discussing anime its grosss i cut myself after watching its maker should die in a f***ing Hole where noone will see them, and noone should ever care for this F**king person
The way I discovered this anime was that I was watching a guy's "Top 10 Worst Anime". Watamote was #10 on his list and said that there was some redeeming factors that keep it watchable to his perspective. He described it as a bit too awkward for his taste and that's the type of comedy I like.
Story
Kuroki Tomoki is just about to entire high school hoping it will be the best time ever. She wants the romanticized high school life by having tons of friends and have boys swooning over her. However, everything went completely the other way for her. Nobody even recognized her and she's just too shy to speak to anyone. The story is mostly about her trying to create those cliche high school moments but failing to do so. It's somewhat of a parody. The comdey was mainly awkward situations, but were sometimes a bit too awkward and was cringeworthy. It wasn't really attention-grabbing. It took me a while to get into and a little longer to finish because it just didn't have much of that "It" factor for me. The ending though. I hope that that was just the real deal. For a sympathetic character like Tomoki, I just want the best outcome for her.
Animation
It's decent quality. Not many ground-breaking new styles. It did have a good amount of moments when they had different styles that I very much enjoyed. Good contrast with the bright colors and Tomoki's dark, gloomy, and somber atmosphere.
Sound
Not much of note here either. Opening is pretty annoying with the screamo and I uaually skip that. I do commend Tomoko's voice actress for having good range. She goes from her normal voice, which is pretty much her talking to herself, to her talking to others being so quiet you can hear a pin drop.
Characters
Not many to get confused with. There's about 3-4 characters including the side characters. My type of thing cause I'd quickly forget if there's a huge cast. Let's talk about Tomoki because she's the main character. I don't know whether to laugh with her or have overwhelming sympathy for her. It was half and half for me. Now that I'm taking a critical look at it, I just felt bad for her and wanted the best possible outcome for it. She's kind of a jerk though. She calls the only friend she has, Narise Yuu, a bitch just because she got all pretty and popular since getting into high school. Narise was a nerdy girl but became gorgeous causing Tomoki to spite her even though Narise is still really sweet to her still cares about her.
Overall
"Did I enjoy it?" is what I always think after watching an anime and review it. I liked it but not loved it like a lot of others I've watched. It did its job in entertaining me. One of my favorite things about this show are the references to other shows that I did love. There was a Kuroko no Basket refence, a K-On! refence, and a small appearance of Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-Kun but not a real reference. It was a nice change of pace for me and I did enjoy this show.
Story; [8/10]
I feel as though there are two perspectives to the same story that can be taken here, (Kuroki Tomoko doesn't stand out and her social skils are atrocious, as a result she can't make friends at school or have the romantic high school experience she wanted). One side of the story is the ridiculous schemes she comes up with to make friends or to to make her school life more fufilling and worthwhile. This is the comedy of the series and some of it can be fairly unrealistic while others might not be, depending on your experiences at high school. The other side is the real part of Tomoko's situation, that despite her best, valiant and repeated attempts to fit in at school and make one or two friends, she is rendered completely helpless, desperate and alone. Whether you see that side of it, probably depends on your ability to relate with those feelings and whether you begin to see Tomoko as a depiction of a real life scenario or just an anime character made for the sake of the comedy.
If you can't see both sides to the story and appreciate both of them, as well as learn to care for the character of Tomoko herself as opposed to seeing her antics, perverse and depraved nature as the more defining traits of her character, rather than her loneliness and honesty then this anime could fail in a number of ways. If you only see it as a comedy or if you don't find it funny and see it as a drama, I don't think you could have enjoyed this anime and given it an 8 as I have. I have always had a problem wth "comedic dramas" aka the mixing of comedy and drama as the two major themes but I think that because of how the comedy never lost sight of how there is a tragic side to this story (after all her tragedy is our amusement) and how the drama never lost sight of the fact that this isn't a serious drama, it is still a comedy as well and her darkest moments can also be her funniest ones that they don't undermine each other the way that they have in other animes.
There isn't a whole lot of depth to the story and at the end of the day it is just a stupid comedy but I felt drawn to Tomoko, because despite how depraved, perverted and hopeless, she for the most part was very honest with herself, tenacious and compared to her real life counterparts she was quite inspiring. I still found the anime hilarious at times but I am so glad watamote never transitioned into the serious drama that several other animes have,it turned out to be a unique blend and experience that restored some of my faith in the comedic drama genre.
