Life Lessons With Uramichi Oniisan (うらみちお兄さん) is a 13 episode slice of life comedy based on the manga of the same name by Kuze Gaku. The anime originally aired over the Summer of 2021.
What do you do if you have a degree in physical education and some gymnastic championships to your name but the adult world has crushed your will to live? If you are like Omota Uramichi, you resign your self to a miserable life of co-hosting an educational children program. Uramachi is one of the three main presenters for a daily program called Together With Maman and the only thing he has to do outside of work is weight lifting, smoking and heavy drinking. Once he hit the world of adult responsibilities he realized he has no ambition for anything and drifts aimlessly through his existence, waiting for his death. He struggles each day, forcing himself to be positive and smile while at work when deep inside he wishes the morning would stop coming. His misery is barely concealed, especially when he begins to warn the children on the show of the dangers of adulthood....the dangers of worthlessness, lost ambition and apathy. He forces the smile and tells the kids to enjoy their world of optimism before the crushing weight of responsibility and pessimism crushes their will to live, like himself.
Uramichi isn't the only broken member of the cast. There are two other co-hosts who find themselves in this job due to failed ambitions and the harshness of reality. Tadano Utano tried to find success in her twenties as a singer; pop idol, enka singer, jazz singer, only to end up working on the kids show while stuck in a dead end relationship with a failed comedian. Daga Iketeru is a hansom man with a great singing voice and a terrible/perverted sense of humor....who is also pretty oblivious to his surroundings and life in general. The cast is wrapped up by two juniors from Uramichi's college days; Usahara Tobokichi and Kumatani Mitsuo, who don a rabbit and bear custom respectively. The two of them have followed their admired senior into the workforce but struggle with what a career will look like. Usahara is terrible with money, existing in a perpetually broke state due to booze and pachinko. Kumatani drifts along aimlessly after being fired from a corporate job. The cast struggles with being adults, even though they are either approaching or into their thirties. To make matters worse the production crew is equally as worthless and allows their stars to get away with more they they probably should.
This series was recommended by a friend and the first thing I thought of was Death To Smoochy. With only a basic understanding of the shows concept, it didn't take long for me to get into the show. Uramichi's personality is realistically over the top and his shifting personality is well done. All of the characters are entertaining and the show plods along, not concerned with an over all plot and concept. It's purely focused on the moments of abject depression and ennui. Each of the characters exhibits their ingrained responses to their pitiful lives in amusing and entertaining ways. You watch this show to be amused by their suffering. Their pain brings us joy. Revel in their misery.
The show is funny, and is highly enjoyable in both Japanese and English. The English dub goes an extra level by choosing to keep using some Japanese words to heighten the absurdity of the characters and their plight. The flow of the anime makes the manga feel like a yonkoma and I welcome it. It has been a while since a good yonkoma anime has come out and this one is well worth the time if you enjoy absurd humor. The artwork is minimal at bets but finely suits the tone and style of the story. Overall, I was quite impressed with this series and started to re-watch it once I was finished because I wasn't done enjoying it. The manga is also available in English by Kodansha USA, so I will have to start picking that up to see what was omitted.
The anime is available in sub and dub formats on Crunchyroll.
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