Review of Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku

Just kind of meh. I was watching for a romance and there were very few romantic moments. I enjoyed the slice of life elements revolving around otaku life and work life, however. This really shines when it does its slice of life thing rather than the romance. That said, when a slice of life is set up around two couples, you kind of have to review the romantic relationships involved so here we go: Narumi/Hirotaka relationship review: I love a good 'quiet guy, enthusiastic girl' relationship--this was that kind of relationship but it was not a good one. Hirotaka is like two steps away from hikkikomori, not because heis afraid but because he is uninterested. But ultimately he knows what he wants and is able to vocalise it. He is quietly quirky with genuine emotions if you just. I really liked him.

Meanwhile, Narumi was a bubbly energetic sort, likeable and sympathetic at first glance, until you realise she doesn't seem to want to commit or look for anything deeper. She never seemed to be invested in the relationship, unless her desire to cook for Hirotaka in a later episode was meant to be a way of showing her feelings for him. But that was the extent of it. Mostly she seemed slightly possessive or just going through the motions. Whenever she looked out for him in vulnerable moments, there was never any actual depth of emotion beyond friendship expressed.

I found myself watching and waiting for any crumb of affection she let drop for him. Not a very comfortable feeling while watching a romantic couple.

The relationship was really stagnant and we didn't see anything really change or develop--no first kiss, the question of when they might have s*x etc... all really normal stuff that you go through with new relationships was just never addressed.

The attitude to the relationship was, I'm paraphrasing Hirotaka here: 'let's go at a slow pace if that's what you need'. But the show never addressed why she might need that--prime opportunity for character development here, and we missed it. Is she vulnerable because of past relationships, does she have some kind of trauma? No hint of any kind of explanation. We're left to form one of our own, and in the absence of evidence, it comes off as she's unwilling to engage in the relationship physically or emotionally because she didn't really want to be with him, she just wanted *a* relationship.

We got a lot of hints that Hirotaka really liked her since they were childhood friends, and no corresponding reveals from her that she might feel the same way.

They were so distant from one another emotionally despite the fact that they were dating, that I found myself wondering just how much was implied because of cultural expectations on what it was appropriate to show in a non-explicit anime show... but come on, in a romance anime you expect to have a few moments where people break the boundaries of politeness among friends and work colleagues...

Hirotaka deserves better imho and I hoped Narumi would turn into the kind of girlfriend he deserved. She didn't.

Weirdly, and i'll note it here because i dont know where else to put it, Narumi was saved from becoming really unlikeable by the introduction of Hirotaka's younger brother Naoya. Naoyya was adorable and Narumi actually had some really cute platonic scenes with him, that made her more sympathetic again. It was just weird that she had those scenes with the brother of the guy she was dating, and not the guy she was actually dating.

Kabakura/Hanakao relationship review:

I love the kind of relationship where they are constantly finding excuses to fight over dumb stuff but then get really protective over one another. this was that kind of thing.

The only downside was when two characters ( I think it was Narumi and Hanako?) were talking about how in some relationships people fight performatively but then are nicer to one another in private, so we're given to understand that that's the set-up. and then in the next episode or so, we see Hanako and Kabakura fighting while they're alone, which undermines that idea and makes you think maybe they're never happy.

It seemed like that was a weird writing mis-step though, because ultimately H/K were way more real with one another and clearly more comfortable around one another than Narumi and Hirotaka are. Their fights are somewhat performative but they're still doing it because they like to do it. I also liked one particular interaction where Kabakura finally lets Hanakao drag him into BL and he gets super hooked, so I liked that he was able to take part in her interests and let go of his preconceptions.

I don't know how to describe their comfortable silence other than that K/H felt like they were doing their own otaku hobbies next to each other in companionable silence because they actually wanted to be around one another, and N/H were doing their otaku hobbies next to each other because they wanted to do their hobbies. Where K/H were comfortable, N/H were awkard. i know the theme is that love is hard because otaku are awkward, but N/H never found a way past that awkwardness.

All that said, while they were comfortable with one another, K/H really did fight an awful lot. I like a slap-slap-kiss dynamic but it was more like slap-slap-slap-slap-slap-kiss.

Naoya/Kou relationship:

A potential budding romance stemming from friendship and a gender misunderstanding. Kou is the closest person to an otaku and where Hirotaka is two steps away from hikkikomori, Kou is one step. Definitely could have been a really sweet romance story, had Kou not been introduced LITERALLY two episodes before the end of the series. As it is, we got a few hints of where the relationship could be going, but the series ended before these two side characters got a chance to become mains in their own right.

Other notes:

I also found it quite frustrating that the characters rarely ever said what they meant, they talked around the feelings they had about relationships in general a LOT, but there wasn't a lot of actual discussion about how they felt about the actual people they were in those relationships WITH. I know that's basically the hallmark of Japanese culture--but in real life you at least have the excuse of not actually knowing these people and it not being appropriate to ask. In fiction the whole point is to get to know more about a character's emotional depth. If we can't have it shown, can we at least have it told?

One random thing that was refreshing is that there were very few contrived coincidences, silly misunderstandings, or people getting upset over nonsense. If someone misunderstood something or behaved stupidly the others couldn't help but find it funny.

I've really kind of slammed this show in my review--i didn't really hate it--but it certainly wasn't set up to provide any cathartic moments and very few really sweet ones.

It's definitely a slice of life show, not a romance, and it shines in episodes like the christmas one where Narumi sees Naoya wearing the santa suit. I'd be interested in reading the manga to see if it does the relationships any better.