Anime Hajime Review: Himouto! Umaru-chan

***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Himouto! Umaru-chan. Reader discretion is advised.***

Series Synopsis

Umaru Doma (voiced by Aimi Tanaka) is, in the absence of a better phrase, perfect in every way. Great looks, intelligent, good at sports, and an absolute pleasure to be around. She is the epitome of excellence. Or at least, that is how she is in public. Only her older brother Taihei (voiced by Kenji Nojima) knows the truth.

Umaru is, in reality, a huge couch potato. Her only true interests are video games, manga, and junk food. She has no motivation to even attempt the simplest of physical tasks. She much prefers to come up with hair brained schemes to get what she wants. If those should fail, she has no qualms about throwing a tantrum like a five-year-old.

Poor Taihei tries his best to take care of his sister. Juggling a busy work schedule, he remains willing to go out of his way to be there for her when she needs him the most. A trait sometimes exploited, but never forgotten by Umaru.

The siblings don't often see eye to eye. However, when push comes to shove, they couldn’t imagine being without each other.

Series Positives

This was not a marathon. I actually followed this show from beginning to end. Keeping up with it every week.

I did this because I wanted to mix up my usual routine. Yet I kept at it because Himouto Umaru-chan was a lot of fun.

Characters

There wasn't a single bad character in this show. Everyone was funny, interesting, and added a lot of heart to any given situation. But the key factor was everyone's uniqueness. They were all memorable.

Nana Ebina (voiced by Akari Kageyama) was Umaru’s best friend. She was self-conscious about her countryside accent. Try as she might, though, it did slip out whenever she was in a state of bliss.

Kind and adorable, Ebina is one of my favorite characters of the show.

Sylphynford Tachibana (voiced by Yurina Furukawa) was Umaru’s self-proclaimed rival. Bombastic to a fault, she enjoyed being the center of attention. And to my surprise, this wasn't annoying. Her constant look-at-me-look-at-me personality never got old. Why? Sylphyn was playful, not mean-spirited.

Kirie Motoba (voiced by Haruka Shiraishi) was Umaru’s classmate who wanted to be her friend. Unfortunately, Kirie was quite shy and found it difficult to talk to others. The intensity of which created a false, but nevertheless unapproachable cold aura around her.

Kirie was one of the few characters to see Umaru in her lazy state. Except Kirie believed Umaru to be her fake little sister, Komaru. A character Umaru created in the spur of the moment.

Many characters had connections to one another that, for the most part, were unknown to them. This added yet another layer of memorability. This series was full of interconnections. And though this was a lot of fun, it was also kind of bad.

Umaru and Taihei

Ebina, Sylphyn, and Kirie were the highlights to a great cast. Yet, at this series’ core were Umaru and Taihei.

Taihei was a perfect counter balance to Umaru’s laziness. He did get frustrated. He did get annoyed. He did often concede to Umaru's demands. But in the end, he remained responsible and put his foot down when necessary.

Taihei knew when his sister was scheming something. He could tell when she wasn't telling the whole truth. A lot of the show’s funniest and more enjoyable moments stemmed from this.

For Umaru herself, going into this series, I knew there would be a comparison. Whether I liked or didn't like this show, in this review I knew I would be comparing Umaru to Kirino from Oreimo.

That's why I'm thrilled to do so in a positive light.

For those of you who may not be aware, I hate Kirino. I damn near hate everything about her. She is one of the most selfish, brattiest, self-absorbed characters I've come across. Umaru did share some of these same traits. That said, there was one key difference.

Kirino was hollow, Umaru was genuine.

Umaru took into account other people’s feelings. She cared when her friends were troubled. She knew when she was in the wrong and tried her best to correct the situation. She never hid her gratefulness to her brother's hard work.

But most important of all, Umaru knew how to say thank you.

Series Negatives

Although I had a lot of fun with this show, that didn’t start happening until after the first episode. Episode one was very wordy and full of exposition. Which thinking back on it now, was awkward and out of place.

Fortunately, most of the issues with episode one got corrected. Yet a few hiccups remained.

Unneeded Use of Troupes

I want to go back to Ebina because as I said, she is one of my favorite characters of the series. The show did a brilliant job at developing her lovable personality. It was therefore frustrating when the show tried to make her the big boobed character too.

Sometimes an over-sized chest is the closest thing to "characterization" female characters get. A situation Ebina wasn't in.

There was a reason, not a particularly good one, for her having giant breast. Had the show left it there, that would've been fine. Instead, the series kept calling attention to them. That was when it became an issue.

It’s All Setup

I said many of the characters had connections to one another. These connections helped make every one memorable. Yet it came at a price. The reason this wasn't all good was because the show didn't explore any of these connections.

I want to pick up the manga and find out more about these characters. Which in itself isn’t a bad result. As a standalone anime, though, I shouldn’t have to do this.

As a viewer, I don’t want questions I'm not confident will ever get answered. For example, don’t bring up Umaru and Tohei's mother in an out of know here somber fashion and never address it again

Now, should this series ever get a second season, this might become a moot point. If these roads do get explored that is. Should that happen, though, it still doesn’t take away from how annoying this was.

Final Thoughts

Himouto Umaru-chan is a lot of fun. Bottom line.

The characters were enjoyable and memorable. More often than not, the jokes and gags worked. This may not be one of the funniest anime out there, but it will leave you in a good mood.

Too bad this series couldn't pull away from some true anime bull s@#$ moments. Plus, there were too many things left unanswered.

Although in the end, I'm happy to have followed along with this show and I'm sad to see it over...question mark.

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