Review of Kakushigoto
What immediately hooked me was hearing the voice actor for Kakushi Goto, the main character, being the same as Araragi Koyomi. What later surprised me was that he isn't even the only one from the Monogatari series, Nadila, a supporting character, being voiced by Katou Emiri, who previously voiced Hachikuji Mayoi. But it doesn't stop here. The entire cast is filled with well-accomplished voice actors, and it shows: the voice acting is incredible. Heck, we even have Merry from the infamous pillow-tugging anime Makura no Danshi, here in the role of Kakushi Goto's editor Tomaruin Satsuki. The style of comedy ranges from light word-play and Nichijou-styleoverreaction to otherwise everyday events, to various verbal misunderstandings between characters having humorous consequences. I probably wouldn't recommend it to someone still uninitiated to Japanese humor, as it's presence is quite strong here. It never goes so far overboard to sound unbelievable, leading to quite grounded scenarios. Each episode has a similar structure, generally about Kakushi Goto's everyday: Kakushi's daughter Hime is doing something that either might uncover her father's secret of being a mangaka or is otherwise doing something where Kakushi feels he must intervene. The stuff that happens afterwards is the sauce of the show.
The original manga was written by Kumeta Kouji, probably best known for Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, and the artstyle is very much intact in the anime adaptation. The ending theme looked like it was drawn by kogecha/bard713, who I'm a big fan of (as far as I know he was still alive then).
This anime does something special with its format I've never seen before. It solves the problem most 12-episode anime struggle with, where an interesting plot premise is established in the first episode, only to reappear in the last three episodes (or even less), the episodes in-between being nothing but filler. Kakushigoto by definition doesn't have this problem, as its plot is interspersed among all episodes, each having a short segment dedicated to an ongoing (more serious) storyline very much related to the otherwise comedic everyday happenings. The watcher therefore gets satisfaction on both fronts.
To just quickly address why the scores I gave aren't higher. The story was OK, nothing too deep or interesting, what makes it above average even is presentation. Sound-wise this is also average, if not for the choice of ending theme. The characters are fun and definitely pump up the enjoyment but don't stand out too much themselves, most of them have pretty shallow personalities (not to sound pretentious, they don't have to be super deep and multi-faceted, but they shouldn't be one-trick ponies either). But, luckily, the whole is greater than the sum of it parts, and even though it's, at least on paper (minus the art, the art is amazing in its own right), slightly more than mediocre, I still happily binged it.
From reading the synopsis, I never thought this would be so enjoyable: even though it's gimmicky at the core, the execution is superb. All in all, this felt like an anime made for people like me. The father-daughter moments were made sympathetic, without being overly sentimental. The comedy was funny. The art-style was modern and refined, quite similar to studio SHAFT's works, which I am a fan of. The characters felt well-characterized and each fulfilled a fitting role in the cast. I never skipped the opening or ending theme. If still unsure, I suggest you to just watch the first episode, it's well-representative of the whole anime.