Reviews

Watamote is one of my very favorite franchises; I've been lucky enough to have followed it from the very first manga releases up through today. What Watamote brings to the table that no other work I've seen has is that it portrays the lifestyle of a loser, NEET, hikkikomori, or however else you'd phrase it, in a light that is both stark and realistic and also sympathetic and comedic. From what I can tell, most of the criticism the show receives is from folks for whom the character's struggles hit too close to home. Watamote doesn't have the tone though of a show that picks on the viewer; rather, it shows us the insider prospective of someone awkward and immature in both a way we can analyze and laugh at.

The show is brilliant in that it is what I'd call an 'un-moé.' Tomoko, being less than confident in her own merits, frequently uses the kinds of 'get-popular-quick' schemes that, in moé animes, would work. She'll try adopting a persona of an 'anime hungry girl,' trying and failing to drink coffee in a trendy manner, or seducing her brother to predictably disastrous effects. When we are privy to Tomoko being a pervert, it is not presented with the kind of acceptance we'd see in an ecchi, instead either leaning into how bizarre it makes Tomoko. The interplay of the character with the show's refreshing, albeit perhaps gimmicky, tentpole makes for laughter and oof's in abundance.

The show isn't bursting with production value, however the artistic decisions are novel and amusing, with moody filters, use of kinetic typography and graphics, and even cubist renderings of Tomoko. Music and sound design are similarly on the quirky side, which really helps in establishing the mood, whether it be the naïve optimism of one of Tomoko's plans being lain or the wasteland of cringe when the ugly duckling finally hatches.

At least in the realm of comedy, nothing has come close to Watamote for me in terms of enjoyment. That's perhaps what makes its lack of a second season such a bitter pill; it seems anime fans, many of whom could probably benefit from the kind of cultural and personal introspection Watamote can offer them, had their fill with one season. It's a cruel irony that Watamote, which offered a chance for moé slobs to take a look at themselves and what they're doing with their lives, have ditched it by the wayside in favor of the newest season's oppai lolis and brutish male characters lifting skirts at will to no discernable consternation. Further, while the show and manga series are not 100% congruent, I highly urge anyone who likes the one to try the other. This is practically mandatory viewing in my opinion to anyone who either suffers from the kind of personal anxiety Tomoko does or anyone mired in the muck of moé shows.