Characters in Himouto! Umaru-chan.
open/close all folders
Umaru Doma
Umaru Doma
Voiced by: Aimi Tanaka (Japanese), Emily Neves (English)
Outdoor persona
Indoor persona
The titular character, a high school girl who is seemingly perfect in every way, but is actually a Closet Geek slacker.
- The Ace: Umaru has most people convinced that she's the kindest and most beautiful girl in town, is skilled at everything she does, has perfect scores at school and is beloved by all. As her secret identity U.M.R she's one of the best gamers in Japan. She achieves all this virtually effortlessly.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's left vague if her switching between her outdoor and indoor personas is just Stylized for the Viewer or if she's actually a shapeshifter who causes a visible physical change in her appearance. There are instances where certain characters seem to have noticed the physical difference in her two faces. Kirie fails to realize they are the same person and believes her inside face is her little sister "Komaru".
- Angry Cheek Puff: She tends to inflate her cheeks like a balloon when she gets upset or angry, helping with her cute appeal as well as showing her selfish and immature side.
- Animal-Eared Headband: Almost always wears a hamster hood when at home. The second season's opening also shows her wearing several different kinds of animal hoods.
- Animal Motifs: Hamster. And not only when she's indoors—even when outside Umaru sometimes has rodent mannerisms, such as the way she licks ice cream.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: At home, Umaru typically behaves like a Spoiled Brat who makes unreasonable demands to her older brother, Taihei.
- Art Shift: Whenever she switches between her outdoors persona and her indoors persona.
- Beneath the Mask: Looks to be mature, beautiful and sophisticated when outside her home. At home, however, she's a lazy, annoying, selfish brat.
- Big "NO!": She is given one in the English dub when her cola bottle is about to spill as she tries to grab it. The Japanese version averts this by having her shout “MAKE IT IN TIME!” As she tries to catch it complete with Futile Hand Reach.
- Bishie Sparkle: Always appears with Umaru in public.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Outside her home, she seems to be kind and sophisticated, when in reality, she is a manipulative, self-centered Lazy Bum who constantly bosses her older brother around.
- Bratty Half-Pint: In her chibi form, she acts like a Spoiled Brat who endlessly whines and throws tantrums to get what she wants despite being 16 years old.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Umaru gets perfect grades and is the top in every class at school, but she spends most of her off time lazing around and indulging in her otaku hobbies.
- Character Title: Himouto! Umaru-chan
- Closet Geek: Umaru is heavily invested in maintaining her outside image as a perfect, refined girl who claims she's not even allowed to read manga, while at home she's a lazy Otaku who's obsessed with manga, anime and video games.
- Cloudcuckoolander: She has a very wild imagination at times.
- Disqualification-Induced Victory: Umaru was going to lose pretty badly in a fighting game competition to Sylphyn in chapter 52/episode 4. She then glances at her brother, prompting Sylphin to also do the same to see what Umaru was looking at. She sees her brother Alex standing next to him, and suddenly gets embarrassed, remembering how she'd been showing off, before running off the stage, giving Umaru the win by default.
- Ditzy Genius: In her chibi form at home, at least. She gets perfect grades at school, but at home she's a lazy, immature slacker who doesn't even know what an Internet router is (which, of course, she finds out the hard way—by spilling cola on it).
- Establishing Character Moment: Everything you need to know about Umaru is summed up neatly by Taihei in the opening moments of the series; In public, she's an honors student who makes perfect grades and excels at everything she does with virtually zero effort, yet is incredibly friendly, humble, and adored by nearly everyone around her. But in the privacy of her home, she turns into a lazy, bratty gremlin of a shut-in who would rather just eat junk food, play video games, and sleep all day, with Taihei walking in on her while she's napping with her school clothes and a bunch of snacks piled all over the floor.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: She's the Bratty Half-Pint, Annoying Younger Sibling, Spoiled Brat manipulative and lazy foolish to Taihei's Straight Man calm, level-headed and sensible responsible.
- Fun Size: When at home, Umaru takes the form of a chibi with a hamster hood.
- The Gadfly: Loves messing with Taihei. Including damaging his reputation in her school by attributing her selfish actions to him.
