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

This series doesn't really follow a story arc, but unlike other series where it kind of works, it actually hinders the quality of an otherwise interesting story. It's about a girl called Tomoko who just cannot seem to catch a break. She had high expectations for her first year of high school, but things do not seem to go as planned. She has trouble to talking to people and is also generally ignored by the populace. Whenever someone does try to talk to her, outside of her immediate family, she gets incredibly nervous and shy. The show revolves around her attempts to increase her popularityat High School so she can meet new friends, get a boyfriend, and enjoy her High School years.

While this may sound like an interesting underdog story, it has quite a few downsides.

Tomoko receives little character development in this character story. She becomes less nervous talking to people, and gains a little confidence, but never actually develops in a meaningful way.

Her character and her goals also are a little inconsistent. In the first half of the story (Roughly episodes 1-7), one of her primary goals is to get guys to notice and/or like her. It makes sense since her character is written to be extremely sexualized, with even a fantasy scene in one of the first few episodes of her being gang-raped. However, after the 7th episode, she seems to be more interested in getting the attention of girls and even comes across as a bit of a lesbian. This comes out of nowhere and seems kind of odd.

She also seems to be disinterested in getting a boyfriend and more interested in just finding friends but in the first half of the series, she liked being alone generally but was really looking to find a guy. Yeah sure, she always wanted attention, but seemed to have switched from primarily male to primarily female towards the second part of the series.

The Story was deliberately written in the way of not having plot progression. There were many chances for the writer to take the story down an interesting path, only to have it dropped or ruined by the main character who pushes the bounds of suspension of disbelief. The story has no ending, despite building up to one, and the only closure the series has is a vague "Who cares, be happy with yourself."

I held Tomoko in various states of like and dislike depending upon her actions, situation, and setting. She is a sympathetic character, someone who we've all been to some extent and someone who we'd all want to help. She also can be selfish, mean and weird. However, I believe the audience wanted to see her ultimately succeed and towards the end, it seems that she might get what she actually wants. The opportunity for a happy ending is ruined by, in my opinion, a poorly taught lesson used as an excuse to show some panties and jiggling breasts.

Saying all I have said, the writer is skilled at writing characters, and the support characters are surprisingly normal when compared to Tomoko and that was a great juxtaposition. The story is well connected, with characters coming back in later episodes, and the episode ideas were interesting enough that it was a hard series to put down. Tomoko is sympathetic, her brother is a realistic example of a sibling, her middle school friend was genuine and at the end, it seems someone actually notices her. It played out fairly realistically and if it wasn't for the writer snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, it would have been a satisfying tale. However it didn't, so it's just an okay series.

I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who hasn't watched anime at all though. There was fair too many anime culture references, specifically from the Haruhi series. I noticed an Another reference as well. I probably didn't get all the references myself, so it's probably a series best left to watching later. I think people who have watched more anime than myself might have found find it funnier.

All in all, I am giving it a 6. If this series had followed a more stereotypical story arc within it's context, it could have been great. But changing the character, goal, and completely messing up the ending makes it just another average anime.