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

I've watched bits-and-pieces of WataMote multiple times, but I've finally sat down and watched the entire thing through. The show focuses on Tomoko Kuroki, a freshman in high-school who suffers from a bad case of social anxiety. The show's story revolves around this aspect of her, her social anxiety putting her in embarrassing situations and Tomoko's thoughts on the matter afterwards. I really do like the concept on-paper, but executed as a show leaves some things to be desired. My main complaint is that it's all just very repetitive, even more so than your standard slice-of-life show. Each episode can be accurately described as a processof watching Tomoko go to school, embarrass herself, and run home and cry about it afterwards. While it's mainly comedic in it's execution of these, the show does at least put some focus on just how Tomoko's crippling social anxiety affects her mentally in a semi-serious way. Personally, I would have preferred if the show focused more on the serious nature but I can't really complain about the comedic focus, some laughs are to be had.

The show's art and soundtrack are different than what you normally see in slice-of-life. I dig the geometric lighting style and you don't see many slice-of-life shows that feature some actually killer guitar riffs.

The show's character-cast is almost entirely composed of Tomoko for most of the show. She's a loner after all, so there aren't many times where she's interacting with background characters. Of the few supporting characters, Yuu-chan was cool and I liked the dynamic between her and Tomoko.

Overall, my perception of the show is pretty average. I think the show really suffers from being too repetitive, and I feel like they could have backed up from making everything so care-free and comedic at times to focus on what Tomoko must be feeling emotionally. I think that would have really helped out the show. It's not bad overall, just repetitive in my opinion. 6/10 from me.