Squeaky Clean Anime Taste Test: WataMote Episodes 1-3 (12 Days of Anime 2014 Day 6)

I know, I know, I'm doing a Taste Test of a short anime! But the only reason I am doing so is...
BECAUSE I WAS CHALLENGED!!!

It all started when Glass Reflection started his "Review Week of Awesome," and he gave the "F**k It" rating to this anime. I posted a comment (Here's the important part: I skipped to the end of the review because I was busy, and soon after, I was specifically asked to watch the first three episode because "I can't form my own opinions." I later watched the entire review here) Here's the screenshots of the comments:

(I thought the first episode of Lucky Star was the most boring first episode I've ever seen in anime)

By the way, the original video was taken down, then re-uploaded.

So, as you can see, I was told to try the first 3 episodes before calling it a bad anime. And thus, this Taste Test.

Yes, WataMote, is a slice-of-life, but with a concept I don't think has been used to this extreme before. The story is quite simple. Tomoko Kuroki is an unpopular girl, sometimes referred to as a "mojō." She hoped that with entering high school, she would magically become popular. Well, she didn't, so using her "research" from otome games, as well as the almighty Internet, she seeks out ways to be popular, or at least get boys to notice her.

I definitely see the appeal of this anime, and the otaku references certainly got a laugh out of me. (The Death Note one was the best by far) But the problem with this story is, it was most likely made for all these otaku to reflect on their past experiences and laugh at themselves with retrospect. Instead, it brings up some not-so-good memories of my shut-in otaku self, and I know others have felt the same way when watching this anime. I'm pretty sure many of you reading this have felt the pain of a close friend who was once really dorky suddenly blossom and mature, while you stayed behind. Or get told off by a teacher really loudly in the middle of class because you forgot something. Tomoko is often put into embarrassing situations, and she is constantly feeling horrible as a result. This is where the "cringe" in cringe comedy gets put. And I'm not fond of those "awkward moments" in anime. At all.

As a character, Tomoko is probably the most relatable one I have EVER seen, almost to a scary extent. Some of Tomoko's spiteful lines she spouted off have come out of my mouth, or at least, brain, almost word for word. However, it's her motivation overshadowing her common sense that makes me think this show didn't treat her with much respect. Which is a bit of a shame, considering that they chose to make our recluse character a female, which doesn't happen that often in media. Tomoko legitimately has social anxiety disorder, and she cannot help that. The fact that this show tries to sort of mock that has led some people to dislike this anime. Tomoko's younger brother, Tomoki, is the brother character I don't think I've seen in anime before either. He's always annoyed, crabby, and doesn't like putting up with his sister.  The great thing about this brother-sister relationship is that it's very realistic. As I'm only three episodes in, there really aren't any more characters for me to talk about.

The art and animation never sticks to one style an entire episode. Sometimes this is to indicate Tomoko's fantasies, her nightmarish predictions of what is to happen next, or simply for the purpose of reference/otaku humor. Lighting also had an effect on the scenes, and a lot of times these polygons of light will fill a scene or set. Tomoko's fantasies are usually in a particular filter, while her nightmares have another. I like the character designs of putting marks under the Kuroki siblings' eyes to indicate that they're constantly under stress.

As far as dubbing goes, I was a bit skeptical when I found out Monica Rial was cast as Tomoko a few months ago. I thought, "She's a great actor, but only the directors at Funimation are good enough to utilize her talent to the fullest." However, she really worked well with the material she was given, and made her performance as Tomoko very believable. What Monica did better than her Japanese counterpart Izumi Kitta were the times when Tomoko was forced to interact with regular people. Aside from David Matranga as Tomoki, there were no other stand out roles in the dub, which was filled with Sentai Filmworks regulars. The Japanese version, however, made it sound, I want to say, a bit more natural. Izumi Kitta did a phenomenal job as Tomoko, and her performance shines the best when she's being her forever alone otaku self.

I did notice a little bit of 8-bit in the soundtrack, which I thought to be incredibly fitting, considering out main character is an otaku girl. The rest of the OST, however, is rather mundane, and comprised of those "little sounds" and "short repeated melody runs" that tend to fill up soundtracks of slice-of-life anime. The opening, on the other hand, is this awesome, really unique almost-hard-rock song that totally blows the rest of the soundtrack out of the water. The ending theme is alright, I guess.

WataMote is selling itself as a 12-episode chunk of high concentration cringe comedy. The problem with this type of setup is that the "comedy" may actually hit a little too close to home for much of the audience. Some people might watch an episode and walk away feeling better, and some may feel worse. Me, personally, I was actually split about halfway. For every time I thought I was looking into a portal of my past self, another time forced me to realize I am doing exactly what Tomoko is doing wrong. Now, if this anime was trying to get otakus to change themselves...well...that actually opens up another can of worms that I don't think I have enough time to discuss on this Taste Test.

As far as enjoyment goes, it was fine, but the show did have those moments where I just wanted to look away or mute the sound, just because the situation was so awkward. I will say though that the references made up for this show a lot more than it probably should have.

Now, you may not know this, but I have a policy about anime. No matter how bad it is, no matter how boring it is, I will almost never drop an anime (There are exceptions, such as Negima and the previously mentioned Lucky Star) I almost always plan on finishing an anime sometime in the future, whether that be in two days or two years. And it is this that forces me to watch the rest of WataMote. The question is then, of when I will get around to watching it. If I'm looking for a comedy, I might pick this one up. But I don't think I'm in that big of a rush to finish this, even though I've only got nine more episodes. As far as if I recommend this, I'd say watch it if you're prepared to feel uncomfortable at least a few times. This is not a show for regular people at all. 

If you like the sound of this anime, you can watch it for free legally here.

Cheers,

~Selena

Last Updated: 25 December 2014

Originally published: 19 December 2014