MainstreamBean

I feel as if the title of this anime should be changed from "How clumsy you are, Miss Ueno" to "How horny you are, Miss Ueno." As the synopsis suggests, Ueno-san is "in love with the concept of falling in love." Our main trio of students consists of Tanaka, Yamashita, and Ueno herself, as they spend their time in the science club together testing out various inventions that Ueno has prepared in advance for the oblivious Tanaka. The premise sounds simple enough, right? Well, unless you enjoy watching junior high students participate in blatantly crude sexual gags with the follow up of loud nervous breakdowns, feelfree to pass this one up with ease. Now for the following... Jumping into every episode, we are greeted with Ueno introducing her new invention to the viewers with a complex narration of said device for around a minute or so, only to then use it in an attempt to explore her obsession with "the concept of falling in love." I quote this because apparently to Ueno, the experience of falling in love is achieved through involving your panties as many times as humanly possible, getting yourself along with other side characters to participate in absurdly unfunny sexual situations, and to yell as embarrassingly as you can whenever you get the chance. Seriously, if the show sees even the slightest opportunity to take advantage of this potty like humor, it will try as much as it can for the sake of a gag, and absolutely fails to make me laugh even once. With our main bro Tanaka, wholly uninterested and oblivious to the motives of Ueno, this rinse and repeat cycle continues for 12 whole episodes. Luckily these episodes only last for half the amount of airing time as standard episode length, so it could have been worse. Other than that, there really isn't much more to add. The shows art is fairly basic, and the characters play their roles accordingly of an over the top tsundere, a dense male interest, and a dull robot. As I said, this continues for 12 episodes, so if you have seen the first episode, it's just rehash of that for the rest of the way. In part, for those who can laugh at this show and enjoy this sort of thing, you have achieved something that I simply cannot.

Fircoal

Ueno-san is a simple show at heart, but it manages to use great execution, creative ideas, and one very adorable Ueno-san in order to make a comedy that not only works, but provides more than just it's comedic jokes. At it's heart it is a sexual joke comedy like other shows before it, most of Ueno's inventions have to do with something lewd, or something romantic. While some shows go out of their way to force this sort of stuff, and Ueno-san admittedly at times can too, the bulk of these have a simple source: the infinite horniness of Ueno-san, and how much she loves herbeloved kouhai. Most of her inventions are attempts at getting him closer to her or to get him to do perverse things to her. Her manner is pretty interesting to watch as it's not just about her trying to lewd him all the time, but rather her mindgames in trying to get him to lewd her, which is what she really so badly wants. However, she happens to be a complete and utter tsundere and even when she gets what she wants she ends up overreacting and running away unable to deal with the strong emotions that are in her heart. Despite how over the top her character is, she feels genuine and manages to feel like a real character. When she is dealing with problems that relate to other club's that go to her for help she manages to treat them seriously and do her best to help out. She isn't just her infinite horniness, even if it is a large part of her. After all she is a teenager and she is experiencing strong emotions for the first time, and it's not unnatural to not know what to do with them. So while over the top her emotions make sense to me, and I find myself able to relate to her and her struggles in trying to get closer to her love and get the things she wants without being so forward about it. Furthermore the jokes are able to have a good amount of variety and are able to focus on a wide array of different lewd actions and romantic actions rather than focusing on the same items over and over again. The wide array of her inventions allow for a diversity in what happens depending on what she wants to get Tanaka to do at that time. And while a dense harem MC can be frustrating at times the sheer denseness of Tanaka is quite humorous especially with how obvious Ueno is. It also helps that because Ueno is such a tsundere, it's not like either of them are making that many serious attempts to showcase their love. Nor is it like she is losing because he is so dense. And besides I feel the sometimes sweet and off the top of his head statements that he is prone to making is exactly what she likes about him. Because with all of his denseness he manages to make these statements that light her heart on fire, without even trying to do so in the first place. Not to mention the denseness actually does a great job for the straight man role that most japanese comedies have. With his denseness he is able to fill this role without feeling too over the top and unnatural in it. He states normalcy and acts the most normal of the bunch without overdoing it or putting too much weight on the joke in his words. While he fills the straight man role, he doesn't become nothing but a straight man, and manages to fit into that role naturally due to who he is. And this denseness creates an interesting mindgame dynamic. While some other shows have the main romantic leads face off against each other and try to outwit each other, Ueno's mindgames aren't battles of wits, they're battles of who is the dumbest. Ueno's plans are good but she manages to sabotage herself almost every time. Tanaka isn't even trying to mindgame, rather his sheer denseness works in his favor as he manages to go against her plans with sheer density. Despite this, the mindgames don't have a clear power structure. Ueno often gets her wants in a round about way due to Tanaka's denseness. It may not be the way she wanted but it still warms her heart and brings her closer to him. Even thought her plans fail their closeness grows with each one. Even in their interactions it's easy to see how close they are. Despite Ueno's weird requests Tanaka often humors her and goes along with them. Despite Ueno getting overloaded, she does get some of the love and interaction that Tanaka desires. Her plans may fail, but often she doesn't go empty handed. And when it comes down to it Tanaka does try his best for her, and it's sweet. Also I have to mention Yamashita who is a great wingman and does her best for Ueno. The dynamic between the two of them is also quite nice as they do care about each other and do try to help each other. Overall Ueno is a great comedy and a great romance. With some fun gags, some fun mindgames, and some great characters. Ueno is the highlight of the show, and it's so much fun watching her demanding tsundereness and all of her adorable over the top reactions to everything. It's funny, cute, and heartwarming, and makes for a great rom-com to watch.