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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• 

  Angelomz

  87/100
  A good personal development manga (and no, it is not a yuri harem)

  A manga with a base, development and depth, overcoming the cringe. A protagonist, who falls, stumbles, cringes, improves.

  Watashi ga Motenia no wa Dou Kangaete mo Omaera ga Warui (commonly known as "WataMote") was an anime that is known to many, and to others not so much, it should be noted that many of us who saw ONLY THE ANIME, have strong memories of the series , the cringe and the discomfort of the situations or bad luck that the protagonist Tomoko goes through, feels like a dish of our defects thrown in our face, but the truth is, this is only the "base" of one of the best character developments what can you see.

  If I had to divide watamote into parts, I would divide it into 1st year (the base + cringe) where they show us the life, situation and difficulties of the protagonist Tomoko Kuroki, her goal of trying to be popular (with clumsy methods), as well as the harsh reality of being a person who cannot adapt to this society, 2nd year (development) where Tomoko manages to be more observant of her surroundings, and begins to develop the way of communicating with others (with a little help from the sensei, that we already know), questioning whether being popular is what she really wants and 3rd year, (the climax of the development and the next possible outcome) where our protagonist manages to build a circle of true friends with whom she manages to feel comfortable, giving up that dream not precisely to adapt to society, but rather seeking to adapt it, finding its place in it just as it is.

  It is true, pathetically it may not be identifiable for everyone, in the end we are not all the same, nor do we end up having different perspectives, some of us are shy, simply introverted and others have social anxiety. some more difficult than others, but WataMote ends up being the manga that comes closest to the realistic perspective, the pessimistic and at the same time optimistic perspective, we meet a character that does not resemble the idealization of what we would like it to be, but rather the representation that we would all hate about ourselves, a representation of all our deep defects.

  I think that WataMote is an entertaining, fun, reflective manga (in its own way), but also special, one where you can feel as uncomfortable as it is comfortable and nostalgic.

  Watching Tomoko surpass herself and move forward in her goals, it's amazing slowly coming out of her shell, slowly becoming able to not be ashamed of herself, it gives me so much hope that one day I won't have to be ashamed of myself. Tomoko is identifiable, but not only because she is a tray of flaws, but also because she is a sign of personal progress.

  In my opinion, WataMote is a good manga, from Slice of Life, school, comedy, psychological and if you want drama (although the latter is subjective). AND NO, IT'S NOT A YURI HAREM, NOR IS THE SERIES ABOUT IT! Gang of trolls xd

  The yuri harem thing is only shipped by fan lore, there is no character that gives any indication as such (except for Ucchi, of course).

  If you asked me, would I recommend WataMote, it's a really good and fun manga

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