With that being said, My Home Hero is the most disappointing anime of the spring 2023 season for me. Not because of how the show ended up, but what it could have been with its premise and source material. While it does try to adapt something unique in anime. It also shows why anime producers have gravitated to the limited show archetypes they produce within; it’s because they don’t know how to make shows of this kind and using a working formula is so much easier. My Home Hero as a suspenseful cat-and-mouse crime thriller fails in appalling fashion and ends up a weird amalgamation of anime triteness and imitated seriousness that misses what makes other shows of this nature gripping and exciting. While it’s unfortunate that this review will have to address these serious problems of the show, I’ll also explain why it’s good in some other aspects.
Tetsuo, the dad, is a frustrating character and detracts from any potential sympathy you may feel for him. On one hand, he’s an admirable family man that continuously shows his love for his family. but on the other hand, he’s just this goofball that feels so alien in the show my home hero is trying to be. He’s constantly getting caught in these shameful predicaments that every storyteller knows not to include because it damages the main character's respectability. Worse than that, he makes these high pitched squeals in the slightest discomfort and makes these embarrassing facial expressions in scenes where he’s just conversing with people that feels so unnatural. He also unironically fist pumps the air every time something goes his way which feels extremely forced. Who the hell does that? It’s this lack of composure and this unnaturalness only seen in anime that makes him seem so pathetic in a setting like this. The sad part is he does some intelligent stuff and is somewhat calculating. But it’s completely overshadowed because his plans are always foiled by variables he hasn’t accounted for or other people outsmarting him. Only for him to somehow weasel out of it by sheer happenstance or submission. That’s bad, not bad for the story per se even with the questionable overindulgence of deus ex machina. But bad if you want to make a main character people can root for because it makes him feel powerless and unassertive. Those wimpy self-deprecating characters might work in a more light-hearted story. But when you place a timid salaryman in a crime thriller, you best give that character some redeeming qualities so he becomes somewhat respectable and competitive in the dog-eat-dog world you place him in. Or make him start off not fit for this world, but slowly and unbeknownst to the characters themselves, morph into someone who does like Rock from Black Lagoon. That’s bona fide development and it makes characters feel more three-dimensional. But these come from a complete lack of understanding of what makes a suspenseful enthralling story. And this lack of understanding is even more apparent in the animation, or more precisely, lack of.
To classify something as animation, the things on the screen have to move. In which the characters and background of My Home Hero do very little of if at all. That's bad in just about any show. But especially bad in a crime thriller because you want a lot of subtle facial expressions to accompany dialogue that exemplifies intentions, inner feelings, and the mind games at play that sometimes tells more than the actual dialogue. The characters in My Home Hero just don’t react to the things they’re hearing or react so slowly and obviously telegraphed that you’d think everyone else would catch on to whatever fib they’re trying to hide. But this rigidity becomes so much worse when you look at the beading sweat on their face to convey nervousness. The sweat doesn’t actually pour down their face, it just stays there as the character it’s supposedly beading down mouths whatever they’re trying to say in real-time. It’s this lack of even trying to make the animation look somewhat lifelike that’s so ire-inducing. There’s a point in the show where Tetsuo needs to wear some bandages from a head injury he sustained. They made the bandages into this plastic see-through film that looks like he just put a glass bowl on his head that only propagates the goofy narrative. It’s these things that show a lack of effort or care of the production that makes it so much harder to watch for anyone with eyes.
In a surprising turnaround, the opening is actually gorgeously woven to fit the narrative with imagery that plays into the show really well. The difference between the opening and the rest of the show is night and day. You’re shown scenes As Tetsuo walks across puddles and in the snow alone. Representative of the hardships he endures to ensure his family remains safe as he reminisces of the times they were happy. Of a time when his family was happy as he willingly takes this journey of self-destruction for a daughter who shows infinitesimally less affection for him. With scenes of his family together vague enough to be relatable to many but specific enough to feel realistic and heartfelt. As Chiai Fujikawa belts her heart out about a love so profound yet fleeting in an octave high enough to blow Ariana Grande with all the autotune she can muster out of the water. This lethal combination will make even the most hardened anime viewers shed a tear. But the real kicker; the main reason as to why I enjoy and would go so far as to recommend this show to some?
It’s because that stupid insolent daughter reminds me of myself. A child oblivious to any of the hardships their parents have to undergo and will complain just about any inconvenience that comes their way. The litany of offences you make that your parents can somehow umbrella under the term “rebellious teenage phase” that only a loving parent affectionately ascribed as a home hero can love. I didn’t even go into the show expecting to get so emotional over a bad daughter. It might be because I’m now a university student studying abroad or the fact that this aired on father’s day and I get to spend time with him after what felt like years. But I get really emotional when Tetsuo randomly blurts out stuff like “Let the three of us continue to live happily”. I see the potential, he’s just a father forcibly placed in shrinking confines of a situation he himself placed his family in because of his blinding love for his daughter. It reminded me of all the things my dad did for me growing up. All the things you never say but do to express love. Driving his son to 6am football practices every week for a school team he wasn’t even a starter for. Buying an insane amount of snacks for his son’s first airplane ride by himself because he was nervous his son might be hungry on the plane. Sending care packages with tons of little things I love to make me feel better during exam period. The show captured parts of that type of love a dad has for their child, in its own extreme way. It's just a shame the show didn’t know how to mix that in with the crime thriller portion of the story and made him sound like a bumbling idiot every time he did something loving or sacrificial. I think that’s something that might resonate strongly with you if you grew up with a loving dad. So that’s why, as everyone trained their sights, preparing to drop and cast this show off as more seasonal schlock. I couldn’t help but choose to fire a blank.
