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

Spoilers alert, I guess. I don't go into specific episodes/scenes, though. Let me tell you a little story about one of the worst creations to come out of the cesspool that is 2ch--which is basically Japanese Reddit, before Reddit was a thing. Back in 2004 an anime called Rozen Maiden was airing, and one of the main characters was named Suiseiseki. You need not know about the specifics of the anime, or the character: all you need to know was that Suiseiseki, aside from very rare moments, was yet another one of the many ungrateful, arrogant, and irrationally violent tsunderes that were rampant in anime aroundthe time, and her sole purpose in life was to make the main character as miserable as possible. Fast-forward a year or two: a character that had been created from the darkest recesses of 2ch was gradually gaining a name for itself--based on a horrible drawing of Suiseiseki that aims to emphasize the uncanny valley effect, this character was named Jissouseki (実装石). Although it initially had several interpretations, stories, and characterizations, all other uses ceased to be as Jissouseki's core features were decided upon: Jissousekis would become the most pathetic, weak, and vile creatures to ever exist. Jissousekis were all of the negative aspects of Suiseiseki turned up to 12: they had the strength of a newborn baby, the agility of a goldfish on land, the perceptive powers of an amoeba, the lifespan of a cicada, and the face of a Cacodemon that had had way, way too many cigarettes. Thus, they were completely dependent on their human masters for survival: even so, they would constantly mock their masters, condescendingly ordering them to get expensive sushi and steak, before proceeding to eat their own feces, or worse, their own children. They feared the likes of domesticated dogs and cats and other small animals, yet would challenge their human masters just because they understood their language, demanding they obey their every whim--already having forgotten that their masters had run out of their patience and just bludgeoned one of their kind to death right in front of them, 5 seconds ago. Jissouseki stories usually went two ways: either the human master is a 'saint' and has it in their heart to care for these utterly ungrateful creatures, or their masters would take joy in the moment they would reduce these monsters into little green pools of blood. The key here is violence: unbridled, over-the-top violence against these lowly and unworthy Jissousekis, to feel better than these disgusting hell-spawn by lifting their baseless hopes up, only to have them come crashing down. Jissouseki comics are incredibly graphic, frequently showing dismemberment, decapitation, amputations, and all kinds of acts that usually belong in snuff films. DO NOT search it unless you're morbidly curious, and don't say I didn't warn you.

So, why am I telling you this unappetizing story? Because watching Watamote made me remember these horrible abominations. Or rather, the attitude that the creators have toward the main character reminded me of how Jissousekis are treated. More on that later.

Anyway, Watamote's plot is that a high school student named Tomoko, after realizing that she is the furthest one could possibly be from being the school idol, takes various steps to increase her popularity. The problem is that Tomoko is an unattractive, unkempt, socially awkward otaku who can't even properly hold a conversation with the nearest McDonald's part-timer, and can barely whisper out an inaudible 'yes' or 'no' to any given question. What ensues are the various endeavors she undergoes to increase her popularity with the help of her brother and friend, and the catastrophic blunders she makes along every step of the way. These blunders are supposed to be funny. They're not. It took me several days to properly watch this anime: I had to pause almost every 5 minutes because of the sheer amount of discomfort I felt whenever Tomoko, uh, 'exceeded my expectations'.

Granted, the animation can be quite decent, especially when Tomoko lets her fantasies run wild. The show does not pull any stops when portraying Tomoko's countless failures. Her face constantly changes to accommodate her current mood, her vomit will be displayed at a crisp frame-rate, etc. Kitta Izumi's voice acting as Tomoko is also quite stellar: she makes sure to act out Tomoko as the creepy otaku girl and her diverse range of reactions, yet can also portray Tomoko's idealized version of herself during her daydreams just fine. Those are this show's only redeeming qualities.

Why is that so? It's simple: Tomoko is the most unrealistically unlikable caricature of a human being that could exist. You see, Tomoko's desire to improve herself is not because she truly understands her predicament or how she's viewed by everyone else, or a desire to have a connection with her fellow human beings. She doesn't want to be better: what she 'really' wants is for everyone to be worse than she is, since claiming that everyone is worse than you are takes considerably less effort than actually owning up to your problems and trying to dig yourself out of them. Tomoko needs to feel superior to everyone else so she can keep living out her shut-in otaku life, and to continue doing so will cling to the few safe grounds she has left. She fantasizes about dating various boys and becoming popular out of the blue, yet mocks whoever she can whenever they do something she can only daydream about, even something as simple as going to a karaoke. She secretly mocks her only friend and the various strides she took to better herself, ranging from calling her an airhead to a bitch/slut, yet clings to her when she, in Tomoko's eyes, shows signs of ditching Tomoko to pursue a vibrant high school life without her.

