Are Weeb There Yet?
An Exploration and Education in Anime!

AWTY 237 - Juone Joke (Himouto! Umaru-Chan)

7 months ago
Transcript
Speaker A:

Education in anime. I'm your anime idiot, tess Dugan.

Speaker B:

I'm your anime expert, D Hollander Gonzalez.

Speaker C:

And I'm Brendan McCullough. Your anime gaming gremlin shut in, which is the most candid I've ever been in an opening.

Speaker B:

Yeah. How honest and real of you.

Speaker A:

Thank you for sharing with us. Hopefully it will be an inspiration to us all.

Speaker C:

I got 200 hours in a game that came out this month and muscle atrophy in my legs.

Speaker B:

Oh, I hope that second thing isn't true.

Speaker C:

No.

Speaker B:

I was like, that can't be.

Speaker C:

Not to a severe level. But I did go to the grocery store. I'm like, These bags are heavy.

Speaker A:

I had the terrifying realization this week I finally downloaded an app Time Limiter, just because my brain is reaching out for anything. And, yeah, I found out in the past week, I've spent a day on TikTok. I spent a 7th of my last week on TikTok. And, boy, that's not good.

Speaker B:

Yeah. I tweeted about how we had COVID. Paul and I had COVID. We're fine now. And we didn't go to work for almost a full week because it was also the week before Labor Day. So it was just like it really sadly, I think it's capitalism's fault. You get to a point where you're just like, I don't know what to do. I can't keep doing this because obviously we're not going to go anywhere. We don't want to get anybody else sick. And I just have days in general where I'm like, I don't want to look at my phone anymore, but I don't know what else to do.

Speaker A:

That's that extra humiliating thing when you're like, all right, let me close this app. What else can I do? Reopen the same app.

Speaker B:

Luckily, I'm reading two books right now, so that's always an option.

Speaker C:

Split your eyes, read them at the same time.

Speaker B:

I wish I could do that.

Speaker C:

As someone whose eyes do split, it's not great.

Speaker B:

Well, split my brain.

Speaker C:

Yeah. Anyway, why are we talking about being creepy little gremlin shut ins gang?

Speaker B:

Well, we are about to watch anime, but the anime we're going to watch today is Himoto Umaru Chan, which is about a little gremlin.

Speaker A:

Great.

Speaker B:

Yep. Have either of you heard of this?

Speaker A:

Of course not.

Speaker C:

I don't know if you've seen the diva Gremlin meme from overwatch days back when overwatch was good, you may have come across this one. Yeah, I've actually watched this one, I think, like, half of it or something. I've seen some of it, but I don't think all of it yeah.

Speaker B:

Paul it came out in 2015, and I feel like at the time there was a lot of gifts of the girl on Tumblr. It was big for the Weeb community. Yes.

Speaker C:

She's like me for real. I think that's what got me to watch it. I'm like, who is this gremlin child? What do I keep saying? I need context.

Speaker B:

Yeah. So I've known about it for that long, but I've just never watched it.

Speaker C:

2015, I thought it'd be older. That was eight years ago.

Speaker A:

It hurts every time, the pain of existence.

Speaker C:

I was already graduated college by the time this came out. That's bad.

Speaker B:

I was about to say, next year will be ten years out of high school. For me, I think that's this year for Tess.

Speaker A:

Yes. That's pretty year reunion. I'm not going to it.

Speaker C:

No, never.

Speaker B:

I don't need those people to know what I'm doing now.

Speaker C:

In general, possibly one of the worst experience of my life was flying back from visiting family during holidays and being on the same plane with someone I went to high school with. And he recognized me. Oh, no. Hey, did you go to the school? I go, yeah. Did you not call my name out because you don't remember what it was? He said, yeah, I go see you then.

Speaker B:

Why did you say hi to me?

Speaker C:

Yeah, I know who you are. I actively ignored you.

Speaker A:

Well, we're going to break out the old year books and watch a couple of episodes of anime. We're watching the first three.

Speaker B:

Let's go. That god.

Speaker A:

Don't want to talk about this fucking show. Hey, everyone, we're back. Hey, let's talk about anime.

Speaker B:

I'm sorry. Okay.

Speaker A:

I don't know what you mean. I'm so excited to be here.

Speaker B:

I'm so excited. I wanted something like mindless and goofy and that's what I thought. This was based on everything I know about it.

Speaker C:

In some ways, it is. In some perspective, it is.

Speaker B:

It has moments where you're like, he who. But then it has other moments where you're like, don't know about that one, gang.

Speaker C:

I think it's if you're the middle school or high schooler ha hi. You have to pay rent. This is infuriating when you are the older brother.

