What They Say:
The protagonist, Kuroki Tomoko, thought she would naturally become popular once she became a “high school girl”, but reality was different… Tomoko panics at her situation and decides to take action to become popular. But… she doesn’t stand out in class, she’s extremely shy, and bad at communicating with others so she has to start by talking to someone other than her family first… The unpopular girl, “Kuroki Tomoko” fights her hardest to become popular, but… Does a bright future await Tomoko?! The struggles of an unpopular girl start here!!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Sometimes Tomoko can be fun to watch just for the nature of how her mind works. Case in point is the start of this episode here where she clicks on just one more random article to read before going to sleep and ends up hitting a piece about how to create the proper sexual dreams when you sleep. Attempting to do that just brings in a series of horrifying bug-related dreams, nightmares really, which freak her out over and over throughout the night. And that just makes for a challenging day at school for her, enough so that even the teachers are keeping their distance. The way she seemingly gets more and more disturbed and disturbed looking as the series progresses and her situations change hit some great humorous notes.
Her life continues to take strange turns as it goes on, especially since her sleep schedule is so off. To make matters worse, there are the ongoing incidents on the train of guys groping girls, and she’s hearing of that from people she sees at school as they talk about being accosted and how it makes them feel, though some seem to wear it as a badge of honor of sorts. For Tomoko though, she’s feeling left out in a way as nothing has happened to her, which in some strange way just reinforces the kiddie image that she sometimes has of herself through looks and the like. Of course, some of the situations just do paint such a thing because of her shorter size, especially when the crush of passengers hits in the train and she’s literally hanging while pressed against the bodies as her feet can’t touch the ground.
Tomoko’s attempts to fix some of this for herself, coming after being accosted on the train by some sports equipment that she mistook for an amazing penis, has her going down the path of trying to upgrade her undergarments. This is a fairly decent idea since she’s wearing the basics, but isn’t feeling grown up or sexual because of it, so trying to get something more womanly is a solid approach. Not that it goes easily for her and without any problems. We also get to see her going back to safer ground, getting a yaoi game on her way home, and one that comes with a little something extra. That final sequence of the episode is priceless for a “mainstream” show that’s not a hentai title just in that we get her passing out in the evening after playing and having a clearly vibrating “massage device” laying next to her, which her father ends up seeing before just putting her to bed safely. It’s endearing in its own way of course, but also just an admittance of sexual activity that is so very rare even in the most fanservice heavy of shows.
In Summary:
Watamote is quickly becoming a real favorite of the season if only for the fact it seems to be breaking past certain taboos and trying to say something amid a sea of empty and relatively vapid shows which may be decent entertainment. With Tomoko’s problems in growing up, trying to make friends and dealing with the issues that many young women face, it’s refreshing to see such aspects and thoughts covered and making it clear that she’s struggling with it and trying to find her place within it all. There’s a lot of great humor here, some awkward scenes and thoughts on desirability from the wrong quarters and ways of finding pleasure and enjoyment when one is alone. It’s good fun all around and definitely something that doesn’t come across as a copy/paste of any number of other series out there.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
