I Can’t Understand What My Husband Is Saying is based on a 4-panel manga. The first season is 13 episodes long and is presented as a series of shorts with each episode being only three minutes in length.
With such short episodes, every second counts and the anime smashes out joke after joke, cutting quickly to the next scene each time. We’re rapidly told the premise of the show, being that Hajime and Kaoru married each other despite not having the same interests, or even being the best of pairing. Hajime is an otaku, while Kaoru is a normal office worker. Hajime even warns Kaoru during their wedding that he cannot make her happy but Kaoru counters that she’ll make herself happy.
The punch lines of each joke are Kaoru’s reactions about her husband’s otaku tendencies. Every time she learns or encounters something new, it’s unexpected for her. She finds porn magazines? Hajime comments that he forgot to put it away after “using” it. They watch an anime together during one of their dates? Kaoru enjoys it without thinking too much but Hajime goes in depth in analyzing and criticizing it. The anime is very sharp in its approach to the punch line. There will be many times where the episode feels way too short, purely because of how fun it was to watch.
Hajime spends a lot of his time at home watching anime and using the internet. As it turns out, he doesn’t have a proper job per se but still manages to scrap a living with his blog. Despite possessing all the bad stereotypes of otaku, Hajime doesn’t portray those traits badly, rather it’s funny and oddly endearing.
The pair is actually happy together, and it defies your expectations as Kaoru isn’t ashamed of her husband and his interests. There’s no need to worry about what Hajime thinks, he has no shame. Hajime and Kaoru is a very sweet couple that understand each other’s quirks and personalities. A lot of the scenarios are about them adjusting to each other in marriage. In many of the gags, Hajime’s delivery of the dialogue with a straight face, in a serious tone, is what seals the deal. It works time and time again.
The anime focuses on a really small cast. Most of the screen time is naturally on Hajime and Kaoru, but we are introduced to their families and close friends (Kaoru’s friends, that is). As a result, even though the entire season only totals to 45 minutes, you still feel as if you know the characters really well and a lot has happened. This is especially true at the end of the season, that it’s both genuinely touching, and funny, on what the couple has to look forward to in the future.
Overall, I Can’t Understand What My Husband Is Saying is an excellent anime. It puts the spin on a slice-of-life anime with the protagonist being older and married, as well as leveraging off the viewer base by having one of them be an otaku. Despite that, it doesn’t fall into relying on bad tropes, with every episode filled with funny moments, as well as moments where it shows off the couple’s genuine affection for each other.
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