At first glance, a show called My Home Hero would suggest it to be a wholesome slice-of-life show and with slice-of-life being my favorite genre, the title alone piqued my interest enough to read the synopsis. After doing so, I was kind of taken aback by the darker, grittier premise which, to be honest, didn’t sound that bad. In fact, I saw some potential in it. So, I decided to check it out. Was a little misdirection between the title and synopsis able to create something worth watching?
Let’s Go!
First Episode Synopsis
We open up with a car accident and no explanation of it whatsoever. Then we switch to a man named Tetsuo sitting in a café reading reviews of his latest work. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem like much of an accomplished author. While going through reviews, someone in a hat, sunglasses, and PPE mask shows up. It’s revealed to be his daughter. When she takes everyone off, she reveals a lot of bruises on her face.
It’s revealed that she is dating an abusive boyfriend. Before they can get too deep into the conversation, Reika gets angry and takes off. Tetsuo goes to visit her and hears some thugs on the street near her apartment talking about beating a girl. They state that her name is Reika but before he can do anything, a guy pulls Tetsuo aside, roughs him up, and blackmails him into keeping his mouth shut.
He eventually visits and her abusive boyfriend shows up. He hides in the closet and after hearing him have an open conversation about being a member of the yakuza, he’s not going to take it anymore. He kills him right before his wife and Reika’s mother, Sayaka shows up. After he offers a loose explanation, she suggests that they do to him what the yakuza does to others… hide the body and cover everything up.
Worth Watching?
MAYBE – I think there are a lot of interesting things here that were marred by poor execution. First off, Sayaka just seemingly suggesting hiding a body after buying a quick ‘self-defense’ excuse (an excuse she put on the table by mentioning it) was a bit hard to swallow. It really felt like an obvious plot device to move the show forward into its premise. Reika wasn’t featured as much as she should have… especially since the whole situation revolved around her. You would have thought that she would have played a more prominent role.
While there were some misfires in the first episode, it did hold my attention enough to want to see more. I’m not going to judge the writing of the show just yet and there is room for it to improve. I’ll give this one a chance to see how the yakuza’s involvement is handled, how Tetsuo and Sayaka choose to deal with it, and so forth.
