Uchitama?! Have you seen my Tama?

chogiwa★ 8

Move over Nekopara, not only does this have the better, less degenerate catgirls, but there's also catboys and dogboys(?) for twice the fun. Uchi Tama?! Uchi no Tama Shirimasen ka? is the criminally underwatched spinoff of the children's show Tama and Friends where for whatever reason the writers decided to spice it up and give all the animal characters anthropomorphic human designs and renowned voice actors in the industry (HanaKana plays as a catgirl dressed like a maid if that's not enough to convince some of you). On a surface level, the anime looks like nothing much. For starters, the central plot of the series isextremely straightforward. Each episode has multiple storylines that simply focus on Tama, the titular catboy, and/or his friends and their peaceful, daily lives as they find ways to entertain themselves when their owners aren’t with them. The characters have unique designs for what they are, but they are mostly just archetypes and can easily be classified as the cowardly one, the airheaded one, the genki girl, the loner, etc. The series banks more on character interactions rather than character development. Despite all of this, this is where Uchi Tama's main appeal comes from. The series doesn’t let us forget that these characters are actually just your friendly neighborhood cats and dogs. The artstyle sometimes switches around their human forms and their animal forms depending on the situation, mostly because it would probably be weird seeing a human groom himself like a cat. Pets aren’t like their human owners; they’re all just vibing, and that’s exactly what everyone in Uchi Tama is doing. Everything is told from the POVs of the animals, creating a comfy atmosphere that is almost equivalent of watching cat and dog videos on Youtube but in the form of anime characters. The storylines mostly feel like typical, cute slice-of-life shenanigans; for example there is one short skit just about two of the cats trying to stay awake so their owners can share some of their food with them, but there are occasional episodes with completely different tones ranging anywhere from a love story in which one of the cats falls in love to the gut-wrenching backstory of the local stray to a parody anime-style rap battle. The writers were not afraid to limit what they could do with these characters, and it shows. Uchi Tama isn’t the most groundbreaking anime, but if you want to watch something relaxing yet entertaining (especially if you’re a pet lover), this series is worth a watch.

LovelyTekki★ 8

Uchi Tama has to be one of the weirdest reboots of a franchise I've ever seen. They took a little kid's show with cats and dogs, and turned it into adorable cat and dog boys (and 2 cat girls) telling slice of life stories. However, this in no way is a bad thing. In fact, being unafraid to try new things with a familiar property is one of the positives about Uchi Tama, and we still get to see the classic, animal designs of the characters used a decent amount. There isn't really so much of an ongoing story with this one, it's moreso acollection of short stories about the characters and their lives on Third Street. You have a variety of quirky cats and dogs to follow, like the adorable Tama, mysterious Nora, and tough but sweet Bull! Nora was probably my favourite, his backstory being surprisingly emotional and proving that while it's mainly a wholesome anime, Uchi Tama also knows how to tell an emotional story. The art for this show is very beautiful. Very soft colour palettes are used for the characters, and the animal designs look simple and sketched out much like the original Tama anime. One gimmick it has is switching from the kemonomimi designs for the characters to the animal designs when human characters are present, to show the audience that even if we see them in their more humanoid forms, they're still cats and dogs if given the ability to communicate their thoughts more directly to each other and the viewer. The music was also a nice treat, and several characters got their own unique ending themes. One thing to note about this anime is that it's not a great idea to watch it all at once. Some of the episodes suffer from a lack of variation in episodes, which can make it feel a bit boring to watch in one go. However, if you pace yourself and watch a little at a time, Uchi Tama is a great show to relax to and enjoy. This would be a good watch if you're looking for something short and sweet to view as a break between bigger releases.