Himouto! Umaru-chan R

I never thought I would get triggered by an anime, but still have many things to say about it after the fact. Umaru-chan has its ups and downs, more so the negatives. It is an experience to say the least… Spoiler warning for the two seasons, you've been warned.

Umaru-chan is a 16-year-old girl who has this supposed perfect aura around her. Everybody around her seems to idolize her and associate her with the image of flawlessness. Everything she does, she is elegant at it. She is the embodiment of being sophisticated. Her classmates, her teachers, even the random people in the street all seem to get lost in her charm when she makes her appearance… But she has a quirk, that she hides from everyone else other than her older brother, Taihei Doma. And that quirk is… being a bum, consuming copious amounts of potayto chips and cola while gaming all day. She consumes junk food and does not like leaving the house. She makes a mess around her and does not clean up. Umaru-chan is the definition of a parasite. If anybody were to see this side of her, she would lose all the attention that she gets right now. And that is apparently bad for her. This is the gimmick the story throws at us from the get go.

So what does the story want to accomplish with this? Explore what it takes for Umaru to preserve what she has? How would other characters react if they were to discover Umaru being a bum? None of that is the correct answer! The correct answer is Umaru getting everything she wants while not having to face any of the difficulties because she is gifted like that. (Like what?)

Before I continue running the anime to the ground, I will talk about the positives. Because surprisingly, there are a few compelling qualities in this anime that kept me engaged throughout. Even though I have a lot of issue with the structure of the comedy, I laughed from time to time. That, I did not expect because the architecture of the comedy revolves around Umaru getting away with being a dork. I stared at my screen, unimpressed when that happened. But jokes that were made that involved the side characters (especially Ebina-chan) caught me off guard, from time to time. (I really wanted Taihei-kun to date her even if it is impossible age wise.) The setting is usually messy but at least it isn’t completely unfunny which is a plus. One more praise I want to give is the production. Considering the first season was released in 2015 and second season in 2017, the visuals were quite impressive. There were some pretty shots and sequences. The budget was utilized well. Of course there were some cut corners, but not so much so that it hinders the narrative of the story. Some sequences were reused entirely, down to the voice lines I’d guess. But it added a comedic effect instead of coming off as trying to “stretch it” as far as it goes. My immersion was not broken because of a production incompetence, which warrants some credit. Even the voice actors deserve some praise, especially Umaru’s. When Umaru switches to her “refined” personality, you’d expect her sound to shift into more of a scheming and an annoying tone. And Umaru’s VA, Aimi Tanaka is able to recreate this effect quite well…

That is quite the list of compliments but the story itself removes any redeeming qualities this anime could have had…

Let’s start with the elephant in the room, Umaru-chan. She is at the center of the story in the first season of the show. As I stated previously, the comedy structure revolves around Umaru-chan getting away with acting like a brat when she does not get what she wants. In the first episode of the first season, when her older brother Taihei forgets to buy the new volume of the manga, she asks him to go out and buy it. When he refuses, she threatens him with her perfect persona getting a stain. After that excuse fails, she resorts to acting like a brat, faking being heartbroken. Eventually, being able to guilt-trip her brother and have a shot at getting what she wants. This may come off as funny at first, but this style of comedy has a high chance to backfire on the story itself. It is funny first time around but when it is constantly reused, the characters come off as surreal and it loses its charm real fast. I had already lost hope after watching episode two… The story tries to combat this by being symbolistic, taking a jab at popular shōnen anime, sport mangas and such when it can. But the personality shifts of Umaru being at the center ruins any entertainment value season 1 could have had.

