Common Name: Himouto! Umaru-chan
Alternative Names: My Two-Faced Little Sister
Score: 6/10, 4/5
Length: 2 Seasons of 12 Episodes, 1 OVA, 12 Specials
Genre: Comedy, School Life, Slice of Life
Summary: A cool, dignified beauty to the world outside and a lazy, snack food-chugging gremlin when at home--these are the two personalities of Doma Taihei's little sister, Umaru. While it'd be accurate to call their life at home complicated, due mainly to Umaru's selfish antics, it can't be denied that the two do care for one another. Still determined to make his sister as reasonable a person as possible, though, Taihei has taken it upon himself to scold Umaru when she messes up and nurture Umaru's desire to play with other people. After all, if she can find a group of friends she can get along really well with, then maybe she'll be able to find a compromise between her various personalities. This plan might not make her grow into the perfect person, but it'll certainly make her the best Umaru she can ever hope to be.
Review: Contentious though this opinion might be, I'll admit here and now that I like Umaru-chan--the show, not the character. In spite of the myriad issues I have with the show, which I'll get into as the review goes on, it is still a pretty alright comedy and has enough of a heart to be worth a few, good emotional moments. It is by no means a great show, but it serves as pretty entertaining junk food. In other words, since there really isn't a lot going for this show in terms of its comedy, characters, or plot, it's the perfect show to sit back and chill with.
So, by watching Umaru, we effectively become Umaru. That is how this infection spreads.
I say Umaru's brand of comedy is alright, specifically because it's fairly down-to-earth and full of situations I think most families would be able to laugh at on some level. For instance, most families have at least one busybody who takes it upon themselves to manage the lives of those around them. Because of that, the comedy centered around Doma Taihei, Umaru's older brother, is one most parents or older siblings could relate to. Those same people might feel sympathy pains for Taihei when he becomes the butt of Umaru's brand of comedy, as the carefree, lazy, and generally irresponsible younger sister who makes her caretaker's life a living hell. On the other side though, any younger person and anyone who is similarly obsessed with games, snacks, and just lazing around would easily get a laugh out of Umaru simply because she's relatable to those particular groups. This same kind of formulaic comedy through empathy can then be easily extended and altered to suit the remaining members of the cast. After all, who doesn't know someone with a prickly but caring personality like Kirei, a sweet but naive cinnamon bun like Ebina, or an over-eager go-getter like Sylphin? More reasonably, who doesn't know someone who always acts to achieve his own agendas like Alex or someone who is a mess who means well like Bomba? No matter who you are or who you know, Umaru essentially just sets itself up to work simply because it offers a selection of characters who are worth a few laughs or sympathetic cringes in their own right. Then, once those characters are established, the show is set to go until the comedy eventually runs out of gas. When exactly that happens is entirely subjective though. Much like when eating sweets, the point when you say you've had enough depends on your own tolerance levels.
In my case, I could easily sit through another season of this show, but that wall
with "ENOUGH!" spray-painted on it is already on the horizon.
To be clear, though, the main reason why I'm as engaged with this show as I am is entirely due to the personal drama with these characters. Like Taihei, I'm holding out a great deal of hope that Umaru will, one day, become a halfway decent person who can live in society and be honest about who she is around other people. In the first season, we don't really get a lot of this kind of development. We basically just learn who these characters are, what role they serve, and tons of comedy that plays off of these characters' one-note personalities. By the second season, however, some amount of character development does occur. We learn about the source of Ebina's romantic attraction toward Taihei. We get glimpses at Sylphin's feelings of loneliness and overwhelming desire to make friends with others. We also acknowledge that Kirei has dreams of being a children's book author. Tying all these threads together, though, we are given a solid level of development on Umaru's part as she slowly opens herself up to the world outside. While she is still a long ways off of shedding her triple personalities as the prim and proper Umaru-san, the selfish gremlin also known as Komaru, and the melding of those personalities we get with her identity as the masked gamer UMR, she is at least no longer looking at the people she interacts with daily as mere acquaintances. By the end of the second season, she's solidly invested in not only interacting with other people but supporting these people she's come to call her friends.
Look, I know that feature should come included with most human characters,
but I'll take what little progress this show can give me.
There is, however, one notable problem with all the development that occurs over the course of this second season--it's basically the laziest, one-note brand of development I've seen to date. I am, of course, referring to the fact that all these characters are basically defined entirely by their relationships with their respective older brothers. To elaborate, because Umaru is regularly scolded by her older brother, she possesses the natural ability to function in society because he's drilled the rules of society into her over the years. At the same time, however, she can be an absolute pain at home because he spoils her and lets her get away with a lot more than he should. Ebina's established affection for Taihei is similarly explained by the fact that she misses her own older brother who both looks and acts a bit like Umaru's older brother. Kirei is both caring and prickly because she has a complex relationship with her older brother, Bomba, where she has grown so tired of his obnoxious personality that she has little tolerance other people. At the end of the day, however, she does still care for him and other people so long as they don't force themselves on her. Lastly, Sylphin's chuunibyou personality and quiet loneliness are explained entirely through the personality of her older brother, Alex. Established who is both an otaku and someone who is never really around to play with her anymore, it simply makes sense that Sylphine would simultaneously emulate her beloved older brother and find a way to fill the hole he's left in her life.
While I understand that the idea behind this kind of development is that all these girls can relate to one another because they all have older brothers, it isn't a very flattering commonality when you try to engage with these characters as fun and unique individuals. The main reason why the friendship between these four is so compelling is that they all find ways to get along in spite of being very different people. It's fun watching how this group tends to get along and bump heads over certain situations like friends usually do. Because this friendship is so down-to-earth and supportive, it's hard not to cheer for them to grow and develop side-by-side. Since this kind of development strips away some of their differences though, I found it more artificial than it was before that revelation struck.
I guess I should have expected this show to half-ass things a little, though,
since Umaru is kinda the master of half-assing anything and everything.
As I've expressed already, though, I never really went into this show expecting to find a diamond in the rough. I expected this to be some horrible junk food at best, and absolute garbage at worst. I'm honestly surprised I got as much out of this show as I did. It got a few good laughs out of me. It kept me entertained enough to warrant giving the second season a shot. Himouto! Umaru-chan might not have been the best comedy I've seen, but it isn't the worst either. While that might not come across as honest praise or any kind of ringing endorsement, it does mean a lot. It means that, while I might not recommend it, I can at least say that it's worth a shot if you have nothing better to watch or just want to veg out for a few hours.