Uramichi Oniisan

In the studio of the morning childrens' show "Together with Mama," a crew of miserable adults prepares their facades of amicable smiles and cheerful exteriors to educate a group of innocent preschoolers. In the middle of it stands Uramichi Omota, a former gymnast who can't help but bring the kids down to earth by revealing the harsh and depressing reality of adulthood, even in front of the rolling cameras.

Behind the scenes, Uramichi's much-desired peace is disturbed by his two bothersome juniors who work as the show's rabbit and bear mascots and singers: Utano Tadano, a woman who only wishes to get married; and Iketeru Daga, a handsome man with a crass sense of humor. From smoking and exercising to nihilistic outbursts, everyone's big brother Uramichi always brings up the not-so-moral side to his life lessons.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Omota, Uramichi Main

Kamiya, Hiroshi Japanese

Daga, Iketeru Supporting

Miyano, Mamoru Japanese

Kumatani, Mitsuo Supporting

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Kikaku, Hanbee Supporting

Kimura, Ryouhei Japanese

Usahara, Tobikichi Supporting

Sugita, Tomokazu Japanese

Tadano, Utano Supporting

Mizuki, Nana Japanese

Sayuri Supporting

Sadaoka, Sayuri Japanese

Capellini, Furitsuke Supporting

Nakai, Kazuya Japanese

Furode, Yusao Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Nekota, Matahiko Supporting

Ono, Daisuke Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Eriguchi, Takeshi Producer

Jinguuji, Takashi Producer

Herek, Samantha Assistant Producer

Reviews

Sep 27, 2021

KANLen09

Recommended

"Hai Domo, kids! Let's all come together and do a charismatimgly cute children's show to the audience! A--B--C, A--B--C, A..to...Z!"
*switches off the TV* So that's your real shell of a dark personality huh?

Uramichi Oniisan can just be summed up in these one-word caricatures: (simply *chef's kiss*) amazing, comical, wholesome (if you understood the show's intents), magnifiquely magnificent (all-around). It's "Expectations vs. Reality" in the most dark, crude stance of a satirical parody, or as I like to call it in a better light: "Adulting/Adulthood" the Animation. It's OK because the "OK Boomers" young generation will absolutely not understand how #Relatable this show is to ... young adults in their late 20s or adults in their early 30s (of which I am one, hands up if you belong to the Millennial generation) who have gone through this stage of handling jobs and juggling life at the same time, and now passing this knowledge down to children. How depressing can your life be when you've reached the point of no return?

Uramichi Oniisan tells the story of 31-year old Uramichi Omota, a lively and bubbly adult imitating the parody of Okaasan to Issho, a children's television program on Japan's largest TV network NHK (that's the children's arm of NHK Educational TV for ya), dubbed "Together with Maman" on MHK, also a gymnastics show for children. In truth, he is the same 31-year-old guy who was a former gymnast with a really good smile and physique, but with a caveat: he is mentally unstable. He can get away with his upbeat personality on camera, but off-camera, his life is reduced to an old man's activity of some heavy smoking and drinking while doing his muscle training hobby at times. But if there's one thing that you do not want to do: point the facts out, or Uramichi Oniisan will bite the hell out of you with his culminating depression. That's a life lesson to be taught.

Uramichi Oniisan is not alone though, he has helpers performing alongside him, and display the same fervor of lifelessness that's simiarly identical or less worse than what Uramichi is going through: his juniors of Tobikichi Usahara and Mitsuo Kumatani, both 28-years old and are once Uramichi's juniors in college, and formerly music actors 27-year old Iketeru Daga and and 32-year old Utano Tadano. What I love about their names is that mangaka Gaku Kuze has a legit reason why he has given these very memorable and likable characters names as such. See the simiarlities: Uramichi full name implies a double-faced personality (inner and outer side), Tobikichi plays the rabbit mascot "Usao" while Mitsuo plays the bear mascot "Kumao", and get this: Iketeru's full name is a pun meaning "But I'm handsome" while Utano's means "Just a singer". There's more though: "Together with Maman"'s director Tekito Derekida meaning careless director, Furitsuke Capellini meaning a literate capellini (pasta)-haired choreographer, to name a few. What insane creativity is this!?

