Ebichu the Housekeeping Hamster is a delightful tale of love, romance, sex, and violence. But mostly sex and violence. Actually... just sex and violence. Nothing but sex and violence.

It premiered on Japanese Television as the first of a three-block anime set called the Anime Love Bubble Bubble Hour or the Anime Love Awa Awa Hour, and was produced by Gainax; original manga by Itoo Risa. The story, much like Gainax's other works, is... moot. The story doesn't matter. All you need to know is that this show is hilarious in its depiction of... yup, that's right... sex and violence.

Characters

Ebichu - voiced by Mitsuishi Kotono. Ebichu is a talking (although she pronounces S like Ch) hamster that will do anything for her master. Unfortunately, Ebichu easily makes mistakes and is frequently punished for them. Violently. Ebichu finds happiness in the simple things... ice cream, Camembert cheese, and making her master happy. Ebichu also has sexual psychic abilities and can tell why/what/how people are having their sexual relations. AND WATCH OUT FOR EBICHUMAN! SHE FLIES AND HAS SUPER ULTRA SEXUAL PSYCHIC ABILITIES. BOY HOWDY!

Ebichu's Master - voiced by Tomizawa Michie. Ebichu's Master doesn't have a name, even in the manga. She's just referred to as Office Lady, or Master. She is 25 years old (considered the oldest a Japanese woman can get a husband) and is desperate. She bought Ebichu for 1050 yen (around $10), but for no apparent reason, because it seems as if she hates Ebichu.

Kaishounashi - voiced by Seki Tomokazu. Office Lady's deadbeat boyfriend. He cheats on her, he drinks, he gambles, he sleeps around some more, and then sweet talks her back into their emotionless relationship when he needs her for a good fuck. He seems to hate Ebichu just as much as Ebichu seems to hate him.

Story and stuff

There is no coherent, useful storyline or plot. None that are worth following, anyway. A generic episode goes something like this... sex, hamster beatings, sex, sex, hamster beatings, sex, the end. It's really quite ingenious. The TV show was the first of its kind in Japan. It's raunchy, dirty, smutty, filled with nudity, and words and content that can really only be matched by South Park. Ebichu really raised the bar for anime everywhere. Or maybe lowered? I don't know.

Much like South Park besides content, Ebichu is a really funny show that relies on a quick wit and pervertedness over the usual slapstick. One of the (cornier) jokes is as follows:

Ebichu: What do you think of when you think of Fall?
OL: What's gotten into you all of a sudden?
Ebichu: Kuri, right?
Ebichu: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU THINK OF CHESTNUTS!?
Ebichu: Well, risu, right?
OL: What's your point?
Ebichu: kuritorisu! Oh my goodness, Oh my goodness! teeheehee.

This type of joke (which is one of the milder ones, and if you didn't get it, don't pronounce the U's and remember that the Japanese pronounce L's as R's and R's as L's, also that 'to' in Japanese roughly means 'and') hadn't really been seen on Japanese television prior to Ebichu. Because of its raunchiness, the original airings of Ebichu were massively censored and bleeped, much like earlier episodes of South Park. To further the similarities between the two, Ebichu's animation quality appears to be below par, but in fact this is intentional. The animators could get away with more if it was poorly drawn.

On top of the sexual part of the show, is the violence part, which is even funnier than the sex. But it's more of a HAHAa... awwww... hahaha... style of comedy than anything else. I mean, while it's absolutely hilarious to see a hamster fly across the room only to hit the wall in a bloody SPLAT! is rather sad... for a minute. After that it's funny again.

All in all, if you like South Park, you'll love Ebichu the Housekeeping Hamster too!