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

Tomoko Kuroki is a girl who is just starting high school. All she does is play games, read manga and watch anime. She suffers from a horrible case of social anxiety and although she wants to fit in and have friends, it's incredibly difficult for her. Each episode involves Kuroki trying to come up with ways for others to notice her and admire her but everything she tries to do comes from the games that she plays and the anime that she watches. Nothing goes right and she is alienated by her classmates. It's very weird but everything that Kuroki thinks, says and experiences is alltoo similar to me. When I was in school, I didn't have any friends, and I barely talked to anyone. I suffered from social anxiety and never knew how to talk to others. The things I see Kuroki do to try and fit in all incredibly similar to the things I tried to do. Just like her, I would get social advice from TV and video games and try to use it in real life (which didn't work). Just like her, I'd lie to try and make myself seem cooler. Just like her, I'd try to develop a persona that everyone would admire. I'd embarrass myself and feel pretty terrible and lonely. While watching Kuroki live her life, all I could picture was myself in her shoes, because I've been there, that's how I lived my teenage years. It's really hard trying to fit in when you can't talk to people. But what I really loved is that Kuroki never gave up on trying to fit in. In each episode she would think of something new to try and get people to notice her.

Although social anxiety is really sad and not exactly something you should get comedy out of, it was pretty funny to watch Kuroki live her sad depressing life. It is cringe comedy, so if you don't like seeing cringyness then you might not enjoy it. But one of the main reason I enjoyed it so much is because I know what it's like. Kuroki's personality towards others is so perfect and what she thinks of everyone is absolute gold. Kuroki's character is so perfect, it's amazing how well developed of a character she is.

As for the sound, I did watch it dubbed and although Monica Rial is probably the English voice actress that I hate the most, I think she did an amazing job making Kuroki as cringy as possible. Dubs always have their flaws, but I think this one was pretty good. The music, I thought was amazing, the opening scared the crap out me the first time because I wasn't expecting it, but it's absolutely one my favorite openings.

I thought this anime was amazing, it really projects social anxiety in a realistic and comedic way. I can say first hand that the Slice of Life nature of this anime is incredibly accurate. This anime will make you cringe a bit but it's still really fun to watch.

Likes:
-Kuroki, almost everything about her is exactly how I was when I was in high school and kinda still am today. It's actually pretty eerie how similar we are and I'd like to know how many others feel the same way. We are not alone.
-The social anxiety aspect of the show is pretty cringe but it's absolutely accurate
-The references to games/anime were pretty fun to watch

Dislikes:
-I'm not a big fan of cringe comedy, so at times it was a bit hard to watch