Himouto! Umaru-chan

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About

Himouto! Umaru-chan (干物妹!うまるちゃん Himōto! Umaru-chan) is a manga and anime series written by Sankaku Head and published on the magazine Weekly Young Jump. The series follow Umaru Doma, a high school student who appears to be a well-mannered student at school, but reverts to a lazy slob when at home with her older brother, Taihei.

Premise

The series focus on the exploits of Umaru Doma, a high school student who lives with her older brother Taihei. At school, she appears to be the perfect student, with beautiful looks, top grades and excellence in everything she does; but once she gets home she reverts into a chibi version of herself who spends her time laying arround, eating junk food, playing video games, reading manga and watching anime, along with depending on Taihei for all kind of stuff. Umaru will use different alternate personalities to become friends with some of her classmates: Ebina Nana, an unconfident girl from the country who is in love with Umaru's brother; Kirie Motoba, a shy girl who develops a yandere relation with Umaru; and Sylphynford Tachibana, a half-japanese overly entusiastic and competitve girl who sees herself as Umaru's rival; while Umaru tries to balance those personalities in order to mantain her friendships.

From left to right: Kirie Motoba, Umaru Doma, Ebina Nana, Syplhynford Tachibana

History

The series started its serialization in Shueisha's seinen manga magazine Weekly Young Jump on March 13th, 2013. On December 13th, 2014 a television anime adaptation was announced by the animation studio Doga Kobo (known for its works on other adaptations like YuruYuri). The anime officialy premiered on July 9th, 2015.

Reception

The anime series was licenced by the streaming website CrunchyRoll on July 8th, 2015,^[9] and the next day was licensed on North America by the animation company Sentai Filmworks.^[12] As August 3rd, 2015 the manga series has sold over 1,5 milion copies.^[11]

Online Presence

On July 8th, user Shadowflix submited a thread on /r/anime to discuss about the first episode of the anime series, gaining over 360 points (over 97% upvoted) and over 140 comments in a month.^[13] During the following month, several GIFs and fanart from the series was posted on the subreddits /r/awwnime^[14] and /r/animegifs.^[15] On August 4th, 2015 a wikia about the series was created,^[10] and the following day a subreddit dedicated to the series discussion was created.^[1] A MyAnimeList page for the anime series was also created after its announcement.^[5] On 4chan, the series became a hot topic after it became source for shitposting on the site, mostly on the boards /a/, /v/ and /r9k/ with Umaru Doma images, resulting in a growing hatebase over Umaru.^[4]

Fandom

The series gained a huge following online after the anime premiere. As August 8th, 2015 the japanese artist community pixiv leads to over 1000 results under the tag "干物妹!うまるちゃん",^[2] and over 390 results under the tag "土間うまる".^[3] The artist community DeviantART leads to over 590 results under the keyword "umaru".^[7] Fandom presence can also be found on other communities like Tumblr. ^[6]

The anime of the series was well received by the fans and also introduced many newcomers to the series, leading to a significant growth in the fandom. In February 2016, six months after the airing of the anime, the amount of fanworks on Pixiv and DeviantArt had increased to respectively over 4,100, 1,300 and 2,700.

Hamster Hoodie

Hamster Hoodie is the name given to the hamster kimurugi worn by Umaru Doma on her chibi form. As one of the most recognizable parts from her design, it has been featured on multiple crossover arts with some variations, in similar vein to the boob ribbon from Hestia. The official Young Jump site also released a "Umaru Maker", to create own versions of the character.^[18]

Himouto! Umaru-chan Opening Parodies

Himouto! Umaru-chan Opening Parodies refer to a series of fanarts that take inspiration from two scenes from the anime opening: Umaru walking with a group of hamsters and Umaru playing maracas and dancing with her clones.

Umaru x Anzu

Umaru x Anzu refers to a series of crossover media featuring Umaru Doma and Anzu Futaba from THE iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls, due their similar lazy behavior.^[19]

WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING" is a catchphrase used in response to weird and deformed character images and adopted by Umaru Doma detractors as response to her images, usually accompained with a close-up picture of Ninja Brian from Ninja Sex Party. First used on /a/ post submited on July 23rd, 2015,^[16] soon it grew as a joke between the fanbase.^[17]