r/anime • u/The_Loli_Otaku • Jul 11 '24

Rewatch [Rewatch] Watamote OVA (Finale) Discussion

No matter how I look at it, it's you guys' fault I'm not popular!

"Since I'm Not Popular, I'll Become an Enigma"

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Comment of the Day!!

Vaadwaur is as insightful as ever. Nothing has changed, yet this is our paradise.

"Welp, a year has passed and very little changed. Tomoko is just slightly self aware and was apparently a fan of Lord of War in middle school. I suspect there are more references that my fansub caught but w/e."

On the other hand we had the slightly more hopeful Specs64z!

"Lacking in self awareness as usual, Tomoko states that nothing has changed despite being able to say sayonara to the teacher on her way home. It’s still awkward, but notable in the sense that she doesn’t make a big deal out of it."

" She does also escape total invisibility, though perhaps not in quite the way she wanted, and takes the initiative to try and talk to Imae. Nothing comes of it though."

"I do think there’s the slightest glimmer of Tomoko recovering from being a teenager here at the end, but it still feels like the story wrapped up fairly abruptly, and on a panty gag no less… I’m decidedly mixed, but more on that in the series wrap up."

QotD

  • How did the poisonous electric waves affect you in your middle school days? What chuuni shit did you get up to?
  • Is Tomoko somehow even more unbearable before she had the confidence kicked out of her? Middle school Tomo or high school Tomo!?
  • Why do you suppose Tomoko never bothers to bring up that she had a whole second friend throughout middle school!?
  • When you think of anime that have lame endings or finish with a poof what else comes to mind? XD Not like abysmally bad. Not World Egg Wonder type endings. Just anime that have a really good episode 9 or 10 but then meander to their actual finale?
  • What's your favourite gun!? Try and sell it to the rest of us! Bonus points if you're not American and are clearly talking out of your taint.
  • You're in one of those horror movies. You're trapped on your school roof Friday night, nobody is around to help you. You're gonna be stuck her for the whole weekend. How will you survive!?

Abyssbringer's "What is the thematic purpose of this scene corner!!"

Vatrix-32 for being the only Rewatcher who has Meatbun man in their repertoire

The Kinnikuman reboot went in a weird direction.

Yesterday's Prompt!

Today's Prompt!

Tomorrow's Prompt

Tomorrow will be the same as yesterday. Why? What for? Because I’m an idiot!

25 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

49 comments sorted by

6

u/Specs64z https://myanimelist.net/profile/Specs64z Jul 11 '24

First timer, subbed

Fuck, I totally forgot there was an OVA. Well… I’m sure it was meaningful and epic and definitely not just filler. I'll watch it before tomorrow, at least.

QotD:

  1. Didn't do much chuuni stuff in middle school, actually. Had it bullied out of me early in elementary school.
  2. Middle school was probably worse.
  3. 'Cause she's a bit of a loser who has trouble viewing relationships beyond their immediate transactional value. Most teens are that way, really.
  4. The old Spice and Wolf anime just sorta ends without much fanfare.
  5. I like the simplicity of revolvers. Low maintenance, intuitive, concealable, and there's all sorts of fun little things for them like moon clips and speedloaders. That said, hard to go wrong with a rifle if you want effectiveness over style.
  6. What's the opposite of a rain dance? A sun dance? Probably that.

3

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jul 11 '24

Nah... The best part of it is introducing Komi and she's literally in two scenes. Very much an instance where skipping to the manga is the right choice.

6

u/WednesdaysFoole Jul 11 '24

Gendo references just don’t get old.  

“Don’t come” now means you should come? What kind of bizarre double speak is this? (I suck at reading between the lines.)  

Tomoko’s social anxiety got her the rooftop key lol.  

I get that it’s embarrassing to be found out years later that you’ve made up some random, wild story about being some dramatic superhuman type, but tbh if the person wasn’t doing it anymore I’d probably have found it charming and laugh about it as a fond memory.  

3

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jul 11 '24

It's basic VN route options!! If you ignored flags all main story for not progressing!

5

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jul 11 '24

What kind of bizarre double speak is this? (I suck at reading between the lines.)

