but I continued to watch just to be sure about the shows ending and justify my words for a review. because Watamote is a show that couldhave been So much more!
And i'll state right now that i'll be diving a tiny bit into spoiler territory, but no further then episode 2.
The premise of Watamote is that our protagonist Tomoko is a girl with an extreme case being the gamer/otaku type along with a huge dose of teenage Anxiety, Unable to make any form of social contact with anyone besides close family, she Hates the world, she hates people and mostly she hates herself for what she is.
On one hand I see certain things in Watamote that I've experienced myself up till the age of 15, being the outcast, playing games and watching anime on my own all summer break, having no friends around, living in the fear of not knowing how you need to change your life in a meaning full direction.
On The other hand The anime apperantly finds it a form of comedy to NOT have her develop from this depth in her life. There are some legitemate moments where I'm invested in the way scene's are handled. But sadly a lot of the scenes turn into cheap laughs from emberassing scenes. and this is where he shows biggest problem lies. it doesn't know if it wants to be a cheap comedy or an actual progressing story. at one moment i'm facepalming and I pauze the video with the " I'm done with this shit. " line to follow, while an episode later I'm getting invested in the story again.
Thats why I want to adress episode 2, because it features Tomoko's friend Yuu from her previous school. and both these girls where on the same page. However Yuu developed more socially and Physically compared to Tomoko. But the interesting thing is Yuu, despite her developments has nobody to talk to about her anime/otaku hobby and this pains her. I'm flabbergasted the anime did not take the route to expand on that further. Those two characters using eachother to improve themselves on the fields they are weak in would be a great plot device! the same goes for a number of side characters Tomoko encounters in the serie, there are so many chances to include a likable side character she finaly had the courage of talking to into the maincast to help motivate her but it just doesn't happen. returning us to square one every single episode.
So instead we have to deal with Tomoko going through a nervous breakdown with uncontroled barfing for the umptieth time which just gets boring because it happens to much.
I actually got more interested in the side characters as I kept watching.
I wanted to know more about Tomoko's mom, her brother or her friend Yuu, because we hardly get to see any detail about them.
I wanted to like Watamote but it just doesn't go anywhere. leaving us with ultimatly nothing more then a timewaster.