Speaker B:

At this point, it's like, I don't absolutely. This isn't for me anymore. So episode one, umaru, she's known for her grace, beauty, kindness, and intelligence. Everyone loves her. She's perfect. But when she gets home, it's time to go gremlin mode. And that's how her brother sees her all the time. She's a little freak, which, like, immediately, right off the bat, if you are a teenager in 2015, if you are, like, 13 to 15 watching this in 2015, it is like, oh, my God. This is exactly how I feel, where I have to be, like, cool and real at school, and then I can come home and go on Tumblr and watch my cartoons.

Speaker C:

We were supposed to be cool and real at school.

Speaker B:

Not cool, but real.

Speaker A:

You just need to fully divorce your actual personality from all your expectations and friendships and relationship.

Speaker B:

Exactly.

Speaker C:

You guys didn't do that. I had an X Men nightcrawler action figure with suction cup hands so you could stick the walls. I put it on my locker. That's it. I didn't have a chance after that one.

Speaker B:

I had friends I could be like myself in front of. But for the most part, when I was in just, like, regular classroom, I was very reserved and don't talk to me.

Speaker A:

But I think there's a difference between I'm reserved, don't talk to me. And I'm a goddess. I'm the most confident, capable being in the world.

Speaker C:

Honestly. After haven't you heard it? This trope, this plot device we've seen in a few things. It's hard to beat Sugamoto or Sakamoto because that one just did it best.

Speaker B:

That's just who he is.

Speaker C:

Yeah. And it was just the over the top satire of it. This is like, ha. Isn't it silly?

Speaker B:

It's like this tries to do it like that, but not it tries to be some kind of level of satire, but it's not as effective. Then we get the opening, which I thought was just going to be kind of regular, but there are some fun things in it where she's like in a Pokemon style and then a Mario Kart style. And then she's like, fighting a dragon. That's kind of fun. That was fun. So she's looking at the computer. Her brother tells her to get up and eat dinner. She does so very reluctantly and slowly. She doesn't even know what day it is. And when he tells her it's Monday, she freaks out because Jun piece comes out today. That was the best part of this show, was the amount of legally dissimilar brand names.

Speaker C:

We're not putting effort into it. We are skirting that line so goddamn hard.

Speaker A:

Yeah, you know what we're talking about. Don't make us say it.

Speaker B:

And he needs to go buy it for her. And she talks about how she lied to her friends at school and says she doesn't know this anime. She lies a lot at school. She throws a tantrum. Delightful. He says that since she's moved in with him, she's devolved like this. And he needs to help her be an actually effective adult because she's 16. And he's like, okay, she lives with me. I'm an adult. She's my responsibility. I need to do something about this. Which I was like, good on you, brother. And then he doesn't ever effectively put his foot down. So it's like, come on, man. Come on. She tries to use puppy dog eyes on him, and he says no, and she goes ballistic. So she throws even more of a tantrum. And he ultimately does go get it for her. And I said, oh, wow. She sucks real bad. She sucks so bad.

Speaker C:

Don't worry.

Speaker A:

Remember 16 crying to get me chips in comics?

Speaker C:

Yeah, don't worry, though. She doesn't get better ever.

Speaker A:

Don't worry. This is the one note. One piece. The Juan note.

Speaker C:

We got Juan joke.

Speaker B:

Juan joke. The next day, she tells her friend and everyone at school that she and her brother fought last night because she looks really tired and that she's been crying. And of course, they're all on her side. Back at home, she's talking to her hamsters. She wants to teach them to do a trick so she can post it online and win a bunch of money. And all the tricks are like things to help her, like selfish things. Big brother is cleaning the tray of the cage and he's like, oh, it's good that she's like paying attention to them. And he has a flashback to the pet store where she cries in the pet store to get everyone there to think that her brother is a bad guy. And I was just like, wow. She's very much girl bossing gaslighting and girl bossing.

Speaker C:

Girl boss.

Speaker B:

I don't know. I can't consider her a gatekeeper because I haven't seen that behavior yet.

Speaker C:

But I'm sure she likes anime and video games. I'm sure it's there.

Speaker B:

Yeah. Back in the present, he realizes what he's doing and gets angry that he's cleaning the hamster cage. And he runs out to tell her to do it. But she's sleeping. He can't wake her up.

Speaker C:

That does remind me when I got Corgis and my dad's like, you got to take care of them. You're going to be responsible. I was like, cool. And I didn't, of course. And he's like, I thought you said you were going to take care of them. I'm like, I'm twelve. I feel like you fucked up here. Why did you believe me?

Speaker B:

Well, you got to learn responsibility at some age.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

And Shirking, it is one way to learn it and be like, hey, this sucks. You're going to have to do it eventually. But not right now.