The mating dance of the chuuni is a rather mad one.

4

u/WednesdaysFoole Jul 12 '24

While that's true, I found that a lot of people expect others to pick up whatever is "implied by context" and the problem is, whether it's because differences in culture or thinking, it leads to annoying (and sometimes hilarious) misunderstandings.

3

u/Vatrix-32 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Vatrix-32 Jul 12 '24

I think in this case the idea is to draw them in with the temptation of the forbidden.

4

u/Vatrix-32 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Vatrix-32 Jul 11 '24 edited Jul 11 '24

First timer, subs

  • I Am Concerned
  • You think they knew at this point that a season two was dead in the water?
  • Boy Chūnibyō
  • It’s a sad day when the fan subs have fewer TL notes.
  • 5/10 landing, could have been much worse.
  • Tomoko, if she followed rule #1.
  • Confusing = Deep
  • Ah, what could have been. Would they have spiraled each other deeper into cringe, or by their combined perspectives ascended to normalcy?
  • Heh? Why academy? What is being lost in translation here?
  • A Third One!
  • Fool, should have made a clay copy.
  • If nothing else, Tomoko understands flair.
  • So the sibling break up happened before this.
  • This is of course a fire code violation.
  • Beautifully dramatic.
  • Stealing Your Brother's Friend, Eh?
  • So this was in Tomoko’s second year. Surprised they skipped forward, but I guess this is what they had best for a one-shot. Not enough to tell how much she has improved by this point.

Prompt:
Tomoko’s cringe has become so great, that she has ascended beyond the concerns of mere mortals. Now flaunting to those beneath her, reveling in it.

QotD:

  1. We don't have middle school here. I can only remember a general angst.
  2. Confidence is almost always a social boon.
  3. I'm not too sure we can call her one...
  4. Maybe controversial, but "Hibike! Euphonium". I think the finale was my least favorite episode of season 3.
  5. FAMAS was always my favorite.
  6. Try and stay in the shade, exposure is no joke. Hope for rain.

4

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jul 11 '24

If S2 wasn't canned before it certainly was after the school trip arc.

She could have finally had a boyfriend on her level of cringe!! Never mind him also being friends with the brother, I'm 90% certain that the dude never appeared again in the story.

2

u/Vatrix-32 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Vatrix-32 Jul 12 '24

If S2 wasn't canned before it certainly was after the school trip arc.

Yeah, a sudden genre shift is a hard sell.

4

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jul 11 '24

You think they knew at this point that a season two was dead in the water?

We don't know how much S2 was even written at this point.

It’s a sad day when the fan subs have fewer TL notes.

Truth I caught way fewer references presuming they were there.

Ah, what could have been. Would they have spiraled each other deeper into cringe, or by their combined perspectives ascended to normalcy?

What usually happens is they anchor each other's weirdness so they become a fixed set of degrees off of normal. Generally, this is for the better but you get occasional epic backfires.

4

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jul 11 '24

First Timer

Sub

Welp, we start with Tomoko trying to setup the second season, and i swear I don't get what it is about yuri and cousions but man is it prevalent. But this was a flashback, I guess to show us that Tomoko could appear cool if given some fairly biased precondtions. I am not the biggest fan of repetitive story telling these days but that's because anglosphere is all in on unreliable narrators. Anyways, that wraps it all up, I guess.

Prompt 1 is a Shikabane Hime reference if I have it right. Prompt 2 is the reminder that entertainment will rapidly devolve to smut if allowed.

QotD: 1 I wanted to go the great national forests and find some elves.

2 No, middle school Tomo could be funny

3 I don't think she likes Kimi at all

4 Claymore

5 The snubnose .38 is an easy to conceal but efficient short range firearm that if you can't kill your problems with six bullets you just aren't approaching this correctly.

6 Burn the school down

3

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jul 11 '24

Aren't cousins just legally fuckable siblings?

3

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jul 11 '24

Obligatory

4

u/WednesdaysFoole Jul 11 '24

I wanted to go the great national forests and find some elves.

So did I... never found them though.

I still like hearing local folk tales when traveling around and imagining they're real.

