Well, that was depressing.
I want to highlight this comment by Gan_HOPE326 last week, who explained this show much better than I ever could (this is in response to my question on why Tomoko wants to become a “bitch”):
I guess that’s just how Tomoko calls any girl who’s got a modicum of sexual life. The problem here is that she’s discharging her frustration for her own situation by pretending there’s a moral distinction to be done – she despises what she can’t be (a “bitch”), yet she desperately tries to become one herself. By berating her own target beforehand she spares herself the full weight of the potential failure.
Honestly, Watamote feels like a series written by someone who’s been like Tomoko for people who’s been like Tomoko. The amount of thoughts and behaviours I recognize myself into is frightening. It’s also very self-deprecating – doesn’t sugarcoat it, and straight out tells what is WRONG with people who’s in this situation, and why and how we all were a bit assholes when we behaved that way, yet has understanding for the feelings of loneliness that underlay the whole problem. Honestly, I can see how who’s not been part of this specific “crowd” would find some things a bit baffling. It’s like a long, convoluted and rather masochistic in-joke.
This episode continued on that route, even upping the level of masochism. Tomoko suddenly changes seats and becomes instantly “popular” (if we define popular as having people actually talk to you) and what does she do? She runs away and hides from the people who befriend her.
Nothing that happens in Tomoko’s life is or can be good enough for her. She squanders all the opportunities she has to make friends and fantasizes. “If only…” She wants her life to be like an anime. She doesn’t seem to realize that her life already is like an anime (in fact, it is an anime) and she still manages to waste all the opportunities she’s given.
Well, it is a rather atypical anime, at the very least, so she’s understandable for not realizing…
BTW, thanks for the quote! I’m glad you found it interesting enough.
For all its sadness, this episode struck me as the most “meta” up until now though. The parallel between Tomoko’s anime-ish expectations and her reality, which really is an anime, was constant. And it felt like the butt of the joke were those many school anime where do-nothing clubs exist for the sake of the plot (“Haruhi Suzumiya” being the biggest target… Tomoko’s imaginary club room is almost the same as the SOS Brigade’s), rather than Tomoko herself. Who of course still gets the worst end of it.
Yeah, this episode was definitely not pulling its punches in regarding to anime itself. Perhaps that contributed more to my enjoyment of the episode, since as we’ve established I’ve never really been in a situation like Tomoko.