Speaker B:

Not right now. Sound like my old boss. That night he can't sleep because she's clicking around on the computer and her hamsters are running on their wheel. At school, everyone is admiring Umaru and her friend Nana is insecure about it. And she's like, oh, don't feel that way. You're the one who's cute. And her friend is like, oh good.

Speaker C:

Oh good, a gangle that I can latch onto.

Speaker B:

But that doesn't last for her. Luckily, another one gets introduced. But she's also a freak in class. There's this girl with blue hair and she's pretty funny. Admittedly, this girl is kind of funny. She thinks she did better on this test than Umaru. But Umaru got 100% while this blue haired girl got 99. And she's like, I'll beat you one day, Umaru, because we are rivals. And everyone's just like, what are you talking about?

Speaker C:

She runs in, gives her spiel, and then runs off before Umaru even reacts to her. Yeah, and honestly, I would have loved if that's the bit, if Umaru never speaks to her and this is clearly one sided rivalry, like the whole time. That would be hilarious.

Speaker B:

Yeah, her friend Nana did pretty bad on the test. But Umaru's good at everything. Everyone is obsessed with her. And then she keeps being humble like, me, no, me. Stop it.

Speaker A:

I know how to act. I just refuse to do it.

Speaker B:

I just won't. My brother doesn't deserve this, is what she says.

Speaker C:

For some reason, he is garbage and has been the single parent of my life since my parents abandoned me. Question mark.

Speaker B:

Fuck this guy. Am I right?

Speaker C:

Fuck him.

Speaker B:

She walks home with her friend Nana, and we see that they're actually neighbors. Umaru lives in the apartment above Nana's, and it's gremlin mode time. I specifically noticed this Dole computer. Instead of Dell, she gets on there. She's narrating her life very dramatically. And then Big Brother's looking at all her perfect scores and disbelief. He's like, how can this be? I cannot reconcile this. The next day or whatever, it's a show of bits. You know how it is. This part was relatable. She comes home from school. She has a snack feast. She has carefully curated this menu, and now she has to choose what to watch while she eats. Because if she doesn't watch the right thing, the food will be bad. And I get that. Hey, this moment, I get that one.

Speaker C:

I see you.

Speaker B:

You have to watch the right thing, or else your meal will be ruined. She decides on an anime movie. She takes a potato chip and she eats it. That's funny. For the Death Note, fans shout out.

Speaker C:

To episode The Three.

Speaker B:

That was the first one we did, actually.

Speaker C:

Oh, God.

Speaker A:

I know.

Speaker B:

So she's, like, talking about her snack eating technique. She's got it down. She's just having a great evening. She falls asleep, and Big Brother wakes her up for dinner. And he made her what she had been craving, a Salisbury steak. But now she's not hungry because she ate all these snacks. Another time, they're playing a zombie video game together, but it's time to go grocery shopping. They go out together. She's pouting about it. And he was like, you didn't have, like, very kindly. He's like, you didn't have to come. You can go home and play video games. It's fine. And she's like, no.

Speaker A:

The opposite of what you want me to do is what I am motivated to do as a character.

Speaker C:

Yeah, whatever's. The most difficult, she's drawn to.

Speaker B:

So they go to the store. Everyone's looking at her. She literally just went to the store with him to make strangers look at them because she's going to be dramatic, and everybody's going to look at her and be like, oh, my God, what's wrong? It's him. He's being an asshole to her. She fills their cart with snacks, and he tries to put some back, but she just puts more in. He tries to get her to behave by getting her ice cream. And then she drops her ice cream and gets mad about it. And she makes him carry all the bags on their way home. And he remembers a time where she did help. She used to be better. What happened? I don't know.

Speaker C:

Ableing, I guess.

Speaker B:

So, who knows? Am I right? And he asks her if she wants to play more video games when they get home, and she smiles. And then, yeah, they're playing the zombie game together again. And he clearly loves his little sister, but she's also a gremlin and bad to him. And he just kind of takes it and it's like, Brother, brother.

Speaker C:

I can't hear brother with a thing.

Speaker B:

Please assert yourself.

Speaker C:

Brother.

Speaker B:

That's episode one.

Speaker C:

I like how she throws a fit, like, multiple times at the supermarket. He's carrying all the bags home, and he reflects on this, looking at a memory. Goes, you know what? I should be giving her more of my attention.

Speaker B:

This is my fault.

Speaker C:

This is my fault.

Speaker B:

This is actually my fault. And you know what? He's just so, like he's so brainwashed and manipulated into this. And he's just like, let it he just takes it.

Speaker C:

Also, they must have spent so much time just recording the different pronunciations of the food, because the way she hits potato potato chip cola, and he's just like, that's half the script for her.