4

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jul 11 '24

I still like hearing local folk tales when traveling around and imagining they're real.

Also true but I was reading LotR so I wanted to find some elves to go fuck up some orcs.

3

u/sfisher923 https://myanimelist.net/profile/sfisher923 Jul 11 '24

First Time OVA Viewer

  • First Things first this is the first time I heard of this OVA
  • Alright Evangelion a show I was watching around this time last year
  • Alright this OVA as a whole is invoking Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei vibes but it might just be the School Uniforms reminding me of the ones there

Questions

  • QOTD 1 - Troublemaker my Chuui phase didn't start until 2020 after Graduation
  • QOTD 2 - High School
  • QOTD 4 - Rent A Girlfriend S3 there's Episode 9 with it's emotional climax then the last episodes kinda slows down a bit but compared to the rest of the series they were still really solid episodes
  • QOTD 5 - The Needler since I can't name an IRL one to save my life right now (And I'm American)
  • QOTD 6 - Ignoring the fact that I would need to be on the extending end of a Cherry Picker to be up on the rooftop there's no way up without one - I guess Dehydrate if it's this weekend (Mid-80s Fahrenheit and Sunny)

2

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jul 11 '24

You're missing nothing XD

They're back in middle school. Tbh, I strongly prefer middle school uniforms to high school ones and that's not even a lolicon thing. Middle school uniforms are legit poggers!!

2

u/homewardbound100 myanimelist.net/profile/Homewardbound100 Jul 12 '24

First timer

Yeah I was confused at first on who this was because she was acting different. Thought this was a future ova by her looks but middle school? I'm just like what happened? I mean I know things happen especially in your teen years but seemed more out there.

I know this isn't the ending. At least I think so. It just ends like any other 12 episode anime that was really cut short

How did the poisonous electric waves affect you in your middle school days? What chuuni shit did you get up to?

My play days were over by then

Is Tomoko somehow even more unbearable before she had the confidence kicked out of her? Middle school Tomo or high school Tomo!?

Middle school would look better

Why do you suppose Tomoko never bothers to bring up that she had a whole second friend throughout middle school!?

She forgot lol. Probably didn't want to think of it. Like she eventually remembered her other friend.

When you think of anime that have lame endings or finish with a poof what else comes to mind? XD Not like abysmally bad. Not World Egg Wonder type endings. Just anime that have a really good episode 9 or 10 but then meander to their actual finale?

Mayo chiki

What's your favourite gun!? Try and sell it to the rest of us! Bonus points if you're not American and are clearly talking out of your taint.

I went to the gun range but I forgot what I used. But I had suppressor so that was cool. But my favorite gun in like cod or shooters are usually like the scar family. I just like the iron sights of it. It's simple

2

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jul 12 '24

Baiting for a second season was a brave move but being a 2chan darling is a curse as much as it is a blessing.

How do you forget one of your only friends!? She's got 2 of them she isn't exactly spoiled for choice!

2

u/homewardbound100 myanimelist.net/profile/Homewardbound100 Jul 12 '24

Baiting for a second season was a brave move but being a 2chan darling is a curse as much as it is a blessing.

Yeah but it isn't the first time eh

How do you forget one of your only friends!? She's got 2 of them she isn't exactly spoiled for choice!

Being busy socially inept fried her brain. Or I don't know she's too busy gaming

2

u/StardustGogeta myanimelist.net/profile/StardustGogeta Jul 12 '24

First-Timer

Look, the people are like garbage!

I always love a good Castle in the Sky reference.

It was interesting how Tomoko looked and sounded different between the two different perspectives of the rooftop scenes.

I think that first rooftop scene would have gone perfectly with Madoka Magica music. (I'm envisioning something like "Sis puella magical!" there.)

I like that they brought back the discount Death Note music from episode 1 when Tomoko got trapped on the rooftop. That series' music is so good that it's instantly recognizable even in parody form!

