Kakushigoto | Episode 8

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As we slowly start to unravel the past, one thing is made very, very clear. Naoto, and Hime’s mother are people from a very wealthy family. This is shown through the first few minutes of the anime, when it gives a flashback when Hime mentioned “It doesn’t matter who came up with it as long as it’s good” when referencing how her puppy was named by someone else who held her out (the dog was named Roku). Why did Hime saying that trigger a flashback? It’s implied through the flashback that Hime’s mother nor Goto had a say on the name of their daughter. Rather, it was already pre-determined/selected by someone else. This is shown via a flashback where the name “Hime” is when by a calligrapher and is presented to a group of individuals attending the situation. All of them dressing very well for the occasion. This by any stretch of the imagination is one extravagant way to present your daughter’s name, a name you did not pick.

The episode now takes us on a trip to a home, similar to that of the one Goto and Hime currently live in. Why has he gone to a home similar to that of the one they live in right now? It’s because apparently, that other home is what he considers “storage”. What is he taking to storage? The painting Naoto sent Goto, of Hime’s mother and the dog. (The “storage” home, will play a larger significance at the end of the anime). As he placed the painting down he sees another one, right opposite of him. There he sees the following painting, painted by, again, Naoto.

The painting itself is labelled as “Ordinary Future Plans (Tentative)”. I guess this was Naoto wishing that his daughter, her husband and child would have lived a normal life together. But he knew, given the passing of his daughter, and the fact that his daughter married a manga artist, that his dream for all three of them to live a normal life was not certain and was not destined to become reality.

This is connected to the moment when the teenaged Hime mentioned how a mundane life was something she always dreamed of.

We will now fastforward towards the end of the anime, as that’s the only thing I personally only really care about at this point. the “present” Hime finds out that the place she was in, that had all these mysteries left behind by her father, was the place that I assume Goto wanted to live in with Hime’s mother and his daughter. Or it could be the home where Naoto wanted the three of them to live, live a normal life. This is only reaffirmed by the next scene where Hime is looking up at several stained glass pictures up against the frame of the home, makes the connection that this home, not only was it similar to the one where she used to live in but was also meant to be the original home for the three of them.

I find that to be very sad. The past few episodes have done an extremely good job as showing the unbreakable bond between father and daughter, but is also good at foreshadowing. I will walk back on my prediction I made early on in this anime, that something happens to Goto that causes him to no longer be there for Hime. I think he comes to the realization that what he’s doing is no longer acceptable and that he can no longer rely on it as a career and opts to live an “ordinary” life and ditches the life of being a manga artist behind.

And all these things we find out now in the “present” time with Hime doing her exploring around a house that could have been, is Goto’s way of allowing her daughter to see a secret he tried so hard to hide from her because he wanted her to live a normal life. We do not see him actively present anywhere though because I think it’s implied that while he’s finally allowing his daughter to see his past, he is ashamed of what he was and doesn’t want to show his face to her while she’s exploring his father past life.