English Dub Review: Kakushigoto “Makeshift Circus / The True State of Manga and Muscles”

 

Overview (Spoilers Below):

When Goto’s assistants all get injured at once, his editor brings on an extra helper for the group. But it turns out that he’s way too good, and quickly leaves to publish his own manga. Hime’s classmates pay a visit to her home, and one of the girls accidentally convinces her that they’re poor, leading Hime to try and save money by cleaning the house herself.

Later, Goto tries to train for Hime’s sports festival in case the parents are asked to compete, and Hina meets a teen girl with aspirations to become an idol. As the festival approaches, Goto gets nervous about Hime’s lack of a mother and unknowingly wins several potential love interests in the process. After the meet, Hime tells him that the two of them are just fine together.

Our Take:

The third episode of Kakushigoto continues the show’s streak of combining heartwarming and humorous parenting moments with manga jokes in a solid effort that makes for a very entertaining watch. Now that we’ve gotten to know Goto’s manga team more, it’s pretty easy to find funny situations to put everyone in. Hime is still adorable, and her struggles with growing up are relatable for everyone who remembers what being a kid in an adult world is like.

The Hime storyline for the first half of the episode is definitely one of the more depressing ones, but it was also handled pretty well I thought. Every parent dreads one of their children’s friends coming over and commenting on how the house isn’t as nice, the food is worse, etc. But not many would mention the lack of a concierge. Hime’s other friends tell her not to worry, but she can’t help it. Even strangers passing by think Goto is poor due to the one-story house. It’s sweet to see Hime try to lessen the burden on her dad’s finances, and funny to see Goto’s bewildered reactions as he insists he’s not poor, but pretty well off.

Later on in the second half, things get a bit dicier. Goto being nervous about Hime missing her mother is a very standard plot for a show starring a single father. While it makes sense to cover it, I feel like it didn’t work as successfully as some of the other topics the series has touched on. Pairing Goto’s worrying with a bunch of random ladies thinking he’s flirting with them might have been fun as a one-off, but when it overtakes the whole plot, it felt weird, especially seeing all of them come to Hime’s sport festival. At least the teacher’s part in it was hilarious, since she’s such an overdramatic character and has been established as having a somewhat romantic dynamic with Goto before.

It’s a little interesting how the teen girl idol thing comes together in the latter half, too. Goto is having trouble drawing a new character in his manga, a young girl with dreams of becoming an idol. One of his assistants suggests it’s because he doesn’t understand the character. Upon his arrival home, he’s astonished to find a teen girl who wants to be an idol sitting at his table. He assumes she’s a fan, and gets flustered about Hime finding out about his manga career. (Which reminded me that I’m glad the show has toned that angle down recently.) She ends up confessing her dreams to him, and he listens due to his need to understand her struggle. It provides both of them with things they need: validation for her and material for him. I’m not sure it’s completely ethical for Goto to hear her out just to benefit his own manga when she didn’t know his profession, but it’s still cute that Hime brought back exactly what he needed.

The Kakushigoto dub is only on its third episode, but it’s already going down as one of the most lighthearted and entertaining shows of its kind in my book. The dub cast continues hitting it out of the park, especially the two main leads. Even the writing seems above average for a dub, with conversational dialogue rarely feeling out of place or muddled. This is definitely one of those shows you look forward to watching every week. I don’t expect it to go anywhere to dramatic, but I’m curious to see how it balances comedy and drama going forward with the introduction of new issues and characters who could potentially remind Hime of her mother.