Himouto! Umaru-chan

Himouto! Umaru-chan (干物妹!うまるちゃん) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Sankakuhead (manga artist). After two one-shot chapters published in Shueisha's manga magazine Miracle Jump (magazine) in 2012, the manga was serialized in Weekly Young Jump from March 2013 to November 2017, with its chapters collected in 12 volumes. A sequel manga titled, ''Himouto! Umaru-chan G'', was published in the same magazine from November 2017 to April 2018, with its chapters collected in a single volume. An anime television series adaptation aired from July to September 2015. A second season titled ''Himouto! Umaru-chan R'' aired from October to December 2017.

Premise

Umaru Doma is a high school girl living with her older brother Taihei. At school, Umaru appears to be the ideal student with good looks, top grades and many talents. However, she transforms into a kid-sized layabout, and spends time at home having a food and video game addiction, much to Taihei's dismay. Throughout the series, Umaru uses her alternative personality to make friends with others. She buys wanted things for herself, but is forced to get needful things for Taihei.

Characters

• Umaru Doma (土間 埋)
• A second-year high school girl with beautiful looks, top grades and excellence in everything. She has a secret lifestyle at home,[6] wearing a hamster hoodie and being a fan of . While indoors, she is drawn in a manner, later calling herself Komaru (Umaru's sister) when Kirie catches her in the persona. She lives with her brother Taihei. She wears a cap while at the amusement arcade, where she is a well-known gamer who goes by the initials UMR. She wears a mask to hide her identity from Sylphinford.
• Taihei Doma (土間 大平)
• Umaru's older brother working at the company. He lives in a 1DK apartment. The siblings move in a year before the series. He is described as having a kind and methodical personality. He reprimands Umaru for being lazy.[7]
• Nana Ebina (海老名 菜々)
• Umaru's buxom classmate living in the ground-floor apartment near the siblings. She is often referred by her surname. She is very shy, and is originally from Akita Prefecture, occasionally reverting to dialect when she is nervous. Because of her breasts, she has a lack of confidence as people look at her. The first person to look her in the eyes is Taihei, whom she later has a crush on and gets flustered whenever he gives her compliments. Nana's brother works at a restaurant in Tokyo. Taihei suspects he might have met him on his business trip. She appears in the spin-off manga "Akita Imokko! Ebina-chan" (秋田妹！えびなちゃん), after having placed first in a Niconico Seiga poll among other characters.[10]
• Sylphinford Tachibana (橘・シルフィンフォード)
• One of Umaru's classmates. She is very openly competitive, and considers Umaru a rival in academics and sports. She becomes friends with one of Umaru's personas, UMR, with hopes of beating her at school, and later gets along with her friends. She is half-Japanese and German.
• Kirie Motoba (本場 切絵)
• A classmate and a petite girl with frightening eyes to scare others. She is shy and has a great admiration for Umaru. She becomes friends with Komaru, thinking she is her sister. She is a servant calling her Master. She considers Ebina a rival for Umaru's affection. She is a member of the swim club, and is good at other sports like tennis. She aspires to be a picture book author.
• Takeshi Motoba (本場 猛)
• Kirie's brother with an afro. His nickname is Bomber (ぼんば). He likes to slack off at work. He and Taihei became friends since high school, but he was not as studious. He gets jealous when sees Taihei hanging out with the girls, but when he meets Komaru, he feels she is cute too. He tries to interact with Kirie, but she gets annoyed from him. When he meets Umaru in her outdoor persona and Ebina, he becomes very nervous and shy. He thinks Komaru and Umaru are two different people, and cannot recognize his sister during the trip.
• Alex Tachibana (橘・アレックス)
• Sylphinford's brother. He works in Taihei's department. He is part German and has relatives from Europe. He enjoys playing video games. He knows of Umaru's dual personality. He later reveals that when he was in middle school, he was a shut-in. He later moved to Japan to work with Kanau.
• Manager Kanau (叶課長)
• Kanau Kongou (金剛 叶) is the boss of Taihei, Bomber, and Alex, described in Young Jump magazine as beautiful and excellent.[12] She met Taihei and Bomber at high school ten years ago. She is very fond of Taihei, but gets annoyed by Bomber. Kanau is a single person and living on her own. Umaru becomes upset of her. Taihei reveals that she is the daughter of the president, a year younger than Taihei, and that they attended different classes. She has a younger sister Hikari.
• Hikari Kongō (金剛 ヒカリ)
• A top student from the Gifted Youth Program with a hairpin and Kanau's sister. It is hinted that she interacted with Taihei, before knowing the set of constellations that he tried to show Umaru. She refers to Taihei as a big brother.
• Kōichirō Ebina (海老名 公一郎)
• Nana's older brother and restaurant chef. He left home since ten years before the series, when Nana was seven.

Production

On December 20, 2025, Sankakuhead released a video in which he stated that the manga was inspired by his younger sister, as well as other aspects of his life, such as his hamsters. His sister served as the model for Umaru, who fell ill between the publication of the sixth and seventh volumes (both released in 2015). She died sometime between the publication of the tenth and eleventh volumes (both released in 2017). He noted that working on the manga and attending the wrap-up celebrations for the first season of the anime, which occurred days after her death, was particularly difficult. However, he later continued work on the eleventh and twelfth volumes in her memory.[14]

Media

Reception

The manga had over 2.2 million copies in circulation by November 2015.[72] It had over 2.7 million copies in circulation by March 2017.[73]

The series ranked 16th in the first Next Manga Award in the print manga category.[74]

Works cited

• "Ch." is shortened form for chapter and refers to a chapter number of the Himouto! Umaru-chan manga by Sankakuhead.
• "Ep." is shortened form for episode and refers to an episode number of the Himouto! Umaru-chan anime.

External links