Umaru Doma is, by all accounts, the perfect student. She is beautiful, smart, and respectful, at least until she gets home, anyway. Once that door closes, Umaru dons her hamster hoodie and transforms into a bratty, lazy, junk food-gorging otaku that is fully dependent on her responsible older brother, Taihei. Whether it is playing video games or eating the right snack combinations, Umaru knows how to live.
While a solid otaku comedy, there’s no denying that Umaru is kind of a jerk. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Himouto! Umaru-Chan, then head on down below.
Anime Like Himouto! Umaru-Chan
For Fans of Otaku Culture
Watamote
Tomoko Kuroki is well on her way to becoming a full hikkikomori. The only problem is, she has to get through high school first. However, her short lifetime of playing dating sims and watching anime hasn’t prepared her for the social interactions of real life. Still, Tomoko struggles through each day and the social interactions that they bring.
If Umaru’s brother would let her, she would probably be a shut-in like Tomoko. Yet, while both girls share a passion for anime and games, the tones of these anime series couldn’t be more different. Umaru is energetic and funny, Watamote is so awkward that it is almost painful. Both are funny, it is just that one hits home in the worst way.
Oreimo – My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute
Kyousuke has a smart, cute, and extremely bratty little sister who hates him. While they got along when they were young, they grew apart as they got older. One day when he finds an anime DVD he doesn’t recognize in his house. He opens it up only to discover eroge inside. Later, he finds out it belongs to his sister, who is a super secret otaku.
Whiny little sister? Check. Responsible and downtrodden older brother? Yup. Weird romantic overtones? Only in Oreimo, thankfully. Yeah, while Oreimo can get kind of weird, there is no denying how similar it is to Umaru-chan. They are both about closet otakus and how they interact with the world, often with the help of their brother, whether he wants to help or not.
Lucky Star
Lucky Star follows the average, but surprisingly eventful lives of four high school girls, led by the short and lazy otaku Konata Izumi. Throughout their hijinks, they discuss humorous observations about the world around them, ranging from everything from otaku culture to the correct way of eating foods.
Lucky Star was essentially the Umaru before Umaru. While Umaru occasionally sticks to a light plot, Lucky Star is almost completely random. There are a lot of cute moments in both as well as a lot of anime references. However, while Konata is more anime and manga, Umaru is more into video games, so there is that. Yet, they are both so passionate about snacks.
I Can’t Understand What My Husband is Saying
Hajime Tsunashi is an otaku blogger that only goes out for a good anime convention. Kaoru Tsunashi is a hard-working office lady. Despite having completely different lifestyles, the two fell in love and got married. Now this married couple tries to understand each other as their relationship grows stronger with each day.
Get ready to work on your subtitle speed reading with I Can’t Understand What My Husband is Saying. Its short, five minute-long episodes pack a lot of dialogue in there as well as a lot of the otaku references like what made you fall in love with Umaru. However, in I Can’t Understand, both characters are adults and relatively responsible. Hajime may be a shut-in, but he is not quite as dependent as Umaru.
Gabriel Dropout
After graduating high school in Heaven, angels are sent down to Earth to guide humans down a righteous path. Heaven had high hopes for Gabriel, the top of her class. However, when she descended, she ended up skipping classes and getting addicted to online games.
Both series are essentially cute comedies about girls who have fallen to the otaku menace. The biggest difference here is that Gabriel Dropout does have a plot that pushes the shenanigans forward.
Eromanga-Sensei
When their parents married, Masamune Izumi was thrilled to have a new adorable little sister. However, after their parents died, his little sister Sagiri became a shut-in. Now her only caretaker, Masamune supports them as a light novel author. However, one day he finds out that the mysterious illustrator Eromanga-sensei that draws the lewd covers for his light novel series is actually his reclusive sister.
While this series is about a brother who technically takes care of his otaku sister, Eromanga-Sensei is more akin to Oreimo (since it was made by the same author) in that it leans towards that forbidden fruit of step sibling romance.
