English Dub Review: Kakushigoto “Normale Namae / Komawari Sketch”

 

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Kakushi’s staff members are surprised when they find out he uses a pen name — but for real life. Since he debuted under his real name, he’s taken to signing up for rewards cards and junk mail under the name of Kazushi instead to prevent Hime’s from realizing he’s a famous manga artist. He decides to start publishing under a pen name now, but everything gets muddled when the higher-ups don’t like it and his editor falls in love with their housekeeper.

Later on, Hime has a drawing assignment to complete for class, and Goto freaks out when she asks him for help. He can’t draw too well or she’ll guess his real profession, but he can’t risk his pride by letting her think he’s bad at drawing, either. Ichiko complicates things when she insists he not help her due to his unfair talents. In the end, everything works out when the three of them go to the zoo.

Our Take:

This episode of Kakushigoto returns to its roots by connecting both storylines back to Kakushi’s fear of his daughter finding out his true profession. It’s a little bit of a regression in terms of interesting new motivations, but this is the main setup for the running joke that snakes through the whole series, so I’m not too upset. It helps that both storylines in Normale Namae / Komawari Sketch are great in their own ways.

The first half of the episode finds Kakushi freaking out about his name. He’s worried about the public connecting him and his work, and decides to come up with a new pen name with the help of his editor. The exchanges between them are really great, and things get even crazier when the editor goes to check in at his house because the big bosses think manga artists usually start requesting name changes when they’re being extorted by fortune tellers. This isn’t the case, but Satsuki sees Hime and Nadila performing a fortune telling ritual and falls in love with the housekeeper. This half of the episode is a little scattershot, but it hangs together thanks to solid pacing and good gags.

The episode really hits home in the second half, when the show does great work connecting Hime and Kakushi’s conflicts into one. She wants help drawing for school, but he’s worried about drawing too good (and too bad), which is something uniquely applicable to his situation while being relatable to parents in general as well. Kakushi deciding to take an art class with children is funny, but I’m not sure I love the continued storyline about Naru, a highschooler, thinking he wants to date her.

Things get even more complicated when Ichiko, Hime’s teacher, warns him about helping her. He decides to invite her to the zoo in order to see for herself that Hime’s drawings are her own. She thinks it’s a date, of course, and hilarity ensues. She ends up meeting more of her students, and a misunderstanding gets them thinking they need to behave a lot better in her class. The episode wraps up in a sweet way, with Hime acting very kid-like in a way that helps her dad out from a tight manga author situation.

Kakushigoto continues to be a breath of fresh air with its blend of mile-a-minute comedy and an underlying warmth that comes from Hime and Kakushi’s dynamic with each other and the member of their family who is no longer present. Next week’s episode seems like it’ll deliver a good dose of drama from the preview, so I’m excited to see what the show will draw up for us then.