though when you objectively think of those three genres and whether or not they’ll work together. I generally think they would work well together, but in practice, for this anime in particular it’s a lot harder than one might think. Kakushigoto leans heavily on the comedic aspect of the anime, so heavily that it can come off as very unnatural and forced humor. Which is a part I don’t really like about this anime.

Another thing I also didn’t like about this anime is the art style. While it’s something new, something simplistic, it just doesn’t look appealing to me. Sometimes it felt as though the simplistic art style worked against the anime. Sometimes the art was just too simple to convey the proper emotions the studio wanted you to feel when you watched a particular scene. The only part of the anime where I thought the art style worked and was “top notch” was during the opening. While it was done using the same art style, it felt a lot more finished, polished and looked a lot nicer and more appealing to the eyes.

That being said there are quite a few things I enjoy about the anime.

The strong father-daughter relationship

That is the one big take away from this anime. Goto and Hime have probably the strongest relationship I’ve seen in an anime for a long time. They both do whatever makes the other person happy, regardless of situation. They’re also extremely understanding of each other and want to be there for each other no matter what. That is what I call unconditional love and is something I adore.

The underlying premise of the Anime

What the underlying premise of the anime is, Hime finding out and exploring the past life of her father. Rather, slowing being exposed to his past and what could have been. This anime has two different timelines, we have the “Child Hime” version which shows off the relationship she has with her father as well as what he father did as a job while she was still a child, and the great lengths he went to in order to hide his occupation. Then we have the “teenage Hime”, which is now exploring his father’s deepest, well kept secret. What did he do? Why did he hide it, what do all these things mean?

The story itself, I think, is a lot deeper than I expected. The vast majority of each episode showed the everyday life Goto and Hime once had during the “Child Hime” phase. It gave us a glimpse of the events and decisions that influenced the outcome being shown when we jump to the “teenage Hime” timeline. Think of it almost like a flashback to the past. Flashbacks providing context and greater detail to the ultimate question of the anime, what did Goto do for a job and why did he actively go and hide it from Hime instead of telling her.

The OP is god-tier

The OP to this anime, “Chiisana Hibi (ちいさな日々)” by flumpool coupled by the illustration of the opening is probably one of the best parts to the anime. In large part because while you don’t notice it at first, the illustrations, and scenes shown while the opening song is playing are all scenes taken from various episodes of the anime, or give little hints/refer to various parts of the anime. Which is epic.

Despite this anime being all over the place sometimes, to the point where it can feel rather dull. This anime sure has had some very nice and entertaining parts and has a story that can hook you in (Hime exploring her father’s past). I am looking forward to seeing this anime’s conclusion, from what I’ve seen so far, it looks like the conclusion to this anime is going to be a really good one!