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

Watashi ga Motenai no wa ga Dō Kangaetemo Omaera Warui! abbreviated in WataMote, a work considered like a masterpiece in terms of anime on shut-ins. As i like particularly everything that turn around from this thematic, I watched this anime without knowing what to expect, for finally be disappointed. Let's start with his main problem : His main character, Tomoko Kuroki. What bothers me with this character, this is the role that fits in this anime. Tomoko Kuroki is a shut-in who entered in high school and wants to be popular, but she is so antisocial that when she trying to speak with someone, she becomes very uncomfortable.She spends her days playing Visual Novels and make references to the Japanese pop culture.
The problem is here, the anime is full of references to the shovel, like Kiseijuu or Death Note. But what is the use ? To make easy referenced humor and satisfy the brainless spectator, happy to see a reference to his favorite anime.

Besides, let's talk about the humor of WataMote. Besides greasy sexual jokes, WataMote is what might be called a Cringe Comedy, which is a kind of comedy where the intention is to make the audience laugh but also make him uncomfortable and generally the main character is a victim of this humor, which is also the case for WataMote. But here, it doesn't work because : One, most of the scenes which are supposed to be funny because uncomfortable are not funny because, Two, the humor is focuses on Tomoko.
The scenes of WataMote where I was supposed to laugh was when Tomoko was stressing to death because she was trying to talk to people, and then when she was acting weird because she is dumb (or so extremely awkward). But not only, it's not funny, but in addition, that becomes painful to watch, and I come to prefer Tomoko than the anime itself (which is paradoxical for a character that was created to be hateful and obnoxious).

And it's even more unbearable when i see minor characters who completely don't care about Tomoko (except at certain moments). I take for example the beginning of episode 6, where Tomoko's mother said that she's fine than usual by his usual dark circles that have disappeared. So that means she knew her daughter wasn't well but she was doing nothing for help her, thanks Mom (because Dad appears only in ONE episode).

And when it's not the characters, it's the story itself. Because WataMote repeat the same narrative scheme for 12 episodes ("Tomoko trying to accomplish something, but it fails") and doesn't evolve the main character. The only time I expected to see Tomoko evolve are immediately defused by a joke like "It was a dream lol" and it's very frustrating.

But I assure you, WataMote has qualities. The animation is not ugly even if she has her ups and downs. The OST is not very memorable but still nice to hear, special mention to the opening which in addition has a good music, shows us the true Tomoko (symbolically).

As you may have read, I didn't really like WataMote and I don't recommend this. However, if you want a good anime with the theme of shut-ins, I can only recommend you to watch the very good "NHK ni Yōkoso!"