Review of WataMote: No Matter How I Look At It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!

I've watched this show before, but after watching it again many years later, I've come to appreciate this show a lot more. This show is either meta, cringe, unfunny, or hopefully not, relatable to you. One thing is for sure: it's different, and I haven't yet seen something like this show. Look at another show with a similar start: Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru. Yeah, the "loner unsociable kid" from episode one somehow gets babes left and right by the end of the series. What about something more modern? Jaku-chara Tomozaki-kun: loner guy who actually probably has more issues than Momoko inthe beginning manages to get a hot girl to help him out for absolutely no reason other than for easy plot progression. Most of the time, these shows are the definition of wish fufillment or just damn unrealistic. Watashi ga Motenai mocks them, berates them, and even has a female protagonist, which makes it even more pathetic and more blatant how these other shows are just cringe af.
I say that, but Watashi ga Motenai is extremely cringe as well. It's embarrassing. Momoko is an extremely emotionally strong character. I'm cringing behind a monitor watching her do what she had to do. I actually skipped an entire episode because I just had to, or I was going to kill myself out of second hand embarrassment. At the same time, that's the charm, I suppose.
Watashi ga Motenai takes the opposite side of the spectrum compared to those wish fulfillment fantasy stories. Momoko is unlucky, nothing really good happens to her, and any attempts at self improvement only further reflects her loneliness and lack of self esteem. A fun, refreshing take, if I'm being honest here. Even 8 years later, writing this review, a lot of the things that Watashi ga Motenai pokes fun at is still being used as tropes today.