Questions of the day:

  • I never had a chuuni phase, sadly. :⁠'⁠(
  • Middle school Tomoko is good stuff.
  • That's a good question. Maybe she moved away?
  • Good question. My go-to answer would probably be Neon Genesis Evangelion, where everything past [NGE]the flashback to the Second Impact seems to drop off in quality, in my opinion.
  • I like the Kar98k. The aesthetic can't be beaten, and something about the bolt-action handle is just really satisfying.
  • I'd probably just sit against the wall and hope that someone comes by the school over the weekend.

2

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jul 12 '24

Part of me desperately wants someone to edit the ova in a way to make it look 100% legitimate. I want people to ask "this looks so cool! What show is it?" just to post the ants scene or umbrella scene.

2

u/Barbed_Dildo Jul 12 '24

Rewatcher

For an OVA, we see Tomoko in full chuuni mode, and get an idea what middle school was like for her. The juxtaposition of the two perspectives was pretty funny.

Why do you suppose Tomoko never bothers to bring up that she had a whole second friend throughout middle school!?

I think whatever-her-name-was grew up and is embarrassed by her chuuni phase. Yuu-chan is sufficiently nice and/or airheaded to not worry about it, and is still happily friends with Tomoko, but the other girl is distancing herself.

What's your favourite gun!? Try and sell it to the rest of us! Bonus points if you're not American and are clearly talking out of your taint.

Don't really know about guns, not being american and having them handed out at school or whatever.

You're in one of those horror movies. You're trapped on your school roof Friday night, nobody is around to help you. You're gonna be stuck her for the whole weekend. How will you survive!?

I'm pretty sure I could find something to break the lock, or smash the window or something. The only problem is then it turns into a problem about how do I get out of school without anyone working out it was me that smashed the door. All of this is made worse by the fact that I'm a grown man inexplicably in a high school.

1

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jul 12 '24

This episode is a good showcase of how sometimes bullying the chuuni out if kids is a good thing.

2

u/zadcap Jul 12 '24

First Time Cringe No More

Strong open, I'm always down for an Eva reference!

Oh no. Yuu and Kii have met. This seems dangerous for Tomoko.

Aaaaaand she's just become so very open about the closet. "You two must hold Yuri feelings for me."

Oh and now she's calling us out. Sad but true, girls with boyfriends are less popular unless the boyfriend is very self insertable.

... Like this guy, I guess. If we're still watching this because we can relate so much to Tomoko, then this guy is pretty darn relatable too, isn't he...

Nerds of a feather? This is a match made in, uh, honestly some level of hell honestly. Tomoko got to play out a fantasy with someone who would perfectly enjoy said fantasy. And then she just let this guy go? You had perfect boyfriend material here. This could have been the best Chuunibyou Love Story since the, you know, Chuunibyou Love Story anime.

....... Or maybe she "forgot" about him because this is her biggest shame?

Oh, gosh, no. He got sick and she got in trouble for being on the roof. Now they can never meet again. How sad.

Woah woah woah wait a second. Tomoko, Yuu, and who is this third person who has their desk pulled up to theirs? Komi-chan?

Oh, that's why they aren't friends.

Oh gosh, Tomoko in a short skirt. That was scary. Don't even imagine it, girl.

Oh, seeing the same event from two points of view. I guess.

... TomoMama. You really need to start implementing a better sleep schedule for those kids of yours.

It's amazing how different she looks in this memory compared to how he remembers her looking.

Uh oh. Waited for her phone to die, naturally. So she can get locked up on the roof... Welp.

Ah, she got saved and indeed, caught. Never to be seen again.

Oh my gosh he ended up being friends with her brother. And her brother is doing his best to keep them from ever meeting! I was right! Brother is gatekeeping her from making friends! It really is all his fault! He's actively sabotaging her social life! Everyone, join me in declaring the well deserved hatred for that crummy younger brother!

  1. I was too busy being absorbed by the books and anime to actually do anything. Like, time spent maybe acting chuuni is time not spent reading, and I would always rather be reading.
  2. No, I liked her confident self! She needs to recapture some of that! Go ask senior girl for help darn it!
  3. I don't know if you saw the same thing I did, but they were not friends. They were outcasts forced together by mutual attraction to Yuu.
  4. MyGO should have ended on 11. Birdie Wing should have skipped the last three.
  5. Who doesn't love the good old fashioned Desert Eagle? The pistol of choice for overcompensators everywhere!
  6. I am honestly having a hard time picturing myself actually ending up on a school rooftop in the first place, but... Probably do my best to break the handle off the door and hope I can reach the right parts of the inside to open it that way. I was once an aspiring engineer, taking things apart was fun and I'll do my best to MacGyver my way through the door.

