A girl has no friends. She has no one to blame for it but herself.
This show does an excellent job at portraying Tomoko’s failure to make friends and her cycle of despondency. It was consistent, believable and somewhat bleak.
The problem, though, is that the show is boring. Whenever I started an episode, I never felt any enthusiasm whatsoever. Watching Watamote was a chore. We sat through similarly depressing scenarios week after week, with Tomoko the butt of every joke. There were some jokes, but nothing was all that funny. Just kind of sad. The show quickly became tiresome.
So even if the show does an excellent portrayal of Tomoko’s problems, why would I recommend anybody sit down and watch it?
- Storytelling – F – Tiresome to watch, repetitive scenarios and (not very funny) jokes.
- Voice – B – It does have a uniquely depressing vibe.
- Characters – B – Some great characters, particularly Tomoko. But it doesn’t do enough with them…
- Attention Grab – F – Lost my interest.
- Production – B – Looks ok.
- Overall – D-
Recommendations – Welcome to the NHK, Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai, Mysterious Girlfriend X
Different strokes for different folks obviously, since it’s an A+ anime in my book. It’s potentially the most hilarious anime I’ve ever seen, in fact. I’d also argue that it has some of the best directing I’ve ever noted in an anime. The animation, music, voice acting, and pacing all meshed together so smoothly, and there was such a fun variety to all the skits that ensued. The idea that Watamote could be considered bland or dull just doesn’t register in my head, since every episode felt so fresh and engaging to me. There was such a dramatic, vibrant energy to the whole thing; all this hilariously melodramatic passion the protagonist had bottled up inside. There’s truly no other show like it.
I’m actually a bit surprised you rated the show this low, Draggle. I’d like to think you connected to it on some small emotional level at least, since you did take the time to post a picture for ep 11 the way you did. Such a unique show that delivers a sincere emotional reaction like that seems to deserve more than a D- at the very least.
Episode 11 did give me an emotional reaction. Still I didn’t connect with it much aside from that. I have to completely disagree with pretty much everything you said in the first paragraph… 🙂
I decided to drop this show after being stuck at ep. 5 for the last two months. I liked the basic premise and the character design is nice, as well. But after the first episodes the show became too repetitive for me, and there was no personal development of Tomoko’s at all. Tomoko is stuck forever with her issues and never learns a single thing. Perhaps this is a realistic view about puberty? Aku no hana was similarly depressing. I think I prefer a more idealized view about high school life!
I recall that you were quite enthusiastic about this series before it started. Is the manga better than the adaptation?
I didn’t think this was nearly as depressing as Aku no Hana, simply because it was a comedy, but the repetition is what really got to me. I already went through the realities of high school once and it’s not something I’d care to repeat.
I was enthusiastic, but the reason was because I didn’t get very far in the manga. I enjoyed the first couple episodes of this show a lot too. I had made the mistake of assuming the story would actually progress somewhere…