Uramichi Oniisan has a caveat that strikes the "Home Run" effect of being very likeable: the stacked VA character cast that accompanies the entire character cast in their conquest to become the most boring, unequivocal, yet realistic human beings that we've come to love. Hiroshi Kamiya for Uramichi, Tomokazu Sugita for Usahara, Yuuichi Nakamura for Kumatani, Miyano Mamoru for Iketeru, Nana Mizuki for Utano, the list goes on and on. It's just pure undulated, unfiltered, uncensored dark comedic vibes for the realism of knowing what's in the minds of adults, and how like Uramichi, can slowly burst his misery to the children who has to bear the heavy burdens from an adult teaching them mature life values while on-set. The on-set children under the Oniisans and Utano Oneesan though, I love the children who can just ask them hard questions taught from their parents, and to slowly see the creeps befall their faces, drooping down in quietness, trying their best to not be coercive to the children who still have a long life to go. Also, this show always defaults on its running gags, which can be tiresome on repeat, but IMO it's a blast to see such "atrocities" ensue. For example, Tobikichi always bad-mouths Uramichi to the point of sheer terror if exposed; Iketeru always shudders in laughter when he hears "dick jokes", always thinks of rice balls and is unable to read analog watches; and Utano's the saddest of all: she's an idol job hopper-cum-singer, and has a boyfriend of 6 years whom is unpopular. Yikes, talk about a hundred feet drop there.

Uramichi Oniisan's production values aren't really the best, but if all it does is to adapt Gaku Kuze's manga content to a T (which it did), then I'm more than happy enough. For reference, the manga's visuals are quite simple with not a lot of attention to detail (well, just a teeny bit), so getting a low budget studio such as Studio Blanc is of no difficult manner. A fun fact that this marks the first individual-produced show for the studio in over 10 years (while 2011's Ro-Kyu-Bu! and 2017's Shobitch are co-animated shows, plus some OVAs rounding up its miniscule works list). There's not a whole lot to say about the dull visuals because it's just that to translate the manga onto the small screen as decent as it could be, but it's viable enough. The music though I must say is an acquired taste, but a well-rounded set with the duet of the singer actors Iketeru Oniisan (Mamoru Miyano) and Utano Oneesan (Nana Mizuki) for the OP, and Mamoru Miyano for the ED. The clicking kids and adult contrast vibes are there, and I absolutely love it.

Uramichi Oniisan, it pains me to see that this show is not as popular in the mainstream, but that's OK because this show fits to a certain demographic of people who can vibe what the anime is all about, me included. This is just pure abject, hilarious parodied creativity of levels I've honestly never seen before in anime, and in such a low-key series as Uramichi Oniisan, I'm very dumbfounded as to how this series manages to lay low under the radar to become one of my guilty favourites of the Summer season. It's been long since I've had my share of pure, unadulterated laughter (after last season's "Dragon, Ie wo Kau."), and more people should give this a chance (especially to the Millennials), you're truly missing out on a modern cult-following show that is a comedic, heart and gut-wrenching suckerpunch to your eternalistic reality.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Oct 16, 2021

yona2005

Mixed Feelings

The reason I'm writing this review that I actually did not intend to write is because of how shocked I was to see no reviews criticizing the show and it's many flaws.

First quickly let's talk about the good aspects.
The main idea of the show, the story, is interesting.
But like a lot of shows, it was so wasted to the point where I might argue that it's one of the most wasted stories I've ever seen.
Another good thing about this anime is some of it's characters which we'll be talking about later.

Starting with the story and why I think it's wasted, ... let's retell the story first.
The anime follows the daily life of a group of adults (mainly Uramichi) whom all work in a kid's show drawing smiles on their faces, but are actually individuals with a lot of stress in life.

The story is like so interesting!
You can make like thousands of funny scenarios of this!
Not to mention also at the same time tackling the issues that the MCs struggle with.
Is it broken dreams? Is it the expectations of society? Is it personal failings?

But the show ditches all that and focuses only on the comedy, a not funny comedy by the way.

Now some might say that I should not criticize the way the anime goes with, as it presents itself from the start as a comedy show.
And for that I say no.

It's not me who came with these ideas, it's the anime itself.
If a show wants to be comedy only, it tells it's fans directly.

It does not offer characters (especially Uramichi) that have a somewhat seemingly sad past.

Again, I'm not the one who came up with this.
It's those particular scenes in the anime, when Uramichi is smoking or a character is being serious, and it's that ED.

And talking about the ED which was on of the best EDs I've listened to and one of the biggest lies I was told.

It has such a serious aura that screams at you telling you something's gonna happen.
And what was it for? Nothing.


Alright alright, maybe the anime failed this side but what about the comedy?
Well I'd like to say it was so mediocre, like the most mediocre thing you can imagine.

