Himouto! Umaru-chan

People are not always who they appear to be, as is the case with Umaru Doma, the perfect high school girl—that is, until she gets home! Once the front door closes, the real fun begins. When she dons her hamster hoodie, she transforms from a refined, over-achieving student into a lazy, junk food-eating otaku, leaving all the housework to her responsible older brother Taihei. Whether she's hanging out with her friends Nana Ebina and Kirie Motoba, or competing with her self-proclaimed "rival" Sylphinford Tachibana, Umaru knows how to kick back and have some fun!

Himouto! Umaru-chan is a cute story that follows the daily adventures of Umaru and Taihei, as they take care of—and put up with—each other the best they can, as well as the unbreakable bonds between friends and siblings.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Doma, Umaru Main

Tanaka, Aimi Japanese

Doma, Taihei Main

Nojima, Kenji Japanese

Ebina, Nana Supporting

Kageyama, Akari Japanese

Motoba, Kirie Supporting

Shiraishi, Haruka Japanese

Tachibana, Sylphinford Supporting

Furukawa, Yurina Japanese

Motoba, Takeshi Supporting

Yasumoto, Hiroki Japanese

Kongou, Kanau Supporting

Koshimizu, Ami Japanese

Tachibana, Alex Supporting

Kakihara, Tetsuya Japanese

Ebina, Nene Supporting

Asano, Masumi Japanese

Ebina, Father Supporting

Maeda, Hiroki Japanese

Takei, Katsuhiro Producer

Kamata, Hajime Producer

Oota, Masahiko Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Ebina, Yasunori Sound Director

Reviews

Jan 17, 2025

LegionIscariot

Recommended

Himouto! Umaru-chan is very similar to OreImo My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute.

Its a similar setup, blond girl is the perfect school princess. But is secretly an otaku.
Her older brother has black hair and is the only one who knows her secret.

The way these two anime differentiate is that Himouto is a fun anime with fun and likeable characters.
Whereas OreImo is the most atrocious thing ever.

This anime is funny. Every single character is great. The relationship and dynamic between the siblings Umaru and Taihei is funny and endearing.
Umaru's friends are all fun characters: Nana Ebina the best friend and neighbor with ... her southern accent she tries to hide. The scary but really shy Kirie Motoba. Even Umaru's rival Sylphinford Tachibana is written in a very fun way. And the list goes on.

The way Umaru seems to transform into a completely different creature whenever she enters her home is hilarious and cute.

A fun and cute anime thats definitely worth watching.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jan 8, 2025

IBasic_YapperI

Mixed Feelings

A "slice of life" comedy about Umaru,a high school girl who has two sides, one where she stays at home and plays video games, eats junk food and bossy to her brother while the other side she behaves nice to others and socializes. Most of the episodes revolve around the idea of Umaru keeping the "otaku" side of her hidden from her friends and keeping a good image upon herself in public. Along with that, basically every episode has her yelling at her brother, with something along the lines of taking her somewhere, help her win a game prize, making her food. Some ... may find it amusing to see the little sister keep on annoying her older brother and demanding for stuff ALL THE TIME, but for others it may be annoying to watch. The brother lets her get away with her tantrums way too much and she takes advantage of it.

Recommending this really depends if you find someone who takes advantage of people and being lazy at the same time act cute interesting or not.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Feb 26, 2025

Mythhead

Not Recommended

Don’t expect much from this anime, its plot summary is exactly that. Most of this anime revolves around Umaru harassing her brother and being nice around her peers. There is not even much comedy to speak of, most of the entertainment served as more of a time killer if anything. There are some “otaku culture” themes too, whatever that means, but most of it is just references to existing video games. It was pretty mindless all around, with its lack of comedy being made up by its cuteness. The chibi form is seemingly marketable, as seen by the promotional image. However, her character in general ... is really annoying so I found the non-chibi to be better simply because of the seemingly stark contrast between the two.

There’s not really much else to say about the story that wasn’t already covered in the synopsis. Himouto Umaru-chan doesn’t really have a story, but slice of life generally substitutes the lack of a story with its attempt at comedy, so this is excusable. Most of the story revolves around Umaru upholding her appearance of a responsible person in the presence of her peers at school. Conversely, she acts in a completely different way around her brother. This is the supposedly the main gag of the series, Umaru changes her personality depending on who she happens to be around. There are scenes where her brother and friends would be in the same place, so she would have to sort of multitask her personalities. Most of the jokes focus on this premise alone, so it felt very repetitive. At first, her more bratty personality is showcased, which is a bit annoying, the later scenes of her swooning crowds helped balance it a bit, even though they too were underwhelming. There were a few scenes that were wholesome when she was not either a brat or a self described perfect angel, but overall the entire premise did not have much to offer.

Since Himouto Umaru-chan really only focuses on Umaru, she is the only interesting character this anime has to offer. She can be fun sometimes, but much of her annoying nature is shown largely in the first few episodes. This does not imply that she undergoes any character development, instead the scenes that show her to be well behaved were simply more present. Besides Umaru, the rest of the characters are pretty bland and unremarkable. There is not much else to say about them besides a stereotypical personality trait. Most of these characters only exist to either give in the Umaru's demands or irritate her. The side characters include her wageslave brother, a shy girl, her admirer, and her rival. Due to the boring nature of the rest of the cast, this anime was largely uninteresting when she was not on screen.

One element of this show that is executed decently is its artwork. In general, it is not particularly noteworthy besides the fact that it is the typical "moe slice of life" shtick. Namely, the artwork features bright colors and generally fluid animations. Due to the nature of the gag which involves Umaru changing outfits, the character designs are done decently well. The girls in the cast are more notable, and it is easy to see that more attention was given to them during the design. Umaru’s outfits in particular were executed well. I had a personal preference for the design she wore when she went to the arcade since I have an affinity for hats. The OP was tolerable, it was clever with some of the video game references, with the music serving as a good enhancement to it.

In conclusion, Himouto Umaru Chan is a mostly a mindless slog. There is no noteworthy story or plot to speak of. Instead, this is substituted by the series’ attempt at comedy, which relies on one gag and gets repetitive after a while. Most of it relies on how cute Umaru's chibi form is, which can be annoying, and in turn make her non chibi form more appealing. The other characters in this anime are quite bland and lack personalities of their own so their character mostly involves feeling a certain way towards her. The artwork should have saved the series, but it's mostly a gentle coat of paint that generally turns this series from "very bad" to simply "bad."

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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