Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out!

Uzaki-chan wa Asobitai! or Uzaki-chan just wants to hang out is not exactly awe inspiring in any way. In fact, everything about it seems to scream “mediocre at best,” from the bland art style to the animation, which is noticeably lacking outside of a few select scenes. Uzaki-chan herself can be quite annoying, and seems to be the biggest turn-off for those who aren’t a fan of the show. No one can force you to like a character or a series, and if you dislike it, then that’s that.

What would bother me though, is if someone were to claim it's all about the fanservice, that there’s nothing else there, and that it’s the only reason anyone would ever watch the show. From the promotion material to the show itself, it’s not exactly hard to figure out why someone might think that. And for some people, yeah, that might be true.

I just want to give my perspective, as someone who definitely isn't the target demographic (my favorite bit of fanservice was Sakurai’s muscles), describe my experience with the show, say what I like about it, what I didn’t, and why I don’t think it’s fair to just label it as “empty fanservice.”

I first heard about this show through the controversy with Uzuki’s proportions (a mess which I’m going to avoid talking about). It was my morbid curiously which drove me to watch the first episode. I was...pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t exactly amazing, just decent enough to keep me interested. With my low expectations surpassed, I kept watching week after week, and gradually, grew to really enjoy it!

But how exactly could one enjoy Uzaki-chan if they had no interest in the fanservice? Surely it was nothing but boobs flying all over the screen at every opportunity. It is an ecchi after all.

Well, that’s the first thing I wanted to address. I don’t think there was that much fanservice in the first place. Don’t get me wrong, it is undoubtedly an ecchi series. Just that, from what I’ve experienced in ecchi (which is admittedly not a ton), it was pretty tame. Besides the character designs themselves (does no girl in this show have an average sized bust?), there would be a few scenes here and there where Uzaki would get herself into some wacky situations and shenanigans would ensue. But it wasn’t constant and obnoxious like a lot of other ecchi make it. Yeah, I wasn’t exactly a fan, but it was brief enough to where it didn’t ruin the experience.

And what about the rest of the show? If you take away the ecchi scenes, it’s just a regular, boring slice of life, right?... Yes! That’s exactly it.

Watching Uzaki-chan for me was just like hanging out with the characters. It was fun to see what activity Uzaki would inevitably drag Sakurai into. It was fun to watch Sakurai gradually come out of his shell and accept that Uzaki was a part of his life now. It was fun to watch the two of them slowly coming to care for each other (in more ways than one). It was hilarious to see the rest of the characters shipping the two of them just as much as the audience and constantly trying to set them up.

Of course, all of this depends on you liking the characters, buying their relationships, and finding it funny in the first place. I personally liked the show's humor much more than I thought I would. Not all of the jokes are based on the previously mentioned wacky situations like I had assumed they would be, I even found myself laughing out loud a few times (a rarity for me). The humor, however, was not ultimately the reason I kept coming back to Uzaki-chan. That would be in the first two points I mentioned: the characters and their relationships.

As I stated before, the polarizing factor in this show seems to be the titular Uzaki-chan herself. People who can’t stand her wouldn’t have any reason to like the show. She’s loud, she’s annoying, she’s about as perceptive as a brick wall, her teasing sometimes borders on bullying, and she doesn’t shut up. What saves her, at least for me, is the guy she decided to attach herself to.

Shinichi Sakurai is a loner. But not in the typical look how cool and depressed I am kind of way. He goes to college, he has friends, and he has a job. He was doing just fine on his own before Uzaki barged her way into his life and decided to "save" him. Of course, Sakurai’s not exactly thrilled with this at first, but he eventually comes to enjoy her presence, and starts looking forward to the ~~dates~~ time they spend together.

You might be scared that he’d become spineless and annoying, but nope. Sakurai doesn’t put up with any of Uzaki’s crap. They’re constantly fighting and trying to one up each other, with a shared love of games in all forms. Well, maybe not love exactly, but a competitive drive to win at least. And I can’t tell you how refreshing that is. Their relationship feels much more equal to me than a lot of other similar shows, and I can’t help but want to see more.

It also makes all the fanservice scenes much more bearable, especially because Sakurai isn’t a creep about it. He just awkwardly tries to move on, attempting to not embarrass Uzaki anymore than she already is. And Uzaki herself doesn’t freak out and slap Sakurai for something that clearly wasn’t his fault or intention.

All in all, they’re just cute together. And that’s all that I really wanted. I mean, an actual move towards a romantic development would be nice. And that is one of my problems with Uzaki-chan. There’s not much in the way of relationship progression, just lots of blushing, hinting, and obliviousness from both sides.

Conclusion:

But ultimately, going back to the title, Uzaki-chan just wants to hang out. That’s what she’s gonna do, fanservice and romance or not. And that’s exactly what I enjoyed about this show. It was a good dose of cuteness and humor with enough heart behind it to feel like the relationships actually mattered. It’s not going up on my wall of masterpieces or anything, but it was definitely a good time. And that’s all it really needed to be. You don’t have to like it and you don’t have to agree with me. Just know that one person found a reason to like Uzaki-chan wa Asobitai! beyond the boobs.