WATASHI GA MOTENAI NO WA DOU KANGAETE MO OMAERA GA WARUI!

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CAST

CHAPTERS

ANIME ComedyWatashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui!
MANGA ComedyWatashi no Tomodachi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaete mo Omaera ga Warui.
MANGA ComedyWatashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui! Anthology

REVIEWS

• 

  Frost

  80/100
  A somewhat amusing, cringy gag manga paves the way for a funnier, more vibrant, and character-driven story.

  __Minor spoilers ahead regarding the genre shift in Watamote__

  Watashi ga Motenia no wa Dou Kangaete mo Omaera ga Warui (localized as ‘No Matter How I Look at It, Its You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular’), henceforth referred to as Watamote, is a manga by duo Nico Tanigawa. Watamote features the awkward hijinks of Kuroki Tomoko, as it begins to dawn on her that she is not as popular as she imagined she would be at the start of her high school career. When the average person thinks of Watamote, they probably conjure up some cringe-fest in their head of an awkward, lonely, teenage girl based on what has been thrown around the internet by this point. And for Watamote’s first 8 or so volumes, that’s exactly what it is.

  If you don’t find any of Watamote’s early antics vaguely painful or relatable, then congratulations, you probably had a good, un-regretful adolescence. But there’s a reason why Watamote garnered so much initial attention, and why its protagonist was welcomed into anime fandom with open arms, as Watamote began breaking similar ground to Welcome to the NHK, (except on a more familiar, and less tragic scale) it's easy to imagine oneself in Tomoko's situation and to recall one's own pains, though one of early Watamote's greatest weaknesses is perhaps that it's too content to wallow in its gag manga status. Its protagonist Tomoko is the embodiment of a socially anxious, unpopular girl who does her best to be popular, and you can imagine how well that goes. Initially, I found these antics amusing. After all, I’ve reached a point in my life where I feel like I could at least laugh at my past misdoings, but somewhere along the line it became almost painful to continue. Tomoko’s stark loneliness in the face of constant social defeat became almost distressing to read about. Small moments shared between her friends Yuu and Komi-something (basically the only other supporting characters worth mentioning) became sparse and dull, but worst of all, Tomoko herself stayed a deplorable pervert. It did not feel that Tomoko would ever achieve the needed introspection to realize why she was struggling so much to make friends. And I began to wonder why I wasn’t dropping the manga… of course, by now, you may have glanced at the score at the bottom and asked yourself, ‘Wait, what’s going on? This sounds terrible.’ But I’ll get to that in a bit.

  Ultimately, your early experience with Watamote hinges on how much repeated cringe humor you can really take. Though, it is hard to talk about Watamote, or at least it’s manga counterpart without addressing the elephant in the room that makes up its genre shift. It happens so cleanly that some chapters afterward, I began to feel the strange possibility that it might all have been some fever dream in Tomoko’s head. Watamote doesn’t really hit its stride until volume 8, and so this review might mostly be for the people who would have considered dropping it before this point - though you can fairly argue that 8 volumes to get anywhere is a long investment. During Tomoko’s class trip in her 2nd year of high school, Tomoko is chosen as a group leader and naturally ends up with all of the other people who couldn’t be with their friends because their respective cliques had too many people for a group. And it’s in being with this group of people that Tomoko finally starts coming out of her shell, and subtly changing as a character. Tomoko tries harder to connect with her new friends, and despite various misunderstandings and Tomoko’s general attitude problems, it’s a change from how Tomoko has usually carried herself. As these other characters are given reign on the last day of the class trip to return to their respective cliques for their free day, Tomoko isolates herself. Though she wants to reach out and be friends with everyone else, realizing that they all probably want to be with their friends instead becomes painful and in a stunning display of character, for Watamote, at least, Tomoko pushes them away. And on this melancholic note, I thought the arc would end. But, Tomoko’s new friends seek her out. One of the new, and more interesting characters that gets introduced this arc, Yuri Tamura, has her own struggles with loneliness, and with this in mind, Tomoko’s reunion with her new friends becomes downright heartwarming.

  It’s my own belief that Nico Tanigawa began to notice a decline in popularity in Watamote during its initial 8 volume run, and sought to drastically change it, because following this class trip arc, new characters are introduced, old, seemingly shallow, characters are revisited, and Tomoko is written to be a lot more likeable. I’d hate to spoil any more on these new and old characters, but the relationships and dynamics between these characters spring the manga into a new light, and really make me appreciate Tomoko’s climb from the school loser, to basically a center of attention. Tomoko’s initial cringe compilation is given meaning through these later interactions, such as her passing interactions with the student council president, and all of these events combined, make it easy to root for her as someone who struggled in loneliness for two whole years of her school life. Though to talk anymore on these new relationships would be spoiling what ends up making Watamote so special, and one of my personal favorite manga. It’s amusing to note that the older characters, like Yuu and Komi-something, feel very dry and one-note compared to the newer, more multi-faceted and sometimes just plain funnier characters that begin entering the scene. Though, at least Tomoko’s younger cousin, Kii-chan stays an amusing psychopath. But if you’re one of the few who have just started reading it and love the cringy stuff then uh, sorry, but it stays really good, at least!

