Himouto! Umaru-chan

Here's my thoughts on the show summarized in one sentence:

Himouto brings a fun style of comedy to the viewer for the first few episodes, and then recycles those same jokes over and over until you're sick of them.



As for the more technical side of things:

Story- Umaru is a practically perfect girl while with her friends, but a little lazy weeaboo shit when at home with her brother. You'd think I was oversimplifying it, but I'm really not. The plot is rather stagnant and doesn't change much throughout the show (this isn't necessarily a bad thing)

Art-
So average that it's bad. Let me expound on that sentence: Most shows with an "average" artstyle usually have 1 especially notable thing about the art. With Himouto, you could say that this would be her childlike form, but that's really just taken from other shows too.

Sound- Decent soundtrack and OP. Nice to listen to.

Characters- They all seem interesting at first, but then lose said interest when you realize how linear they are. They do their role okay though, so can't say it's the worst I've seen.

Enjoyment- Show is very entertaining for the first couple episodes, then becomes stagnant. Not sure what to tell you on this one.




OVERALL- Himouto does a decent job as a comedy, and if you don't mind jokes seeming a bit similar to ones previously used, give it a shot. Can't give this show too high of a rating because simply getting rid of your boredom for an hour or two just won't suffice. read more

I’m not going to lie. Watching Himouto! Umaru-chan (My Two-Faced Little Sister) makes me feel like a kid all over again. Each week, each episode is like an indoor and outdoor adventure of its own. Titular character Umaru Doma is the class superstar as well as the model that almost everyone looks up to. Her brother, Taihei Doma, is kind of like the sidekick providing her shelter, food, and a sense of comfort for her when she’s living at home. Really though, this series took me by surprise like an unexpected storm. And I’m talking about the type of otaku storm where you have to see it to believe it.

Based on the 4-koma of the same name, the series is adapted by studio Doga Kobo. In recent years, they are better known for their work with slice of life stories. Essentially, that’s how this show is like. The first episode easily establishes Umaru’s ulterior character. She literally lives a double life. At school, she acts mature, friendly, and in general someone that people idolizes. At home, she is almost the complete opposite with a lazy lifestyle, obsessive otaku personality, and acts like a NEET. This makes the show a bit odd at first seeing how each episode reflects on her double life style. What the series does well on this perspective is to demonstrate genuine comedy. The show makes fun of the otaku culture by saturating it with an immense amount of parody. Umaru’s character is someone that people would least expect to be an otaku from the outside. Yet, the show satires that with her lifestyle at home. In retrospect, the show delivers what I would call a cultural comedy.

The series also consists of other characters ranging from Umaru’s shy childhood friend Ebina, self-proclaimed rival Sylphynford, and the bizarre and frightening girl, Kirie Motoba. Each of them has a different personality that makes them stand out on their own. Their interactions with Umaru usually brings out the honesty of their characters. Furthermore, each episode provides a better insight about Umaru as well. We learn more about Umaru from both sides of her lifestyle. And through that, the show can make us feel attached to the characters. Umaru’s relationship with her brother can also be quite entertaining to watch. Her brother is the average type of guy with an average job and working an average salary. Umaru often makes him run errands for her although she sometimes gets scolded. Their relationship is the typical brother and sister type with no absurdity involving incest or abuse. As lighthearted as it can be though, the chemistry between some characters can be a bit dull. While most times, the on-screen chemistry has an attachable feel, the concepts are usually recycled tropes. Umaru’s otaku lifestyle can also be a bit odd to get used to considering that it’s so different compared to the outer image she created at school. Selfish and lazy. Those are not good attributes for a young girl like her. But even so, the show satires her personality and connects them with her lifestyle without over exaggeration.

Despite the series focuses on a more episodic basis, there are a few reoccurring elements throughout the story. Umaru’s double life is obviously one of them but also some of the competition she faces. This includes her love of video games and she later on creates a third personality specifically used to face her rival Sylphynford. Kirie’s relationship with Umaru also brings an interesting idea to the show. “Will someone at school eventually discover Umaru’s true identity and personality?” The show almost made this slip apart in the early stages and often or not, it keeps the audience at their seat of wondering that question. Finally, while there’s no actual dramatic romance in the show, we do get a bit of the puppy love with Ebina. Like I mentioned before, the main supporting characters consists of different personalities and roles to make this series colorful and diverse.

In essence, the artwork is simplistic yet effective. Umaru’s outer image is crafted with an appealing appearance with her perfectly rounded face, smile, colorful hair, and even body structure as shown in pool class. However, the more entertaining aspect comes with her deformed character. When at home, her character design is that of a kid wearing a hamster shaped hoodie. Furthermore, her behavior and reactions are often like a spoiled brat. The visual style and reactive expressions makes us believe who she is as the two-faced little sister. On the contrary, her brother looks average all throughout the series. And while there’s no explicit fan service in the series, Ebina’s character is designed ways that can raise some eyebrows. All that aside, the artwork is well done in terms of overall coverage.

