Himóto! Umaru-čan - Season 1

In the beginning, I was not very impressed with this anime series. Umaru Doma is a very cute main female protagonist and a very odd combination of a multi-talented, kind, and intelligent girl with a calculating, lazy and vicious otaku. She prefers to lounge around in front of a TV or a computer or read the latest manga. She is simply one of those characters who are easy to like and quite endearing while sometimes insufferable, making her quite funny. Yes, Umaru is at times unreal, although who else is there? Taihei, her older brother does not come across as particularly distinctive, and he initially struck me as being there to give his sister someone to make fun of. He is someone who could make her enjoy being insufferable and cute, which are the most important things for her existence. Then there was her friend Ebina, who was also nondescript, and I guessed she would be playing second fiddle. I thought I would drop it after the first episode, but I did not give up. I thought that I had not seen much cuteness this season, and I did not mind that this would probably be about nothing; there were episodic snippets from the life of a very energetic otaku. So, I watched the second episode, and I have to admit that I was (not) wrong once again. Sure, Umaru's character maintains her high standard and manages to entertain, and her brother did not get any significant prominence either. However, Ebina provided us with a new dimension in the second episode. It showed that this girl is not just some nondescript background character. She has a certain charm, her dreams, and her personality, and I managed to grow fond of her during the second episode. So "Umaru - Sister Act" was back in my good books and greatly improved my impression of the show. Plus, I liked this crazy show better with each passing episode. In fact, besides Umaru, who I practically fell in love with because her level of cuteness is simply immeasurable, and Ebina, I quickly got to know and enjoyed the other characters very much. Kirie was probably the most outstanding and simply amazing of the lot. So, in the end, the life of the energetic and crazy otaku and her friends provided a decent narrative, as I had originally expected. However, I also got to know a lot of great characters and had a lot of fun along the way. I was surprised that this show delighted me so much. I have to add that the soundtrack and the awesome opening are great, and I have been playing regularly as a cure for my bad moods. The music is full of energy and contrast, just like this anime series. Some may say that it is cheap to create the impression of cuteness using "chibi," although they used it to great effect in this show. It is mainly (K)Umaru, who I have grown to like, and if one accepts that this girl can "shrink" and no one around her (except her brother) recognizes her, then they find the conclusion entertaining. The final rating should probably be somewhere above average. With its energy and wit, it deserves at least four stars. However, this time I am putting my objectivity aside once again, and I am going to give it a full score because I have fallen in love with Umaru, her friends, their crazy adventures, and probably this whole anime series. 9/10. (16/07/2015) (moins) (plus)