Speaker B:

I hated it. It was a choice. I don't know how I watched the third episode subbed, but I don't think she said any of those things in that episode, so I didn't notice anything about it. But sorry to the English voice actor. I'm sure you're great. I just hated that choice that they had you make.

Speaker C:

We don't blame you. I couldn't tell.

Speaker A:

It's funny once or twice. Not every time.

Speaker B:

Exactly.

Speaker A:

Using it. Use it sparingly.

Speaker B:

Yeah. To covet your potato chip. It's like yes.

Speaker C:

Anyway oh, me.

Speaker B:

Your turn. Yeah.

Speaker A:

Hear it?

Speaker C:

My brain was repressing the show.

Speaker B:

You're the one that watched this before. Listen, welcome back.

Speaker C:

No, don't point that at me. We all know I am not a mark of quality. I watch a lot of garbage.

Speaker B:

I'm just saying you should be used to it.

Speaker C:

The problem is, when I watch stuff by myself, I just forget. Now I've come to realize with this podcast, when I have to manifest it audibly and I have to actually think about what media I've consumed, that's what makes me that's when I get mad.

Speaker B:

Reflecting is the bad part.

Speaker A:

The healthiest part of this show is just how it makes you so damn angry.

Speaker C:

There's been multiple shows where I'm like, It was fine, and then on the podcast, I'm raging.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

Wait a minute. No, it was actively hostile to me.

Speaker C:

With that note, I will say we have seen much, much worse. Yeah. Umaru is just infuriating us.

Speaker B:

She's just annoying as hell.

Speaker C:

Yeah. Episode two, I didn't bother learning his name. He is brother.

Speaker B:

Yeah. We don't even hear it until her friend says it.

Speaker C:

Yeah. Brother comes home tired from work, dreading what he's about to walk in on because he hates his home life because of his shitty little sister. And when he opens the door. He sees another pair of shoes there and it's clean. What's going on? He hears Umaru talking to someone else. And when she comes out, she's in her public persona. She's actually wearing her school uniform and not a shitty little gremlin crawling on the walls. She says her friend Nana is here. She lives right below them. So it was an easy walk. Yeah. And her brother is shocked. It's all clean. All this stuff's put away.

Speaker A:

It's a miracle again. She knows how to do all these things. It's just that she refuses.

Speaker C:

It's active, maliciousness on her part. It's not ignorance. And she says Nana's over to study for a bit. And Nana's nervous around her brother. I wonder why. And her brother tells her that she's welcomed here anytime she wants. She can come over all the time because it's how Omaru cleans up the place. Anything that helps with that. And Nana thanks him for dinner and leaves. As soon as the door is shut. Omaru reverts back to goblin mode and starts going nuts. And immediately she's drinking her cola and brother is cleaning the dishes and she's bitching out about something. I didn't even write down what. And brother thinks, like, she was good today around her friend. I'm going to be nice to her and I'm going to let her off easy. No, that's not a reward. That's just how you behave.

Speaker A:

She knows she can be shitty to you when there are no witnesses. Why are you just accepting that fact?

Speaker B:

He lets her sleep in the real bed.

Speaker C:

He's got the poot on the can't.

Speaker B:

Get over it.

Speaker C:

There's so much wrong with it. He goes to the bathroom to start the bath and when he gets there, he opens the door up. It's all the shit, it's all the garbage, it's all the boxes just crammed in the bathroom, hidden. She didn't clean any of it. She just scooped it all up and stuffed it in there. And then we cut to Nana's apartment downstairs. And she's thinking about the brother. I love that he's a floor mat. You can just walk right all over him. She loves a submissive man.

Speaker B:

Who doesn't?

Speaker C:

You know what fair? Cut to Amaru staying up all night playing games. And she's sleepy and tired because it's 05:00 A.m. Now and she notices her brother. He's been running himself ragged lately, working all the time. He hasn't had a day off in God knows when. But when he's asleep, he actually looks happy and peaceful and rested. Let's ruin that. So she starts screaming at him at 05:00 A.m., telling him he's going to be playing video games with her because she's bored until her cartoons start.

Speaker A:

The worst. Worst. The worst. The worst. The worst.

Speaker C:

She could just be a little gremlin, minding her own Hobies by herself. That's what I do. But she's actively hostile towards him.

Speaker B:

It's like they took an almost Sundaray trope, even though this isn't quite that. But we've seen a trope before of like, wow, this girl is really horrible to this boy, but sometimes she's nice to him, and those windows of it are, like, sweet, but they're just like, what if we did that? But she was just that all the time, and actually never was nice ever, to anybody.

