KANLen09

"Hai Domo, kids! Let's all come together and do a charismatimgly cute children's show to the audience! A--B--C, A--B--C, A..to...Z!" *switches off the TV* So that's your real shell of a dark personality huh? Uramichi Oniisan can just be summed up in these one-word caricatures: (simply *chef's kiss*) amazing, comical, wholesome (if you understood the show's intents), magnifiquely magnificent (all-around). It's "Expectations vs. Reality" in the most dark, crude stance of a satirical parody, or as I like to call it in a better light: "Adulting/Adulthood" the Animation. It's OK because the "OK Boomers" young generation will absolutely not understand how #Relatable this show is toyoung adults in their late 20s or adults in their early 30s (of which I am one, hands up if you belong to the Millennial generation) who have gone through this stage of handling jobs and juggling life at the same time, and now passing this knowledge down to children. How depressing can your life be when you've reached the point of no return? Uramichi Oniisan tells the story of 31-year old Uramichi Omota, a lively and bubbly adult imitating the parody of Okaasan to Issho, a children's television program on Japan's largest TV network NHK (that's the children's arm of NHK Educational TV for ya), dubbed "Together with Maman" on MHK, also a gymnastics show for children. In truth, he is the same 31-year-old guy who was a former gymnast with a really good smile and physique, but with a caveat: he is mentally unstable. He can get away with his upbeat personality on camera, but off-camera, his life is reduced to an old man's activity of some heavy smoking and drinking while doing his muscle training hobby at times. But if there's one thing that you do not want to do: point the facts out, or Uramichi Oniisan will bite the hell out of you with his culminating depression. That's a life lesson to be taught. Uramichi Oniisan is not alone though, he has helpers performing alongside him, and display the same fervor of lifelessness that's simiarly identical or less worse than what Uramichi is going through: his juniors of Tobikichi Usahara and Mitsuo Kumatani, both 28-years old and are once Uramichi's juniors in college, and formerly music actors 27-year old Iketeru Daga and and 32-year old Utano Tadano. What I love about their names is that mangaka Gaku Kuze has a legit reason why he has given these very memorable and likable characters names as such. See the simiarlities: Uramichi full name implies a double-faced personality (inner and outer side), Tobikichi plays the rabbit mascot "Usao" while Mitsuo plays the bear mascot "Kumao", and get this: Iketeru's full name is a pun meaning "But I'm handsome" while Utano's means "Just a singer". There's more though: "Together with Maman"'s director Tekito Derekida meaning careless director, Furitsuke Capellini meaning a literate capellini (pasta)-haired choreographer, to name a few. What insane creativity is this!? Uramichi Oniisan has a caveat that strikes the "Home Run" effect of being very likeable: the stacked VA character cast that accompanies the entire character cast in their conquest to become the most boring, unequivocal, yet realistic human beings that we've come to love. Hiroshi Kamiya for Uramichi, Tomokazu Sugita for Usahara, Yuuichi Nakamura for Kumatani, Miyano Mamoru for Iketeru, Nana Mizuki for Utano, the list goes on and on. It's just pure undulated, unfiltered, uncensored dark comedic vibes for the realism of knowing what's in the minds of adults, and how like Uramichi, can slowly burst his misery to the children who has to bear the heavy burdens from an adult teaching them mature life values while on-set. The on-set children under the Oniisans and Utano Oneesan though, I love the children who can just ask them hard questions taught from their parents, and to slowly see the creeps befall their faces, drooping down in quietness, trying their best to not be coercive to the children who still have a long life to go. Also, this show always defaults on its running gags, which can be tiresome on repeat, but IMO it's a blast to see such "atrocities" ensue. For example, Tobikichi always bad-mouths Uramichi to the point of sheer terror if exposed; Iketeru always shudders in laughter when he hears "dick jokes", always thinks of rice balls and is unable to read analog watches; and Utano's the saddest of all: she's an idol job hopper-cum-singer, and has a boyfriend of 6 years whom is unpopular. Yikes, talk about a hundred feet drop there. Uramichi Oniisan's production values aren't really the best, but if all it does is to adapt Gaku Kuze's manga content to a T (which it did), then I'm more than happy enough. For reference, the manga's visuals are quite simple with not a lot of attention to detail (well, just a teeny bit), so getting a low budget studio such as Studio Blanc is of no difficult manner. A fun fact that this marks the first individual-produced show for the studio in over 10 years (while 2011's Ro-Kyu-Bu! and 2017's Shobitch are co-animated shows, plus some OVAs rounding up its miniscule works list). There's not a whole lot to say about the dull visuals because it's just that to translate the manga onto the small screen as decent as it could be, but it's viable enough. The music though I must say is an acquired taste, but a well-rounded set with the duet of the singer actors Iketeru Oniisan (Mamoru Miyano) and Utano Oneesan (Nana Mizuki) for the OP, and Mamoru Miyano for the ED. The clicking kids and adult contrast vibes are there, and I absolutely love it. Uramichi Oniisan, it pains me to see that this show is not as popular in the mainstream, but that's OK because this show fits to a certain demographic of people who can vibe what the anime is all about, me included. This is just pure abject, hilarious parodied creativity of levels I've honestly never seen before in anime, and in such a low-key series as Uramichi Oniisan, I'm very dumbfounded as to how this series manages to lay low under the radar to become one of my guilty favourites of the Summer season. It's been long since I've had my share of pure, unadulterated laughter (after last season's "Dragon, Ie wo Kau."), and more people should give this a chance (especially to the Millennials), you're truly missing out on a modern cult-following show that is a comedic, heart and gut-wrenching suckerpunch to your eternalistic reality.

