My Home Hero

The mystery/crime thriller genre is a difficult genre to create a masterpiece in. A tight-knit story with a high level of suspense, while keeping the contrivances and convolutions low is most definitely a tough task, and even more of a tough task to satisfy all viewers. “My Home Hero” has its fair share of suspense to keep you on the edge of your seat at times, but unfortunately, it had a very low budget to work with, making the important moments not hit as hard as they should be. However, it still did a good job at making some of the characters feel realistic to an extent.

The set up for the show is relatively simple, as it’s about a normal man, Tosu Tetsuo, doing whatever it takes to protect his family, even it means murdering someone in cold blood to save his daughter. In doing so, he gets the yakuza on his tail, and he has to attempt to diffuse the situation and cover up his murder to save his family. The idea of protecting your family is present in both the protagonist’s and antagonist’s point of view, and the story attempts to make you feel for the characters, even the villains. As with most mystery/thriller shows, there are moments that aren’t particularly well written, and you question the intelligence and consistency of some of the actions of the characters.

I suppose the most difficult thing to believe, or something that requires a degree of suspension of disbelief, is how the characters are so skilled in escaping the yakuza, despite being seemingly a normal family. Tosu Tetsuo, the protagonist, gets his skills from reading and writing mystery novels, which is quite an interesting concept, though admittedly a bit flimsy. His wife, Kasen, was quite a highlight of the show, as she was able to support her husband extremely well, and together, they made an excellent tag team. One major complaint I would have is towards the daughter, Reika, who despite being the focus of the initial conflict, didn’t play much of a role in the story, and felt a bit too oblivious to what her parents were doing.

What I did like about the characters however, is how realistic they felt at points, especially selling the point that they aren’t experts at crime, especially on the emotional side of things. One might criticize Tetsuo for not acting when he had a chance to resolve the issue, perhaps by killing another person, but you got to recognize, he’s just a normal human being with empathy. I also liked some of the fights, as they were realistically awkward and clumsy, because the characters were never trained to fight. It was a good touch for sure.

The other major issue is obviously the animation, which was extremely stiff and took away from the major moments of the show. I honestly feel a live action adaptation might have worked better than this anime. However, the soundtrack was quite decent, and had a level of a thrilling tone to it to help compliment the show.

Overall, the show’s fine, but just severely held back by the production values unfortunately. The story had its ups and downs, and requires a fair share of suspension of disbelief. It’s a fine showing of a crime thriller, but lacked the execution to make it stand out from the other shows in this anime season.