Speaker A:

The only redeeming quality for her in society is that she has everyone else fooled. If he were to bring up any home disputes in public, he would be run out of town by an angry mom.

Speaker B:

Oh, absolutely.

Speaker A:

For his safety, he has to appease her.

Speaker B:

The only thing she's got is being a fake bitch.

Speaker C:

Damn, bitch. You live like this. Meme, but worse.

Speaker B:

But worse.

Speaker C:

So he's woken up from a screaming, belligerent child and pleads with her to let him sleep more. She says, I'll give you 30 more minutes. And he says, Why are you like this? He tells her to go back to sleep too. And she goes, I got an idea. I'll curl up with him in his futon on the floor, as opposed to my bed that's lifted. I'm going to get in his bed, and I'm going to worm him out of it, and then I'm going to make him wake up. And then next I'm going to and she falls asleep herself because she's been awake all night. And her brother seizes and sees her sleeping and again thinks to himself something like, she's tired. She could let her sleep in and give her the benefit of the doubt. She's earned it. It's like, God, no. She's so shitty. And so they both sleep in. Cut to her being shitty. Right on cue. She wakes up yelling at her brother, saying, why'd you let me sleep in and miss all my cartoons?

Speaker A:

Another again, she's 16 years old.

Speaker C:

She's 16.

Speaker A:

She could drive a car in the US.

Speaker C:

Friend is the same age, and her friend lives on her own downstairs by herself, not dead parents club, but she is alone. Check cut to Maru and Nana out and about, walking around town. Lady gives them a flyer for a rock paper scissors tournament. Sure. Okay.

Speaker B:

Yeah. Normal, casual.

Speaker C:

Absolutely happens. The prize is like a body, pillow length, like plush cat, like a real long cat. So she wants it. So she runs home and drags her brother to it, saying it's an emergency. It's not. She just wants another toy. And he finds this out, and he gets mad because he called off work. He said he gave up a shift at the office. She says, you're working again.

Speaker A:

Her caretaker, he needs to pay rent.

Speaker C:

Yeah. She says, you're working too much. You've been running yourself ragged. You need a day off to actually relax and go on a vacation. So that's why I lied and said it was an emergency. He's like, yeah, you're right. Well, at least we'll get to spend a day together, and we'll have some quality bonding time as siblings.

Speaker A:

No?

Speaker C:

They get to the arcade, she forces him to stand in line to get a ticket, and she fucks off and goes shopping.

Speaker B:

Yay.

Speaker C:

She's great. And once he's in line, gets in, she comes running back, of course, having not done anything. And turns out her brother makes it to the championship round. He makes it all the way to the finals. Honestly, thank God we don't see any of this, because yeah, I was expecting a Shonen tournament battle style, like rock, paper, scissors. It's like well hi, bother. Why would you try to make Rock, Paper scissors look cool? And epic points at Hunter x hunter.

Speaker A:

Yeah. Rock, paper, scissors. What a terrible idea to put in the TV show. Watch Nickelodeon.

Speaker C:

Watch that one, not the other one.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

And lo and behold, who's at the final match, that the brother's going up against it's Nana. She's also there because she also got a flyer. And she gets very nervous when she sees him cut to them leaving the arcade with the brother holding the cat. I guess he won.

Speaker B:

Good for him. Finally a win for this hold up.

Speaker C:

Not in this show. No, he know Nana was in it. She wanted the big plush cat. He goes, you know what? My sister wasn't here.

Speaker A:

Fuck.

Speaker C:

And Nana was here. She wanted it, clearly. She'll probably be better friends if she gets it with my she'll be better friends with my sister if she gets it, so I'm going to give it to her. So he gives her the big old cat and Nana thanks him and runs off to her apartment. And once she's gone, we see. Omaru, I'm losing that name real fast. That's fine.

Speaker A:

Who cares?

Speaker C:

Brat. Yeah, sure. Standing behind him, fuming and angry, seeing that he just gave away her plush cat. Pissed off. Why he would do that? She said she lost right away and saw him in the finals. It was excited. And we cut to Nana inside, just loving her big plush cat now. So at least someone's happy.

Speaker B:

Yeah, she's sweet. I wish better things happened to her.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

I wish she had a better friend.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

Sometime later, we see. Brat ends up buying the plush cat anyway, but spending her brother's money. So it was a lose lose situation for him again, some other day. In time, they go out grocery shopping. Brat wants to buy a new video game, plans to throw a hissy fit, as she always does. And brother plans for this. He's used to it by now, so he's expecting her to throw a fit. And right as she's about to right as they finish up shopping oh, they run into Nana. There she is. And she's like, oh, I gotta not be shitty. I gotta be a normal person or I'm a friend. God damn it, she trapped me. So Brother sees this and invites Nana out for lunch to force Brat to behave. And while talking, they learn Nana lives alone and often cooks for herself. So this is the first time she's actually been out to a restaurant in the city, so it's the first time for her. And they get their food. Brother gets, like, omu rice, and Brat writes in ketchup, like, buy me the video game, and keeps, like, hinting at it.