- Godlike Gamer: Umaru displays this in her UMR alter-ego where she's one of the top gamers in Japan. At the arcade she frequents, she's able to pull off impossible maneuvers on the arcade machines so that she can get hundreds of prizes in one turn. The arcade staff have come to resent her inhuman success and fear she'll risk bankrupting them.
- Heel Realization: Downplayed. In Chapter 92, Umaru is thrown off when Ebina says Taihei is nice, since he spends a lot of time reprimanding her. When she gets home and thinks it over, she realizes that brother is actually pretty selfless and she constantly takes advantage of it. The realization doesn't lead to anything beyond offering her beanbag chair to him when he gets back from work, though.
- Inexplicably Awesome: There's no explanation for why Umaru is the best at everything, despite being a lazy bum who never puts in any effort. Likewise, it is unknown how she can maintain her flawless beauty and perfect figure, despite her unhealthy lifestyle and consumption of thousands of calories daily in snacks alone. Most baffling of all is how she straight up shape-shifts. One has to simply accept that common sense does not apply to Umaru.
- It's All About Me: Is extremely lazy with housework, and wants to do nothing more than watch anime, eat junk food, and play games all day. She will also often complain until Taihei gives in to her demands, such as having him buy her the latest game.
- Jack of All Trades: While not technically canon, in the Vita game Umaru can end up working as an actress, soccer player, professional swimmer, game developer, model, scientist, chef, member of parliament, office lady, novelist and even a princess.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Manipulative, lazy and annoying. But she cares for her friends and truly cares for her brother.
- Lazy Bum: Basically refuses to help around the apartment.
- Living a Double Life: Umaru in public is the perfect student, and Umaru in private is a lazy otaku. Could even count as a triple life with her secret UMR elite gamer identity.
- Madness Mantra: After watching a commercial for NcDonald, she is unable to stop thinking about hamburgers.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Her "shape shifting" between her "outside" and "inside" forms are either a metaphorical artist's choice to reflect her very different behavior in public versus in private, or her physically shrinking and growing in size. There are certain scenes that really make it hard to believe she's supposed to be a fully grown teenage girl while in her chibi state.
- NEET: Umaru's future plan after she graduates is to continue to live off her brother.
- Never Gets Fat: She lives on a steady diet of soda, potato chips and various other unhealthy snack foods, but never gains so much as a pound.
- Nonstandard Character Design: Her indoor persona is drawn in a completely different art style where she reverts to chibi form.
- Oh, Crap!: In Episode 2, Umaru can only react with horror when she realizes that Ebina may have seen her turn into her inside self and throw a tantrum at Taihei on their visit to a restaurant.
- Orgasmically Delicious: She seems to have something of an orgasm when drinking cola.
- Otaku: She is totally obsessed with anime, manga and video games, and hoards a pile of them and any related merchandise at home. She doubles as an Otaku Surrogate, since most of the media she's into is typically aimed at a male audience, such as shonen manga and FPS games.
- Ping Pong Naïveté: She not only acts childish and immature when she's at home but her intelligence tends to take a hit too and she looses a lot of common sense she had outdoors.
- Proper Lady: Umaru is this way when she's in her outside form: sweet, pretty, smart, polite, and talented at everything. She's so prim she sparkles! Of course her Umaru-chan/UMR form is lazy, selfish, despises domestic responsibilities, and is all-around unladylike, and she'll often use this trope to try and manipulate people, primarily Taihei.
- Professional Voice Dissonance: While she's only a student, her voice deliberately changes between her "outside" and "inside" personas since she has a reputation to uphold at school. She sounds like a mature, proper teenage girl while "outside" in public, but when in private while "inside" her voice is more high-pitched and childish to reflect how immature she really is.
- Skewed Priorities: Instead of surviving at home on her own while Taihei is away for business at Hamamatsu for two weeks, she tags along with him just to try out the local eel.
- The Slacker: All she wants to do all day is laze around and indulge in her hobbies.
- Slave to PR: The only thing that can restrain Umaru's laziness and brattiness is her desire to be seen as perfect by everyone except her brother. Taihei tries exploiting this by spending as much time around Ebina as possible, which forces Umaru to behave as a mature, elegant girl instead of the childish, bratty otaku she really is.
