Now I normally don’t watch a lot of anime online; I prefer to download soft fan-subs from websites. But I kept hearing about Himouto! Umaru-chan, so I had to look into it. Luckily Crunchyroll is streaming the subtitled version completely free, so I took a look at it.

The series is based around an incredibly popular high school girl named Umaru Doma. She is referred to as super attractive and a perfect “straight-A” student whom everyone simply loves. But that’s only how she is outside of her house.

When she returns home, Umaru turns into a super hardcore gamer who bothers her brother constantly, and whines to get her way (much like a few people I know in real life). Besides all this, she lives on a diet comprised almost solely of soda and chips.

Each day she lazily sits around reading Jumpu, her manga of choice and playing video games. But as the story progresses, you get to meet her current friends, watch her make new ones and explore her relationship with her brother, Taichi Doma.

Now the series for me raised a lot of questions; namely, why is Umaru living with her elder brother and what happened to Taichi‘s mother. I’m aware there is a manga adaption to the show as well, and I tried looking into it on Wikia. But I haven’t come across much, so the series leaves a lot of blank spots that make me wonder a lot of things.

At first I hated the series and really disliked Umaru as a character, with her whining, begging, and demanding her brother get her everything she wants. Taichi is constantly being used as a punching bag or “door mat”, to which his name loosely translates.

There is no real plot to the entire series, and it just goes along with random daily stories of the brother-sister relationship, as well as Umaru‘s interaction with her friends. The story barely explores her formative years or how she was raised.

But the series is enjoyable, and after a while you get used to Umaru and her antics. Eventually she begins to mellow out a bit, as her brother tries to help her grow into a person who will be able to fend for herself one day. The animation style is really superb as well, not to mention the constant barrage of easter eggs and jokes they make throughout the series. The story tries to give as many references as it can to what it’s drawing inspiration from.

Overall, Himouto! Umaru-chan is a short series and very enjoyable. The first episode is quite rough, but the more you watch the better the show becomes and I suggest checking it out when you get a chance. Again, you can watch for free on Crunchyroll.

-Daniel Clatworthy-

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