Hajime: Mashiro-tan is my waifu!
Kaoru: I'm your wife!
—First Episode
I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying (旦那が何を言っているかわからない件, Danna ga Nani o Itteiru ka Wakaranai Ken) is a Slice of Life comedy manga created by Cool-Kyou Shinsha about an Office Lady named Kaoru Samura and her Otaku husband Hajime Tsunashi. The manga started as a series of Yonkoma on Pixiv, which were later published in print by Ichijinsha from 2011 to 2014.
An Animated Adaptation made up of three-minute Thirteen Episode Anime shorts premiered in October 2014, with a second season following in April 2015.
It also has several prequel/Spin Offs:
- My Girlfriend Without Wasabi, which follows the story of Kaoru's friend Rino Juse and her husband Nozomu.
- Metsuko ni Yoroshiku, which follows the story of Kaoru's high school Senpai.
Currently has a character page under construction.
I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying has the following tropes:
- Actor Allusion:
- It's no coincidence that Hajime would find Nanoha Takamachi and his wife Moe given they're both voiced by Yukari Tamura. Also counts as Celebrity Paradox.
- Likewise, when Hajime lights up after "sensing Moe", there's not only a "Newtype spark" with the appropriate sound effect, his eyes turn into the same shape and color a la "SEED Mode". Hajime's voice actor Kenichi Suzumura previously voiced Shinn Asuka who frequently used "SEED Mode".
- Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: In Episode 6 of season one, Kaoru is told to stop smoking. The only problem is she's never seen smoking in the anime. This is fixed by Episode 9, which shows her smoking in a Flashback.
- Anachronic Order: Season one ended with the last published chapter (at the time). As a result, most of season two's episodes take place in between season one's episodes (the first and second episodes were numbered 7.5 and 9.5, respectively). Since the only indicator of when episodes take place is a small number on the tile cards, it left some fans asking "Why aren't they following up on Kaoru being pregnant?"
- Apology Gift: Lampshaded in Chapter 3 of the manga with Hajime's list on how to calm girls down1. Don't talk back ☆!
2. Apologize and keep quiet.
3. It can't be helped even if you get hit.
4. Give some valuable presents later. - Art Shift: Episode 11 of season one has a very surreal art style, due to there being a different art director. Given the theme of the episode, it fits perfectly; similarly, Episode 8 of season two since it too is a Flashback.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite their different, seemingly distant personality and quirks, Kaoru really does want to understand her husband and the two have many moments throughout the series where it's explicitly clear they care and genuinely love one another.
- Babies Ever After:
- The main series ends with Kaoru giving birth to her and Hajime's daughter Sayoko. The anime ends a bit sooner, with the first season ending on her getting a positive on her pregnancy test and the second having everyone come up with baby names.
- My Girlfriend Without Wasabi ends with Rino giving birth to triplets.
- Bathtub Bonding: The first ending has Kaoru and Hajime relaxing in the bath together. Later episodes would add them washing each other's backs.
- Beautiful Dreamer: Kaoru looks at Hajime asleep in their bed after she wakes up from her Flashback Nightmare, and it's not his looks that bring a smile to her face.
- Big Eyes, Little Eyes: Due to the artist's style, the eyes are the windows to the soul and change drastically, Kaoru's in particular.
- Her irises are normally small due to being a former Japanese Delinquent.
- Whenever the audience sees inside Kaoru's thought-processes, this is usually accompanied by normal-sized irises, such as when she gets married in the pilot episode.
- When Kaoru deliberately invoked Moe, she did an Open the Iris.
- Meanwhile, Kaoru's girlfriends and Mayotama all have large-irised Tsurime Eyes.
- Black Comedy Rape: When she's drunk, the only thing Kaoru seems to think about is doing Hajime, whether he's in the mood or not. Both of them are horrified by this (Hajime during and Kaoru after the fact), but it's Played for Laughs due to the jackhammer sound effects accompanying the scene (Hajime even suggested that if it happens again, he'd use a high-end camcorder to record the fun in 4K resolution).
- Bland-Name Product: The Google logo at the start of Episode 12 in season one is rather distorted.
- Blank White Eyes: When shocked by Hajime, Kaoru sometimes loses her irises completely.
- Blush Stickers: Kyouko (Hajime's mother) and Ai-chan.
- Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: In the Episode 9 Flashback, when Kaoru tells her father she's going out on a date, he offers her a taser to take; when she refuses, he offers an automatic rifle. After she refuses that, too, he offers to come with her, making a bloodthirsty, insane grimace with blood dripping down the background of the scene. In the present, he threatened to kill Hajime when he said that Kaoru cooking badly was an endearing attribute; justified since he's a professional cook himself.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Hajime obviously has a breast fetish which Kaoru with her relatively big boobs is fully able to satisfy. Hilariously Lampshaded in the pilot.
