Recently I asked people on Twitter what they considered to be the funniest anime of 2015 and one of the more popular answers given was the Doga Kobo produced series Himouto! Umaru-chan. When it was released this past summer I vaguely recall some people talking about it but then it kind of went away and I forgot all about it until people started mentioning it as the funniest anime of the year. So I watched it. All of it. In one day.
Now, I’m going to be very honest and say that I didn’t dislike this series. It had some cute and clever moments but to call it the funniest series of the year is overshooting the mark by quite a bit and a big reason for that is the main character. In the continuing spirit of being honest let’s not beat around the bush – Umaru is a two-faced, manipulative brat that ruined what could’ve been an otherwise fun otaku comedy. Yes, she was funny at times but for the most part she was just plain mean and a completely unsympathetic heroine.
Here’s the thing though; Umaru isn’t a completely unique character type. There have been tons of cute but manipulative female otaku characters over the last few years. There have even been cute but manipulative female otaku characters that I’ve really enjoyed seeing and watching such as Kirino Kousaka from OreImo. So what makes her different from Umaru that I can tolerate one character of this type but not the other? Let’s break it down…
First off, let’s address the point of sympathy. Umaru is not a sympathetic character. At no point do her actions make you feel bad for her situation or place in life. Yes, both her and Kirino are model students and secret otaku but the difference between them is that Kirino has a genuine desire to connect with other people and share her hobby with others while Umaru is completely anti-social when it comes to her hobbies. Kirino is lonely, Umaru is happy to just hang out with and abuse her older brother for giggles.
Abuse is a pretty big connecting factor between these two characters as well. Kirino literally slaps her brother awake in order to ask him for advice and Umaru regularly pounces on her older brother because she wants him to buy her something. Once again though, it goes back to sympathy. Kirino doesn’t know how to connect with her brother so she abuses him as a substitute. Umaru is perfectly well aware of how to connect with her brother but chooses to abuse him simply because she can get away with it.
This leads into another point where the two characters are completely different: Kirino is self sufficient and Umaru is a sponge who refuses to pull her own weight. Thanks to her successful modeling career, Kirino is able to pay for her own hobby and does so with pride. On the other side of the spectrum is Umaru who relies to her brother to buy her everything and will even go so far as to demand that he buy her things like manga magazines and video games.
The last thing that separates the two characters are their friends. In the case of Umaru, she is easily the least interesting character in the series and really should’ve been a supporting character at best. In reality, any one of Umaru’s friends could’ve been the star of the series and it would’ve made for a much more entertaining viewing. Kirino may be a bitch but at least she was interesting and had some depth to her which made her stand out against her friends.
This isn’t the last time we’re going to see this character type appear in an anime series. We are going to see this come up time and time again in the future. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing as it’s perfectly possible to come up with a female otaku who is a bitch but is still likeable in one way or another; Umaru is just not a great example of how to do that.
