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.

I, like many other people, had never heard of this anime for the longest time. An obscure Gainax comedy show about a talking hamster? Never would've found that one. That was until a friend of mine showed me the famous scene from the show on YouTube, simply titled "Manko" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AAP1tmTn6tE . I don't know about you, but that was enough to sell me on adding it to the PTW. About a year and a half later, and I finally sat down and gave it a watch. And I'll tell you right now, it's a shame I hadn't found this sooner, because it is one of ... the funniest comedy anime I've ever seen.

Of course what caught my eye was the off the wall vulgarity in a show that appears to be a cute little slice of life about an adventurous housekeeping hamster. Consisting of an assortment of sexual comedy and somewhat violent slapstick humor. This show pushed the boundaries big time. The simplistic art style was probably the only reason I can gather as to why they were even allowed to show this on television. There's both explicit sexual scenes, as well as Ebichu getting absolutely decimated in the most comical way (if that makes any sense) by her OL Master or the "Useless Bum". It also shows the highly dysfunctional relationship of Ebichu's Master and her "Useless Bum" of a boyfriend. Portraying an incredibly real looking relationship that is so against the norms of most anime.

And through all that, this show remains impeccably charming, and adorable most of the time. Throwing adult themes into something that for all intents and purposes looks like a children's show, you can't find this stuff anywhere else.

The housekeeping hamster in question, Ebichu, is voiced by Kotono Mitsuishi, famous from her days as Misato Katsuragi from Evangelion. The story of how this show came to be was an interesting one too. Mitsuishi would read the Ebichu manga in between recording lines for NGE. She would often burst out laughing and that caused people to go up to her and ask what she's reading. After some time, they at Gainax, including Hideaki Anno (what?), decided they wanted to animate it, and thus made Mituishi the titular character of Ebichu. I just found it very interesting, both that the studio sees a manga and goes "what the heck let's give it a shot", and that Mitsuishi eventually got the chance to provide a voice for the character she'd grown to love. And what a voice it was. Never was there a break in character, Ebichu has an unmistakable voice and speech pattern that I can't compare to anything else I've ever heard before. Mitsuishi did an unbelievable job portraying her.

This show is a gem. However, it is a relic from the year 1999 that almost nobody ever talks about. And that's incredibly sad. I'm not someone who particularly loves straight up comedy anime, but this show hooked me from the start. It was a riot. It stayed true to itself the whole way through, and brought new things to the table that I'd never seen in comedy anime before. You won't find many shows where a character fantasizes about having an intimate relationship with a hamster. It's truly something unique for both its time and now and is something most everyone should at the very least check out. If you haven't seen it, I recommend doing so immediately by any means possible, and then feel sorry that you hadn't watched it sooner.

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.

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.

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?

I see a lot of the reviewers for this show taking it WAY too seriously. Of course it is sad that Ebichu gets punished often, but its just slapstick for gods sake. Get over yourselves. And the art couldn´t be super detailed, otherwise the show couldn´t be broadcast at all due to censorship. The simplistic art style is what lets it get away with being so explicit. This is Japan, people. Even their porn is censored. By the way, the art shouldn´t have to be detailed to be considered good. Judging an art style based on how detailed it is is stupid. In this case, ... the simplistic art style serves a purpose and lends to the overall atmosphere of the show, which is the art´s point in an anime. If it simply doesn´t appeal to you, that´s valid. But trying to judge the art from an ¨objective¨ standpoint is pointless, as art is subjective. The animation can be judged objectively though, and yes, I do agree the animation is a bit lacking. But the show gets by just fine and I find it gives the show more charm and has a comedic effect, which is why I rated the art so high. I also love the cute opening and strangely good ending song. I´m still trying to memorize the lyrics of both, which is difficult only because of how nonsensical they are and how off-beat they are sung.
I wont repeat what most people who enjoyed the show wrote (about the dirty jokes and all that), I only wanted to defend and deflect the some of the idiotic things people said about the show in other reviews and let any newcomers know the show has more quality than they made it seem it has.

It's a shame that such marvelous show doesn't have more reviews. It's short, quirky and unique comedy. The show is about daily life of a woman who lives in an apartment with her pet, who does the chores. The comedy is heavily based on characters and their interaction than other elements. Story is one of them and the show feels like it's slowly paced and barely any changes happen at all. But that's the only downside, characters and situation are on the focus and create amazing atmosphere.
The show is comedy of character. We don't know much about the characters: most of their names, occupations ... and other personal details; while we know all their personal traits: the woman is gullible and has low self-esteem, her boyfriend is a drunk and a cheater, the hamster behaves impolite often and humiliates her owner in public, etc. When it gets close to the feeling that you can predict next actions, the show gets refreshed with new characters, locations or events which keep the flow interesting. The characters make great reactions, if I can say overreactions to everything. The voice actors surely had a lot of fun.
Besides characters and comical situations, the show is full of puns and dirty words references, so it only boosts the enjoyment (especially how much effort is put into the show). I had the feeling that time was passing because there was constantly some action going on, the show doesn't have a break to let the watcher relax, he is bombarded with the waves of events over and over, but in the end it's a very enjoyable experience.
The art is simple and there is no need to focus on details. It may have been a good choice for such art style that the watchers focus on the content and events, not visual looks which don't have major role in the show.

I would say this is a great way to spend three hours of your life. The episodes are short and full of action that the watchers don't feel bored at all. The show is based on putting characters in an unpleasant situation and sometimes new characters are put or other modifications made to keep the show interesting.

Rate an 8
English sub(had some brief moments of english dubbed.)

