Onimai youtube video essay except there is no video so it's just essay
I just finished watching & reading Onimai, so I'm just dumping my thoughts here video-essay style, except with no organization. Also please stop reading.
I blame the Youtube algorithm. It kept serving me clips from this anime. Again and again. And I blame the fun artstyle and pastel colors. And also the fact that clips tend to take the funniest parts out of context. I blame all those things for making me watch a clip of this show and soon enough I found myself watching the first episode of the anime.
The gist of the story is that one day, Mahiro, a 20 year old shut-in guy who hasn't left the house in 2 years finds himself turned into a middle school girl overnight from a special drug his genius younger sister slipped into his drink the previous day. He (she?) then learns to live his new life.
Primary thought: what is the story about?
I watched the anime first, since the clips are what got me here in the first place. After watching it though, it kind of left me with a few questions. I couldn't really figure out what the story was about, at its core. It felt like the author didn't really know what kind of story they wanted to tell. Was this a story about learning to reintegrate back into society after 2 years of not leaving the house? Was this a story about learning to live as the opposite gender? Or was this a general "cute girl" slice of life? And why is it so ecchi? Of course, it's all of those, but the anime felt all over the place. The first few episodes are mainly about learning to leaving the house and learning various things about his new body. But then those themes take a heavy backseat where the middle episodes take over with more slice of life material. But in the final episode, Mahiro ends up needing to decide whether he is going to take the drug again to prevent turning back into a guy. Mahiro thinks carefully and for quite a long while, before making an authentic decision. It was a bit of whiplash back to the themes much more present in the first few episodes. What was the story trying to say!??!?!??
Reading the manga cleared it right up though. Onimai is centrally a cute slice of life with the twist that the main character was gender swapped, which only matters as brief plot points or jokes. The manga has steady pacing, and a smoothly flowing storyline. As it turns out, they rearranged a few things for the anime adaptation. The finale of the anime is a story where Mahiro & friends visit a hot spring together, where the drug unexpectedly starts wearing off for the first time in the whole anime, and he needs to make a decision about whether he will take it again - with effects he is told will last a "long time". This certainly makes for a nice, meaningful ending to the anime. But in the manga, this actually happens much closer to the start, before he makes most of his new friends. And here, he quickly takes the drug without much thought, desperate to not ruin the trip. And the drug wearing off is an uncommon but reoccurring theme throughout the manga, where Mahiro takes it again and again with less and less thought every time. This makes for a much more lighthearted and non-serious story compared to the anime, where the gender swap elements are just a "twist" on the primary slice of life genre, instead of being one of the central characteristics Mahiro's many struggles.
Additional thought #1: why the age-down?
One thing that confused me at the start was why the drug also turned his age back by 7 years. It is seemingly not explained, and the age-down is seemingly just a side effect that's completely skipped over. It's just kinda accepted by everyone in the story as "haha he turned into a cute girl". It puts him straight into year 1 of middle school (7th grade equiv.). If this is a 5D chess move by the author as an anti-loli measure in an already kinda ecchi story, then I guess I could see that being a reason. Although later on, I discovered that a kind-of reason is presented waaay into the middle of the manga.
Additional thought #2: Achoo! (The onomatopoeia for sneezing in korean kinda sounds like ecchi lol) and also allergy
The manga itself is not all that risqué. Obviously because of the age down thing and the gender swap thing it leads to some questionable(?) panels, but in the frozen black-and-white medium of manga, it's not intolerable. But the anime is quite out there. The addition of color, sound, and animation increases the ecchi-ness by like 100x, and it triggered my fanservice allergy (and sense of morals(?)) so bad I often found myself hiding behind my hands. This is a 10/10 do not watch with others. This is another aspect that was relatively minor in the manga but much more significant in the anime, contributing to the more confusing experience.
Additional thought #3: why are all japanese mangaka messed up lmao
I really haven't watched or read all that much anime/manga, but why does it seem like no matter the genre, they always throw in weird stuff. The only one that I distinctly remember being free of anything like that is Bocchi the rock. Like the first few times I thought it was just a coincidence, but now it's starting to look like a pattern. Like why? Will it not get popular if it's completely clean?? lol just a funny observation.
Additional thought #4: i remembered i used to love lab coats
Mihari is almost always seen wearing her trademark lab coat. I had forgotten for like 8 years now, but I really liked (and still like) lab coats. When dad would bring me to his lab, his lab coat looked so cool! When I got a lab coat of my own for the 4th grade science fair it was the best thing in the world! I was so sad when I found out we didn't bring it on our move overseas in 6th grade :(. I should use this as character design material. The plain white lab coat is easy to draw, allows for some creativity in what you wear underneath, and the white surface is also a blank canvas just begging for color, accessories, and customization. Also, Mihari wears a short-sleeved lab coat in the warmer months, which isn't really how they work since lab coats are PPE, but since it's basically her uniform I'll let it slide.
Additional thought #5: i'm running out of time
One of the rare recurring jokes is when Mahiro is inadvertently reminded of how he was quite a bit less than the ideal older brother for his younger sister (although Mihari doesn't seem to really see it that way). Anyway... why does this one.. sting a little? Ha ha ha.... gotta laugh it off... hahaha... Let's not look too deep into it shall we... jesus christ I only have a few years of college left..... ahahahaha..... time sure does fly!aahaahahaaaa
Final section:
Anyway, both the manga and anime are pretty good, and the anime makes more sense once you have the context from the manga, which is pretty commonplace I suppose. Also the anime OP and EP are kinda great. If you're supposed to watch scary things to cool off in the summer, I think you could watch Onimai to instantly warm yourself right up in the winter.