Dark Comedy Uramichi-Oniisan Reveals July Premiere Date

It seems like just yesterday we were talking about the last promotional video for the upcoming dark comedy Life Lessons with Uramichi-oniisan (or more simply known as Uramichi-oniisan) but here we are again. This new promotional video reveals the premiere date and opening theme song, titled ABC Gymnastics, performed by Mamoru Miyano and Nana Mizuki.  

As seen in the promotional video, the series about a children’s television presenter and his less than pristine personal life will premiere on July 5th. As mentioned, two of the lead actors will perform the theme song. 

Originally a manga series created by Gaku Kuze, the series began running in the digital manga magazine Comic POOL in May 2017 and has five volumes as of May 2020. Kodansha USA has licensed the series in English and has released two volumes as of January 2021. 

Originally set to be released in 2020, Uramichi-oniisan was delayed until this year due to “production issues” but finally it’s arriving! Studio Blanc will produce the animation for this series with Nobuyoshi Nagayama serving as the director. Touko Machida will write the series composition. They will work off character designs provided by Mizuki Takahashi and Yusuke Shibata. 

While there is a wealth of sequels to choose from in the coming summer (some of which are the most highly anticipated of the entire season), there are still some great debuting series that deserve our love and attention and I think this is going to be one of them. While I’m not really that interested in Japanese children’s television, it will be fascinating to see a farcical view of what these hosts are like in their private lives once the cameras stop rolling. 

Uramichi-oniisan doesn’t look like it’ll be a surprise smash hit but I think there’s potential for this to be one of the dark horses of the season. 

Sources: A.I.R. on Twitter, Comic Natalie