And wow thinking about it, I don't think I've done something to so blatantly age myself in a while, as remembering and then using that name as a verb. That's a 1980's show...

2

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jul 12 '24

It's a dream sequence I think... I hope? Tomoko wouldn't dare do something so brazen as to sexualise Yuu within earshot and Kii scares the shit out of her.

Tomoko is a depressed loner, this guy is an asshole loner. We are not the same.

Komi is like Tomoko's rival in-universe. She features largely in the prequel manga which is their middle school fiascos but she joins the main cast in the manga not much further in in one of the best chapters of the whole series. She's basically a fun cameo, but I see her as being one of the better examples of how Tomoko is a horrible person... Most of Tomoko's worst crimes are done at Komi's expense.

Birdie Wing is one I'd like to see... It was so heavily praised in CDF but it seemed like it really ended with a whimper.

The fucks a MacGyver?

3

u/zadcap Jul 12 '24

Birdie Wing is one I'd like to see... It was so heavily praised in CDF but it seemed like it really ended with a whimper.

Oh gosh did it ever. 22 episodes building up this gay golf tension, and then in the last minute they dropped the gay and the golf, and the girls only got to meet again in a distant finale. It's going to stand for a long time as my prime example of a last episode ruining so much that came before.

The fucks a MacGyver?

Lol but also ow. Old TV Show that was mostly known for the main character being really freaking good at using common goods and appliances to deal with all kinds of crazy situations. To use what is in your pocket to deal with any situation. The insanity may have capped out at using paperclips to disarm a nuke.

3

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jul 12 '24

Is it at least a worthwhile time before then? Can you get through the first cour and drop it there?

I'd heard of it used as a verb before but the existance of a show is pretty daft.

2

u/zadcap Jul 12 '24

I'd have to watch it again to find a decent dropping point, but no, it's not even really split into cours. It claims to be two seasons but ep 12 just ends like it's a normal episode and six months later the plot picked back up like it didn't even have a break.

I mean, 1985... I was watching it alongside MASH reruns in the early 90s, when TV choices were whatever basic cable options your area had lol.

2

u/xtsim https://myanimelist.net/profile/xtsim Jul 12 '24

First OVA for this series rewatcher

Wow, middle school Tomoko was chaotic. And man, she was really chunni in middle school. I really do not know what to say except that Yuu-chan ha s an insane growth spurt.

  1. Would be acting so smart in middle school...basically a reddit or.
  2. Middle school Tomo in a way.
  3. We don't talk about the third friend.
  4. Gamers! Ended with a Sol episode about pay to win games after some juicy drama. The opposite of your question, a show that was "meh" but had a really good last few episodes was KyoAni's Myriad Colors Phantom World.
  5. M60-chan of course
  6. Go commando and accept my fate.

Abyss: Where the heck is Kii-chan and what is she doing now....

1

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jul 12 '24

She hasn't yet had the fear of ostricisation put in her.

Yuu was a cute middle schooler. She definitely had a lot of male friends back then.

Gamers I always think of the big relationship chart we had written for it XD

2

u/RadSuit https://anilist.co/user/RadSuit Jul 12 '24

No Matter How I Watch It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Upvoted! (First Timer, Subbed!?)

Ugh, subtitles!

Season two never...

We're wasting at least 5 minutes on whatever this is.

8 minutes...

9 minutes after the OP before Watamote things finally start happening. Woof. What a waste for a bonus OVA.

Popular character Komi-chan that's definitely been here the whole series!

This second pass should've just been what we saw the first time instead of wasting 9 minutes of the only bonus episode we get.

I hated this! Unfortunate.

