Kakushigoto (2024)

Kakushigoto

The theatrical edition of Kakushigoto is what it says on the tin: It’s a compressed, movie-length re-edit of the TV anime. Consequently, it retains exactly the same premise as the original television series (which again, is all spelled out in the title). If you’re unfamiliar with this movie’s stitched together from a show origin and I’m assuming most people reading this are you could be forgiven for expecting a setup like that to yield a pretty broad slaptick sitcom. And you’d be right! Mostly.

What might take newcomers off guard as they sit down with this story in its theatrical form is how beautifully animated and directed it is, especially during the scenes where an adult Hime goes to confront her father’s secret once and for all, which serve as a framing device for all the flashback to childhood with Kakushi that makes up the bulk of the story stuff.

Rie Takahashi provides wistful, bittersweet narration as Hime, which makes you think maybe you mixed up your goofy comedy with some touching coming of age drama along the way by mistake. Even without whatever touch-ups may have been done for this film, director Yūta Murano and Aija-do Animation Works’ excellent work is clear to see and hear.

Then we cut back to Hime’s elementary school years, which feature lots of scenes of her dad running around screaming his head off while every other adult in his life wonders why on Earth it even matters so much for him to keep his job secret from his daughter. This kind of brashly earnest clash of tones isn’t anything new in anime, but even after so many years consuming Japanese media both as a fan and critic I still struggle sometimes to sink into stories that can swing so violently from crazy comedy to treacly melodrama.

It’s not like our main character isn’t in capable hands Hiroshi Kamiya is an industry veteran, and he’s made a fine living for himself playing larger-than-life personalities of many different stripes, from Blue Exorcist’s Mephisto Pheles to Attack on Titan’s Levi Ackermann. But even in their original twenty minute long forms some of Kakushi and Hime‘s tales could feel like a lot, and condensing so many into one 80-minute-long serving threatens to make Kakushigoto Theatrical Edition a bit of a slog.

It is undeniably impressive that the film even works at all, when we’re only getting 80 minutes out of about four hours’ worth of broadcast material. I only saw a few episodes when they aired myself, so I can’t tell you exactly what’s been cut, but the holes in the story aren’t hard to spot. Despite having a large cast of supporting players from both Hime’s school life and “G-Pro” (the crew of artists and assistance that help make Kakushi’s manga), there’s barely anything resembling a proper character arc for anyone outside our two leads.

There is a large chunk of time during the middle act where it becomes increasingly clear that we’re just getting snippets of individual stories that have been slapped together somewhat inelegantly into a movie, especially when scenes start devolving into montages that probably make a lot more sense for fans who recognize the stories that the film zips right on past.

That said, as the story started to settle into its groove which admittedly doesn’t happen until we’ve reached the last third of the movie’s runtime. I found myself warming up to this version of Kakushigoto. The swings between comedy and drama start to feel more earned here, and the movie lays down some much-needed context for why Kakushi behaves how he does, and how his choices have gone on to affect his daughter all these years later as she approaches adulthood and has to start finding her own way through life.

Some side plots get a lot of focus in this last act still feel undercut by all of the editing, specifically one that involves some Kakushi and his wife’s longstanding family drama from before Hime was even born but I still basically “got” it, so I guess this re-edit must be doing something right.

Kakushigoto Theatrical Edition is one those strange artifacts of anime industry history that feels like it came from another age entirely. In the days before home video existed, it made sense to create theatrical re-cuts of TV shows for the audiences who missed out the first time or for fans that wanted to experience their favorite moments all over again. Nowadays even with Blu-Rays being as expensive as they are, I feel like the existence of modern streaming services makes projects like this one more or less obsolete, especially here in the west.

At the end of the day, if you’re eager to experience Kakushigoto for yourself and literally have no other way to do so, then this Theatrical Edition is a perfectly fine way to kill an hour and a half. If you can legally stream the TV series though, by all means, go with that one it will do everything right that this movie does and have room to tell Hime and Kakushi’s full story as originally intended.

Watch Kakushigoto For Free On Gomovies.