Oruchuban Ebichu

Ebichu was one of the first anime series I watched. I got the DVD as a present and one dark and stormy day decided to watch it. Wow. For the first three episodes I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. It is just plain weird. I can't describe it better. It_just_is_weird.

Ebichu is about a hamster called Ebichu. Her owner is a single office lady desperate to find a husband. Many jokes center around Ebichu's owner and her good-for-nothing boyfriend. What makes this show worth watching is its extreme humour that springs form this set-up. Warning to all American kids: Contains adult themes, watch this and be sued! Infidelity, sex in it's all forms (and positions... he-he-eeeeh...), gambling, violence and much more. Best advertising speech ever?

Ebichu is best watched with an open mind and maybe a couple of friends and some beverages with alcohol in them. Once in a while you can shout: "Oh those crazy Japanese!" After all I enjoyd Ebichu's twisted humour and recommend this to anyone who can fill all the conditions in the beginning of this paragraph. Try it - I can guarantee that you may or may not be disappointed. read more

Overall
One of the funnier animes out there. Adult themes clash with animation and sound effects of a childrens' show. Humor, sex and kawaii in a perfect mix. Highly recommended!

Animation
Very simple graphics and animation, but that is kind of the point. The characters look dull at first glance, but once you get to know them, you can't imagine them looking any differently.

Can't give too high a score here, because of the simple looks, but on the other hand this anime really couldn't have a more appropriate animation.

Sound
The intro song is cute and catchy, but nothing too fabulous. The reason I rate the "sound" cathegory so high is because of the sound effects. They are well timed and fit like a glove, that which they are supposed to illustrate. Spot on!

Oh, and great voice acting, especially Ebichu.

Story
No story, just episodic "strips". Actually, each episode is divided into many many short scenes which often has nothing to do with each other. There would have been nice with some kind of final conclusion, but hey... Extra points for the setting, though.

Character
Except for the extreme and universal aggression towards hamsters, most of the characters feel like real people (if somewhat drawn towards an extreme). The adult theme lets them act without regards to the age of the audience, and there is no epic story behind it all. Just people.

And Ebichu. Who definately is the cutest anime character I have come across this far.

Value
The episodic structure lets you watch any episode of Ebichu at any time, without risk of being confused, so I'd say the re-watch value of this is high. And lots of extra points for the fansubber's translation notes at the beginning of each episode. Very informative. read more

This sort of feels like a mix between Shin-chan and Chi’s Sweet Home. It’s cute and talks of a cute little hamster’s life and how her owner is to her. In fact, the very first episode shows exactly how her master is… a useless bum. All this women seems to do is whine about her boyfriend and have sex with him. Yes, this shows them having sex a lot. The owner’s boyfriend seems useless to me. I don’t know why the owner hangs around him at all. The owner isn’t really that good herself.

Now that I have talked about all the bad things about the story, I have to say, this feels pretty realistic and I actually like it to a point. They have there bad sides, but you can actually feel for the characters even though I still don’t understand why the owner keeps smashing Ebichu into the wall and making her bleed. I think if the little hamster was real, it would have been dead by now.

The artwork reminds me a lot of Shin-chan and it’s really hard to actually watch because of this. The artwork just makes me feel sick with moving colors that don’t even fill in the lines. It’s like a child drew it. Whenever you look at the front of the hamster, the tail sometimes makes it look like Ebichu has a male part and even has the normal little black dot to show a butt hole. It could have been placed behind her and not looked that bad. Ebichu also looks a lot like Hamtaro which messes me up since Hamtaro is a little kids show.

A lot of the script is made for Japanese so I can understand why they haven’t dubbed it yet. The first episode has Ebichu playing a word game and I guess the words for Chestnuts and Squirrels in Japanese is the same for a women’s… well… down below. The music is alright, nothing to put on a ipod though. It just doesn’t stick out well.
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For a reason I will never understand, cute things getting punished is a common trope in anime. For this reason, Oruchuban Ebichu breaks my heart.

Ebichu, the adorable (one might say sickeningly so) hamster of the title is mauled and abused in every episode, after having only lovingly cleaned her master's home. Reality check, eh? This shit happens in the real world, people.

Another reality check? Office Lady, although she is constantly taken advantage of by her lousy boyfriend, always comes back to him. A pretty typical unhappy romance, all things said!

Oruchuban Ebichu succeeds because it seeks to destroy the bubble of safety that other anime wish to sustain. Anime like Spirited Away and Mind Game wish to teach us that there is magic in everyday life, there for the taking. Ebichu shows that there is no magic, only a cruel world that punishes innocents for doing good.

Cute, huh? read more