Speaker B:

The one I was watching, it didn't have the English text on screen for that. So in my head, I was like, she just wrote, like, fuck you, or like, kill yourself.

Speaker C:

So while they're at the restaurant, nana gets confused by some of the utensils. She gets, like, seafood pasta and thinks the little bowl is for small servings and not the discarded shells. She's like, oh, I'm so not used to it. I'm so dumb and ditzy. And while they're eating, Brat finally breaks and starts throwing a tantrum in the restaurant. And for a second, they worry of, oh, no, Nana got to see the spoiled, gremlin brat that she is. But when they look over, Nana is too overwhelmed by how tasty the food is, and her country bumkin accent slips out.

Speaker B:

I was saying, I know that the English equivalent of whatever the accent is in Japanese would be like a Southern accent, but I so wish they would do this joke and the character would just have, like, a New York accent. I just think that would be so funny.

Speaker C:

That's just the normal accents. Yeah, for some of the dubs.

Speaker B:

Hey.

Speaker A:

I mean, at a restaurant.

Speaker B:

Delicious pasta I've ever had in my life.

Speaker C:

Shout out to Molly. I love her. And her mom didn't have the accent at all. Anyway, this show yeah, she's got just the thickest of Southern accents. And you find out that's why she's not used to the restaurants and stuff, and that's why she's a little slow. She's a little different than these city folk. Again, she's a great character, but not a good show for not portrayed well. So they walk home, and walking home, Nana goes like, oh, it's cool that you got a video game. And Brat hangs it up, showing that again, the brother caved and bought her the thing. Next day, we see Nana's waiting outside for her to go to school together. And we get a flashback of Nana's life back in the countryside with her parents, her folks.

Speaker B:

Yee haw.

Speaker C:

Just the heaviest fucking accents.

Speaker B:

None of them good.

Speaker C:

This show is not further nuanced, and we get different shots of Nana, like, going to the city and nervous and trying to fit in. She's tried to get rid of her accent with speech classes and bought different clothes that blend in with the fashion. And she serves on the plane. So her accent, her fake accent is much thicker, and she's very proper and prim, which is even weirder. And Nana feels that people are staring at her, and it feels like they know she. Doesn't belong. But they haven't heard her talk, so how did they know? And she's very self conscious, and there's just one shot of her in her head, and then I guess just people's voices around her. And it's just two guys being like, check out those titties. She got the fat tits. What kind of show?

Speaker A:

We love and respect women. Oh, yeah. I'm super into her rights.

Speaker B:

She looks like she's so intelligent.

Speaker A:

She got a lecture to me, baby.

Speaker C:

She's got two big handfuls of brains right there. And she arrives at her apartment, and when she gets there first time, she bumps into the brother and she falls in love with him on site, because she is the first person has made eye contact with her and hasn't just leered at her chest. That's all it takes. And she's also a high schooler in love with an adult. There's multiple letters of that. They introduce themselves. He offers to help her with anything she needs, and she falls in love. Back in present day, brat and brother both show up and the girls head out to school together. And Nana's all flustered because of the brother. That's episode two. Yeah, great.

Speaker B:

That one went on forever. I don't like I think Nana is easily the most likable character, but I was just like, okay, I need this to be over.

Speaker C:

She's the most likable, but she let's.

Speaker A:

Treat her like shit.

Speaker B:

Exactly.

Speaker C:

I was going to say also the least interesting because she's pleasant. She's pleasant.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

There's just nothing special about her, which makes her better than all these characters below the bar by default.

Speaker A:

So, episode three, maru's in class and her blue hair rival is like, AHA, the upcoming midterm exams. You will fail to me. I will have the high score. And all her classmates are on edge. Everyone's nervous about the midterms, and Umaru's like, what are they so worried about? I'm the one who has to be worried because I lost my ID.

Speaker B:

What the hell?

Speaker A:

Great. That's a different thing. Everyone is worried about their academic careers.

Speaker C:

There are multiple problems. Yeah.

Speaker A:

So she gets home and what do you know? She plays video games instead of studying. And then her brother's like, hey, shouldn't you study? And she's like, fuck you. I'm a genius. Eat shit, motherfucker.

Speaker C:

Sweep kicks him, snaps his shin in.

Speaker A:

Half, drinks the blood. But she has a dream where it's the war video game she was playing, but it's mixed with her classmates because she's having an exam stress nightmare. Oh, no. The real world is following her to home.