RPWPA

Uramichi Onii-san is a very comedic anime with a HEAVY take on adulthood and life in general. What I expect to be a light hearted anime with some dark jokes here and there, turned out to be an anime that gave life lessons on how to try and handel your life. An anime that contains a genuinely great advice on how to try and help yourself even during the darkest times in your life. Let's talk about how great Uramichi Onii-san is. Uramichi Onii-san is a story about 5 characters. A singer that lost her stardom. An introvertwith a heart of gold. A tsundere extrovert.A guy that loves singing and a guy with Sever depression. They are all suffering from various things and they are tied by a tv program they do together to help teach kids about life and what is right and wrong. They must maintain their happy-go-lucky appearance to be able to keep their job and survive through their dark lives. The characters in the anime are a big reason of why it is so good. They interact so well with each other and they support each other knowing that they are all suffering together in this place. With their unique and varying personalities, the anime keeps on building around them. The anime uses the characters to set up some very good jokes like having the kids throw savage comments at the characters or even something simple like a guy uncontrollably laughing at a word that sounds dirty. The anime uses these moments and contrasts them well with the actual behind the scene stories. We get to know more about each character and why they became that way. We knew the dark story of Kumatani and how pure he is. We knew about the depression Uramichi is suffering from and the reason he keeps doing his job despite hating it. We knew about why Usahara always makes fun of Uramichi and we got to see how exactly our characters influenced each other. The anime starts as a comedy filled with dark jokes but as the story goes on, we got to see why exactly the dark jokes worked and we got to see how profound the characters are. The dialgoue in Uramichi Onii-san was very well-written. The jokes were witty and straight up savage that it left me laughing a lot of times. Whether it be using the dark jokes to display the character's depressing lifestyles or even using simple jokes like Uramichi getting angry at Usahara or seeing Iketeru laughing at stupid jokes. On the other hand, the real stuff was heavy. "Why am I doing this?". "Is this what I should be doing?" "Society won't benefit from anything I do." "I feel guilty yet I don't know how make a meaningful use of my time" "I DON'T REALLY KNOW HOW TO LIVE ANYMORE." This part hit different. It might have been that it broke the whole dark humor thing with the kids but I felt there was much more to that. It felt like I was talking to myself and questioning my life. That's why this part leaves a big effect on you. "But at least, I don't want this time to be wasted." That part right here, helping you understand that you can still control your life, is a big part of why Uramichi Onii-san is a great anime. The art and animation are done well enough although when it came to showing Uramichi's depressed state, it was able to flawlessly capture how different the world is from his view compared to how it actually is. It displayed the mental perspective of Uramichi and how heavy the depression is affecting him which is a big plus in my book. It was also able to show how different the characters were from back in the past and how their lives affected them both physically and emotionally. The voice actors were great and each of them did their job perfectly. It was funny listening to Miyano Mamoru laughing at stupid jokes tho :D Overall, I would give Uramichi Onii-san a 9/10. A great anime that I would love to see more of. Would recommend it to anyone looking for a comedy anime with a hint of depression.