Review of Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku

I'll preface this by saying that I have not read any of the manga for this series. You don't necessarily expect much to happen in a slice of life type show, but with Wotakoi, there is very little payoff. It all ends up feeling incredibly flat; each episode follows its own structure and there isn’t much of an overarching story being built. Everything is just enjoyable enough to keep you strung along hoping that something will eventually happen. And, it’s not to say that the characters don’t sometimes have their moments. There are cute interactions or jokes that land here and there, but the frequencyisn’t high enough to warrant a higher rating than a 5/10 for me.

The romance is absolutely subdued here, and it doesn't really feel like much of a focus at all most of the time. Essentially, it just feels as though the show doesn't really know what it wants to be. Does it want to be a slice of life about 4 otaku nerds working in the same office? Or does the series want to try to explore a clumsy nerdy romance between two childhood friends? The show never seems to extend very far beyond: “These MCs are nerds! Wow aren’t they awkward and relatable? They’re so interested in vidya, manga and anime, perhaps like you, the viewer?”

Ultimately, where this particular anime struggles is the character development. The characters are likable, but don't expect them to change much at all from the first episode to the last. Other romance anime do a better job of developing the relationship between the primary protagonists. However, this show really likes to emphasize that otaku lack social skills, which accomplishes about as much as you might think. This show truly is a slice of life at its core, and going in expecting more than that may leave you disappointed.
A personal gripe for me was that a side character, Kou, is introduced far too late into the series. I really would have loved to see more of her, but there simply wasn’t enough time in an 11 episode timeframe. It was cute, and a romance could have easily bloomed there.

All in all, this is a very average anime, propped up by largely forgettable, bland characters. But hey, the characters are nice to look at, and most of the voice acting is well done. At least it’s cute!

Story - 3
Art - 6
Sound - 7
Character - 4
Enjoyment - 5

Overall - 5