Speaker B:

Shucks.

Speaker A:

So of course, in the middle of the night, wakes up her brother and is like, hey, you failed me, so you have to study with me. And he's like, yes, Queen, yes, of course.

Speaker B:

Kisses her foot.

Speaker C:

Yes, Queen. But not in the support of Dragway. Like. Yes, queen. Yes, Queen. Yes, Queen.

Speaker B:

Yes, ma'am.

Speaker A:

Yes, I know. I will be murdered. Otherwise, yes.

Speaker C:

Queen parentheses, defeated.

Speaker A:

Wouldn't you guess it? Umaru got the high score in the class and she's like, I had a tutor, help me. He lost his job that day. He failed a high end client. Couldn't stay awake during the negotiation. Anyways, next segment. So classmates say it's just the reinforcement of hearing. Other classmates be like, oh my God, she's the best. She's like, so good. I love her. She's the most popular girl in school. No one knows her personally. And she has one friend, but we all love her.

Speaker C:

You know, a character is great when they have to repeatedly tell you, you should be rooting for this character. They're the protagonist, they're good, we like them.

Speaker A:

So why don't you?

Speaker C:

A multitude of reasons.

Speaker A:

But there's one person, Karier. She is the meanest girl in school. She's the only one who doesn't like Maru. She wants fist fought an adult because she's tough and mean and a bad person. We hate this bitch.

Speaker C:

The one girl says she got into a full fist fight with a grown man, and my first thought was, Hell yeah, fuck him up with no context.

Speaker A:

See, teenagers are capable of taking care of themselves. Why isn't um anyway, she's a bad girl, and Umaru's like, oh, I think she's to me because I'm a terrible piece of shit. And yes, someone should be on to me at this point. So she's like, who cares? I'm going to play video games at home. There's a knock on the door and she's like, oh, it's the day my brother gets groceries. He probably has his hands so full of treats for me. That piece of shit. I'm going to ruin his life. I'll go get the door and be helpful for the first time in my goddamn life, and opens the door. But it's Kari.

Speaker C:

She's seen.

Speaker A:

But wouldn't you know it, Umaru's in her little chibi form, in her little onesie. So she thinks she's Umaru's little sister.

Speaker B:

Wow.

Speaker C:

This is the most extreme case of face blindness I've ever heard. Because she's CHEEVY for us as an exaggeration. She's just wearing a hoodie. Yes, that's it.

Speaker A:

Yeah. So cool. Great. Plot happens because plot? Yeah, she goes in and she's like, oh, I'm returning her student ID. But I'm so nervous to approach her because guess what? I can only talk to kids. I'm not intimidating at all, but people think I'm scary because I don't know how to talk to people my old age or older.

Speaker B:

Wow. Troops.

Speaker C:

Troops, troops, troops, troops.

Speaker A:

Cool. Yeah. So brother comes home and then she can stop. She isn't able to talk anymore. So he's like, Why is this mean lady here? Oh, I think she's bad too. But yeah, again, we had one person introduced that everyone knows does not like our main character. But in reality, she's just too nervous to talk to her because she loves her so much. Goodness, how could you hate this perfect angel.

Speaker C:

I like that they do have, like, one cutaway. I already forget her name. New girls dreaming about brat. And it does like the mob psycho thing where everyone else is a piece of produce or vegetable or fruit. Yes, I do love that bit. That's always fun for me.

Speaker A:

But yeah. So the next day at school, Umaru approaches Karier and is like, hey, let's walk home. Bestie initiating the conversation to be like, hey, I know you love me just like everyone else. Time to add you to the sheeple pile. Because she needs one more person to believe her and not know her truth. So, yeah, they walk home and yeah, she's jealous of Nana's friendship because there can only be one friend. That's where we leave that. And then there's a post credit thing where she gets scared as Scary Movie, I don't care, don't go to credits. And then be like, hey, here's just a full extra bit.

Speaker C:

It was long.

Speaker B:

Yeah. I think it's crazy that Kariye goes back to hang out with who she thinks is this little girl, and that Umaru's brother doesn't I don't know what she tells him to be like, hey, just treat me like I'm my little keep going with this. And of course he does it because yes, of course, Queen.

Speaker C:

Of course. Yeah, she goes kamaru. She goes by a different yeah, yeah. Does she tell her brother to be like, hey, this is my name for my friend. And also, she's like, when Kariye first comes around, she's like, oh, Umaru doesn't live here. It's just me and my brother. And then the next day she's like, let's walk home to school together.

Speaker B:

Yeah. I was like, Why would you do that? Yeah, told her you don't live there to reveal yourself.

Speaker C:

You had one lie and you already fucked it up.

