Danna ga Nani wo Itteiru ka Wakaranai Ken

Though they couldn't be any more different, love has managed to blossom between Hajime Tsunashi, a hardcore otaku who shuts himself in at home while making a living off his blog, and his wife Kaoru—a hard-working office lady who, in contrast, is fairly ordinary, albeit somewhat of a crazy drunk. As this unlikely couple discovers, love is much more than just a first kiss or a wedding; the years that come afterward in the journey of marriage brings with it many joys as well as challenges.

Whether due to their quirky personalities or the peculiar people surrounding them, Hajime and Kaoru find themselves caught up in a variety of baffling and ridiculous antics. But despite the struggles they face, the love that ties them together spurs them to move forward and strive to become better people in order to bring their partner happiness.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Tsunashi, Kaoru Main

Tamura, Yukari Japanese

Tsunashi, Hajime Main

Suzumura, Kenichi Japanese

Tsunashi, Youta Supporting

Horino, Sayaka Japanese

Juse, Rino Supporting

Kugimiya, Rie Japanese

Miki Supporting

Shimizu, Kaori Japanese

Samura, Tadashi Supporting

Horie, Kazuma Japanese

Tanaka Supporting

Shintani, Ryouko Japanese

Juse, Nozomu Supporting

Sakai, Toshifumi Japanese

Ai Supporting

Kanno, Mai Japanese

Tsunashi, Kyouko Supporting

Mitsuishi, Kotono Japanese

Horie, Taku Producer

Shinjuku, Gorou Producer

Nagai, Shinpei Director

Oomuro, Masakatsu Sound Director

Reviews

Jan 3, 2015

Anthony_DiGrande

Recommended

Literally you can get this show done in an hour.

The plot of "I can't understand what my husband is saying" is about Kauro, an office lady, and her husband Hajime, an otaku who makes money as a blogger, and their lives as a married couple. The show has decent humor in it making it very enjoyable. Not only that, it's kind of interesting how the show tells their lives as a couple in only about three to four minutes.

If want to watch a quick and very enjoyable anime. I recommend "I can't understand what my husband is saying".

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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May 4, 2024

AnnoKano

Recommended

It can be quite easy to let your prejudices get the better of you. Opening your arms to something new, only to encounter the same things time and time again. Your expectations become lower and lower, until they become so low they no longer justify the effort of trying anything new in the first place. The reliance on the same old ideas and lack of creativity becomes so frustrating that even reading descriptions of new things annoys you. You have become a cynic.

If there were ever an anime to be cynical about, Danna ga Nani wo Itteiru ka Wakaranai Ken would be it. The series ... is about an office lady married to an otaku, and explores the conflict between these lifestyles in a light hearted and humorous way. There are quite literally no stories about otaku which do not deal with this conflict; it is the only thing which distinguishes them as a group from the rest of society. In practice it amounts to little more than perpetuating stereotypes now so sharply defined that any variation from them would subtract from their authenticity. There is nothing more that can be done in Otaku parody, and nothing about it that has been left unsaid. If that were not reason enough to be cynical about Denna, this isn't even the largest obstacle that it faces. Denna is not a full length tv series, or even an OVA: it is a series of thirteen five minute shorts. The limitations this creates are rather more intrinsic than the subject matter; producing something genuinely worthwhile in this format is an exceptionally difficult task, as is evident from previous examples. Most abandon all hope of telling any overarching story, and focus instead either on single scenes or random batches of gags. Productions in this format never amount to anything more than a minor distraction.

Who'd have thought that being proven wrong could ever feel this gratifying?

Denna ga Nani wo Itteiru ka Wakaranai Ken achieves more in its short running time than many full length series do across their entire run. It begins with an introduction to our leading characters, office lady Kaoru and her otaku husband Hajime. We expect that much will be made of their imagined lack of compatibility, and while not entirely wrong about this, there is evidence that there is more between them than meets the eye. That they are not paired for the sake of comic effect but there is a real connection between them.

The next episode introduces Tadashi, Hijeme's ambiguously gendered sibling. He has an incestuous attraction to his brother which brings the series a significant step closer to the dreaded otaku parody genre. His character appears again throughout the show, primarily as (unwanted) comic relief but also as a source of character development, providing an important link to Hajime's past and an overseer of their entire relationship.

As the series progresses, more and more time is focused on developing the relationship between Hijeme and Kaoru, which is interesting for a number of reasons. Romance stories about established couples are somewhat uncommon, as are those concerned with people in their late twenties and early thirties. Melodrama is sidestepped and instead we can examine the less often discussed process of two formerly independent people living together and eventually becoming a family, where far more is at stake and so much more can go wrong.

This isn't the only sign of a more mature romantic outlook in Denna. It would be incredibly temping for an anime like this, featuring a relationship between an 'otaku' and an ordinary person, to depict it as one sided. There is no shortage of anime which depict relationships as 'long suffering woman takes pity on unappealing male' or Hijeme as 'Almost unbearable man with a heart of gold'. While perhaps these scenarios provide some potential for comedy, they are completely removed from reality. Few people would consider marrying someone unless they believed they were in love with them. Denna recognises this and takes the time not only to explain what Kaoru sees in Hijeme, but the equally important question of what he sees in her. Because Kaoru has faults too. She smokes a lot. She drinks too much. She experiences loneliness. This focus on the emotional bond between Kaoru and Hijeme continues as the series edges toward its conclusion.

Then something completely absurd happens. Something so unbelievable, I find myself struggling to even write it down. What happens at that point is basically this: a thirteen episode series of three minute long anime shorts taking a humorous and light-hearted take on the relationship between a hardworking office lady married to an otaku, presents a more mature, emotional and real portrayal of love than most works of fiction ever do, and a fully grown man to start trying to fight back the tears in his eyes.

Though Denna's brilliance was not something I would ever have expected, fortunately it is something which can be explained rather easily: it treats its characters like people, and its audience like adults. The more these principles are followed, the more we shall get to enjoy those blissful moments. The human ones.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jan 4, 2015

Tempest_Wing

Mixed Feelings

After watching the last episode, I can finally say that this anime was just fine. I think it would have been better if it had a longer running time comparative to a 12 episode anime to really flesh things out. It does things so fast that you don't have enough time to really get to know or at least enjoy the characters. The story was interesting, but was far too short to really get much out of it, except the last episode and the one primarily involving the wife's past. Art is generic moe-esque. Sound.....I don't really remember hearing any music, everything else is the ... usual background or sound effects. The characters were a fine change of pace compared to other anime, or at least most of the time, ones you get further and further down the ladder of characters, they all seem to just be 1 dimensional (the wife of this guy, the husband of that lady, the friend of that one dude, etc etc). I enjoyed it fine. Overall I give this episode a 6 out of 10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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