Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Watamote the First Impressions

It's another portmanteau series nickname based upon the original Japanese title that is quite a mouthful, "Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaete mo Omaera ga Warui!"...heck, even the English Translation of that is equally a mouthful, "No Matter How I Look At It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!"...

Oh really? So the fact that avoid talking to your classmates because they're all shallow idiots has absolutely nothing to do with it? Or how about the fact that you're taking appeal lessons from the Internet? Dude, duck face is absolutely not attractive! And that's not even getting into how attaining popularity, especially in High School, is a flawed goal to begin with. Still...


I can (reluctantly) relate to what Tomoko's going through, because I was also chasing the popularity dream...in Middle School. I didn't talk to people because I believed (and still do) that my classmates (with the exceptions of the few, but good, friends I did have) were all shallow idiots, I attempted to hide my unpopular interests into the closet and (hypocritically) picked up a shallow interest in boy bands. But this one moment in Middle School were I was just trying to say 'hi' to someone but they ignored me at first but then turned around and simultaneously bashed (more accurately an interest of mine, but by association) me with a certain word used as a homophobic slur and dashed against the rocks any illusion I had that my interests were hidden at all. By the time I reached High School myself, I figured out that popularity was a goal not worth pursuing in the first place.

So; when I saw our heroine, Tomoko, attempting similar things I was not only mentally screaming at her how she could better accomplish her goals, but also dismayed that she was even trying at the same time.

TV Tropes itself describes this series as "The World God Only Knows" meets "Welcome to the NHK", and it really shows it. Maybe it does actually get better for her (not likely) in future episodes?

TL;DR: The beginning of this series may have been more funny for me if it wasn't for the fact that, in a way, that loser is me (in Middle School).

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