I do not deny that it managed to make me laugh at times, but it was a 13 episodes anime that maybe managed to make me laugh 10 times.

The reason for that which I don't understand, is how much a lot of jokes are repeated.
Imagine if you went to a comedy show where the comedian just keeps telling the same jokes, it'd be like Hella boring!

Not to mention that some of the jokes made the characters feel so unlikable.
Like that joke about Uramichi venting his anger on Usahara, it can be funny for the first or second time but then it becomes downright bullying!

Uramichi who's a character that we're supposed to feel for, feels so mean to another character for being a little stupid but clearly kind hearted and not ill-intentioned.
I'm pretty sure the author or whoever it was noticed how this joke was that bad that it was almost never used in the second half of the anime.

Some other examples of such jokes that were repeated to the point of being mood-killing at times are Ikiteru thinking of rice balls or having a crass sense of humor and Usahara trying to pursue the girls yet only getting Capellini (I swear to god I'm not going to describe this character because I'm not American and I don't know what dear Americans might do if they thought I was being offensive to someone).

And you know what's the worst?
It's the fact that the anime was able to do all of what I mentioned in a certain episode, episode 10.

It offered such nice and funny comedy but also ending the episode with a serious scene where Komatani talks about the incident where he punched his superior.

And I was like the f***!
You can do it if you try!
You can offer a nice story!

And this was the only episode that made wanna click the next episode button.

Another reason for this episode being the best is that it focused on the best character in this show which was Komatani.

And talking about the characters, oh boy, what a disaster.

Uramichi seems like an intersting character, but he was never fleshed out in the anime enough.
He has these moments where he feels genuine, and he also has moments where he feels unlikable.

Komatani is by far the best character in the show.
While seeming a little mean at times he actually may be the kindest of the crew.
It's clearly shown, as though he might show uninterest in Usahara he still is seen with him in every scene.
He clearly does not hate him.
He is smart to an extent and also a person who acts quickly when required, not to mention his caring for Ikiteru (?). Not sure.

And talking about Ikiteru, he is a really an unfunny and bland character, having the only characteristic of his be his silliness.
Yet there is a character that managed to be more bland that him which is Utano with the only thing making her memorable was being the only female in the cast.

The last character would be Usahara, which is the biggest disaster.
He is made only to be an idiot.
He has nothing going on with him, not even a single trait to make the audience engage with him.
He was fleshed out a little in ep 11 which where he really shines, but then he went back to being the same idiot.
Some might argue that he was intended to be written like this, and if so I congratulate the author for successfully making me not care ever about this character.

Whoo!
I think we almost finished.

I don't really have anything to say about the sound or art other than nothing special.

Now the last thing I wanna add is my theory for why the comedy in this show was that bad.
I've always had a problem with comedy anime and I thought they worked better as a manga.
That is because comedy is written not to tell you a story like other genres, but to give you a reaction (in this situation the reaction being you laughing) which goes the same for horror anime.

An action manga or romance manga being adapted to an anime is nothing much, it's just a story that is being told in different mediums.

Yet a comedy manga is different, when the author writes a certain joke they write in a way where you'd laugh while reading a manga, not thinking a lot about the anime.

Now of course that does not excuse much, there're plenty of elements that're bad in this show either way, but this is just my theory.

And that's it!
Thanks for reading, didn't intended for this to be that much but what can I say.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Sep 29, 2022

CleansedSpace

Not Recommended

My recommendation is; watch until episode 4 or 5 you might have a good laugh and get to experience this odd concept. After that just drop it! You won't miss anything, not even at the end! Save your time, time will never comeback.
It is interesting at the beginning because you don't what to expect and there are funny moments.
After 4 episodes it gets bland, there isn't content in this anime, the same joke was used for half of the show, it was fine for me, I would have a little laugh here and then.
The problem is that this anime doesn't have much to provide! The ... story didn't go nowhere, it was almost the same for 12 episodes of 23.4 minutes each!
Basically, after 4 episodes the dynamic was, watch 20 minutes of nonsense to laugh for a minute! I don't know about you guys but that isn't worth for me.
This anime just needed to be very short to be great.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Sound: Good, they must have very good microphones in Japan XD
Art: Not bad, not special, this is just a comedy.
Characters: the characters are fine and funny.
Japan should just make anime movies at this point, they would be trillionaires.
idk why my review got deleted before - Characters (including spaces and without -) = 1098.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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