Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan – Irina Doesn’t Read Synopses

Production

Before writing this very post, I had never heard of Studio Blanc. Turns out that they haven’t made that many shows and I had never seen anything from the studio. I have heard of their previous work though: My Girlfriend is Shobitch. I only know it by title so I have no idea of the production values.

So Uramichi Oniisan was a bit of a mystery for me going in. And it turned out to be decent. I liked the character designs well enough. Not that they were out of the ordinary. I guess the way noses are drawn is a bit unusual but that’s about it. Oh, and for a comedy slice of life, they sure made the guys muscly. Like there’s a lot of attention to how every little muscle is drawn. That was a bit of a surprise. Otherwise, it’s a pretty standard production.

Not that it’s a bad thing. It looked fine and I never thought a scene was off. Midway through we get introduced to the character of Kikaku who sports an impressive amount of piercings. I thought the detail on those was rather well done.

Story & Characters

Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan is essentially a 4 koma so it’s difficult to discuss the story as such. Uramichi himself is a deeply disillusioned, pessimistic and potentially depressed guy who works alongside a bunch of eccentric characters as the host of a children’s educational show. The only thing he seems to enjoy is exercising which is why he’s still in exceptional shape. Otherwise, he tends to dislike everything and everyone.

His co-hosts are Iketeru Daga, a very handsome and talented singer. He’s good at everything but is also something of an idiot with an obsession for penis jokes. The other co-host is Utano Tadano also a singer who failed as an idol and is now obsessed with getting her deadbeat boyfriend to propose to her even though she doesn’t like him that much. She’s both resentful of her role in society and compelled to adhere to tradition. 

As you can imagine, when you throw them in with a group of occasionally depressingly wise kids, hijinks ensue.

Having what is superficially considered a wholesome setting, like a children’s educational show, as the backdrop for a dark comedy is nothing new. Of, in case I didn’t make it clear, Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan is in fact a black comedy. It plays with depressing or unpleasant facts to twist them into humour. And like I said, as a premise, it’s not exactly new.

But I do think it’s unusual in anime. This extremely cynical brand of comedy is a little less prevalent in Japanese media so there is some novelty on that front. I should also say that it didn’t matter to me that it’s been done before. I like comedy and Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan made me laugh. That is all I need.

Because of the structure, there isn’t any singular plot to go into. Surprisingly though, I would say there’s a fair amount of character development. Not as much as you would expect from a more traditional three-act story but more than I have seen in some shows that should have developed their characters. All the main cast members have a chance at visible growth. I would say that Utano and Uramichi are the ones that have the most visible arcs but I think that everyone is given at least an episode to learn and change. 

And there are a few, very few, earnest moments of joy and optimism. Because the rest of the show is so sarcastic and cynical, these really shine through and end up leaving you with an unexpectedly feel-good experience despite how pessimistic the humour is in the series.

You might like this anime if:

You’re looking for an anime comedy with a bit more bite. You want a show you can just watch an episode once in a while when you’re in the mood. You think depressed pretty boys are funny!

I save all my screencaps on my Pinterest and you can find more there if you are interested. But I still like to show you a few in the post. If you’re like me, screencaps are something that really helps you decide to watch an anime or not.