Story
If you can look past the animal cruelty with is kind of hard to do, this make for an interesting show. I like the English language because it has a lot of play on words. That is precisely what this focus here; Except not English but Japanese. Jokes were funny to some regard but were frankly over done and kind of silly. Silly due to childlike humor and veered left when it clearly was going right seconds before in a matter of speaking.

Ecchi is perhaps a reason one would watch this. Sadly i have to ... disagree with this choice to some regard. Yes, there is a lot of vulgar humor but art wise could be better. To some regard sex scenes look almost amateur in appearance.

The decision to have a small segment of (i think) episode 13 pay tribute to episodes that came before was an interesting touch. But should not have been followed by an introduction. For as it was structured kind of seemed rather length before one got to good content.

Conclusion wasn't what i had wanted but from a comical stand point it was.

Art
There were other flaws in art such as balance. Constant back and forth between dream like art and smoother artwork. Also, are the characters having noses or are they not?

Ebichu is not an anime that stands out because of its art, sound or neither an amazing plot, but oh boi do I enjoy it. It brings me joy to watch ebichu's cute faces and expressions even when he is not in the greatest situation. It is definitely a weird concept but somehow it mixes my personalities in one show. I really don't care that much about her master or that unfaithful boyfriend, I simply binged this anime because of Ebichu.

You would enjoy it if:
- You are a fan of hamsters
- You enjoy/don't mind explicit content
- You are not looking for an elaborate plot
- ... You don't get easily trigger with violence
- You don't mind rusty art

A comedy anime targeted for a more adult audience, Ebichu knew what it was trying to be, what humor it was going for, and what audience it was trying to appeal to, and goddamnit it did a good job for what it was trying to be. A raunchy anime about a hamster? SIGN ME UP!

On my initial viewing of the first episode, I expected some Hamtaro type thing. Ohhh boy, was I incorrect, but what a pleasant surprise I got when Ebichu started talking about sex!

So, let's talk about the main character, Ebichu. An adorable hamster with a taste for icecream and camembert cheese just ... trying to make her owner happy. A simple concept for a character, but that's all it needs to be. Without a complex story, complex characters aren't needed.

Ebichu was a joy to watch, and I'd recommend this to anyone looking for some adult comedy.

In retrospect, I'm not exactly sure what compelled me to watch this through - at a glance it didn't really seem to be my thing. I've never been huge on raunchy comedy, where styles of humour are concerned there are humour styles - and even styles of vulgar or otherwise dark humour - which I enjoy far more than sex jokes. But part of it was definitely that it was animated by studio Gainax - a surprise to be sure when I learned of it.

To date I have seen Tengen Toppa Gurren Laggan and Neon Genesis Evangelion from Gainax. The obvious choices, sure - ... but they give a fanciful, high-concept low fantasy mood to the studio - one that is in no way explored or so much as implied here. This makes sense to an extent; Makoto Moriwaki, largely known for family shows - most notably the 2005 adaptation of Onegai My Melody - so both her's and Gainax's involvement with this show do not seem particularly well at a glance. However, Gainax adapts the manga's style to a tee.

The animation is definitely the most praiseworthy aspect of the show, it moves exactly as a manga moves as one reads it while still feeling very lively visually. Gainax has shown both before and after this show that they are masters of doing a lot with a little and this show exemplifies this trait of the studio excellently. The backgrounds are often minimal and work as excellent backgrounds to the simple, thick-stroked characters on top of them. Both these designs and the usually muted colour palette contrasts with the sexual and violent themes of the show well - definitely an appeal of the manga's initial run.

The audio largely meshes well with the atmosphere the visuals build, Ebichu is goofy and cute but doesn't at all sound out of place in this world despite being a talking hamster and all. All the voice actors just sound like normal people and that's obviously what you'd want in a largely slice-of-life show. The soundtrack is minimal, often quiet melodies just ring out in the background, usually muting out when any sound effects are played. It all works in the service of the aforementioned mundanity of the setting.

Sadly, these praises mean little without a well-written show to back them. The show intentionally has a very bare-bones aesthetic so it doesn't really function as eye candy; and the cornerstone of a good comedy is good writing which I sadly don't think is accomplished here. Explaining jokes tends to be hard, but I can make two main points on why I don't particularly enjoy the happenings in this show. The first point is the most obvious, the over-reliance on simplistic sex jokes. A lot of the sex-related gags in the series mostly have to do with the sex words themselves - be it their mere existence or Ebichu screaming these terms out. I imagine a lot of the appeal to these gags is hearing the words being screamed by itself - an affect of the joke completely lost when I read the subtitle and hear what may as well amount to background noise.

Secondly, there is another formula which the show too often clings to is the cycle of Ebichu spouting something bizarre then getting attacked by her owner or her boyfriend. As the series progressed and the main cast started getting out more - particularly with the introduction of Maa-kun as a catalyst - the normally formulaic characters are at their best when there are other personalities around them to bring out different aspects of their character. Owner's boyfriend does this to a certain extent as well, but generally the more the merrier. It was fun to see these parts of the characters around the early middle of the series, but other than the occasional Ebichuman segment this aspect of the show fizzles out towards the end and not much of interest ends up happening for the majority of the series.

I feel like my not liking this could be better attributed to it not being my cup of tea. There is a lot to appreciate here, and it's very competently made, but the writing and style of humour generally made Oruchuban Ebichu a chore for me to go through. On the bright side the episodes are short, despite being a 24 episode series you could probably finish this in a lazy afternoon if you really felt like it.