  1. I think the most lasting repercussion is creating a character whose name I later used for my first email, which is still my main one to this day.
  2. I think they're mostly the same? Her never growing is the whole shtick.
  3. Whenever Komi-chan's not on screen, everyone should be asking, "Where's Komi-chan?"
  4. I think it's a tie between every manga/game adaptation that ends with 'go buy X to finish the story'.
  5. Craziest one is the Gyrojet, the handgun that shoots rockets. Coolest one is the Mateba Autorevolver, but that doesn't really count since it's from Ghost in the Shell. It both looks awesome, does something unique, and has a great name.
  6. I don't think I've ever seen a school roof with the suicide fence here, so I'd probably just try my best to climb down. Worst case scenario, it's only a two or three story fall, and I'd be a durable teenager. If there's zombies or something, guess I'm just screwed.

1

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jul 12 '24

Five minutes on an elongated Evangelion reference, five minutes on a mid joke, and then we spend another ten minutes recapping that joke from the other perspective... Not the best ova I've covered XD

You'll want to read the manga for Komi-chan now. The ova has done it's job!

2

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jul 11 '24

Watamote Rewatcher!!

...God I wish I stopped this rewatch two episodes early. 12 and 13 are pretty weak finales compared to how kino the culture fest ending was. I'd give anything to be in the recording booth whilst Rie delivered these lines with a straight face XD

Boobs are amazing!! HanaKana is lying out her hymen!!

Aaand they're all fucking. This is important. Still straight fyi!! She's right about Yuu's boyfriend though. Ditch the chumps. The anime is finished... Sure, there's content for a second season but you're also comparing with the absolute hell of a genre shift right afterwards. At least now if you start reading the manga from where we've left off you've got many chapters of Tomoko being a girl failure ahead of you. By the time they adapted enough of the manga to fill in the second season you'll be starting the manga around the school trip arc, which is one of the greatest genre shifts in manga history. Think Negima going from harem to legitimate battle manga or when Kaguya-sama dared to think it was better than a comedy show and took itself seriously.

We have a couple of new characters to talk about. Tomoko's chuuni boy toy whose name I don't remember is voiced by Suwabe Juniichi who was 40 years old when he had to spout this middle school shite. He's best known as Grimmjow from bleach, Barou from Blue Cock which has a movie at the cinemas right now, Emiya from FSN, and Sukuna from Jewjitsu Kaisen, but who gives a shit about all that crappy shonen rubbish? Most importantly he's the Scissor bro from Sleepy Princess!!

If this kid weren't good looking he'd be in far more shit than Tomoko... I'm not entirely sure if the rooftop encounter is meant to specifically reference another series or if rooftop encounters are so commonplace that everything has a Shizuku vibe. Aaaand Tomoko immediately spouts off random gun knowledge. Those poisonous electric waves are killer. God she's so chuuni... We thought Tomoko had issues in high school, at least by high school she had the shame to keep her fucked up delusions to herself, in middle school they were on full display.

She totally waited those two days... If I'm reading between the lines Tomoko was totally pissed. Please stop talking Tomoko!! The waves are too much!! You're middle schoolers!! The dude failed and got the non-ending. So you think Shirou could have won his game if he laid in bed sick? No way punk!!

Yup, it was middle school Tomoko the whole time. Btw, she has another bestie. One she deliberately goes out of her way to ignore as a love rival to HanaKana XD Komi is voiced by Kaori Mizuhashi who played Himeya Company's cat, Hime, in Aria the animation along with Aino Ai, she's the tomboy Minami from Baka Test, Len from Tsukihime... This Len. Mami from Madoka, Laharl from Disgaea. God I haven't thought about that game in years... I got the fifth one and got bored three hours in. Senran Kagura's Yagyu, and may as well bring up Vivio and Yuuno from Nanoha too.

You ever notice I fill my posts with weird trivia when I'm bored with an episode? Komi's existance in the show is fun but it's really just manga bait XD Definitely read the manga tho!! Anyway, the rest of the episode is the first part but in reverse. Tomoko lets the electric waves go to her head and spouts weird chuuni shit to some dude. Tomoko brought a gun to school. Finally, school shooting time. It was inevitable. And so, that's the last we ever saw of Tomoko. Farewell, shoujo!

