English Dub Review: Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan “Servility and Conscience”

Overview:

A girl overhears Kumao talking to Usao about servility. When Kumao can’t tell her what the word means, she goes to Uramichi and asks him to explain what it means.

Our Take:

In this episode, we get to kind of see a different side of Uramichi. While we know he’s depressed, frustrated, and easy to anger, he also shows a softer side. While out with Kumatani, he says that everything he does is worth it cause it puts a smile on the kids’ faces. Normally, there would be a sarcastic, pessimistic take on it afterward but he didn’t do that. It took Kumatani aback just like it did me so I thought that was an interesting change of pace.

He got to practice what he preached almost immediately when the GM’s grandson came on the show. The boy wanted Uramichi to carry him and let’s just say the boy was on the bigger side. Not only that but Uramichi has been having some back issues. But Uramichi kept to what he said and carried the boy. Don’t get me wrong this show is known for the dark humor about growing up but having a few heartwarming parts like this was nice too.

Poor Usahara was having financial troubles, mostly due to his pachinko habit but still. He was mentioning that he might be homeless and no one really cared to help him. So trust me we got back to the dark humor in this episode. Normally I would feel bad for Usahara but it seems everything worked out for him.

This episode was like the perfect balance of seriousness and humor. Again there’s still no sign of a big plot or overarching problem but that might be okay. We don’t always need Earth-shattering events, sometimes just seeing people being human is enjoyable in its own way. I can’t wait to see what Uramichi has in store for us next time.