- Smug Smiler: A lot of Umaru's smiles are these when she's at home because she doesn't have to hide behind a proper persona, and because she likely tantrumed her brother into doing something for her.
- Spoiled Brat: Umaru when she's at home and/or wants something, such as the latest game. She'll throw a tantrum until Taihei gives in and gets her whatever she wants.
- Teen Genius: She aces in any tests and learns everything easily.
- That One Player: Played for Laughs whenever she goes to the arcade. She often wins prizes with one token. This means the arcade actually loses money, as most people would typically fail at those games, and they wouldn't have to be replenished with new prizes. But since Umaru always wins at them in one try, they don't really make any money off her playing.
- Third-Person Person: When not in public, she refers to herself by her own name to reflect how childish she really is.
- Took a Level in Kindness: While Umaru is still a Lazy Bum, the later chapters seem to tone down her jerkass tendencies compared to early ones. Most obvious in chapter 60, when Umaru picks a snack specifically for Taihei following his giving a presentation. The Jerkassery is still present, as she got the snack assuming he'd fail and would need a pick-me-up and was genuinely shocked when things went well. But the fact remains she got a present for her brother thinking he'd need it.
- It's also noticeable in the theme songs for the two TV series (both sung from Umaru's perspective): In the first she only mentions Taihei once and it's still in a bratty contextnote , but Umaru-chan R's theme song has several instances of her singing about how Taihei is kind and reliable and how much she loves him.
- Trademark Favorite Food: No matter what she's eating, from junk food to ramen to steak, Umaru has to have her cola. She seems particularly fond of potato chips too.
Taihei Doma
Taihei Doma
Voiced by: Kenji Nojima (Japanese), Adam Noble (English)
Umaru's submissive older brother.
- Badly Battered Babysitter: This essentially sums up his home life; he's the primary caregiver for Umaru while their parents are away, and Umaru constantly puts him through the wringer with her bratty behavior and unreasonable demands.
- Berserk Button: Unless you want a good scolding, never leave a mess around his house.
- Cassandra Truth: Taihei tells Bomber in episode 7 that the "beautiful woman" walking and shopping with him is just his sister. Bomber doesn't believe it, stating that guys don't go grocery shopping with their sisters. Taihei seems shocked by this revelation.
- A Day in the Limelight: The last section of episode 5 focuses exclusively on Taihei and what he does at work. Umaru is only seen at the beginning and end of his day.
- Extreme Doormat: Taihei can't say no to Umaru's whims and when he tries she'll nag and throw a tantrum until he concedes.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: He's the Straight Man calm, level-headed and sensible responsible to Umaru's Bratty Half-Pint, Annoying Younger Sibling, Spoiled Brat lazy and manipulative foolish.
- House Husband: Looks after the flat.
- Loophole Abuse: In episode 8, shortly after the new year begins, Taihei brings up a promise Umaru made back in late November about giving it her all and cleaning up next year. He then immediately calls her on it, and she attempts to use this trope by saying that she never specified a date or time when she would do those things. He doesn't buy it.
- Married to the Job: He works overtime all the time and has little to no hobbies outside of cleaning after Umaru. On his one day off, he started zoning out because he had nothing to do.
- Nice Guy: While he can be kind of a doormat to Umaru, he does legitimately care about her and is repeatedly demonstrated to be a kind-hearted, friendly, and open-minded person who can get along with just about anyone. All three of Umaru's friends remark on what a nice person he is, triggering her Heel Realization.
- Promotion to Parent: With their parents absent, he's taken the parental role.
- Red Baron: The Demon Taihei, due to the fact he always got a perfect score on his tests.
- The Smart Guy: Always scored 100s on his exams.
- Teen Genius: Back in his school days.
- The Workaholic: Taihei literally has nothing to do when he's not working or cleaning the house. He even begs Umaru to make a mess just so he has something to do.