Animation: [9/10]
Everything was perfect, the realism, the sterotypes and everything else! From Tomoko's greasy, broken appearence to her classmates and Yuu there was very little to complain about in my opinion. It perfectly matched the comedic drama setting by not taking itself too seriously while portraying a degree of the truth. A good example of this was how every character except Tomoko and her family was shining and attractive. Even her teachers were all good looking, only Tomoko showed any blemish or ugliness. However her brother looks exactly like her and her mother looks fairly ordinary too, the only few people she can speak normally to. At the same time we didnt have any stupid overexaggurated cute characters, they were normal enough to be compared to real life and that was important for me as it was essential dramatically that the anime wasn't seperated from its realism too heavily. There are a lot of things to say about the animation but my main point is that it managed to play a symbolic role while playing a part in the story and I feel like most anime are more concerned with the aesthetics rather than it's actual implications within the story which is a shame because they are free to draw whatever they like. They don't have real life limitations and so on.
Sound: [8.5/10]
I felt like the OP was so out of place in some episodes becuase of how harmless and young Tomoko is portayed in the anime, she isn't a dangerous rebel she's just a hapless girl who's desperate to fit in. However the ED felt right at home, having her seriyuu sing it was just amazing. Speaking of her seriyuu I thought this was one of the best performances I have ever seen in all my experience of watching anime. Tomoko literally would not have been the same without her, I felt like the OST didn't have to do much and that doing anything more than it did would probably just take attention away from the focus of the anime.
Characters [9/10]
On one hand, the characters are pretty shallow and are rarely explored with any depth apart from Tomoko but on the other they all fit their roles fairly perfectly. Tomoko's relationship with her brother and her mother were both amazing. There is actually a lot to be said about these relatively simplistic characters. She looks exactly like her brother, has similar interests to him and was very close to him in their past yet their situations are completely different. He is the only character she feels completely comfortable to say whatever she feels like to without any hesistation or fear and says completely shameless things despite her shyness. The way this fits the comedy and the realism is exceptional, they perfectly reflect what you would expect out of a brother/sister relationship. that repulsion mixed in with that unique brother-sister willingness to look out for and help one another and so on.
The closeness of the names Tomoki and Tomoko, the closeness in their age and appearence emphasised for me the idea that Tomoki is in many ways what Tomoko wants for herself and how it would look like if she actually had it. That these two nearly identical and closely related individuals have completely different social situations, to me highlights the meaninglessness and unfairness of Tomoko's predicament. Although others may find completely different things that interest them or may reject my opinions, interpretations and reactions, I feel like there is a lot more to be talked about than there is in most other anime, despite how silly watamote can be.
For the sake of comedy, realism and intricacy these were great characters, and while people who don't have a brother or sister may not feel anything towards tomoko and tomoki's relationship, and if you dont understand Tomoko's position with her mother, yuu or with her classmates and teachers then there isn't anything special about them, in fact they are boring and simple. However the "funny because it's true" factor goes hand in hand with the anime being emphasised as a depicition of a real life scenario to make these characters perfect for their roles.
Overall [8/10]
Overall is not an average of the other scores, it reflects the overall presentation of the anime as a whole and the truth is although each section is done beautifully, these things that I can say about them only make sense when talking about the anime as a single thing. When you are watching one episode you may not always be impressed by how relatable, or funny or whatever this series is but I think that by the end of it you may feel the same way that I do. At the end of the day this anime is a collection of episodes and I wouldn't blame you if you said at least half of the episodes weren't memorable, although I personally enjoyed most of them. I think whether you enjoy this anime or not will depend on many things, I would suggest that if the idea of Tomoko's situation is interesting to you then you will enjoy this anime. If you fail to pierce it's surface intellectually, then you will not enjoy it's contents emotionally, perhaps that's not true for everyone though, I would recommend this anime as worthwhile to anyone regardless.
