Umaru Doma is, by all accounts, the perfect student. She is beautiful, smart, and respectful, at least until she gets home, anyway. Once that door closes, Umaru dons her hamster hoodie and transforms into a bratty, lazy, junk food-gorging otaku that is fully dependent on her responsible older brother Taihei. Whether it comes to playing video games or eating the right snack combinations, Umaru knows how to live.

It’s bright, it’s colorful, and it is loaded with great references – Umaru-chan is a great anime series for anime fans to enjoy and learn to better live the otaku lifestyle. For those looking for something as nerdy and fun, give these anime recommendations a go.

For Fans of Otaku Culture

Watamote

Tomoko Kuroki is well on her way to the hikikomori lifestyle, the only problem is, she has to get through high school first. However, even a lifetime of playing dating sims and watching anime haven’t prepared her for the social interactions of real life. Still, Tomoko struggles through each day and the social interactions that they bring.

If Umaru’s brother would let her, she would probably be a shut-in like Tomoko. Yet, while both girls share a passion for anime and games, the tones of these anime series couldn’t be more different. Umaru is energetic and funny, Watamote is so awkward it is almost painful. Both are funny, it is just that one hits home in the worst way.

Oreimo

Kyousuke’s little sister is smart, cute, and popular, but she completely hates him to the point that they no longer speak to one another. However, one day he finds and anime DVD in his house that he doesn’t recognize, only to find out it is actually concealing an ero-game. After taking responsibility for it to his traditional father, he finds out that his perfect little sister is really a secret otaku.

Whiny little sister? Check. Responsible and downtrodden older brother? Yup. Weird sexual overtones? Only in Oreimo, thankfully. Yeah, while Oreimo can get kind of weird, there is no denying how similar it is to Umaru-chan. They are both about closet otakus and how they interact with the world, often with the help of their brother, whether he wants to help or not.

Lucky Star

Lucky Star follows the daily life of lazy otaku Konata Izumi and her more normal friends. Each day is filled with new adventures in the erratic and lively friendship of these girls as they make observations about the world around them and consume lots of anime, manga, and junk food.

Lucky Star was essentially the Umaru before Umaru. While Umaru occasionally sticks to a light plot, Lucky Star is almost completely random. There are a lot of cute moments in both as well as a lot of anime references. However, while Konata is more anime and manga, Umaru is more into video games, so there is that. Yet, they are both so passionate about snacks.

I Can’t Understand What My Husband is Saying

Hajime Tsunashi is an otaku blogger that only goes out for a good anime convention. Kaoru Tsunashi is a hard-working office lady. Despite having completely different lifestyles, the two fell in love and got married. Now this married couple tries to understand each other as their relationship grows stronger with each day.

Get ready to work on your subtitle speed reading with I Can’t Understand What My Husband is Saying. Its short five minute-long episodes pack a lot of dialogue in there as well as a lot of the otaku references that made you fall in love with Umaru. However, in I Can’t Understand, both characters are adults and relatively responsible. Hajime may be a shut-in, but he is not quite as dependant as Umaru.

For Fans of Sheer Laziness

Shirokuma Café

Tucked away by the local zoo, the Shirokuma Café is the place to head for humans and animals alike to unwind after a long day of work. Shirokuma, the polar bear owner, does his best to provide his guests with both cold beverages and good advice.

Umaru may be heavily hamster-themed, but Shirokuma Café is actually about animals, so they share that in a way. The characters in both series also share a similar cuteness, but Panda in Shirokuma Café is basically Umaru if she were a bear. Panda enjoys lazing around and eating his favorite foods, not unlike a certain chibi hamster girl.

Tanaka-kun is Always Listless

Much to the dismay of his more energetic classmates, eternally exhausted Tanaka possesses the unique ability to fall asleep anywhere, anytime. Even in mid-sentence. Needless to say, his listless behavior wreaks havoc on his life and those around him.

Overall, Tanaka and Umaru only have a few select things in common. Both are about super lazy characters, and both pack a real comedic punch. However, Tanaka is less about otaku comedy and more about slapstick and random jokes. Tanaka is also significantly less bratty than Umaru.

For Fans of Two-Faced Personalities

His and Her Circumstances

Miyazawa Yukino is the perfect student and athlete. However, her kind, pretty, and modest exterior is just a façade to garner the praise and admiration that she so craves. However, one day her perfect life is turned upside down when newcomer Arima Soichiro replaces her at the top of their academic ranking. After finding out her secret, Arima begins blackmailing Miyazawa, but his ploy soon turns to friendship and something more.

If Miyazawa had an older brother and was an otaku, she would be almost exactly like Umaru-chan. At home she is arrogant, conceited, and selfish while at school she is nice and polite. Aside from the otakuness, the major difference between her and Umaru is that Umaru isn’t really that arrogant, she just wants to go eat some chips and play some games, as we all do.

Engaged to the Unidentified

On Kobeni Yonomori’s 16th birthday, it is discovered that her grandfather arranged for her to marry the mysterious Hakuya Mitsumine. Shocked, she now finds herself living with her future husband, his deceptive little sister, and her own perverted older sister. However, Kobeni takes it in stride, adjusting to her new life and trying to learn more about the new additions.

The similarities in these anime series lie with the sisters. In Umaru-chan, Umaru is lazy and whiny at home to her brother, but perfect at school. In Engaged, Kobeni’s older sister is very playfully mean to her future sister-in-law, but at school she is one of the most respected girls in town. They were both also created by the same studio.

Barakamon

Seishuu Handa is a talented, handsome, young calligrapher, but a total narcissist. One day when a veteran in the industry labels one of his pieces as “unoriginal,” Handa loses his temper. As punishment, his father sends him to the remote Goto Islands where he must find inspiration and develop his art style. At least that is what he tries to do, but a boisterous gang of children keep interrupting him.

The main character isn’t really two-faced, unless you count his temper, but Naru, the main obnoxious kid, mostly fits the bill. On top of that Naru and Handa also have a similar brother/sister dynamic found in Umaru-chan.

Have your own recommendations for anime series like Himouto! Umaru-chan? Tell us about it in the comments section below.