Umaru has a secret persona that she calls UMR-san. Basically the persona that she uses when she goes to events… Because getting discovered in an arcane lobby, playing crane games would look bad for her image in the school, right? Honestly, I don’t get why everyone treats Umaru as this much of a big deal… She barely does anything yet she is praised like she is some sort of royalty, giving free shit to peasants. Getting back to the point, the story deems it necessary to keep this duo-status continue. Using these personas that she created, she forms relationships with those around her. The decision to hide her persona is even more frustrating when you look at how close of a call it is sometimes to hide it. In the last episode of season 1, the entire group goes to the beach. Umaru is put in a situation where it would make sense to show her “bum” side to Kirie-chan. But things happen and the opportunity conveniently vanishes away, Umaru being able to keep the duo-status to continue… This happens throughout the season with other characters such as Sylphy-chan as well. If Umaru simply admitted to being UMR-san to Sylphy, they could have been quite good friends but for the sake of keeping the status quo, this friendship was failed to be realised. There could have been moments worth exploring but it was wasted thanks to the persistence of Umaru, and stars aligning in a way which she never has to face the consequences of her actions. (well, in the second season this gimmick is entirely ignored but I will talk more about that) This continues on throughout the first season, trying to get you invested in Umaru and her quirky personality. But sadly… it did not work on me. She immediately came off as bratty and after a few episodes, I was getting triggered left and right. When Umaru failed to get her way, it was more satisfying than the comedy of the story. I turned into a hate watcher instead of an enjoyer. This is supposed to be an SoL comedy by the way!

Umaru is not the only problematic character, but this I came to expect. After dealing with Umaru’s annoying personality, the other character’s problems were easier to overlook. Her qualities were too bright for me to even consider to hate on others. They come off as tame compared to Umaru. Like I could somewhat easily ignore the saintly patience Taihei-kun has towards her sister. Sure, it does not make sense for a person to be so forgiving towards such behavior. But it was a smaller part of my concern… Well, I did not have much concern after finishing the first season because at that point, I was quite disengaged. The comedy had become stale and I was just chugging along to get to the end of the finish line at this point. That is why I took a decently lengthy break before watching season two. I was just not ready to face 12 more episodes of what I just watched. But I am writing this review because I made it to the finish line! So let’s talk about season 2 as well.

In the first season of this show, Umaru struggled to form meaningful relationship with those around her because of the sides that she hides. But this conflict is thrown away in the second season of the show. The loneliness she feels from having to hide other sides of her seemingly vanishes. As she starts interacting to some of her friends with the different personas she has, the problems that she faces because of those personas disappear. Or rather, they are not the main purpose of the story anymore. This arc of Umaru juggling between her different personas to keep her perfect appearance covers much less screen time compared to season 1. The main priority of season 2 is to explore the characters in the story. We barely know much about Umaru’s and Taihei’s friends because they were simply not explored enough. The story realizes that and shifts its priorities to accommodate the lack of it. The story tries to capitalize on the fact that you would most likely be invested in some of the characters if you have made it this far into the story. By leaning more towards exploring its characters, it tries to expand on its world; which deserves an applause. But sadly, if you try to explore a world with weak characters, this is where their weaknesses start shining…

I did not really like Kirie-chan and how creepy she can be, but I initially overlooked it in the first season. Because Umaru was enough of a problem already. But now that she was tuned down a little, her weird personality caught my attention the most. Kirie-chan gets quite a bit of screen time, and reflecting on it; she is not fun to watch. Let me explain what I mean by that: She has these weird inclinations where she kicks her older brother, acts like a stalker towards Umaru and has these weird fantasies. She may even have fetishes that I am not aware of. I wouldn’t be surprised if she did. I think the story wanted to explore how Umaru would act if she had to deal with an insecure person around her age. Since Umaru is so perfect and confident in herself. But Kirie-chan did not fit the bill in my opinion. It was hard to watch her journey… Or maybe I just don’t get her at all but at this point, I couldn't really be bothered… I already moved on from the story.

Time for some closing thoughts, I could point fingers at other characters developments and the introduction of some new characters. But the thing I want to say the end of the day is, that I cannot stand bratty characters. A character facing the consequences of their actions is what makes a story satisfying; and stripping that causes big holes in the story, both narrative and character wise. When the story tries to continue the gimmick of characters being invincible to their mistake, it cuts off at weird parts and some things just don’t land. It may be jokes or key plot details… You get the point. And to accommodate for their invincibility, the story needs to create ways in which these OP characters don’t get punished. That comes by adding surrealistic characters and circumstances, which takes away from the immersion. In no way or form, will I ever encounter a person like Taihei which is quite telling. Some realism mixed in with fantasy is the perfect balance for me.

Thanks for reading, have a good one.
(edited slightly to make the punctuations and overall reading experience more consistent)