Himouto! Umaru-chan is based upon the manga and the first season is comprised of 12 episodes. It is a slice-of-life comedy anime. The series follows Doma Umaru, who by all appearances is the perfect girl. She is pretty, clever, athletic, cute, innocent and nice. The twist here is that once she gets home, she turns into a lazy bum who's only interested in eating junk food, playing games and watching anime all day and night. This is signified with Umaru turning into a (cute) chibi version of herself, to the point where other characters may not even recognize it is her.
Between her normal and chibi form, the animation perfectly balances those two different types of aesthetics. Umaru neatly transitions to her chibi form and back without feeling jarring, especially since everyone else remains the same. Umaru lives with her brother Taihei. Taihei works everyday but loves his sister and in the beginning, spoils her. Taihei cooks, does the housework and worries about his sister. Umaru on the other hand tries to take advantage of this and Taihei comes to realize that he mustn't be too soft. While Umaru symbolizes the ultimate lazy life of being a student, Taihei reflects upon the day to day grind of working.
The humor comes from the sheer difference in the two sides of Umaru. As Umaru throws a tantrum in order to get the latest game to wanting a specific food for dinner, you can't help but smile at the cuteness of it as well. The ample references to various Japanese pop culture is fun, doubly so when you recognize it. From games to figures, it cements the passion that Umaru has for her secret hobbies.
Naturally, Umaru has her reputation to uphold. She needs to keep up the pretense of an elegant girl when others are around. The series balances these two aspects, with the lazy version even being able to make friends with some of Umaru's classmates. One of the neat things about the series is how all the different characters interrelate with each other. In the beginning, you feel that there is a divide between Umaru and her friends, and Taihei and his friends. As the anime goes on, you see the various relationships between those characters and gives additional meaning to specific dialogue since you see both sides. There are also a few love triangles going on but this is never the focus nor does it create any conflict.
The structure of each episode is that there are separate smaller scenarios and events in each one. Thus at times, it doesn't feel as if the events of that episode flowed after one another. Each episode tries to have a singular theme uniting it, and the season makes time pass pretty quickly covering Christmas as well as New Year's.
The dynamic between Umaru and her brother Taihei is very sweet. On the one hand, Umaru annoys Taihei a lot with her demands but she is just so cute that you can't help but forgive her. You can see and feel how much Taihei loves his sister. This reaches its peak during the episode when the siblings are sick or when Taihei thinks of ways to get Umaru to eat green peppers. You can't help but smile when one of them realizes how much the other loves them.
One of the most surprising aspects is although Umaru uses a lot of technology herself from game consoles to tablets to the computer; she doesn't seem to have a great understanding of it. When she freaks out that something doesn't work, it is funny but at the same time, you have to wonder what age she is living in. The only slight disappointments is due to the way the episodes work, the season doesn't really end on anything significant. While Umaru does achieve success in bringing her friends together, there wasn't a central arc for the season to resolve, thus it felt like something was missing.
Overall, Himouto! Umaru-chan is a fun and lighthearted slice-of-life anime. The key premise of Umaru having multiple personas provides plenty of humor, it is also that she is just so cute no matter what form she is in.
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