English Dub Review: Kakushigoto “School Rucksack”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Kakushi is dismayed when Hime comes home from school with another new backpack from someone named “Naoto Date.” The mysterious gifter is apparently inspired to do charity work with orphans, but Kakushi doesn’t like being thought of as merely a charity case.

Later, Kakushi has an autograph signing on the same day that he’s supposed to take Hime to a theme park to experience various jobs. He ends up taking her there and dropping her off. While Hime tries her hand at jobs ranging from baking to working at a bookstore, Kakushi signs autographs from dedicated fans and gets a boost of self confidence in the process.

Our Take:

The sixth episode of Kakushigoto is a master class at combining Kakushi and Hime’s adventures into a single storyline that ties together. While certain episodes have brought them closer together in the past, School Rucksack does what I think is the best job of it yet, exploring the deep depths of Kakushi’s love for manga and his daughter.

The opening scene of the episode finds Kakushi freaking out over yet another backpack Hime has received. While we as audience members aren’t too sure what’s going on at first, the answer gets a bit more clear (and somehow more complicated at the same time) later on. It’s revealed that Kakushi knows exactly who’s been sending Hime the backpacks every year — a shady guy in a limo. While it’s good and well that we know that much, it’s still a mystery as to the man’s real identity. Perhaps he’s somehow related to the family? Hime’s grandfather maybe?

Regardless of the mystery man storyline that doesn’t get resolved by the end, the rest of the episode is pretty much perfect. Kakushi losing all his confidence the minute he walks into the bookstore signing is typical for him, but seeing him slowly realize that he does have real fans with real emotional connections to his work is heartwarming to watch. When the final fan is a father who brought his son along, Kakushi may have a little breakthrough. All this time he’s been protecting Hime from the true, and here he sees a family enjoying his work together. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like this carried through, as he’s still just as protective of his career choice once Hime runs into him again.

It does make for a crazy scene in which Hime sees her father in his role as a professional manga artist for perhaps the first time, though, until miss Ichiko steps in and covers for him with a blatant lie about how he’s just participating in a career theme park for adults like Hime was during the earlier part of the day. It’s a sweet thing for Ichiko to do, and I’m actually kinda rooting for her now? But also it took me out of the moment because, okay, Hime might be a kid, but she’s not a baby. She would totally recognize her father’s distinctive hairstyle and glasses even if he has a different outfit on.

School Rucksack isn’t a slam dunk for the series, but it definitely does a great job combining the elements that work so well in the show’s favor. We get tons of quality Kakushi time, and even some hilarious moments with the supporting cast, like when two of his assistants make up their own character backstories about why they’re watching kids at the theme park. I do wish we saw more of what Hime’s day was like, but at this point, it’s clear that Kakushigoto is more about the manga artist than the middle-schooler. And if the show continues dealing with their storylines like this, I won’t have any complaints. But seriously, what is going on with those flash forwards?