- The Cameo
- One of the magazines that Hajime was "using" in the first episode had Momi on the cover.
- Kaoru's high school Senpai was Akiko, the protagonist of Metsuko ni Yoroshiku. She's also Miki's relative seen working for him in Episodes 4 and 12.8. Yuzu from the same series also appears in Episode 4 of season two, now working as a mangaka.
- The two schoolgirls in the first episode of season two are Hayasaka from Komori-san Can't Decline! and Karrot from Frau Rabbit.
- The couple that owns the butcher shop mentioned in Chapter 3 of the manga are Harundo and Kurume from RaButa. They later show up in person for Chapter 50, as does Haru from Ojojojo.
- Celebrity Paradox:
- During the first episode, Hajime is shown looking at a screenshot of Nanoha Takamachi; Nanoha and Kaoru are voiced by Yukari Tamura. One has to wonder if he finds one attractive because they sound like the other.
- Hajime has made a few Gundam references. His voice actor Kenichi Suzumura voiced Shinn Asuka, the Decoy Protagonist of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny. His mother's voice actress Kotono Mitsuishi was also part of the show as Murrue Ramius since its predecessor series, as well as Toniya Malme in After War Gundam X. Rino Juse's VA Rie Kugimiya voiced Nena Trinity in Mobile Suit Gundam 00. Kaoru's VA Yukari Tamura eventually joined Suzumura and Mitsuishi in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Freedom as Big Bad Aura Maha Khyber.
- A figurine of Cattleya from Queen's Blade is seen in Episode 9. Rie Kugimiya (Rino Juse) voices Melona and Rana in the same series. Ranpha Franboise also appears in an Imagine Spot in the same episode. The character is voiced by Yukari Tamura, Kaoru's VA.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion references are also abundant in the anime. Kyoko's VA Kotono Mitsuishi also voiced Misato Katsuragi.
- Christmas Episode: Episode 12 - Kaoru has to work late, so Hajime goes to a party with Kaoru's friends and their husbands. Since she has to work the next day, they can't spend any time together that night either, so it ends with Hajime reaching for a box of tissues instead.
- Close on Title: Done twice - the first is done for emotional impact in Episode 11 "One Person Had Survived On Her Own", a Flashback Nightmare to before Kaoru met Hajime, the second spoiler purposes in Episode 13, "Me, Her, and Another".
- Clumsy Copyright Censorship: Titles of other works have one syllable bleeped out, while having a line referring to that work come before or after it.
- Cool Bike: The motorcycle Hajime took Kaoru to Shounan in the first episode of season two.
- A Day in the Limelight: Several episodes of season two focus on the supporting cast
- Episode 6 is an adaptation of My Girlfriend without Wasabi and focuses on Rino and Nozomu.
- Episode 8 deals with Youta "Mayotama" Tsunashi's past and how he became an Otaku and obsessed with his brother.
- Episode 13 is from Tanaka's point-of-view as she mediates Kaoru and Hajime fighting over what their daughter's name should be.
- Dead End Job: Working a dead-end job while living alone (as depicted in Kaoru's Flashback) is close to a living nightmare, and is an experience all too many loners are familiar with.
- Debating Names: The season 2 finale opens with Hajime and Kaoru getting into an argument over what to name their daughter which eventually culminates in them inviting all of their friends over and picking one of their suggestions at random.
- Did They or Didn't They?: Gloriously Averted - Hajime and Kaoru had offscreen sex twice in the pilot and it's implied they have an active sex life.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Both ending themes are sung by Hajime and Kaoru
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Lampshaded in Hajime's list on how to calm girls down (see Apology Gift above).
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: while Kaoru essentially rapes Hajime that one time when she's really drunk and this is played for comedy, it's played for Black Comedy. Both of them (especially Kaoru) realize it was terrible.
- End-of-Series Awareness: Season one Episode 13 begins with Hajime ranting about how he feels when a Slice of Life Thirteen Episode Anime is ending, and how he wishes he could see what happens to the characters afterwards; He also notes just before an anime ends, something happens, like a graduation. The end of season one? The episode is entitled "Me, Her, and Another".
- Eye Catch: Despite each episode being three minutes long, they normally have one or two eye catches peppered through them, often accompanied by the sound of someone typing at a computer (most of them are Shout Outs). Instead of signaling a commercial break, they're used to go from one scene to the next. More emotional episodes, like Episode 11, don't have any.
