2014-12-26

I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying

I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying (旦那が何を言っているかわからない件) is a 13 episode slice of life comedy based on the 4koma of the same name by Cool Kyoshinja.  This 2 minute per episode show originally aired in Japan during the Fall of 2014

    Hajime is a deep otaku who makes a living running a blog.  The stars align and he ends up marrying a normal girl named Kaoru.  The show follows them as they adjust to their new life together.  Kaoru loves her husband, but his habits and conversation references sometimes leaves her scratching her head in wonder.  Hajime continues to wonder at his luck in getting a normal woman to marry him.

    This show was a hidden gem of the Fall season.  Its crudely drawn and sometimes disjointed but over all was an enjoyable and heart warming series.  Much of it is filled with Kaoru being exposed to the various peculiar hobbies and fascinations in the otaku world.  Each new perverted thing she learns about makes her more confused but she never question her love for Hajime.  Over the first half of the show, as they are introducing all of the peripheral characters, there is sometimes confusion as to who is who and what their relationship with the main characters are.  I'm sure if this was watched in one sitting it wouldn't be as confusing.  The second half of the show starts to shape up and point the narrative in the direction of the couple contemplating having a child.  This half also has some serious and striking retrospectives, which change the tone of the show a little and give it some dimension.  Over all the series as a whole is much better than anticipated.  The crude artwork does fit in well with the shows flavor and the main characters are enjoyable.  I should probably re-watch it in one sitting and see what the impression is over watching it each week.  Watch out for Evangelion references in the final episode and a jab at the pregnancy test meme.

    The manga-ka runs a website for it where rough panels are hosted of the series.  Check it out if you can read Japanese.  A second season was green-lit and will begin in April of 2015.  There is word it will be a full length series but I am not sure how well that will work out.  It seemed to flow nicely in the shortened episode length.  A full 20 minutes may very well lead to useless filler material, detracting from the main part of the story.

    The show was simulcast on Crunchyroll.  Highly doubtful it will see a DVD release and the manga is not available as well in North America.

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