Japanese Title: Oruchuban Ebichu

 

Similar: Crayon Shin-chan

Higepiyo

 

Watched in: Japanese

Genre: Adult Comedy Ecchi

Length: 24 episodes (8 min. each)

 

Positives:

• Some great jokes.

Negatives:

• Repetitive humour.
• Hideous art.
• Becomes tedious after a few episodes.

(Request an anime for review here.)

Do not be fooled by the childish art – this is not Hamtaro. Ebichu Minds the House could not be further from Hamtaro with its crude humour, sex-laden antics, and human-hamster tomfoolery. Not for kids.

Ebichu Minds the House is about a hamster who works as housemaid to her master ‘Office Lady,’ often screwing everything up with her loud mouth and well-meaning but TMI attempts at fluffing her master’s sex life. The first scene has Ebichu reading erotica to enhance the mood while her master has sex, which doesn’t help. Another time, she busts in the room to tell the boyfriend that he’s going for the wrong hole. That kills the mood for experimentation. Each screw up by Ebichu earns her a beating from either master or boyfriend. Ebichu is more punching bag than housemaid.

The ongoing conflict is the office lady’s relationship with her bum of a boyfriend who keeps cheating on her, but she’s desperate, being twenty-five and all, believing – as many Japanese women do – that no good men will romance someone so old. (Don’t look at me, she’s the crazy one.)

Ebichu’s problem, and my reason for lack of enjoyment, lies in the overreliance on crude humour. Crudeness is not the problem – I love crude humour – but when almost every joke is crude, they become predictable within a few episodes. Though jokes aren’t necessarily repeated, it feels like they are.

Furthermore, because it’s just one joke after another, there isn’t much direction, so I never feel compelled to keep watching, to know the next joke. In the likes of South Park and Rick and Morty, their scenarios alone keep me going – the humour makes me laugh on the ride. And they are far more vulgar.

Now, some jokes were hilarious. The office virgin calling up his mother to ask what a green dildo is, the guy into hairy women who calls for phone sex, and episode one’s final punch line had me in hysterics. The married man – a human man, not a male hamster – in the neighbourhood who wants to sleep with Ebichu is disturbingly funny as well.

But there wasn’t enough to keep me engaged. I think watching a ‘best of’ compilation or seeing the best vignettes would be more enjoyable.

Art – Very Low

Poor art across the board – lip-sync barely there, no detail, minimal animation, ugly. YouTube animations by a single artist are better.

Sound – Low

The acting is okay. It gets annoying after a while with the forced cuteness and slurred words, though the repetitive humour may have to do with this.

Story – Low

A hamster maid does her best to please her master, a desperate office lady past her prime. Outside the occasional hilarious joke, the crude humour becomes one note before long and more tedious than funny.

Overall Quality – Low

Recommendation: Try it/Skip it. If crude humour is for you, then try Oruchuban Ebichu. Everyone else will hate it. Check YouTube for the best bits.

(Request review here. Find out more about the rating system here.)

 

Awards: (hover over each award to see descriptions; click award for more recipients)

Positive: None

Negative: