Review of Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku

Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii: The King of Rom Com anime has arrived Honestly, I think the only thing I could criticize about Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii is that it had only 11 episodes. What a great series! In my first impressions I already said that this series could be the revelation of the season; however, I must say that I was wrong. Why? Because I was too short. This series came to fight the top in the top of best romantic comedy anime. When a series has good characters, is daring to establish the plot, manages to create great and fun scripts from the setting, isable to develop its characters without having a defined core plot, shows the couple's relationship realistically, has a very good soundtrack; and has a direction that manages to blend all of the above in a brilliant way, how will not you fight for the top?

And I am leaving out many other points in favor of Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii, or Wotakoi as it is known in the community. I could have added that the series has lots of references to other works or products of anime, manga, cinema, theater and even advertisements; or that this anime did not hesitate to start from the get-go with its two main couples already established.

In fact, to further subvert that legendary cliché that the leading couple must be established in the epilogue; the setting established that Hanako and Tarou had been dating together for years before the beginning of the series. What happens is that it was overshadowed by the fact that Narumi and Hirotaka started dating right at the end of the first episode.

Of course, here it is necessary to point out that all this argument comes from the original material. The manga created by Fujita already has the couples perfectly built, so the great merit of Yoshimasa Hiraike in directing the anime and writing the scripts was to achieve an excellent adaptation.

From there, those who saw this series witnessed a masterful development that included several key aspects: 1) A humor that feels fresh and natural. Gone are those formulas of forced scenes, of sexual jokes for elementary school children, of exploitation of the child from the beginning or of the genre of the false Japanese harem.

And many could say that this was because the protagonists were adults; However, in others they also have adult protagonists and yet the creators make them behave worse than a teenager. In fact, in many series (including several), one of the main criticisms is that it seems that the fact that the protagonist is an adult is something nominal because you never see it in his behavior.

2) An exploitation without fear of the fact that the two couples were counted since the go. Within the few series that established the protagonists as a couple from the beginning or in the first exchange, not all the others are done afterwards and that is something that often ends up weighing.

In some cases, the establishment itself is a liar because the classics are the parameters where a girl who looks promising for the protagonist arrives, but in reality there is nothing between them; in others, it is true that the couple establishes themselves, but then they delay it to show us basic things such as a date, a handshake and a kiss story.

Fortunately, in Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii they had no qualms about showing us Narumi and Hirotaka, learning to be a couple at a logical and credible rhythm. Gentlemen, this is very important. If already with adolescents it is totally unreal to see them spend tons of episodes so they have the courage to hold hands; with adults that results in an abomination.

It was wonderful to see both Momose and Nifuji grow as a couple through experiences, thanks to the support of their friends and especially to decisions taken as a result of maturity according to their age.

On the other hand, the couple of Hanako and Tarou presented to the audience a very little-seen dynamic within the anime. Let's do a mental exercise, how many protagonic couples do you remember that for the beginning of the series they have been dating for years? And I do not mean those couples who live apart despite having years together. What's more, how many couples in the anime do you know that they have years together at the beginning of the series?

At the most, you can tell me the parents of the protagonists or some adult couple over there; however, these couples mostly do not have any relevance except to be plot points at some moment (sometimes, not even that). Therefore, the case of Hanako and Tarou is almost unprecedented not only in romantic comedy but in anime in general.

Obviously, that generated a lot of expectation because developing both characters was a challenge; however, after seeing the series it was clear that the execution was simply fantastic. Seeing Koyanagi and Kabakura it was easy to identify them with our own experiences or with those of people in our environment (whether otaku or not)

And this is the great secret of this series. Its naturalness and realism in developing the plot and the characters generated that the audience could identify fully with everything that happened. Much more, when the otaku world was a main part of the setting.

I do not want to reveal anything of the plot because those who have not seen this series deserve to be able to enjoy it without spoilers; But I will say that each of the situations shown was hilarious, very creative and extremely realistic.

Finally, the references seen in the series were all great. First, because of the enormous quantity, but second, and more importantly, because of the creativity in making them. In addition, this posed an additional challenge for the audience because it was very difficult to identify them all.

Is that within the opening itself is a great reference to musically, and that was already a statement of intent. Card Captor Sakura, Castlevania, Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, Evangelion, Mahou Tsukai no Yome, Asahi Super Dry beer, Mario Kart, Donkey Kong Country and Jo Jo, were just some of the works and / or products referenced in the anime. Even the acclaimed Japanese female theater company, Takarazuka Revue, was mentioned.

Regarding the technical section, the animation was competent with pointed peaks and valleys, the design of characters was attractive within the generic; and the management did a great job adapting the original work.

Regarding the soundtrack, it was interesting that they looked for themes that would remind us of video games because that complemented very well with the visual resources used; In addition, the opening "Fiction" interpreted by Sumika was a fun theme that brilliantly managed to get us into the environment to enjoy the series.

In short, a great anime that did virtually everything right and whose only palpable flaw was to have only 11 episodes (although despite this it managed to cover almost everything that has been published in the manga). It was amazing how quickly it made its way and hopefully we can have a second season soon. Definitely, "The King left the building".

SUMMARY

Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii came to show how to make a good romantic comedy anime without having to resort to the already insufferable formulas of the genre. 9.5/10.