- Yamato Nadeshiko: He can be easily seen as a genderflip, being hard-working, quiet, domestically talented, and constantly trying to instill in Umaru and her friends an appreciation for Japanese values and culture. He sort of has to be this way with his Lazy Bum of a sister to take care of.
Nana Ebina
Nana Ebina
Voiced by: Akari Kageyama (Japanese), Sara Ornelas (English)
A classmate and friend of Umaru from the Akita region who lives alone in the ground floor apartment below the Domas.
- Accent Slip-Up: Will slip into her natural Akita dialect when excited or flustered, in her own mind if not out loud.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Ebina has feelings for Taihei largely because he was the first person when she arrived in Tokyo to look her in the eyes, rather than focus on her large breasts. His politeness and friendliness - and the fact he reminded her of her big brother - also helped.
- Big Eater: Off-screen, but she can pack away large amounts of food without realizing it.
- Book Dumb: Ebina always seems to get low test scores. Making it worse for her is that she's friends with Umaru, who is often the top ranking student on the tests. As it turns out in later chapters, she can score high in tests.... It’s just that she gets nervous around other people. And being that she’s in a classroom with other students causes her to lose it and put in wrong answers. She gets better thanks to her friends.
- Breakout Character: She's popular enough to become the main character of her own prequel manga called Akita Imokko Ebina-chan.
- Country Mouse: Hails from the Akita countryside. She studied standard Japanese and bought fashionable clothing in preparation for her move to Tokyo in order to hide her accent and disguise this fact.
- D-Cup Distress: Ebina's large breasts get a lot of unwanted attention. In a flashback during when she first arrived in Tokyo, people kept staring at them, making her very self-conscious as a result.
- Girlish Pigtails: Of the two side up variety.
- Growling Gut: Ebina's stomach does this in Episode 11 after she brings some rice sent by her parents to Taihei and Umaru.
- Last-Name Basis: Ebina's first name, Nana, was initially only mentioned in a bonus chapter and a splash page. Even Umaru, her best friend, refers to her as Ebina-chan. Averted in the English dub, however, where everyone calls her by her first name.
- Luminescent Blush: Seems to be her default facial expression, to the point that you can't tell if she's really nervous till steam starts coming out her head.
- Morality Chain: Even inside her brother's apartment, Umaru will behave herself as long as Ebina is present.
- Shrinking Violet: Mainly due to so many people staring at her chest.
- Super Drowning Skills: Ebina does not know how to swim and drowns the second she touches the water.
- Weight Woe: She seems to be scared of becoming fat, trying her best to exercise and eat less.
Sylphynford Tachibana
Sylphynford Tachibana
Voiced by: Yurina Furukawa (Japanese), Christina Kelly (English)
A classmate of Umaru and Ebina. Very competitive and sees Umaru as a rival in academics and sports.
- As Long as It Sounds Foreign: "Sylphynford" isn't a real German name, or even a name at all.
- Attention Whore: Everyone in school passes off her showmanship towards her rivalry with Umaru, saying that she just wants attention (something she seems to have inherited from her mother).
- Big Brother Worship: Thinks very highly of her older brother, Alex. She calls him "Onii-sama" and gets a breakdown when she thinks she'd made a fool of herself in front of him when she fought against U.M.R in a game tournament.
- But Not Too Foreign: She is half-German and half-Japanese.
- Curtains Match the Window: Light blue hair and eyes.
- Custom Uniform: Her school uniform is heavily modified compared to everyone else's. She wears a blue ribbon at her collar, some kind of fluffy material around the edges of her sleeves, a wide ruffled blue skirt and light blue shoes, as opposed to every other female student who wears the standard red ribbon, red pleated skirt and brown shoes. It's unknown how she's able to get away with it.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Her reason for wanting to compete with Umaru so much, since a defeated rival becomes a new ally. Apparently, though, this only applies when she is the victor. She's actually under the impression that this trope is a Japanese tradition.
- Exotic Eye Designs: Sylphyn has flower-shaped pupils, as does her brother Alex when excited. It apparently runs in the family, as their mother also shows similar pupils when excited.
- Formal Characters Use Keigo: Her speech is always very formal due to being an Ojou from a rich family.
