I am not going to lie, I came into watching Uzaki-chan with little to no expectations. In fact, if anything I was hoping it would fill the occasional craving I get for viewing a “bad” anime, where the show’s poor story, bad characters, and laughable animation create a surreal cocktail of unintentional humor, and with Uzaki-chan’s main selling point seemingly being that its a troll comedy series with the main gimmick being Uzaki’s outlandish proportions you can’t really blame me for having such low expectations. However, in the end, Uzaki-chan surprised me by exciding my expectations and instead of being a much more mediocre experience residing in the cesspool of countless other anime rom-coms that caused me to neither regret my viewing experience, nor compel me to every rewatch or even linger in my mind.

While my assessment might sound harsh it does not mean I did not find any charm with Uzaki-chan, after all its characters and humor did compel me to finish the series. The main pair of Sakurai and Uzaki proves to be a decently well-written pair, with the show taking great strides to establish the pair as actual friends with hobbies and interests before sprinkling in ideas of romantic feeling. Coupled with some occasionally humorous jokes centered on wordplay and the fever dream that is episode 10, which serves as a 30-minute-long tourist ad for Tottori, I can definitely see how this show managed to gather a decently sized fanbase and enough support for a second season. Hell Uzaki-chan even dares to be one of the few animes to boldly go where few anime have gone before and actually have its setting be a university, a groundbreaking stride in the rom-com genre where life seemingly ends after high school.

However, the show’s setting perhaps best highlights my issue with the show feeling generic. Sure the series takes place in university; however, it never really does anything with its setting except use it to justify a hangover arc. The series plot follows the same romantic progression as most other anime rom-coms, and by that, I mean no progression, and while other shows could rely on its side cast, humor, or style to give it a unique edge, Uzaki-chan has none of that. The art style is generic, with weirdly choppy animation at times, its joke and comedic setups are on pair for the genre, and, outside of Master Asia being a barista, the side cast of Ami and Sakaki lack any interesting personalities or development outside of just being the friends of the central pair.

In the end, Uzaki-chan unsuccessfully hit my craving for a bad anime and proved itself to be a competently made show that provided a nice evening distraction; however, outside of a few decent jokes and one bizarre episode, Uzaki-chan fails to stand out in the saturated genre of rom-com anime.