Watamote: Episodes 1-3

Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaete mo Omaera ga Warui* is a moe slice-of-life comedy about the socially clueless high school girl Kuroki Tomoko. She does her damndest to become popular, but since her understanding of the world comes mostly from anime and video games, her attempts are usually hopeless at best. It airs on Crunchyroll on Mondays.

There are currently six episodes of the show out, and I'm going to try and catch up as quickly as I can so I can review episodes as they come out.



Episode 1: I'm unpopular, so I'll try and change my image a bit

Tomoko was very optimistic before she entered high school, but after attending for two months, she hasn’t managed to make even one friend. She’s determined to change that, though, so she makes several attempts to make herself more popular, including a poorly executed makeover (involving a Death Note inspired montage) and improving her conversation skills by talking with her grumpy brother Tomoki. The next day, she feels that she’s made enough progress to spend time around town reading manga and eating at “WcDonalds.” There, Tomoko sees people from her class, and to avoid them, she puts on a terrible disguise that not even John Egbert would be proud of. The episode ends on a rather sad note after an encounter with her brother’s friends, although that’s slightly alleviated when Tomoki comes to take Tomoko home.

I really think that Tomoko is an interesting character in a lot of ways. In her mind, she’s really aggressive, constantly making disparaging remarks about everyone around her, and since a lot of the show takes place inside her mind, it can be a bit surprising when she actually tries to talk to someone and has to force the words out. Tomoko’s extremely judgmental to the point that some of the things she says about other girls are horribly misogynistic, and what she thinks about many of her male classmates are no better. (“Girls who circlejerk like that are all morons with nothing but guys on their minds! And guys who put up with sluts like them are trash and nothing more. I’d rather be alone than hang out with them.”) Typically, those kinds of statements would bother me to the point that I might lose interest in a show, but I think it works in this case because they’re just one way that the show doesn’t present them as true, but rather as just another way that Tomoko’s clueless about socializing. It also seems to be a way of talking herself up so she doesn’t feel so bad about herself; she clearly doesn’t want to be alone, but if she pretends that she’s alone by choice, her situation feels a bit more tolerable.

She’s also strangely optimistic, which was actually pointed out in the show by her brother Tomoki. Tomoko knows she has problems and is doing her damnedest to solve them; it’s just that she’s unrealistic to the point of delusion, and all of her expectations of reality are built on experience with anime and video games. Still, she’s a person who sees what she wants and goes for it, and I can’t help thinking that’s admirable, and I like that she recognizes what she can do rather than just being hard on herself (like being elated that she managed to say “Goodbye” to her teacher, when the day before she could only mumble).

As you’d expect from an anime about an otaku, there are plenty of references to popular Japanese media. I’m sure there are some I’ve missed, but I love this sort of thing, so I’m going to do my best to keep an eye out for it.

Up top, it looks like...a Space Battleship Yamato reference, maybe? And that's followed by Ouran and a couple things I don't recognize, although the last one has the "Dutch angle" that's so popular in visual novels, so I'd assume it's from a game like that.

Episode 2: I'm unpopular, so I'll go see an old friend

The second episode of Watamote introduces Tomoko’s junior high friend Yuu, who Tomoko describes as a rather plain-looking nerd. Still, she spends the first half of the episode stressing out over what she’ll tell Yuu about her high school life – which is understandable, because who would want to talk about having no one to talk to and hiding in the nurse’s room to avoid working in pairs? Plus, when she finally meets up with Yuu, Tomoko discovers that her nerdy friend has turned into a lovely, fashionable, well-developed girl. Still, it doesn’t take long before the two of them are talking about anime like any pair of nerds, and they spend the rest of the day happily hanging out. It isn’t until the end of the episode that Tomoko admits that she’s been struggling in high school, but she wants them both to do their best, and Yuu says she feels the same since she just had her first fight with her boyfriend. And so the episode ends with Tomoko in a state of shock.

Something that stood out a bit in this episode was: Tomoko is pretty damn dirty minded. I’m sure that’s something that’s meant to guys who are into the moe fanservice thing, but honestly? As a quiet, nerdy girl myself, I can really empathize. Her “well I guess it’s time for some fantasizing” moments are exactly how I made it through my most boring classes. Plus, since the show is from Tomoko’s perspective and mostly inside her mind, it doesn’t seem forced or out-of-place.

And I’m afraid I’ve got to throw in a little piece of my perspective: I can’t help shipping Tomoko and Yuu. It’s not just that they’re really cute together, but I’m also starting to build a headcanon of Tomoko as a closeted lesbian. There are a couple scenes that make me think that, including accidentally looking up a girl’s skirt as she’s climbing stairs (which she rationalizes with “I was just wondering what kind of panties a girl with a boyfriend wears!”) and later when she meets Yuu, her thoughts quickly become dirtier (“Why is she wearing a miniskirt just to see me? Is she trying to tempt me?” and confusing her drink order of a frappucino with “fellaticino” – “Is that a dirty word? How freaky!”). Don’t get me wrong; I know it’s fanservicey queerbaiting, but I’m enjoying the headcanon for now.

Episode 3: I'm unpopular, so there's bad weather

Tomoko deals with her usual troubles, like being too shy to ask a classmate to share a textbook, and her day gets increasingly worse as she has to deal with the rain. When the rain destroys her umbrella, she’s forced to take refuge from the rain with two strangers. The boys she meets are moderately friendly, but Tomoko is so nervous that her attempts at joking are catastrophic failures. Realizing she’s about to cry, she hides in the bathroom and tries to form a plan for making conversation, but when she returns she discovers that the boys are gone. The next day, Tomoko goes to her PE class and is unable to find a group to play basketball with, so she sits against the wall and fantasizes. While she’s doing that, she suddenly passes out. She actually feels fine, but she’s so thrilled that she gets to go home from school and play video games that she decides to hang around her brother Tomoki, who actually is sick. Naturally, that backfires and she ends up getting sick all weekend instead of missing school.

This episode is the first time that Tomoko really seems vulnerable. There have been tons of times where she’s been awkward and uncomfortable, but she’s never been close to tears before. Both times she nearly cries in this episode are just quick moments that aren’t lingered over, but they still stand out as points of stronger emotion in the surrounding comedy.

The scenes with Tomoko and Tomoki interacting are always very cute. They have a great sibling relationship; it never devolves into fanservice or the stereotypical crushes that you find in a lot of anime. The two of them spend all of their time fighting, but there are a few rare moments (like the end of the first episode) where you can see how much they care about each other, and it works really well.

* I will never call it by that name again; it translates to No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular, but it’s shortened to WataMote.