Review of Kakushigoto

Kakushigoto, or My Dad's Secret Ambition, like my secret ambition in writing anime reviews. Don't tell my mom. Of course, Spoiler warning kids. Spoooooilllllllerrrrrsssss. Let's go, alright, Kakushigoto is honestly quite enjoyable. First impressions are always important and when I first saw the poster I initially had in mind a serious, drama and a hint of mystery. Nope, I was off by the most part when I when into the first episode. I'm not sure if you get where I am coming from but my first impression of the show was 'what?'. I'll admit the first time I saw this I was slightly confused like I didnot expect that uplifting and very cheerful mood that the show gave off. Because in the first few minutes of starting episode, we were thrown into this serious tragic scenario. Definitely the sound of the OST during the scene already gave off that sad tone. But what came after which is the rest of the episode was such a juxtaposition from the serious scenes that it was almost frightening.

But of course, with more episodes, we start to piece together the puzzle. That we are not just watching two different scenarios with two drastically different moods, we are watching two timelines which is cool. Honestly, my fear for this series at first was due to the humour. Not going to lie this is a very well written show but from past experiences with other animes, that does such a bad job transitioning from sad scenes to funny scenes. To be more clearly series that have comedic and dramatic elements to it do such a bad job on making the experience enjoyable. Unlike this show, Kakushigoto.

What Kakushigoto does an amazing job is drawing a fine line of what scenes should be funny and what should be serious. Like it's so obvious, the ending part is the serious part. But with this, you don't get that annoying sensation of getting bounced around from funny scenes straight to sad scenes. It's a very clear yet neat way of presenting the show which I admire. Plus with each episode ending off with scenarios from the future just urges the viewers to want to know more. It's not a clickbait ending (obviously) but it's a smart way of trying to get the viewers (such as myself) to want more. That's nice.

Other pretty good things about this are the characters that it presents. I'll admit not all characters are super in-depth, but all of them feels right. Like all of them feels like where they belong and not out of place or unnecessary at all. All of them just breathes a layer of depth in the world that is Kakushigoto which is truly amazing.

Of course, the jokes. How can I forget about the jokes. While a chunk of it is misunderstanding scenarios, I'm going to focus more on the manga artist position. Not going to lie they are well written and funny. Yes, they are mainly aiming at manga artist but I get the jokes and I actually learnt quite a bit of the harsh life of manga artist. It's funny but also kind of interesting unironically. Definitely, I'm sure you learnt something from this as well.

-SCORES-

Character- 8/10: Gotou-san is such a good character, he's funny, he's direct, he's likeable. Hime is such an angel we need to protector at all cost, maybe until she gets older. Tomaruin is a dick in a good way and the G-Pro staff like Sumita, Kakei, Shiji and Keshi are all fine characters. Plus we have the ones outside of the studio like Nadila, Hime's friends and teacher, plus Gotou-san's side chicks and of course, Mario (he looks like Bruno Buccellati though)

Art- 7/10: While more could be wished for, it does a fine job of delivering the actions, emotions and doings of the characters well. Simple yet minimalistic, it has its own charm. It's really different from other anime and the animes studio Ajia-Do does. It's unique.

Writing- 7/10: Just a decent job on the writing, while I feel nothing is groundbreaking or like mindblowing. It does a good job on the jokes and scenarios.

Sound- 7/10: While I am not blown away by the intro, it's nice of course but the outro just steals it for me. It's literally a Christmas song in June! Cool. The OST does its job as well.

Overall, I didn't really have high expectations at first due to the weird starting episode but as I watched more and more it actually paints a much bigger picture. While nothing groundbreaking it's certainly an enjoyable watch. Plus that ending was such a sweet touch like Tomaruin said 'it's cliche' but a sweet moment nevertheless.

Strong 7