- Flashback Nightmare: Season one Episode 11 is an entirely depressing one for Kaoru
- Friendship Moment: Parodied in Episode 13 of season one - Nozomu mentions he thinks of Hajime as his friend when Hajime says he doesn't have any; the latter wonders when he triggered an Event Flag, leaving Nozomu confused.
- Forgotten First Meeting: After hearing the story about how Nozomu and Rino met, Hajime realizes he worked at the sushi bar they frequented.
- Furo Scene: There are two scenes (once in each season) where Kaoru is shown relaxing in the bath while having an internal monologue (the first time about whether or not she'd be comfortable having a kid, the second time about her relationship with Hajime).
- Going to the Store: Kaoru uses this as an excuse when she feels unsure about her compatibility with Hajime and went to Tanaka for advice. note
- Gray Rain of Depression: During season two Episode 2, it starts raining when Kaoru is worried about her compatibility with Hajime. It doesn't stop until he puts her worries to rest by kissing her.
- Groin Attack
- Kaoru's response to Hajime taking photos of schoolgirls when they went to her old high school.Hajime: My wee-wee!
- When Nozomu met his Rino at college, he mistook her first for a grade-schooler, then a kindergarten-child due to her being small for her age. He wasn't scared of her due to this, but she proved him wrong by boxing him in the balls
.
- Kaoru's response to Hajime taking photos of schoolgirls when they went to her old high school.
- Hair-Contrast Duo: Kaoru and Hajime seem like a standard blonde/black couple, but Kaoru actually dyes her hair (its natural color being a very dark blue).
- Happily Married: Despite all the wacky hi-jinks and their vastly different interests, it's clear Hajime and Kaoru love each other.
- Hot Springs Episode: After winning a trip two episodes earlier in season two, Miki takes everyone along in Episode 5 so he doesn't have to go alone with Mayotama.
- Idiot Hair: Akiko's hair not only floats upwards in blatantly disregard of gravity, it continuously wriggles in like a snake. It's also about 2.5 feet long, making it more of a side ponytail than a single hair.
- Insatiable Newlyweds: While it's not mentioned whether they had sex before their wedding, they get it on quite a few times afterwards which eventually results in Kaoru getting pregnant.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: A third party in Hajime and Kaoru's Love Triangle lied about her feelings so the two of them could hook up, but this doesn't stop her from coming over to their house in hopes of sleeping with Hajime.
- Leet Lingo
- Naturally, the Otaku among the cast know it. Tanaka, despite not being one of them, also has a proficiency of Imageboard-speak.
- The second season's title adds "Second Thread" to the main title. This also come from Imageboard practices: as threads will automatically be closed after a certain number of replies, a "second thread" — often marked as such — will be created if the conversation still needs to be discussed.
- Love Hotel: Appears at the end of Episode 1 in the first season
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The nature of the couple is been played up, particularly because Hajime was quite weak-willed before he started dating Kaoru.
- Masturbation Means Sexual Frustration: Despite Hajime being Happily Married and having a fulfilling sex life with his wife Kaoru, there's one time he's resorted to this. In S1E12, Kaoru has to go to bed early because she has to work the following day. Hajime then goes into a Corner of Woe and reaches for a box of tissues, implying he feels blueballed and needs to masturbate off his frustration. What's worse, earlier that episode their married friends indicated they are intending to have sex that night, owing to Japanese usually treat Christmas as a date night.
- Measuring the Marigolds: After seeing a movie, Hajime says how tired the plot was and full of cliches, but Kaoru said she wasn't really thinking about that kind of stuff. Justified since Hajime was going to post a review on his monetized blog.
- Meet the In-Laws: A Flashback in Chapter 7 of the manga features Hajime meeting Kaoru's father. It goes surprisingly well despite Hajime being a hardcore Otaku, although Kaoru gets a Thousand-Yard Stare when she remembers it due to how embarrassing it was for her.
- Mood Whiplash: After waking up from her Flashback Nightmare in Episode 11, Kaoru sees Hajime lying there and remembers that she's not alone anymore, happily going back to sleep...then Hajime rolls over in his sleep, and smacks her in the face with his arm. On a meta-level: after ten episodes of light-hearted Slice of Life antics, viewers get a three-minute long Flashback Nightmare.
- Musicalis Interruptus: At the end of Episode 13 in season one, the credits theme stops when Karou's pregnancy test turns positive, but starts up again and plays until the episode finishes.
- No Smoking: The anime removes most of Kaoru's smoking scenes, and it's only brought up in the context of her quitting in the present. Flashbacks, on the other hand, keeps them.
- One Head Taller: Kaoru's friend Rino is child-sized, while Nozomu is slightly taller than Hajime.
- Opposites Attract: Kaoru is a normal Workaholic who can't cook, while Hajime is an Otaku with no desire to work and knows his way around the kitchen. Both are Happily Married to each other.