The show’s soundtrack is not to be underestimated. Although it lacks any sort of distinctive OST, the way comedic scenes are done is often convincing thanks to the matching soundtrack. Similarly, conversations and dialogues performed by the characters makes you curious about what they will say next often. This is especially true for Umaru as she leads a double life. And from her performance, Umaru’s VA Ami Tanaka deserves a bit of praise for portraying a character with completely different personalities. Other noticeable voices includes Kirie with her intimidating tone or Sylphynford’s pride. The OP and ED theme songs are also creatively done. In particular, the OP song fuses the double life imagery of Umaru.

Although Himouto! Umaru-chan runs the risk of being a big joke, it ultimately has enough comedy and convincingly gets the audience to laugh. There’s enough jokes in the series that makes it look like satire and in general makes fun of the otaku culture thanks to Umaru. It also has enough time to not forget about the other characters. Furthermore, Umaru’s daily adventures will often get the audience curious to see what she is capable of doing next. As a series that stars a peculiar girl with two-faces, this is more than just a show about a brother and sister. read more

This is the anime you probably see all over Tumblr with funny and relatable screencaps. You'd think "Wow, this anime must be really funny!". Well, it is; In the first three episodes at least.

Basically, Umaru is a high school student who's admired by everyone because of her kind personality, looks, and brains. But once she's at home, she's a lazy weeb who bosses her brother around 25/8 to do shit for her. The art is decent, I guess, but the main point is suppose to be Umaru's personality, or at least I think it is.

There's some side characters, but they don't do much. The anime has 0 plot. The entire series is just the same repetitive scenes and jokes. Umaru doesn't improve as a person, even though there were multiple occurrences where the plot could've developed, but nothing. Although the episode where she gets to be with her mother for Christmas was really touching, it was the only time that there was some kind of emotional factor in the series.

Honestly, I watched this anime in hope that I could just relax and laugh, but after episode 5 it got pretty boring, and it was just generic scenes of Umaru being spoiled and playing video games. People hype this anime way too much. It had so much potential, but nothing happens. read more

A very peculiar creature is living among us, elusive for so many years due to its ability to perfectly imitate a human being. First discovered by SankakuHead in 2013, but his findings are in a language known only to few, but thanks to the hard work of cryptologists at Dogakobo they have provided us with SankakuHead's findings in a format we can make sense of and I am writing this report after going through their findings.

Though without a botanical name as yet, but persons around it refer to the creature as 'Umaru', so we shall refer to it as such within the course of this report.

At first glance the Umaru seems to be a casual and playful creature, it is largely lethargic in nature and enjoys to indulge itself in as much frivolities as it can. Its preferred natural habitat is a suburban apartment with dimmed lightning at low temperatures, it spends most of its time consuming human entertainment such as Television, Video games and the Internet, its main diet though mostly consists of barbecued foods and chilled drinks, however we have witnessed it consuming fruits and vegetables but it shows a strong adverseness to it and only consumes it when forced or as a last resort when starvation kicks in. The Umaru is capable of becoming dangerous however when not allowed its usual diet, environment or entertainment, throwing tantrums and wailing at most occasions.

The most interesting thing about the Umaru though is its ability to camouflage so perfectly whenever it leaves its habitat and ventures into human society, we have no idea how its capable of doing this but when it does it takes on the form of the perfect human being; smart, beautiful and quite flawless in every aspect of its activities. This has led it to be awed and adored by most in society but heads will surely be turned if and whenever its nature in its own habitat is exposed to them.

Despite its somewhat selfish and secluded lifestyle it still has a couple of close human companions which it interacts with. It has a blood brother which it lives with by the name of Taihei, but as far as we can tell from investigation he seems to be human, but being a blood relative of the Umaru that section of the investigation is marked as inconclusive at this point. Taihei does most of the housework due to the Umaru's lethargic nature, he is well aware of all its characteristics but expresses no serious alarm about it, he does constantly try to lecture and reform the Umaru to the right way but at this point to no success. They express a fondness and affection for each other as siblings, but her usual anecdotes are a constant nuisance to him and we on the investigation team found their interactions amusing and a times heart warming to see.

Dogakobo's interpretation of the Umaru and its surroundings is very lovely to look at indeed, though simplistic and not in too much detail it still carries a nice mix of color tones that is very lovely to look at. There are no overly excessive motions but constant motion even in small bouts is present to always make sure things never seem dull.

In conclusion there is still much we don't know about this creature and its environment, but from the little that we have seen here it is apparent that it is a charming, playful and a times boisterous, and its many antics and characteristics have often left us laughing or at least left us with a smile on our face and we're sure will be pleasing to many. read more