Review of Kakushigoto

Title: Kakushigoto (Hidden Things) Overall Score: Personal 8.6/10 (rounded 9/10), Objective 7.5/10 (rounded 8/10) The first paragraph is spoiler free, the rest I must put a HEAVY SPOILER WARNING. Quick Review: Upon first reading the synopsis, I thought this story would be filled to the brim with innuendos and dirty jokes much like Seitokai Yakuindomo. And maybe there would be a few touching moments sprinkled around here and there. However the story of Gotou Kakushi and his daughter Hime turned out to be surprisingly wholesome and even made me tear up a bit, especially with the endings of each episode. The last episode was admittedly rushed, and there wereseveral story elements that didn’t really need to be explained that were dumped onto us, but overall Kakushigoto turned out to be well worth the watch.

In-depth review:

Story: Personal 8.5/10, Objective 7/10

As stated above, the dynamic between father and daughter in this series is one that is adorable and more or less realistic. Kakushi hides his true occupation (mangaka) from Hime partly in fear that she may look down on him, and partly for her not to be tainted by the dirty contents of his stories. Ever the doting parent, Kakushi’s initial actions to protect his daughter in the first few episodes bordered on obsession, which admittedly did hurt my impression of him. But as the series continues he does mellow out significantly and we start to learn more about his motives.

As Kakushi’s wife presumably passed away when Hime was very young, he struggles with maintaining his distance for the sake of his secret job and trying to make up for the love Hime could no longer get from her mother. Hime simply wants to spend time with her father and never questions (very much) his strange actions or tries to pry into his private life. This ironically is one of the things she regrets later down the line. At the end of each episode we are brought to the future where Hime is a young adult, alone and only now realizing the secret her father kept from her all these years. This is later flipped on its head and we realize that it these are not flash forwards, but rather the whole series is a flash back to when Kakushi was at his happiest, spending time with Hime without any truly stressful life issues getting in the way.

I won’t go into the whole familial issues that Kakushi had with both his parents and his wife’s parents, because the majority of it was exposition dumped onto us in the last episode. It made the whole thing seem rushed and took up half of the last episode, which could’ve been better spent showing Kakushi’s future interactions with his grown up daughter while he was suffering from amnesia.

Now of course, the ending was cliche. The series even admits it. But it was a cliche handled very well and even put a humorous spin on an otherwise serious situation.

Art/Animation: Personal 7/10, Objective 7/10

Nothing special here. If you didn’t like the art from Sayonara Zetsubou sensei then you won’t like it here cause it is basically the same. The animation felt smooth and it did it’s job, but I can’t say it stood out as amazing to me. The symbolism on the other hand…

Symbolism/Wordplay/etc: Personal 9.5/10, Objective 8/10

As many of you probably already know, Kakushi’s name when read in the western was (given name first) is Kakushi Gotou, which is a pun on Kakushigoto (something hidden, a secret job, etc). However another lesser known pun is his daughter’s name, Himegoto, which means more or less the same thing (something that you don’t want others to find out). I find it pleasantly ironic that despite all the effort Kakushi puts into hiding his manga, Hime grows up to hide the fact that she likes drawing manga from him as well. It really drives the point that no matter what his job was, Hime would’ve still accepted him for who he is.

Another aspect I thought was done well was the boxes that Kakushi (and his wife) create for Hime to open up, one for each year of her life until her adulthood. Not only does it show the love and care both parents have for their daughter, it also symbolizes what they wanted their ideal life with Hime to be. This also ties into the storage house, which was actually the original house her family was supposed to live in. The house she actually lived in as a child was a replica of this, something her father insisted on doing in an attempt to preserve his ideal happy family.

Sound: Personal 9/10, Objective 8/10

I loved both the OP and ED, which is quite rare. In terms of the actual sound effects during the story, I’d say they fulfilled their purpose well enough, much like the art, but nothing truly exceptional here.

Character (Main): Personal 9.99/10, Objective 9/10

I’ve already mentioned above how Kakushi and Hime’s interactions throughout the series are wholesome and adorable, so I’ll focus on the future scenes when they are older.

In the final moments of the series, Hime mentions how happy Kakushi must be to have what he wants most which is drawing manga (he does not recognize that Hime is his daughter as he believes he she is still a child due to his amnesia). However Kakushi disagrees and says the thing that he wants most is to see his daughter grow up to be happy and healthy. This is the emotional trigger that makes Hime want to carry out her plan to make Kakushi regain his memories. To me it was the strongest point in the entire episode and is probably one of the best climaxes of any series I’ve seen.

Kakushigoto is one of the best depictions of unconditional love I’ve seen in any form of media (where no one dies). Kakushi’s selflessness and (unknowing) push for Hime to be selfish for her own wellbeing’s sake turned this family’s potentially tragic end into a happy one.

Character (Supporting): Personal 7/10, Objective 6/10

Arguably the weakest point of the story in my opinion (aside from the final episode’s exposition dump). Most of the side characters like Kakushi’s assistants didn’t really have much going on with them and were very one dimensional. They were usually used as part of a punchline. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed their interactions, but they were mainly made interesting because of their interactions with Kakushi. The same goes for Hime’s friends, although to a lesser extent. I did like how the girl Hime saves becomes a longtime friend and how she wanted to return the favour by helping Hime regain her father’s memories.

The three or four women obsessed with Kakushi were good for a laugh or two, but they didn’t have enough screen time for me to really care about them (except for Hime’s teacher, the last episode saved her character for me).

Enjoyment/Humour: Personal 9/10. Objective 7.5/10

If you’re a fan of bubbly slice of life, you’ll love this one. But be warned as it will bait you into crying heavily at the end of each episode. The “it was all a flashback” trope has been used lots before but I’d have to say this is one of the better uses of it. The ending scenes of each episode left me wanting more, which kept me coming back each week to find out what happened next. I suppose that’s a good thing for the producers.

Some of the jokes are hit or miss, but the series never failed to make me laugh at least once per episode.

Honestly speaking my least favourite episode would’ve been the last had it not saved itself at the very end. I think more hints about the Gotou family should’ve been spread throughout the story while keeping the balance between humour and drama. Many shows have done it successfully, and Kakushigoto nearly pulled it off. But I assumed that if it wasn’t gonna be spread out in the show then it would’ve been kept a mystery. Revealing everything at the end would’ve worked if it was a whole episode (still not that great but better than what we got) but here it was too rushed. I would’ve preferred if Kakushi’s past was kept a mystery. Especially Hime’s half cousin, which literally only existed to give the exposition dump and explain Kakushi’s past.

Totals: Personal 59.99/70 (85.7%, rounded to 9/10), Objective 52.5/70 (75%, rounded to 8/10)

Closing Statements

I’m glad I decided to watch Kakushigoto, as it was the only non-sequel in the Spring 2020 season that even slightly piqued my interest. There are several anime where a single parent figure takes care of a child, but few do it as right as Kakushigoto does. It has just the right balance of light-hearted wholesomeness, wacky and sometimes very slightly raunchy humour, and tragic story, all wrapped into a neat single-cour story. Anime of the Season personally, very narrowly beating out Kaguya S2.