English Dub Review: Kakushigoto “ Beach Sandals and B4 /Don’t Place, Don’t Draw, Don’t Finish Up”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Goto is excited about taking his daughter on a vacation getaway, but school gets in the way. Hime has been planning to go on a field trip to the beach with her class for over a month now, and that’s not going to change now. Goto decides to bring his employees along and follow Hime to the beach, but it turns out that things don’t go quite how he expects.

Later on, Goto takes Hime to a festival for some fun, but instead of treats and things, they run into tons of unauthorized merchandise ripping off his newest smutty manga. Luckily, he spies some of his employees that help him get rid of them before Hime can spot them. But she does eventually find out, even if it’s years later.

Our Take:

The second episode of Kakushigoto does a wonderful job building on the premiere episode to deliver a half hour of jokes and emotional beats that land almost every single time. Goto’s worry over Hime is sweet to watch, and his worker friends provide plenty of gags to go with the fatherly concern. I wish we had seen a bit more of Hime and her school chums, but I can’t complain when all of Goto’s assistants are coming into their own personalities.

The first half of the episode deals with deadlines. A short gag at the beginning shows how different people do different things to make sure they meet deadlines on time. It’s funny to see the stark contrast between Goto and his assistants as they make gyoza before finally finishing up their work.

When everyone arrives on the beach, things stay just as funny, and some romance and sad feels get mixed it as well. Hime’s teacher accidentally comes into the understanding that Goto has a crush on her, and it’s a dynamic I am onboard with shipping since they’re both adorable people in their own right. Hime getting unknowing help from her dad is also nifty viewing, especially when he goes so far as to hire a professional curry chief that goes unappreciated by the youngsters.

The second half of the episode keeps up the humorous tone with an amazing gag where Goto conducts regular Hime emergency drills to ensure she doesn’t discover his occupation. It leads into an even funnier bit later where they’re suspected of running a cult. The scenes at the festival though felt a bit too long, with the merch joke dragged out too far.

The big reveal at the end is super fascinating to me for a number of reasons. On the character side, we learn that Hime’s mother left boxes of her belongings from many years of her life for Hime to discover. And from an outside perspective, we realize that Hime isn’t going to discover her fathers secret until many years have passed in the current timeline. This takes away some of the tension, but also opens up new possibilities that the show could explore in the future.

The more I watch Kakushigoto, the more I enjoy it. It’s really doing a fine job balancing the slice of life aspects with the gag sketch comedy bits, which I wasn’t sure it could successfully pull off after last week. And the dub actors are knocking it out of the park, especially now that we know Hina is an older child, which makes her adult actor’s voice easier to justify. I just hope we get a proper reveal of Goto’s sewing instructor friend next week.