Himouto! Umaru-chan R
干物妹！うまるちゃんR
- Comedy
- Otaku Culture
- School
- Episodes
- 12
- Duration
- 23 min per ep
- Aired
- Oct 8, 2017 to Dec 24, 2017
- Status
- Finished Airing
Synopsis
Umaru Doma looks like the perfect student at school—polished, capable, and admired. The moment she steps through her front door, though, she trades that image for a hamster hoodie and a very different routine: lounging around as a junk-food-loving otaku while her brother, Taihei, deals with the fallout.
As Umaru’s everyday double life continues, her bond with classmates Nana Ebina, Kirie Motoba, and Sylphinford Tachibana grows closer, bringing new situations along with it. Questions start to surface—what Nana wanted from Taihei, the identity of a girl with a diamond hairpin, and why that girl seems to know Umaru—adding a touch of mystery to the familiar mix of school life and home antics.
Otaku Consensus
Himouto! Umaru-chan R lands as a quieter but more emotionally useful second season: Doga Kobo keeps the gag timing clean while shifting the appeal toward the friend-group chemistry and small continuity threads that the first season mostly treated as background noise. The common criticism is real—Season 2 is less flashy and less meme-forward than the original—but that restraint is also why many fans read it as the point where Umaru feels less like a one-joke mascot and more like a rounded comedy lead.
Why You Should Watch
Watch Himouto! Umaru-chan R if you want otaku-roommate chaos without the cruelty or burnout that can come with louder gag anime. It scratches a lighter version of the same slice-of-life itch as Gabriel DropOut or YuruYuri: compact comic setups, school-friend banter, and a cast whose running bits become warmer instead of merely repeated. Season R is especially for viewers who liked the chibi Umaru meme but wanted the series to invest more in Ebina, Kirie, and Sylphinford as a functioning ensemble. It is not the pick for a heavy plot or big emotional catharsis; it is the pick for a 12-episode comedy that uses tiny mysteries, social misunderstandings, and otaku rituals as low-stakes momentum.
Key Characters
- UUmaru Doma(VA: Aimi Tanaka)
Fans talk about Umaru as two performances in one: the admired school idol and the compressed chibi gremlin whose otaku appetites drive the series’ most recognizable comedy.
- TTaihei Doma(VA: Kenji Nojima)
Taihei works because he is not just the straight man; his exhausted patience gives the domestic comedy a rhythm closer to sibling routine than sitcom punishment.
- NNana Ebina(VA: Akari Kageyama)
Ebina’s appeal comes from how the sequel lets her sweetness and nervousness create tension without turning her into a pure background gag.
- SSylphinford Tachibana(VA: Yurina Furukawa)
Sylphinford remains the series’ competitive spark, but Season R benefits from treating her energy as part of the friend group rather than just a rivalry button.
What Makes It Stand Out
- 1
Doga Kobo’s sequel keeps the series in a 12-episode TV-comedy format, which helps Season R stay closer to sketch-driven slice-of-life pacing than to a plot-heavy continuation.
- 2
Critic and fan commentary commonly frames Season R as simpler and less flashy than the first season, with the tradeoff being a stronger emphasis on characterization and everyday group dynamics.
- 3
The season adds light continuity through questions around Nana, Taihei, and the girl with the diamond hairpin, giving the comedy small hooks without changing the show into a mystery series.
- 4
Its core genre mix is unusually narrow on paper—Comedy with Otaku Culture and School themes—so the series’ identity rests on execution: domestic otaku habits colliding with classroom social performance.
- 5
The reception profile is stable rather than polarizing: a 7.32 MAL score from 142,844 votes places it as a liked sequel with broad exposure, ranked #3030 and popularity #1030 on the platform.
Fun Facts & Trivia
- Fun fact 1
- Himouto! Umaru-chan R aired from October 8, 2017 to December 24, 2017, making it a compact fall-season sequel that finished on Christmas Eve.
- Fun fact 2
- The anime was produced by Doga Kobo, a studio strongly associated among anime fans with bright, character-forward TV comedies and slice-of-life ensemble work.
- Fun fact 3
- A notable fan-review angle is that Season R feels like a natural stopping point: one 10/10 reviewer praised the simple everyday writing while saying it was best that the anime stopped at Season 2.
- Fun fact 4
- Online discussion around the franchise often starts from the chibi Umaru meme, but Season R’s reviews repeatedly point to the ensemble and character development as the reason the sequel still works beyond the meme image.
Studios
- Doga Kobo
