_Watamote_ is one of the most painful anime I have ever watched, up there with _End of Evangelion_. I was expecting something not so much in the vein of the lighthearted _Genshiken_ or _Tatami Galaxy_, but the fairly dark _Welcome to the N.H.K.!_ and I got that, in spades, without the slightest hope of redemption, turned up to the max.
Anxiety about social interactions is common. And it's amusing - lots of great gags are based on misunderstandings, overthinking things, worries which turn out to be groundless, and revelations of things better kept secret. _Watamote_ has all that, in every episode. And it has plenty of irony: I particularly enjoyed, when I was still watching episode 1 and didn't realize what I was in for, Kuroki's bookstore line "The people here are all way worse than me. Feels good to be here." Yeah, that really sums up a lot of nerds' feelings sometimes at safe places like conventions, doesn't it? It's amusing for being ironic on Kuroki as it's immediately subverted, but the viewer probably can recognize that the line and irony apply to themselves a little bit as well.
The problem is... it all goes too far. Not too long ago, I was corresponding with what I now suspect to have been a mentally ill person, and I deliberately mocked their claims and led them on to see what they'd say (http://www.gwern.net/Blackmail); it occurred to me partway that they might be mentally ill, but I dismissed it as my usual arrogance, until a vaguely increasing sense of unease and sense of guilt led me to tone things down. In retrospect, I did not handle the incident too well. I began to feel the same way in episode 3: that I was enjoying myself at the expense of someone who I should not be enjoying myself at the expense of, that I was being shown the humiliation and mockery of someone deeply disabled and mentally ill. In fact, look up the DSM-5's criteria for 'social anxiety disorder': A-G match perfectly except *perhaps* C ("The person recognizes that this fear is unreasonable or excessive."). You wouldn't watch a film about mocking the blind, or the deaf, or playing pranks on paraplegics, or about tying cans to a cat's tail; you wouldn't enjoy an anime focused on the wacky doings of a mentally retarded person - *you'd feel bad about yourself*. I feel bad about watching _Watamote_. Kimochi warui, dudes. I felt mental pain watching many episodes. I had to pause scenes, or just stop episodes for that day, or play them on 2x to force my way through the chagrin and embarrassment.
Kuroki is, besides a sick character who you want to see get treatment, not a nice person, to put it mildly. She has a serious sadistic streak, massively projects negative traits, is self-centered and entitled, abusive of others, and resents the slightest justified demand on her. It's not pleasant watching her, at all. A character without redeeming aspects is a hard sell as a protagonist, and I'd probably appreciate such a non-moe female character if I could get over everything else. But actually, it's probably better for the viewer's peace of mind to not sympathasize with Kuroki (although it's hard given that we spend the entire series inside her head, and we all remember similar embarrassing experiences as those Kuroki endures, even if ours were much tamer).
Worse are the people around her. It seems initially cute when her mother walks in on her doing something extremely awkward and pretends it doesn't exist, or when her father finds her asleep having apparently masturbated and just calmly puts her to bed. It gets a lot less cute when you begin to notice that Kuroki's social anxiety is pathological, longstanding, and notice that almost the only time Kuroki's mother disciplines her is when Kuroki threatens her image when her sister is coming over with Kuroki's cousin, and when she needs some work done. My mental image of the mother as tolerating Kuroki's phase and giving her space to work out her issues without pressuring her suddenly flips into a different concern: Japanese society is, I am told, not very good at dealing with mental illness and puts a stigma and taboo on acknowledging any issues or seeking treatment. _Watamote_ is generally a very realistic show (eg all the references I noticed were to real stuff: a ton of _Haruhi_ references, _Detective Conan_, _Another_, _K-On!_, Nico Nico Douga, _Nadia_, McDonald's, etc), including no fantastical materials, minimal coincidences, an unattractive protagonist who isn't Hollywood Homely (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HollywoodHomely)... What ever shows that Kuroki's parents care much about her at all, and aren't just protecting their social image and reputation and doing their best to pretend Kuroki has no problems? For that matter, what about her classmates? The show seems to go out of its way to depict all her classmates as good nice people who even are bothered by killing a cockroach, and certainly are not bullying or mistreating Kuroki... yet, she never speaks to anyone. Isn't that going a little beyond their description "Kuroki-san is quiet"? Quiet, certainly, but never talking to anyone, never eating lunch with anyone, never participating in anything... It's not like they don't have plenty of opportunity to notice. The council president starts to suspect the problem after just 2 or 3 brief encounters with Kuroki, and her cousin strongly suspects after a day or two. The class could know if it wants to. We might initially place our hope in the teachers, since the homeroom teacher interacts a little bit with Kuroki early on, but it never goes beyond that. Why only ever tell her to be careful on the way home? You can try talking about more than that! And her best friend Yuu? Completely oblivious. (Or is she? Given that she seems to be consciously playing a role, one wonders.)
So. The parents are apparently trying to cover everything up. The classmates and teacher feel they're doing enough. The brother takes the brunt of Kuroki's abuse and warped cries for help, but it's a little much to expect him to handle it all by himself and he does his fair share. Her only friend doesn't realize there's any problem. Kuroki can't help herself; she tries, but it all fails. She tries repeatedly, and it fails, and even her final effort in the last episode to reach the council president fails (and depressingly, she seems to realize there's a problem but to think Kuroki is working hard, which is true but sounds like an excuse to forget about the matter, and given the whole overall thrust of _Watamote_, it's hopeless to expect anything good to come out of their interactions).
Everyone is clueless, disengaged, or covering it up. No one will help, and those who want to, can't. There is no sign that Kuroki will ever get better. That things will ever improve. She will forever be trapped in her room, trapped in her fantasies and a sad little girl outside them, unable to develop into anything or have real friends. The pervading sense is a harsh bitter hopelessness. Being resigned to despair is still a form of despair.
Overall, I think the ANN review by Theron Martin (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/watamote/episodes-1) does a good job reviewing the series, but I have to disagree with the summation that the tragedy is sufficiently balanced by comedy and that "occasionally feel like it is just dumping misfortune on Tomoko, but it never goes far enough with this to negate how Tomoko creating her own misfortune makes the series' title incredibly ironic".
Or the series tags... 'Comedy'? 'Slice of life'? 'Morbidly funny' This is supposed to be funny? I'm supposed to laugh? You must be shitting me. If this was not intended by the creators to be a pitch-black psychological horror work (at which it succeeds nauseatingly well) almost unrelieved by any humor but that which indicts the viewer for finding it funny - they have much to answer for.
> "Somebody remarked: 'I can tell by my own reaction to it that this book is harmful.' But let him only wait and perhaps one day he will admit to himself that this same book has done him a great service by bringing out the hidden sickness of his heart and making it visible."
Kimochi warui.