- Godlike Gamer: Sylphyn surprasses Umaru/U.M.R in this regard, beating her mercisessly on a tournament. The only reason she loses against Umaru is that she gets disqualified due to fleeing upon being embarassed of being watched by her big brother.
- In-Series Nickname: Since her given name is a bit of a mouthful, she's usually referred to as "Sylphyn" for short.
- Mum Looks Like a Sister: Umaru noticed how young Sylph's mother looks (she's of totally normal age for a mother of at least one adult son and a 16 year-old daughter, but doesn't like to be reminded of that).
- Ojou: She comes from a very rich family and always speaks politely, though her huge competitive streak puts a damper on her ladylike image.
- Playful Cat Smile: Her default expression, which fits with her upbeat personality and love of games (even if that ties more into her competitive streak).
- Spoiled Sweet: Despite being incredibly rich and having a rather intense competitive streak with Umaru, she's a complete sweetheart to pretty much everyone around her—including Umaru.
- Token Rich Student: She's from a rich family, but the school she and the other main characters go to is a public high school with mostly middle-class students.
- Verbal Tic: She almost always ends her sentences with the very polite and feminine "desu wa" (officially translated as "indeed!")...and sometimes she just says it out of the blue. Or texts it (with U.M.R. responding "Complete sentences, please!")
Alex Tachibana
Alex Tachibana
Voiced by: Tetsuya Kakihara (Japanese), Scott Gibbs (English)
A workmate of Taihei, and Sylphynford's elder brother.
- But Not Too Foreign: Like his little sister, he is half-German and half-Japanese.
- Cool Big Bro: To Sylphyn.
- Hikikomori: Was this in his middle school days. He was later inspired by a long-haired girl (hinted to be Kanau in the manga, and confirmed in episode 7 of Umaru-chan R) to relocate to Japan and attend a Japanese school.
- Otaku: Just like Umaru. They become good friends due to their love of anime.
Kirie Motoba
Kirie Motoba
Voiced by: Haruka Shiraishi (Japanese), Jad Saxton (English)
A classmate and secret admirer of Umaru.
- Aloof Older Brother: Inverted, she's the little sister while her brother is more outgoing. But she always seems to treat him with scorn despite trying to be a good older brother to her. Though likely this is due to her shy personality, she can't seem to work around adults.
- Ambiguously Gay: She's very interested in Umaru, but it's unclear how much of that is admiration and a Pseudo-Romantic Friendship and how much of that are genuine feelings of love.
- Berserk Button: If you don't want a good beating, don't enter her room uninvited.
- Clark Kenting: Fools her own brother during a trip to an aquarium by wearing a straw hat.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Seems to act this way towards Umaru, often giving anyone paying too much attention to the latter a Death Glare. The only one that is exempt from this is ironically Taihei, the one who is closest to Umaru, likely because A, he is her brother, and B, she rarely sees him with Umaru, but more with "Komaru", not to mention that Taihei also acts the part of the Cool Big Bro with her, once they got past their initial awkward interactions because of Kirie's shyness.
- Curtains Match the Window: Dark purple hair and eyes.
- Cuteness Proximity: She's overcome by cuteness at the sight of "Komaru".
- Declaration of Protection: While she has never actually said it out loud, Kirie has a good many Imagine Spots where she declares her intent to protect Umaru.
- Face of a Thug: It really doesn't help she's shy around strangers.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Despite having a scary and creepy appearance, it's clear that she's the responsible one to Bomber's foolish.
- Friend to All Children: The shy Kirie has a much easier time with children than her peers and adults. This is why she befriends "Komaru" when she first meets her.
- Hidden Depths: She is actually very good at sports and despite being good enough at swimming to get third place in a national tournament she has no plans to go pro, instead wanting to write and draw children's picture books.
- Madness Mantra: "I will protect Umaru-san... I will protect Umaru-san... I will protect Umaru-san..."
- Odd Friendship: Became friends with both forms of Umaru, and both friendships are odd, in different ways.
- Shipper on Deck: For Ebina/Taihei. Soon after she realizes that Ebina has feelings for him, Kirie tells her that she's rooting for her and tries to help bring them together.
- Shrinking Violet: She isn't very good with strangers, but she deals with children better.