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• 

  Mangosex

  80/100
  Unpopular girl becomes popular. Anons rage and cry.

  Lore
  Another Entry to the read-about-someone-worse-off-than-you-and-laugh genre and the cry-about-how-similar-you-are genre. Watamote garnered so much love that anons from /a/ and /v/ sent the author their dick pics and laughed or cried at her responses. Years passed and the author got so much money (and dick pics) from her depressing manga that she wasn't depressed anymore. Oh no, how can you make depressing manga when you're not depressed? The answer is you can't and unlike Hideki Anno who tried to continue sad Evangelion even after he was married and swimming in pools of money, Nico Tanigawa pivoted out of cringe-dep and into yuri with grace. This made anons enraged.

  "Noooo," shouts the anon, "I am sad therefore my waifu must also be sad. How dare you make her happy."
  "Noooo," shouts the anon, "I have no friends. How dare you give my waifu friends."
  Dick Pics were once again sent en masse to poor Tanigawa except the intent was not love but rather, hate.

  Parts
  Watamote has 2 parts. Part 1 is when Tomoko has only one friend and Watamote is beloved by anons. Part 2 is when Tomoko has a lesbian harem and Watamote was beloved by /r/anime. I rate Part 1 a 9/10 as it made great strides in the cringe-dep genre. I rate Part 2 a 7/10 because, while enjoyable to read, there are much better lesbian harem manga out there. Overall 8/10.

  Characters
  Part 1:
  Tomoki is Tomoko's brother and the male audience surrogate.
  Yuu is Tomoko's only friend who goes to a different school. After middle school, Yuu reinvented herself and became popular. Tomoko hangs out with Yuu while calling her a "slut" in her mind and alternates between lusting and hating her.
  The unpopular glasses girl provides some good comedy and plays the straight man to Tomoko's gags.
  Kii is the most interesting character in Part 1 as her disillusion with Tomoko's anti-influence corrupts her once cheerful personality into Yandere territory.
  Part 2:
  Tomoko doesn't have a boyfriend but she sure has a lot of girlfriends.
  The new characters overlap to the point of there even being in-universe gags about them.
  One of the transition characters, from part 1 to part 2, was the Yankee girl/abusive boyfriend trope who would punch Tomoko whenever she said something stupid. I don't remember the other characters that much because they are one dimensional and uninteresting.
  Conclusion
  I'm happy that Tomoko found friends and happiness. The author has moved on to the fresher and funnier Number Girl. Anons, to this day, continue to seethe in rage over Tomoko becoming happy. I suggest you read Watamote from the beginning all the way until the Lesbian Harem's class field trip and then stop because by that point you know Tomoko has friends and is going to end up just fine.

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• 

  hexpea

  85/100
  Relatable character is almost TOO relatable.

  Finding this anime was quite the tale for me. I had initially came across that one song "Pretty Cvnt" by Sewerslvt that used the ED from the anime as part of the song. I looked further into the lyrics as one does and found them to be very relatable to my situation.
  Considering how I felt toward those lyrics, I had to look further into the series. I first watched the anime, loved it, and quickly caught up with the manga.

  I don't know the authors' true intention regarding the character of Tomoko, whether they intended her to be relatable or just overall cringey, but for me...I've never felt so represented - as strange as that sounds for such a character. Based on their author notes throughout the manga, it seems like they have a love-hate relationship with the character they've created.
  Pathetically, I align almost exactly with Tomoko and her social status. I'm someone considered an outcast with interests that deviate from the norm and my social anxiety impacts almost every aspect of my life to a point where I thought it impossible to get over. To have such a character to relate to means everything to me. To see them thrive and conquer their vices is even more important. Honestly, whether the character is cringey or not - everyone deserves to have that one character they can see themselves in as a way to feel represented. With Tomoko, I feel understood.
  Seeing Tomoko slowly come out of her shell, slowly become able to not cringe at herself, gives me so much hope that one day I won't have to cringe at myself. I mean, it's already happening as I'm getting help for my social anxiety, but still - relatable character is relatable.

  Besides feeling represented, I love the realistic shenanigans she and her classmates find themselves in. There's something about a plot that could 100% happen that is still entertaining. It's not easy to achieve making the mundane exciting, but with Watamote - they did.
  The fact that a lot of the conversations are pretty explicit and sexual in nature is amusing, like deep down we're all a little perverted and to see the characters acting in their own hilariously perverse ways while not really being phased by one another's perversions and crude humor is refreshing. It's humans being humans and with most other anime and manga being these over-the-top, fantastical situations having at least one animanga with just every day life is important.

  It truly is a shame that it only received the one season and will likely not receive another. Anime-onlys are really missing out on the chance to see Tomoko thrive - which is an incredibly important part of her journey. The manga is critical in fully enjoying the story that is Watamote.

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