A slice of life comedy based on a four panel manga, released in October 2014, and under three minutes long, I can’t Understand What My Husband Is Saying centers around the marriage of an odd couple. The hardworking office lady Kaoru, and her otaku , blogging husband Hajime.
They are a weird pairing but not mismatched. As we bit by bit we see how they work things out, and how they complement each other. Such as Kaoru acting moe in order to coerce her husband to do what she wants. As you would have guessed, most of the humor comes from misunderstanding of otaku culture by Kaoru or Hajime inserting aspects of it, where it doesn’t belong. Such as using his online profile pic of a horse as a photo of himself on a resume.
In his defense, stallions ad a touch of class.
On that note, there are numerous references to other anime. In particular nods to Neon Genisis Evangelion. Hajime even points out how Kaoru’s name appears in that show.
A pause for a Gendo appreciation applause.
There’s a variety of characters used. Most noticeably is Hajime’s yaoi loving,little brother Mayotama. Who sports a very androgynous look/voice, writes Boys Love fan fiction,and makes rather sexual suggestions to his own brother(yeah, they went there).
And with determination!
As well as the character of Miki. A data entry director who manages Hajime’s blog activities and seems to hide his face.
But open about that cold,draft taste.
It is a rather heartwarming tale since all of the characters around them seem to be supportive. There’s ups and downs with the way friends and family criticize the couple’s life, but they all seem to mean well.
Yup, more Evangelion references.
Since it is three minutes, the anime goes at a rather fast pace. They go through jokes at a rapid fire speed. It may make reading subtitles a bit of a chore due to pausing at certain jokes. But I will give the creators their due because they manage to build up the drama between characters with such small bits of time.
The ending song features both lead voice actors doing a duet, and adds a touch to all of it.
Kudos.
If weren’t for the fact that this is based on a four panel manga, I would say that this could have worked as a regular 30 minute show.
Check out , I can’t Understand What My Husband Is Saying (still seems like a mouth full) if you’re into some quick comedy that does the odd couple trope in a well done format.
Available to watch on crunchyroll(lucky you!)
http://www.crunchyroll.com/i-cant-understand-what-my-husband-is-saying
As a bonus, here is the Valentine’s episode I did that featured this show(again, lucky you….)
About the author: Glitch is a digital demon from planet Fanboy, and is here to teach us humans a thing or two. You can find more of his reviews(and nonsense) over at
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