Watamote. The hilariously depressing and comically awkward slice of life anime that presents the struggles of an extremely introverted high school girl trying to become popular. Parallel to Welcome to the NHK, Watamote has a fun, edgy, satirical charm to it. Taking gloomy topics like social anxiety, loneliness, panic disorder, image problems, and the eagerness to feel wanted and turning it into ridiculously relatable dark humor. This is one of the many things that makes Watamote so popular. Its relatability. Lots of people enjoy this anime because they can relate to the social problems the main character deals with. Widely universal and especially prominent when you’re a teen these topics involving social life are somberly relevant. Especially the times when she is in awkward situations or extremely cringey ones. Despite the dreary mood to accompany these dispiriting problems Watamote always has a lighthearted lens on board making every serious moment have a hint of comedy. The representation of these topics are surprisingly accurate too even with the comedy and magnification of them. Many anime fail to truly make a loner character not seem cliche because of their over exaggeration of the awkward events they are in, but this anime got every awkward scene to be relatable and realistic without losing that comical charm. I honestly could relate so much to Tomoko as a character and most of her problems. Almost everything she did made me have a flashback to a thing I did when I was young and withdrawn like her. It is stunning how Tomoko is crafted with pinpoint accuracy as the living embodiment of a confused, insecure, introverted, naive, and lonely teen. This shockingly on target relatability makes Watamote even more approachable as a show. The emotionally fragile stage of high school and what it can do to your self esteem, we watch Tomoko as she goes along her hysterical adventures on the road to become the ultimate sought-after highschool girl. Having no linear storyline because of its episodic nature Watamote always has fresh, new, and funny escapades to witness. Each episode is a delight as to never failing to make me laugh, reminisce on my cringey school days, or wince from second hand embarrassment. This anime was so entertaining that I had to stop myself from finishing it in a day because I wanted to savor each episode. Because of the outstanding comedy this anime truly made me laugh hard, not giggle, but actually laugh hard throughout the entirety of watching. Honestly I can’t recall how many times I laughed because I did it too much. That’s a thing I haven’t experienced in quite a bit. Watamote’s sense of humor is a mixture of cringey moments, otaku topics, satire on anime, outlandishly lewd comments (coming from no other than Tomoko), and goofy problems. This isn’t uncommon for slice of a life anime and on a surface level extremely bland. But Watamote isn’t like other slice of life anime, this comedy is executed flawlessly using its relatability as well as accuracy to awkward moments to its advantage. This goes side to side with its hilarious dark humor about introvertedness and it's priceless use of dirty jokes making this anime one that you won't get bored of easily. Even though its use of dramatic irony and blue humor is like clock work, it's shocking topics and clever punchlines always managed to make me laugh everytime it was used. I never ever once felt like Watamote's comedy was repetitive or dry, it was always unique, shocking, and absolutely brilliant. Once people get to the end of this show many say that it “was pointless” or Tomoko “lacked character development” or “this was too cringey” or “this didn’t go anywhere”. This problem lies in two things. One, Watamote’s anime adaptation is far from finished. The manga is still ongoing to this day, which extensively shows Tomoko’s metamorphosis as a person. Two, is that you didn’t look at this show properly or simply didn’t relate to Tomoko as much as other people did. If you really paid attention to Tomoko’s behavior when it comes to her social anxiety and her introvertedness, she has come quite a bit. She used to be unable to talk to anybody and constantly stayed home. By the end of the anime she actually approached people to talk to them, rekindled an old friendship, and went out several times. While this didn’t lack any awkward or uncomfortable moments this does show that even if it was a little Tomoko is changing. To speak on the “cringe” that many people find to be insufferable in the show, the “cringe” is there so that you can understand Tomoko as a person. You constantly see her struggle with her social life in a way that is meant to make you feel second hand embarrassment. This was probably the most hated on part that I absolutely adored. I felt like I could really connect with Tomoko as a person other than us having similar experiences, by the way those awkward events were portrayed. In retrospect this season is just a stepping stone to the manga, it covers a little bit over thirty chapters. I suggest reading the manga though because it is filled with way more development and new characters. While the manga is certainly better than the anime for many reasons, Watamote is a great show. One that you can experience all types of emotions watching and really have fun with it. I really recommend it.
as big fan of this series i love what they done with this arc.
they delete all comedy content from the manga and make minor changes, and what we see now is masterpiece.
Sounds
the ost in this anime is Fire ,and this arc no doubt is fantastic I LOVE IT.
10/10
art
this anime is always known of wonderful animation back days, this arc is worth the wait
this gorgeous animation is in next level.
10/10
characters
at this point we all know all the old characters and how great they are.
for the new enmy so far they only 5 eps we can't talk too much here.
but for what we see is well done characters.
10/10
story
with 4 to 6 chapters adapt per episode and what we see until now make the story phenomenal.
10/10
overall 10/10
Reviewer’s Rating: 10