- Pædo Hunt: Back in college, when Nozumu wouldn't go on a date with Rino, who was easily mistaken for a grade-schooler due to her being small for her age, she tried to provoke this by lifting her skirt to him in front of a police patrol.
- Parents for a Day: In episode 8, Kaoru and Hajime look after Ai-chan (the daughter of one of Kaoru's relatives).
- Porn Stash: There's a story line in the manga where Kaoru agrees to help manage Mayotama's table at Comiket so she can find out the location of Hajime's Doujinshi and magazines. She manages to get rid of them, but he still has all of his scans on an SD card.
- Pregnancy Test Plot: The first season ends with Kaoru taking a pregnancy test. It's seemingly negative, but turns positive when she shows it to Hajime. In keeping with the series status as being Reference Overdosed, Kaoru's pose is a partial recreation of the Pregnancy Announcement Meme.
- Recursive Canon: Nozomu's convenience store has an announcement for the season two DVDs in Episode 6 of the second season.
- Running Gag
- Hajime has a habit of saying really romantic stuff in the manga, leaving Kaoru wondering why he didn't say stuff like that before they got married.
- Whenever Kaoru meets up with one of her old friends, they bring up the fact she said she'd never get married.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: Lampshaded with two instances of "
They had a lot of sex afterwards". - Sham Wedding: Inverted. Hajime's father was under the impression that Hajime and Kaoru's wedding was actually an elaborate hoax, not realizing the truth until the two come to visit for New Years several months later. No one actually tried to trick him, he just didn't believe that his son would be able to find a wife.
- Shout-Out: Given one of the protagonists is an Otaku, what did you expect? Even the page quote at the top provides an example, with other instances on their own page.
- Shout-Out Theme Naming: Discussed in Episode 10 of the first season when Hajime and Kaoru are trying to come up with hypothetical baby names. Hajime even points out just about every name ever has been used in anime, manga, and video games so it'd be near impossible to defy this.
- Sick Episode: Kaoru spends most of season one Episode 6 sick from a combination of overworking and smoking. After having Hajime take care of her, she starts crying since he's not acting like himself...and she really wants to smoke.
- Sleep Cute: Kaoru snuggles up next to Hajime after an episode long Flashback Nightmare, only for him to roll over in his sleep and whack her in the head. As the credits play, it jumps to them in various positions (including both of them with their upper bodies completely off the bed), but it ends with the two of them next to each other again.
- Spoiler Title
- Episode 10 is called "The Child Who Is So Close Yet So Far Away" and the child is revealed in Episode 13.
- The title of Episode 13 is "Me, Her, and Another"
- Tears of Blood: Played for Laughs when Miki is yelling at Hajime for hooking him up with Mayotama.
- Their First Time: Hajime and Kaoru were each other's first. Since he was and still is a video game Otaku, Hajime looked for the undo button after doing her.
- Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Hajime hooks up his friend Miki with Mayotama since Miki wasn't aware his sibling is actually Hajime's clingy cross-dressing younger brother.Miki: Your sister has a palm tree and coconuts! Sausage... elephant... wiener! ***k o* destiny!
- Unexpectedly Dark Episode: The manga is, for the most part, Happily Married Slice of Life hi-jinx. Episode 11 is a Flashback Nightmare to before Kaoru met Hajime. Although it still ends on an incredibly sweet note.
- Unexpected Positive: At the end of the final episode of the first season, Kaoru ends up taking a pregnancy test. Initially it appears negative, but when she shows it to Hajime, it suddenly turns positive.
- Unusual Chapter Numbers: Due to season 2 being in Anachronic Order, episodes have .5 numbers (or .8 in the case of episode 7) to represent where they are in the timeline for the first season, and two flashback episodes have negative numbers. The only exceptions are episodes 11-13, which take place after the season 1 finale and continue the numbering from where it left off.
- Wham Episode: Episode 13 of the first season, with the positive pregnancy test.
- Whole Episode Flashback: Five of them - three (9, 11 and 10.5) details how Hajime and Kaoru became a couple, one (-108) is with regards to Rino and Nozomu's first encounter, and the last (-555) is how Mayotama became so attached to Hajime.
- Write Who You Know: In-Universe example; when they first met, Hajime and Kaoru were in a Love Triangle with another female co-worker. The latter took the I Want My Beloved to Be Happy route and later decided to submit their story to a publisher (after showing the rough draft to Kaoru).
- You Are Not Alone: Episode 11 has a non-verbal self reassurance. After waking up from a Flashback Nightmare to when she was alone and miserable, Kaoru sees Hajime lying there in bed and spends several seconds just looking at him, remembering that the nightmare has passed.
