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

Watamote has left me feeling incredibly...strange. After a few episodes, I had to pause and reflect upon what I had just seen, and how it felt way too real. So many times when I see anime, I expect a story that has a happy ending, or at least will make me smile. You expect all the ends to be tied up nice, and to be left with a positive feeling toward the end of a show. Watamote doesn't do that. That is to the show's benefit, however. Watamote is an anime about a young girl named Tomoko transitioning from Middle School to high School, and how sheis attempting to overcome her strong social anxiety to have the best High School experience ever. Every time Tomoko attempts to step out of her funk, however, she is met with another mental battle...Usually leading to a failure.

First, let me say that Watamote is hard to review; at times, it hard to watch. If you do not sympathize with the lead or at least understand what she is going through, then I can totally understand why a lot of this anime can come off as mean-spirited or cruel. This is MY review, however, and honestly no matter how I look at Watamote, I love it. It made me uncomfortable, it hurt to watch, and it broke me at points...and I loved every bit of it. I have a personal love for this anime, and earnestly believe it is an amazing anime. I HAD to put myself in Tomoko's shoes because I have gone through what she has; if you have trouble putting yourself in Tomoko's shoes, you probably aren't going to enjoy this anime.

I know this show is described as a comedy, and while it did make me laugh quite a bit with how relatable and silly some of the scenarios were, I honestly found myself holding back tears most of the time. I wouldn't call this anime a comedy, unless you want to compare your life to Tomoko's and realize how better your own life is. Some people do genuinely doing that, but from my perspective I have been in most of Tomoko's situations. I've passed out in school because I have anemia, I ate alone in the bathroom with my 3DS so no one would bother me, and I hated people in High school. I completely understand Tomoko's train of thought. I now know a lot of what I did in High school was pretty cringeworthy, which made watching Tomoko experience the same things all the more sad, and painful...but completely understandable. Simply put, Tomoko wants to be accepted. Sometimes, when you want something enough, you are willing to do anything to achieve it. Tomoko's drive to want something better for her life is what kept me watching the anime, but it was the inevitable failures of her plans to succeed that made me want to mute my computer volume, and leave in a broken heap.

Is that a bad thing? Not to me. I found this show so relatable, it allowed me to look at my own short comings, and how I want to change for the better.

Tomoko does do some stupid things, and she does put herself in some rotten positions. Despite how much I love Tomoko, to say that she didn't deserve a lot of what was going to happen to her for doing stupid things would be a lie. Isn't that the point of this anime though? "Social anxiety can make some of us do crazy things, and those crazy things usually don't mix well with the real world." This anime see's a problem, social anxiety, and decided to play it straight without any over simplified lens. I think it did a spectacular job at shining a light on an often over-looked issue. Is that light really bright? Yes, but why should something as crippling as social anxiety be toned down? Simply because it makes some people uncomfortable? Social anxiety itself makes thousands of people uncomfortable every day; if you are made uncomfortable because you are the one being laughed from Tomoko's point of view in this anime, imagine being a person who has gone through something like this. It isn't pretty, and this show does a good job representing that.

Tomoko has her own thought process, mixed with pessimism, cockiness and social anxiety, that usually wind her up in hot water. I do believe the situations she finds herself in allowed Tomoko to grow, not much, but grow some toward the end of the series; especially during the cultural festival.

Tomoko also does have a lot of people that care about her; her cousin Kii, her friend Yu, her brother Tomoki, and the student council president Megumi Imae. Also, not every situation Tomoko is in is horrible. Tomoko does see some success; and when that happens you cheer right along with her.

In the end, I think Watamote is an amazing anime, and something that really stands out in terms of plot, and character development. I had an amazing time watching Watamote, I got invested in Tomoko's situations, and her daily life. This anime did an amazing job covering such a misunderstood subject, from a very real and scary place.