Summer 2021 First Impressions – Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 13

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Uramichi Omota is the host of a children’s program. But as an early 30-something whose talents as a gymnast somehow brought him to this (as he sees it) dead-end, he’s beginning to let his frustrations show through on the air in the presence of the children who don’t yet know any better about life’s many challenges.

Uramichi isn’t the only cast member struggling to manage these dark thoughts, either; a couple of his former underclassmen who dress in animal costumes on the show are wrestling with both their own positions and their complicated perception of the classmate they formerly looked up to, and two of the other human character actors have landed in those jobs after failed music careers. Being a millennial is suffering – or at least it seems that way for Uramichi-oniisan and his crew.

Impressions: I’m one of those cusp millennials who’s old enough (and lucky enough) to have escaped some of the really terrible financial and career hardships that have hamstrung some of my younger generational brethren, though I’m still young enough to have an understanding of exactly how bleak the job and housing market have been for the past 15 years. I know many people who’ve gone to school to study specific interests of theirs and ended up in completely unrelated, seemingly dead-end employment trying to pay off their student loans. It’s not a great situation and it’s brought into focus many of the problems and inequities that come with relying on the free market. So I’d say I understand the well from which Uramichi-Oniisan is drawing its humor.

But there’s a point at which a a person’s knowing nod and a rant on shared experiences becomes someone who’s not able (or willing) to seek mental health services attempting to turn their suicidal ideation into black humor, and this episode crosses that line within its first couple of minutes. What I’ll say is that I’ve been there; I’ve been that person who tries to joke through their depression, spouting self-deprecating remarks while plastering on a smile. That part of me creeps back in every once-in-a-while when my life is feeling particularly overwhelming. It’s a self-defense mechanism whose intended effect is to avoid talking seriously about what are really serious feelings and issues. I’m lucky in that I’ve been able to seek out more constructive outlets for that kind of thinking and have been working a long time to interrupt and refocus those thoughts, but I know even being able to have that toolset is a privilege.

I also understand that mental health resources in Japan could use some improvement; anecdotally I’ve heard that they’re expensive and not covered under the national health system. So perhaps Uramichi Omota’s unhealthy methods of expressing his depression (and I wholeheartedly believe he’s depressed, even after only watching one episode – his outlook is just too familiar) are more common than we’d like to admit and the product of having few other options or outlets. But this series seems to frame them as a joke, and I just can’t see it that way. It feels cynical and bleak, aside from simply being generally mean-spirited.

Pros: So there was one scene that made me laugh – one of the other characters gets on a giggle fit about the fact that the name “Richard” has the nickname “Dick,” and Uramichi rattles off a lot of really goofy dick jokes/phrases that had me rolling. Yes, that’s the kind of humor I’m into; I have no shame in that.

The ED is also a real banger!

There are also some bits and pieces of the other characters’ lives that I think are worth mentioning, such as the fact that multiple characters have had to leave their chosen careers and attempt to make a living working for a children’s program because of the job market – realistic and understandable. Utano’s jealousy of others’ successes as portrayed on social media also hits pretty close to home.

Cons: I think that Uramichi allowing his depressive outlook to come out around a group of young kids is pretty despicable. I feel like when you expose young kids to the world’s woes, you instill in them a sense of anxiety about what they literally can’t control, and that affects their mental growth. As adults, we have the perspective to work through these feelings, but young people haven’t yet developed the tools needed to keep from completely internalizing this stuff.

I also generally think the idea that corrupting the minds of young people is funny is pretty gross. I understand that there are a lot of folks out there who don’t want to have children or actively don’t like them – I get it, I’ve been there in the past. But that doesn’t mean that hassling them is funny or without downstream consequences that end up affecting more than just the kids themselves. Yes, I’m taking this anime too seriously, but it hits on some very real feelings and tendencies, so it’s difficult for me not to.

Content Warnings: Depiction of depression, including having lack of emotions toward life and some suicidal ideation. Use of addictive substances and references to them (alcohol, cigarettes). Violence. Crass humor, including in the presence of children.

Would I Watch More? – So, I actually had to get up and walk around after watching this episode, I was so troubled by it. I think I might be inviting ridicule by taking it so seriously, because like every other anime it’s just fiction. However, I think we all have certain subject matter that touches directly on our own sensitivities and it doesn’t matter whether it’s actually happening in real life or on a screen – it triggers the associated negative emotions. I also don’t think it’s very funny, and so I don’t see the point of watching more only to put myself through the emotional wringer every week for no payoff.