Another anime I’ve been enjoying this season is Uzaki-chan wa Asobitai, translated as Uzaki-chan Wants to Play, or Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out, as “play” has a sexual connotation in English that’s not there in Japanese. It’s about a university student named Shinichi who just wants to live a quiet life…except for his annoying underclassman Uzaki-chan, who always wants to hang out at his house playing video games, go shopping with him, and generally spend lots of time together. Should you watch the Uzaki-chan anime? Keep reading and find out!
Uzaki-chan is Annoying but Adorable
Let’s get this out of the way: Uzaki-chan is annoying, with her shrill voice (provided by Satania‘s voice actress Naomi Oozora) and her giant skin fans. Her trademark “Sugoi Dekai” (super huge) chest, while providing entertainment to those of us who appreciate fanservice, are comically large and might be a turn-off to some at first. Happily, her charming nature and dedication to her senpai manage to win us over in the end.
One of the biggest negatives about Uzaki-chan to me is the way she speaks. In Japanese, there are formal and informal ways of speaking, and in general, a younger person or a junior in a school or organization would use polite, formal verbs like desu when talking to older people or a senpai. But Uzaki speaks the worst kind of “polite” Japanese, compressing a phrase like nan desu ka? to nan-ss-ka? or so desu yo into so-ss-yo, similar to my least favorite character from Shirobako. In real life, people who speak like this would be gently pressured into talking in a more formal and respectful way, but this “almost proper” way of speaking becomes part of Uzaki’s character pretty quickly. It’s a reminder of why you shouldn’t learn Japanese from anime, though.
The Uzaki-chan Anime Has a Surprisingly Good Plot
No, I don’t mean “plot,” but the actual story and development of the characters as time passes. While we watch Uzaki-chan and Shinichi spend time together, they become surrounded by other characters who try to get them together romantically. In just five episodes, there’s been a lot more story development and progression than in two seasons of Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san, for example. This makes me hopeful that a proper ending is waiting for us, with Shinichi and Uzaki-chan becoming a couple by the end.
The Uzaki-chan chocolate mint scene was legendary.
(Another reason to love Uzaki is that she’s voiced by Satania voice actress Naomi Oozora.) pic.twitter.com/xCOMjdIuj4
— Peter Payne (@JListPeter) August 10, 2020
Uzaki-chan Will Change the Way You Feel About Chocolate Mint
The scene where Uzaki-chan berates Shinichi for mocking chocolate mint-flavored ice cream as tasting like toothpaste was so good, I had to post it Twitter so others could appreciate it. And it’s totally accurate! I distinctly remember being a fan of the nascent offerings of chocolate mint-flavored ice cream that first appeared in my local Seven-Eleven back in the early 1990s, but all the Japanese people around me shunned the flavor. It took years to chocolate mint to finally become common in Japan. Are you a Choco-Mintian, a member of the チョコミン党 choco-min-toh or Chocolate Mint Party?
Uzaki-chan Might Make You a Better Fan
The Internet is a wonderful place where we can access the whole of human knowledge or look at cat videos from any corner of the globe. But sometimes the way humans influence other humans in large groups, especially online where everyone has anonymity and feels free from being judged by the things they say, can cause unexpected results. Sadly, the Uzaki-chan anime has become a magnet for people making unkind observations, either about how young the main character looks (university students aren’t allowed to be short?), or that she has a big chest or some other aspect about the show.
I try to follow one Golden Rule of Fandom: to never trash someone else’s fanbase. There are many fans of things I’m not personally into, whether it’s My Little Pony enthusiasts or people who think collecting Funko Pop figures is appropriate. Sometimes when I don’t understand some other fandom, like when Adventure Time cosplay exploded at the San Diego Comic-Convention, I give it a try with an open mind and discover some cool new thing I didn’t know about. Other times, like when observing Furry cosplayers at the Phoenix Comic-Con, I’m impressed with the passion and enthusiasm the fans show despite living in the hottest city in America, even though it’s not something I’m personally into. I just want people to enjoy themselves and have fun, and if they’re part of some fandom I don’t happen to belong to, there’s no problem with that. I’ll just mind my own beeswax.
So let’s all do our best to avoid dissing people who like some fandom we don’t happen to like, and certainly try to be aware if we’ve become part of an “internet rage mob,” which is never a good thing for anyone to be.
Thanks for reading this post on the Uzaki-chan anime. Will you be watching the series? Give us your thoughts or ask us on Twitter!
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