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

There is an interesting utilization of dark humor where the purpose of the joke is not necessarily to make one laugh, but instead to call attention to something that we think we are supposed to laugh at. So when the anime in question presents to us a very socially inept girl who clearly suffers from high levels of stress in her everyday life (hence the L core eyebags) with a family that as of now can't tell what her real problem is, I ask myself: Is this supposed to be funny? Realistically, the show is delivered as a comedy but with the sheer amount ofsecond hand embarrassment and humiliation that we was an audience go through with each social failure that Tomoko has to suffer as well it becomes much clearer that there might be more than is given credit towards.

Social anxiety is a terrible thing, and unlike the popular Komi-san, a character with a similar communication disorder, Tomoko has no one to support her. She is limited to her own delusions; what she thinks is wrong with her, why she thinks no one talks to her, and as a safety blanket the easiest thing for her to do is blame others. This in no way shape or form is healthy for her and its obvious in the way that even muttering one word to a male figure is a huge win for her in her mind. Eventually you stop laughing and can't help but pity the poor girl.

I think this is a possibility to explore this character more, and discover how exactly she could grow out of this or like Hachi from SNAFU finally open up to someone and ask for help, but where the anime fell flat was in its lack of any other characters to care about and poor set-up for any following season. While I think that Tomoko has an interesting character to add depth to, the anime simply failed to do so, leaving her a shut in incel for all 12 ep, almost as if they knew there would be no second season.

In conclusion, while I enjoyed the show and the character, there was too little to really be more invested in, leaving me to read the manga instead to hopefully see the larger character development that the anime as lacking.