Ok, so as a person who was highly skeptical about the first season and the major problem/dilemma of the main protagonist Umaru Doma voiced by Aimi Tanaka and her "himouto-ness" and oddly by the end of the first season LA warmed up to it, LA wondered if this second season that appeared ut of nowhere will stick the same old scthick or try some different. It tried something different.
For sure, the Himouto-ness of this second season is still there with Umaru being her usual self and all with one actual obstacle in the way but that a bit later. The actual improvement of this second season comes to the form of the character development and fleshing out of Umaru's friend circle of Kirie, Ebina and Sylphinford along with ALL their family members and LA does mean ALL. Kirie by FAR gets the majority of the stage presences in this season and though LA didn't like Kirie from the first season being the highly reserved and shy character she definitely opened up this season by interacting with nearly EVERY single character even outside of her click. Ebina gets into a bit to her older brother which sets out Ebina's twice shy romance with Taihei with the help of Kirie. Sylphinford gets some again in the form of her family members along with her usual antics with UMR and Umaru.
Now for that obstacle Umaru faces, it's in the form of another little sister archetype Hikari Kongou voiced by Inori Minase vying for Taihei's attention for some reason and this obviously annoys Umaru to no end wanting Taihei all to herself. We do get to see who she is and what relation she has to Taihei and even though she's a rival to Umaru, she's VERY similar to Umaru personality wise (just without the himouto scthick). Which actually adds to the fact that Umaru DOES care about Taihei as a family member due to Hikari being in the picture even if many of Umaru's exploits led to some of her ulterior motives for her, Hikari acts as a good counterbalance to Umaru.
The animation done by Doga Kobo is expected moeness and instills the same flavour from the first season, to be expected they also did the first season. There isn't much notable things to talk about for the animation as it's pretty much the same quality from the first season.
The voice acting is obviously the same but like LA said about Kirie, LA obviously started to notice Kirie's voice actor Haruka Shirashi in the process and due to her character opening up, we get to see more of her range though it's the typical shy and hauntingly nervous, she does flex her vocal chops more this season. LA really likes Nana Ebina voiced by Akari Kageyama as a character even with her vocal archetype not being LA's type but she did quite well as well. Once again though some people might find her annoying but LA quite enjoyed Sylphinford's voice actor Yurina Furukawa and like from the first season injected that zany flair into this season with her opening her range as well for some of the more solemn moments of this season.
There isn't a doubt that Himouto! Umaru-chan R is a vast improvement from the first season for LA and sure some people might think that just because of the character development gets flesh out means as much, but considering the first season's character development was more or less showing Umaru's himoutoness and her excessive laziness bringing in that divided towards people about this anime (like LA), showing more of Umaru's friends and their developments as characters was a welcoming change that LA didn't mind that Kirie or Ebina or Sylphinford had some focus as they desperately needed it otherwise they would have turned into one-note running gag characters.
LA didn't expected a huge change to the structure of Himouto! Umaru-chan as a series but this change was enough for LA to still stick to Himouto! Umaru-chan even with her shortcomings as a slice of life anime looking at Himouto.
