Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui!: Motenaishi, Nazomeite Miru

It's a cheeky little story about Tomoko when she was younger. It shows her cringeworthy personality of that period (yes a different type of cringeworthy than the current Tomoko). But there's a friend who falls for this tomfoolery and thinks she's actually cool. It's adorable and a good story.

The art, animation, music, sound etc. play out like a regular Watamote episode. It's just this one isn't as depressing and is actually a little sweet. I like how they transition to the opening at the start of this, with a bunch of fourth-wall breaking. It's very nice.

I have a very soft spot for this show. I ... watched a funny Mumkey Jones video about it back in the day and that left an impact on me. I really empathise and honestly sympathise with Tomoko and seeing her have a decent moment here was great. Such an adorable yet tragic character.

The little twist at the end is cool, it sucks this wasn't explored in the manga. Anyway, it's good and I recommend giving it a shot. If only they could adapt the rest of the manga into anime form then we'd get a more complete story with more wholesome character development. But it has been about 9 years since the first season came out. In any case, this OVA is a 7/10.

This is one of three anime so far which I have given a 10/10 rating. I only give this rating when a show is not only perfect, but expands my horizons with regard to what I think is possible with the medium.

I'd never thought it was possible to relate to an anime so much as I did with WataMote. The few characters that are featured are written with a brutally realistic depth, and the show is the only example of what I might call "Slice of True Life". The realistic juxtaposition of narcissism and depression incarnated in Tomoko Kuroki belies a character depth and understanding ... of humanity usually only displayed by therapists and other psychology professionals. There was never a choice made with regard to the writing that I didn't find believable and, on a fundamental level, correct for the character. Lying to people relentlessly, cheating, mentally insulting strangers, every bit of it was exactly who I was in middle school. The way she is utterly alone in her pain is almost never expressed in anime, but this show treats loneliness like an old friend, joking with it, laughing as it dies inside. This is so much closer to the reality of being a lonely but narcissistic kid. The meta-commentary never ceases to be hilarious, which at first I thought might just be unintentional, but in the beginning of the OVA they pretty much spell out that they understand the metacritical implications of their storywriting. Some people say this show is too cringey, but I usually hate schadenfreude comedy and I love this show. It feels less to me like they're trying to get the audience to laugh at her than it feels like the audience is laughing at her despite the author's wish to engender sympathy, which of course is icing on the metacritical cake.

I could write an essay on WataMote, so I'll stop here. Suffice to say I think this is the best Slice of Life anime ever, and that I'd recommend this anime to absolutely anyone.

Watamote is a fairly decent anime, but the OVA is not - it feels a bit thematically contradictory to what actually takes place in the show; Tomoko doesn't deserve to be rewarded with the gift of an implicated destined meetup with a boy just like her, because the whole point is that Tomoko is a terrible person whose incapable of escaping from her world view that's formed from a malicious congealing of her spiteful loneliness and addiction to unrealistic romantic material, fueling her envious perception of the world, where every other woman is a "slut".

Episode 12 might have been a miserable ending to the series, ... but it thematically fit, especially as a warning about the dangers of Tomoko's type of lifestyle and thought processes, which ultimately alienate her from everybody that could possibly help her as she literally runs away from those that want to help her or like her.

It would have made more sense to have the OVA involve Tomoko changing her mindset, even just a little bit; enough to show that she's on the path to a better future.