Opening Songs
OP 1 - It's Your Fault That I'm Not Popular (Konomi Suzki, Kiba Of Akiba)
Ending Songs
ED 1 - No Matter How I look At It, It's Not My Fault (Izumi Kitta)
Genre: Comedy, Slice Of Life
Episodes: 12
It's not common for someone to watch an anime because of a protagonist. Many times before I watch an anime, I'll go look up a few images online to see if I like the cast, sometimes it's because of how badass, cool , sexy or cute a protagonist looks. "Watamote" is another one of those animes, I got into watching the show because of how the protagonist looked. This time tough, it wasn't any of the four factors I stated. Tomoko doesn't look cool, she doesn't look badass, sure as hell doesn't look sexy, and I'm sure she's not quite there as well when we take the definition of "cute" into play. But take just a moment to look at Tomoko, and you'll see what I mean, there's no way we can leave an anime alone with a main character as f**ked up as that! And with an extended title that ends up meaning "No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys' Fault I’m Not Popular!", you know it's going to be something ridiculous. I was immediately drawn into this, but if this isn't enough to get you interested about this messed up girl, then I don't know what is.
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| How Tomoko would look like if she were sexy. |
Strangely enough (or in some cases, it may not be so strange), the anime itself has a pretty badass, sexy, rock, metal based opening song. If anything at all, it has screaming and LOTS of hard rock, so I don't really know what else to use to describe it. It sounds f**king badass, and its called "It's Your Fault That I'm Not Popular", its by Konomi Suzki and Kiba Of Akiba. It sounds badass, but the lyrics are pretty much something else...The ending theme is "No Matter How I look At It, It's Not My Fault" by Izumi Kitta, and it sounds really synthy. It's different from the opening theme, but has its own charms.
Rating: 8.0/10
The experience I had from "Watamote" was VASTLY different from almost everything I had ever watched. You know how animes usually circle around a main character and shows how he or she handles her way of life...stuff like that usually cuts into stereotypes and you know what to expect from time to time. "Watamote" is completely different, it talks about the personal life story of a certain girl. An otaku, an avid gamer, a loser of society, a loner...our protagonist is all of this things. Instead of having fan service cutscenes of girls inside a hot spring or a swimsuit episode, "Watamote" makes you sit through the life of such a miserable girl. You see her struggle through many of life's simplest ordeals. It may be downright masochistic, it may be miserable to watch, but when it boils down to it, the anime makes all these look funny at the end. Yet! It does it in such a way that even though its funny, you still sympathize with Tomoko. There's not much of a plot going on, but when it comes down to entertaining viewers with down to earth situations that otakus and hikkimoris find themselves in, "Watamote" does it best with a main character that you can relate to.
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| That's the case almost every season, no? |
Tomoko is a sad girl straight out of middle school. When I mean sad, she IS sad. Throughout her entire middle school life she has talked to a guy 6 times, and she blatantly thinks that when she moves to highschool, her life will change dramatically. She has ONE friend, and she moved to another school, so when she went to highschool, she was pretty much a loner. A loner that is an avid gamer and an otaku...you know that doesn't spell well. She constantly wonders why she's not popular or why no guys talk to her when she herself can barely muster the courage to talk to another girl. Then she goes running thoughts in her head about how f**ked up the world is around her...and nothing gets solved. Her mission by the end of high school is to get herself a boyfriend, and when she can't even talk to guys on a normal basis...that definitely doesn't spell well for her.
"Watamote" is pretty screwed up in a way that its funny. It shows us what some people actually go through when they're this far gone, and if we can actually relate to Tomoko, everything just multiplies 10 fold. Its funny, its interesting and its rather thought provoking at times. And many times when you're having a bad day, you can just say "Hey, at least I'm not Tomoko!". I sympathize with her though, she is supposed to be anti-moe, but she's kind of moe at times.
Peace.