Speaker A:

Yeah, I didn't even pick up on it. I was so checked out at that fair.

Speaker B:

Anyway.

Speaker C:

Shorter episode. Are we there yet? You take a guess.

Speaker A:

They almost had something. They almost did something. Because the common thing with the friends is, oh, there's a persona I have to put out into the real world, but it's not who I am at home. Yeah, okay. That's a lot of people. I also was looking at it with, like, there's an argument to be made of Neurodivergent Masking as well. To be like, oh, I have to be perfect in the real world, so let me just shed it when I'm home.

Speaker C:

That's way too much credit.

Speaker A:

That's a different show than what we watched.

Speaker C:

It's not this one, because yeah, we.

Speaker A:

Also get like, oh, carier. I have a rough exterior. And it's just because I can't talk to people. I have essentially resting bitch face. And it's just if you want to make memes, make memes. If you want to make a TV show, make a TV show.

Speaker B:

Yeah. Like, instead of making those characters who have those tendencies to be interesting. They make it so they're just all obsessed with oh, what was I going to say? I don't know.

Speaker C:

I feel like if you want to make the argument for neurodivergency, like masking in public, that would be Comey Can't Communicate, which was a good show. They did that even though it also had the same problem of the entire student body being wildly too horny for one girl who doesn't deserve that much attention. But also the trope of like the girl that everyone loves and thinks is like a perfect angel and stuff, but it's actually pretty shitty to the one guy is Toro Doro, which we should watch, which that was a romance between the two. Also, the little character in that is also still really shitty. I don't care how much the audience is in love with her, she's still a shitty person and needs a lot of growth, which she actually gets in that show. This one, not so much. It's just her being horribly relentlessly punishing to her older brother, who, again, is the sole provider. A rumor is that their parents are the CEO of a giant corporation, so it seems like some sort of disconnect between their parents because they're living in a single bedroom apartment with the two of them, like, brother's taking on a lot of shit.

Speaker B:

I recall what I was going to say now is that she needs to in golden time when that girl goes to the school and everyone's like, she's a rich freak. That's what Umaru needs. She needs to go off on her own to a college elsewhere for people to be like, I see through you, you're a freak.

Speaker C:

What we're trying to say here is she needs to be bullied. Bring bullying back.

Speaker B:

Bring bullying back. Also, gentle parenting is good sometimes if.

Speaker A:

You know how to do it and not just let me give into everywhere.

Speaker B:

My 16 year old little sister, let me just let her do whatever she wants, I think. Yeah, that seems right.

Speaker C:

Gentle parenting implies there's still parenting to be done. If you just let them do whatever that's the child running the house and that they are a child. Don't let them do that.

Speaker B:

Yeah. This man needs help. Someone please help him.

Speaker A:

Please call your possibly rich parents and have them hire a nanny.

Speaker B:

Yeah. No, all the nannies quit.

Speaker C:

That's why probably what's child services for an adult 30 year old man. He needs that. He needs someone to intervene.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

Are we there yet?

Speaker A:

No.

Speaker B:

Nah.

Speaker A:

If you want to go to the store one day and get a pack of cigarettes and then recommend an anime, we recommend sending them to us. Our email is areweebairya@gmail.com or you can reach out to us on TikTok and Tumblr at Areweeb There Yet?

Speaker C:

It's been a week.

Speaker B:

Hey, it's all right, buddy.

Speaker C:

Hey, we got there.

Speaker B:

Yeah, you can find me on TikTok and Instagram at Honeyperiod or on Tumblr at honey d honey is spelled H-U-N-N-I-E.

Speaker C:

Find me on Steam going for my 1500th hour of binding of Isaac Jesus. It's a bad time. We're in a space if you want to see a good anime about a shitty little brat. And it's appropriate because there are, like, four sweetness and lightning.

Speaker B:

Oh, yeah.

Speaker C:

More character growth in that show than this one.

Speaker A:

Justified child by being a child.

Speaker B:

Yes.

Speaker A:

Hey, one more time, watch. Rock Paper, Scissors on Nickelodeon is very good, but they don't know how to premiere it. So thank you to Camille Rui for our artwork. And thank you to Louis Zong for our theme song stories. You can find all of Louis'music at Louisong bandcamp.com. Thank you, and we hope you'll join us next week as we learn to live with anime.

Speaker C:

I'm a self sufficient gremlin. I do it on my own.

Too lazy to describe, Himouto! Umaru-Chan! Have an anime series you want us to watch? email your recommendations to us at areweebthereyet@gmail.com!

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Thank you:

Camille Ruley for our Artwork

Louie Zong for our Themesong "stories"

https://louiezong.bandcamp.com

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