Kakushigoto – Daddy’s Little Girl

Production

Obviously, I already mentioned that art style. I like it a whole lot. You can see it in all the screencaps. However, that’s up to personal taste. You might in fact openly dislike it. I liked the colours as well. They’re in a slightly softer than average palette which makes the images by default just a little more soothing and relaxing. But still colourful.

However, I have little else to bring up in this section. I liked the production but nothing really stood out. This is something I tend to write a lot. It’s not a bad thing mind you, usually production flaws really bug me so no news is good news!

Story & Characters

I was a bit afraid that Kakushigoto would go into some form of lolicon or incest. I don,t really have a reason for that fear, I guess I’ve been burned before. But the thing is, I’m a sucker for father-daughter relationships. I really enjoy them onscreen and they tend to be particularly rare. It’s just that when you add in a sexual component to that, it ruins it for me.

Happy to report that my fears were completely unfounded. In fact, even though the main character writes an ecchi comedy manga for a living, Kakushigoto stays really far away from blue humour. A very wholesome show with pretty much no fanservice to speak of. And it turns out that was just what I needed at the time!

I say no fanservice but I do think that if you’ve ever wanted to be a father Kakushigoto will pander to you. The show is written from Kakushi’s point of view and really highlights both the anxieties and the pure joy of having a daughter. It can be quite sweet and endearing. But it can also be somewhat limiting.

Also, if you are not interested in father-daughter relationships, then there’s very little for you in Kakushigoto. Every other aspect of the anime is in service of that core.

When I say the story structure is limiting, I mean it in a couple of ways. It doesn’t really allow the narrative to go into the other relationships that Kakushi has. I mean, he has a team working for him and those workplace dynamics are pretty great. But none of them get developed too deeply and most of the time they revolve around Kakushi’s home life. As such, those characters always feel like extras. Pleasant extras I would like to have gotten to know better.

But the one that suffers the most from that, in my opinion, is daughter Hime. Hime through Kakushi’s eyes is basically perfect. She’s such a highly idealized character that she doesn’t really feel like a character anymore. She an idea of what a little girl would be in the mind of a proud and loving pap. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a certain charm in that. Kakushi is an unreliable character and the series seems to tell us, all fathers would be when it comes to their little angel. And that’s a very sweet sentiment. But it also means that in effect, Kakushi is the only character with consistent development and he has to carry the show. This can occasionally strain the narrative a bit.

Moreover, the sentimentality comes off a bit shallow because of it. How can I explain this? Some scenes feel like they were written primarily to get the audience to go awwww. They don’t really add to the story and when you think about there’s not much depth to them but they’re very uplifting in the moment.

There’s also a pretty important tonal shift towards the end of the series. It’s heavily foreshadowed right from the start so it’s not jarring when it happens but you still have to switch gears. Personally, I liked it and I really liked the ending in general. The last episode made me drop everything else and just completely immerse myself in it. It was great. as far as I’m concerned. But it did inject quite a bit of drama in what was up until then a light comedy so it might not be everyone’s cup of tea.

Then there’s the manga aspect. Kakushi’s job is the second most important thing to him and it takes a lot of place in the story. It’s always second fiddle to Hime of course. We don,t even really find out much about his manga beyond the title and the fact that it’s an ecchi comedy. But there are glimpses at the mangaka business and I loved those. I generally really enjoy seeing the behind the scenes of how manga is made. It’s not an important enough part of the anime for me to recommend watching Kakushigoto just for that but it added a lot for me.

Kakushigoto is far from a perfect anime. This said I liked it. I thought it was much better than the average show. At the end of the day, it’s a niche anime. It has a specific subject matter and focuses on it pretty narrowly. If you’re interested in that, I think you will find a soft-hearted if a little superficial anime that has some very sweet moments.

You might like this anime if:

You like stories about fathers or being a father.

I save all my screencaps on my Pinterest and you can find more there if you are interested. But I still like to show you a few in the post. If you’re like me, screencaps are something that really helps you decide to watch an anime or not.