Do you like the imouto trope? I won’t judge…Much. Check out these 18 Show-Stealing Imoutos in Anime
For Fans of Sheer Laziness
Shirokuma Café
Tucked away by the local zoo, the Shirokuma Café is the place to head for humans and animals alike to unwind after a long day of work. Shirokuma, the polar bear owner, does his best to provide his guests with both cold beverages and good advice.
Umaru may be heavily hamster-themed, but Shirokuma Café is actually about animals, so they share that in a way. The characters in both series also share a similar cuteness, but Panda in Shirokuma Café is basically Umaru if she were a bear. Panda enjoys lazing around and eating his favorite foods, not unlike a certain chibi hamster girl.
Tanaka-kun is Always Listless
Much to the dismay of his more energetic classmates, eternally exhausted Tanaka possesses the unique ability to fall asleep anywhere, anytime. Even in mid-sentence. Needless to say, his listless behavior wreaks havoc on his life and those around him.
Overall, Tanaka and Umaru only have a few select things in common. Both are about super lazy characters, and both pack a real comedic punch. However, Tanaka is less about otaku comedy and more about slapstick and random jokes. Tanaka is also significantly less bratty than Umaru.
Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle
In order to sow chaos and discord among the human kingdom, the Demon King Tasogare abducted the beloved human princess, Syalis. In an effort to rescue her, a mighty hero sets forth. Meanwhile, held in the demon castle, Princess Syalis discovers that being held captive is quite boring. She decides to sleep away her time awaiting rescue, but… She can’t sleep. Cheap bedding, insomnia, and demonic snores plague her as she tries to get a solid night’s sleep.
While Umaru is more of a frantic comedy, Sleepy Princess slows things down. However, despite it having a seemingly boring plot, it actually does comedy really well. Both lack overall plots and contain good laughs about lazy characters.
For Fans of Two-Faced Personalities
His and Her Circumstances
Miyazawa Yukino is the perfect student and athlete. However, her kind, pretty, and modest exterior is just a facade to garner the praise and admiration that she so craves. However, one day her perfect life is turned upside down when newcomer Arima Soichiro replaces her at the top of their academic ranking. After finding out her secret, Arima begins blackmailing Miyazawa, but his ploy soon turns to friendship and something more.
If Miyazawa had an older brother and was an otaku, she would be almost exactly like Umaru-chan. At home she is arrogant, conceited, and selfish while at school she is nice and polite. Aside from the otakuness, the major difference between her and Umaru is that Umaru isn’t really that arrogant, she just wants to go eat some chips and play some games, as we all do.
Engaged to the Unidentified
On Kobeni Yonomori’s 16th birthday, it is discovered that her grandfather arranged for her to marry the mysterious Hakuya Mitsumine. Shocked, she now finds herself living with her future husband, his deceptive little sister, and her own perverted older sister. However, Kobeni takes it in stride, adjusting to her new life and trying to learn more about the new additions.
The similarities in these anime series lie with the sisters. In Umaru-chan, Umaru is lazy and whiny at home to her brother, but perfect at school. In Engaged to the Unidentified, Kobeni’s older sister is very playfully mean to her future sister-in-law, but at school she is one of the most respected girls in town.
Blend S
Maika is a person with naturally bad luck, although much of that comes from her mean-looking eyes. These eyes have since prevented her from gaining part-time employment in order to fund her dreams of studying abroad. However, one day she meets a man named Dino who runs a very special café. Inside, the waitresses all adopt very specific personas for the customers, and Dino wants Maika to be his sadistic-type girl. However, despite having the eyes for it, Maika isn’t a sadist.
While Blend S is a workplace comedy, like Umaru, a great majority of the comedy comes from the main character switching between her personalities. She is quite the kind girl, but plays sadist well. Furthermore, there are other characters that are not quite how their persona paints them as well.
Love is Like a Cocktail
Everyday when office lady Chisato comes home, her loving husband and bartender Sora makes her a good meal and a cocktail. While she loves these tasty concoctions, she loves her husband’s kind heart more.
While Love is Like a Cocktail features a husband making drinks for his wife opposed to the brother/sister dynamic in Umaru, it does feature the wife changing her personality when she gets home. Love is Like a Cocktail is more of a wholesome show rather than just a straight comedy, though.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Himouto! Umaru-Chan? Let fans know in the comments section below.