- Situational Sociability: Kirie has a hard time socializing with others in her class or outside her family. The exception is children, with whom she is much more at ease. She can barely speak to Umaru at school, but is convinced the Umaru she meets at her home is Umaru's little sister, Komaru, and can speak to her much more freely.
- Write Who You Know: In-universe. She wants to draw picture books about "Komaru", but when she takes her book to a publisher, the editor says this is a bad idea because she's not willing to put "Komaru" in any kind of danger and thus there's no suspense in her book.
Takeshi "Bomber" Motoba
Takeshi "Bomber" Motoba
Voiced by: Hiroki Yasumoto (Japanese), Jason Douglas (English)
A workmate of Taihei and the elder brother of Kirie.
- Aloof Big Brother: Inverted. Kirie is Bomber's aloof little sister. Bomber keeps trying to get closer to her, but Kirie is having none of it.
- Alternate Character Reading: Bomber's nickname comes from taking his surname, Motoba, changing the "moto" to "hon"note and modifying the H into a B.
- Butt-Monkey: He always gets the short end of the stick when it comes to pratfalls in the series, from getting no respect from his sister to constantly being scolded at work. Some of it isn't even warranted, but he still plows on regardless.
- The Ditz: He's...not very bright, to put it simply. In one chapter he's debating what to buy with his bonus money and considers getting an aquarium because he wants to bond with Kirie and knows she likes fish; both Taihei and Umaru approve of the idea. The last panel of the chapter shows that he spent the money on a home exercise kit, having somehow decided that that would win Kirie's affection.
- Failed a Spot Check: He knows Umaru as both "Tanukichi" and U.M.R., but doesn't realize they're the same person. This seems to be because he thinks U.M.R. is a boy, to Umaru's confusion.
- Fleeting Passionate Hobbies: According to Taihei he's been like this since high school, getting into things like model-making, painting, and photography and then dropping the hobby when he gets bored of it.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The foolish to Kirie's responsible.
- In-Series Nickname: Bomber. Sylphin calls him "Afro-san" and when he joins her and U.M.R.'s gaming group they dub him B.O.M.
Kanau Kongou
Manager Kanau Kongou
Voiced by: Ami Koshimizu (Japanese), Maggie Flecknoe (English)
Taihei, Bomber, and Alex's work supervisor.
- Alliterative Name: Kanau Kongou
- Cannot Spit It Out: Towards Taihei.
- Dogged Nice Girl: Incredibly kind to Taihei and has been after him since high school, but of course, due to having to bear with Umaru's every whim, he doesn't even realize.
- Married to the Job: Perhaps more so than Taihei, since she's the daughter of the company president. She even has a bedroom in the building she works in.
- Nepotism: She's the daughter of Diamond Corporation's owner and thus has a position of power within the company. However, this puts a lot of extra stress on her because she has to live up to his expectations both as an employee and a daughter.
- Single-Target Sexuality: Kanau is mentioned by other men as being very beautiful, but she's only interested in Taihei.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Physically scolds Bomber, but is very cordial with Taihei, who she tries to flirt with.
Hikari Kongou
Hikari Kongou
Voiced by: Inori Minase (Japanese)
Kanau's little sister.
- Big Brother Worship: From the first time she met him, she was infatuated with Taihei, seeing him as her future brother-in-law and latching onto him as if he was her real brother.
- Blatant Lies: Fails to convince her older sister that she didn't go out on her own while Kanau was away working overtime.
- Idiot Hair: She sports one.
- Implausible Hair Color: Has white hair despite being a high-schooler.
- Meaningful Appearance: Has diamond-shaped hair decorations (as in the gemstone, not the shape). "Kongou" means diamond.
- Mirror Character: There's actually a lot of parallels between her and Umaru, with both of them being Himoutos. Both girls present themselves as over achieving geniuses in public, but at home are slackers who lounge around obsessively eating food and being dependant on their older sibling. It's no wonder they gain a rivalry.
- The Rival: To Umaru over Taihei.
- Shipper on Deck: She ships Kanau/Taihei, and thus she treats him like her future brother-in-law.
