review provided by Katie and Andrew
Title: WataMote-No Matter How I look at It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular!: Complete Collection
Director: Shin Onuma
Studio: Silver Link
Author: Takao Yoshioka
U.S. Distributor: Sentai Filmworks / Section 23
U.S. Release Date: August 26, 2014
Format and Length: Blu-ray / 12 Episodes / 300 Minutes
Genre: Comedy, School, Slice of Life
Industry Age Rating: 17 and up
Overall Personal Rating: B
Similar Series or Titles to Check Out: My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU and Welcome to the NHK
Synopsis:
Tomoko Kuroki has already dated many boys and she is easily the most popular girl around at the young age of 15, however the only problem is that none of that has actually happened! Tomoko’s perfect little world only exists in dating games and romance shows on T.V. The sad truth is that she is unable to actually talk to people and she only had one actual friend in middle school. This makes Tomoko’s first year of high school miserable. She wants to be popular but she ends up trying too hard and learns that things so not play out the same in reality as they do in her “otome” games. She is in for a lot of pain and blames a new person every time she fails. Will Tomoko ever make a friend at school or is she doomed to be lonely for ever? You will have to watch WataMote and find out.
Commentary:
WataMote is a true slice-of-life anime as each episode gives us a daily view into the life of Tomoko. We see her at school, at home annoying her brother, and on summer break. Her days are filled with fantasying, video games, television, and her continual thoughts on why she is a ‘mojyo’(the anime provides a definition in the first and last scenes, but basically it’s an unpopular, dateless, unwanted, untouched female). In a nutshell, WataMote is the painful story of a painfully anti-social girl’s painful life. Some will relate to Tomoko and others will just shake their heads. She cannot interact with anyone, except maybe her own family, or people much younger than her. Every time someone speaks to her, they are greeted with stuttering, mumbling, and a constant view of her hair, as she stares at the ground, unable to even fake eye contact. There are not many characters because the entire story is about the life of Tomoko and without friends or the ability to interact with people, there is few people in her life. This first person perspective limited you to her views, ideas, and criticisms of the other characters. And she does have a lot of criticism for all who have ignored her, usually laced with dirty jokes and profanity. The plot progression is very lifelike, as in nonexistent. If you are able to relate to Tomoko then the progression will be very close to how life actually is. However, if you are on the other side you will not understand why the word ‘hello’ is so hard to say.
WataMote is a series that you will either enjoy or hate. This series dares to be different and wastes no time on romanticizing high school life. Instead it portrays it for what many of us really saw it for, a sad place that you are forced to endure for eight hours a day. Few anime series have had the courage to do this. That being said, I found that some of the episodes seemed to go on forever and some of the episodes seemed to be very similar to other episodes. The ending also upset me because it abruptly ended and gave no closure to Tomoko’s problem and the main plot line in the series. She at times would contradict herself, always wanting to be extremely popular, yet in the next sentence complain about how she cannot lead the life of a neet. In the end she gained nothing and was unchanged. I think they did this in hopes of a second season, or maybe so that you would check out the manga. Or in all truth, maybe she never changes and this will be her life. Either way there is no conclusion. She continually fails to understand that life is nothing like dating sims, or video games. The opening animation was definitely fitting for the mood of the series. Not often does a screaming heavy metal rage piece fit, but here it fit so perfectly, with the transitions of Tomoko screaming into the opening worked and set the tone for what to expect. The ending was a pretty normal j-poppy song with Tomoko singing over it at certain parts like bad karaoke, cute, but not really special. Overall, if you are another Tomoko, or have any ability to relate in any way, you will enjoy WataMote.
Extras:
WataMote includes clean opening and closing animations and Sentai trailers as special features. This series includes both English and Japanese with English subtitles as language options. Both are good options, it just depends on your viewing preference.
Overall Grade: B
I found WataMote to be an interesting series. However, just remember that this series is a little strange and has many dirty jokes and rough language running through it. As long as you are prepared for those things I think many people may enjoy this interesting, off the wall anime.
