Masuo’s junior, Hamaguchi-kun

The appearance of an extremely rare character in the anime “Sazae-san” (Fuji TV) that aired on May 19th has become a hot topic.

The episode is “Masuo’s Worries at the Dining Table.” The person who appeared in this episode is Masuo’s junior colleague, Hamaguchi-kun. Hamaguchi-kun has a modern look with a two-block haircut and droopy eyes, but it seems that almost everyone was seeing him for the first time, and as soon as he appeared on social media, there was a buzz with comments such as “A rare character has appeared!”, “What kind of new character is this?”, “A new character has appeared!”, and “Hamaguchi, a colleague I don’t know.”

In an episode of “Sazae-san” that aired in April 2000, a character with the same name appeared, called “New Employee Hamaguchi-kun.” However, since the Hamaguchi-kun in that episode and the Hamaguchi-kun in this episode look completely different, it is likely that they are different people with the same name.

Now, this rare character, Hamaguchi-kun, is taken by Masuo-san and Anago-san to an izakaya where he eats his food with gusto. Masuo-san praises him for his eating, but Anago-san, seeing Hamaguchi-kun eating with a blank expression, points out that “you need to eat more deliciously” and tells him to follow Masuo-san’s example of eating with a smile.

Then, as if he had made up his mind, Hamaguchi asked Masuo, “Would you be so kind as to give me some advice?” Hamaguchi is married, but apparently there are only three types of dinner on the menu at home: hamburger steak, fried rice, and curry.

In Hamaguchi’s household, both husband and wife work, and they take turns cooking, but Hamaguchi’s wife only eats those three types of food, so even though Hamaguchi is good at cooking, he can only make and eat those three types at home. So he asked Masuo if there was a way to get his wife to eat other dishes.

After hearing the story from Masuo, Sazae suggested that they try making meatballs, a dish similar to hamburger steak. Masuo immediately told Hamaguchi about this, but it seems that he had already tried it, and his wife rejected the idea, saying, “There’s no need to do anything extra.”