The spectrum of emotions Tomoko displays when she's faced with any problem ranges from cowardice to denial, delusional to suicidal, and depressed to unbearably smug. Her cataclysmal lack of social awareness, combined with her constant self-deprecation and unwillingness to apply any kind of critical thinking or common sense when presented with a problem further strengthens her warped perception of reality where she's just a misunderstood genius, and said perception feeds into both her delusions and social ineptitude. This vicious cycle, in the context of the anime, always results in her committing several faux pas in a single episode, with varying degrees of awkward and humiliating situations. Tomoko is the personification of what Japan thinks otakus are at their absolute worst: creepy, passive-aggressive, opportunistic, anti-social, egotistical, irreceptive of any criticism towards anything remotely related to themselves, and, worst of all, completely oblivious to their own demeanor.

It is because Tomoko is so thoroughly unlikable that every single one of her attempts to socialize is not only painful to look at, but also rings hollow even in her self-proclaimed 'victory'. What counts as social interactions for her are equivalent to a baby shouting out whatever word it heard from their surroundings. If she succeeds, you can make sure she'll goad about it the very next moment in the most frustratingly condescending way ever, especially so because said victory never truly mattered. If she fails, she will fail in the most unfunny and miserable way imaginable, and she is guaranteed to swing back and forth from denial to endless self-induced verbal abuse. And she will fail. Again. And again. And again. And again. And just when you think she couldn't fail again, she will manage to do so in the most exaggerated, spectacularly painful and self-degrading way possible, further dragging her into self-pity and misery. Tomoko must fail in order for the 'comedy' of the show to continue; she must be the most pathetic being imaginable; she must be MORE pathetic than any viewer imaginable, just like Jissouseki, who's not even a human. She must fail, for if she starts succeeding even a little bit, the cycle cannot continue.

When someone makes a mistake once, it is sometimes quite hilarious, and people can joke about said mishap. When they do so for a second, then a third, then a fourth and fifth time, it's no longer funny. For what you're witnessing is no longer a mistake: it is a display of willful ignorance and total denial. That 'mistake' will happen again, because it's not a freak accident: it's a pattern, and one you're all too familiar with. You're watching someone with several mental health and self-esteem issues develop an increasingly self-destructive outlook on life, and watching their mental fortitude deteriorate by the minute. You don't even like that person, and yet it's still too much. They will repeatedly do so, and continue to fumble about.

THAT is the humor of this show. The extent of the comedy in this show is that you're beating a dying animal to death, and laughing at how it twitches in pain at an impossible angle until you can hear it choking on its own blood. Oh, and it also shit itself. Shitting yourself is funny, right? And if it was funny once, then it's okay to do it over and over again, right? Next time it'll just have to shit out rainbows, and everyone will be howling with laughter, right?

Do you see now why I compared Jissouseki and Tomoko, and why I cannot stand either of them? They were purposely created to be repulsive, incapable, spineless, and most importantly, defenseless. Both of their stories are centered around getting a kick from watching them be kicked around. The more pathetic they are, and the harder you kick them, the greater the resulting humor and catharsis from watching their downfall, supposedly. Except Jissouseki is, at the very least, non-human. Tomoko is 'supposed' to be a human. Impure intentions and illusions of grandeur aside, Tomoko's dreams are not that too far off from other people: she just wants to feel normal and live a decent life, without having to feel so uncomfortable in her own skin. Compared to her fantasies, this is a tangible and realistic goal that can be reached with adequate help. However, the story dictates that this can never come true, and will strike her down at the quickest moment: we are robbed of any lasting progress and potential character development to, yet again, witness Tomoko regress to the sub-human she is preordained to be.

Watamote is, in one word, abusive. Abusive towards Tomoko, for there is no scenario in which she wins or gets what she wants. She lacks the skills necessary to get what she wants, and she doesn't know what she actually wants: Tomoko's struggles were destined for failure from the very start. Watamote is also abusive towards its viewers: it goes out of its way to make absolutely sure that every single day of Tomoko's life is filled with sorrow and humiliation, and the synergy of the unusual cruelty of the story and Tomoko's own thick demeanor results in the viewers being the ones who go through the brunt of the embarrassment she is subject to. Nothing is gained, for Tomoko or the viewers: there is no resolution, no hope, and no form of catharsis. There is no progress. Tomoko does not gain crucial knowledge of her surroundings or her own situation. She does not make herself known to her classmates, or shows her resolve in any meaningful, lasting manner. She does not suddenly transform into a 'better' person, and she does not suddenly get loads of friends. Hell, she does not become close to ONE new person throughout the entire 12 episodes, let alone make a new friend. She remains, and will be, blissfully unaware of herself. Everything Tomoko does is inefficient, unnecessary, and serves only to further sully the last vestiges of her dignity. She will repeat this fruitless cycle endlessly, cursed to act out her Sisyphean floundering. I watched a comedy, and have come out of it feeling...sad. It's just so sad. Watamote is the most sadistic and vacuous enaction of human futility I have ever seen, and I never want to think about it ever again.