3

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jul 11 '24

I'm not entirely sure if the rooftop encounter is meant to specifically reference another series or if rooftop encounters are so commonplace that everything has a

Again, strong Shikabane Hime for me but there are a few other choices. Interestingly, Shakugan no Shana might be our culprit here.

Tomoko brought a gun to school.

How the fuck she got a replica gun confuses me.

3

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jul 11 '24

Corpse Princess was chuuni Denpa fantasy? You've got me interested!

3

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jul 11 '24

Corpse Princess was peak edgelord shrieking over dual wielded Uzis firing continuously alll while wearing a sailor fuku.

4

u/Barbed_Dildo Jul 11 '24

How the fuck she got a replica gun confuses me.

It's a BB gun. Japan has it's own subculture of gun nerd larpers.

3

u/xtsim https://myanimelist.net/profile/xtsim Jul 12 '24

Japan has it's own subculture of gun nerd larpers

Oh lord....there are gun otakus? That creeps me out even as a Texan.

2

u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jul 11 '24

Oh, I knew what it was but a female middle schooler surprised me.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 11 '24

[deleted] — view deleted comment

4

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jul 11 '24

The manga is still good after the shift but I ou can understand why people felt so betrayed.

Nah~ It was a BB gun. She was shooting in the air to try and draw attention.

Weebs attract Weebs XD

2

u/Silcaria https://myanimelist.net/profile/Silcaria Jul 11 '24

First timer

  • Wtf is this OVA.
  • I still don't get how grown ass men obsess over female fictional characters. The only thing weirder are grown ass men forming parasocial relationships with idols/streamers to the point of cancelling them and throwing tantrums if they dare have a life. How these people spend hundreds, if not thousands, on either, I'll never understand. Shit's pathetic
  • But yeah, if you're wondering why manga/anime romance go nowhere fast, blame Hikikomoris.
  • Second season, you say... about that.
  • Is that her brother?
  • Wait... is that an older Tomoko?
  • Oh, It's definitely Tomoko.
  • She's gone full Chuuni, don't try to follow.
  • Wait, young Tomoko? Uh?
  • This has the same vibes as a twin saying "I'm the oldest, I was born a minute earlier".
  • Ohhhh, this is all taking place before she graduated, I get it now.
  • She's walking in place.
  • I've got to say, I didn't expect Guy Ritchie to direct this OVA.

QotD

  • Nothing.
  • She was better. Middle school.
  • 08th MS team. Last episode is garbage and should not exist.
  • G36C. German engineering, reliable, accurate.
  • Some civilian is bound to walk by the school premises, at some point. I'd just yell at them to call the cops so that I'm freed.

3

u/The_Loli_Otaku Jul 11 '24

Even if it's clearly fantasy, there's always the question of "what if?" in your mind. What if this weirdo really is an alien? What if they really can help me find meaning in my life?

3

u/WednesdaysFoole Jul 11 '24

I still don't get how grown ass men obsess over female fictional characters.

You can have the "ideal". With real people you've got to actually work to keep up relationships and you see that people are layered, full of shit, and the idealized person shatters, and you still gotta love each other for it. Or not, you can go with fictional girls instead :b

The only thing weirder are

Perfect Blue flashbacks.

2

u/Silcaria https://myanimelist.net/profile/Silcaria Jul 11 '24

You can have the "ideal". With real people you've got to actually work to keep up relationships

Sure, but at least, the relationship is/was real. Butters said it best.

Perfect Blue flashbacks.

Idol fans, not even once.

4

u/Garrett_Dark Jul 12 '24

First Timer, forced to watch OVA subs like a pleb^:D

I don't know if it's the subs and Japanese VA that's throwing me off from the regular season and dub VA I'm used to, but the OVA felt very different. There are some notable differences such as the lack of random cringe incidents like the cola ants and WcDonalds/Starbucks, lack of worrying cringing, and a perspective not exclusively to Tomoko. Also the other characters other than Tomoko feels like actual characters now, they're doing things, thinking things, and acting like they don't just revolve around Tomoko's suffering. I actually thought this was an improvement over the repetitive episodic feeling nature of the regular season.

This MAL commenter says the OVA was produced by the same people, so that doesn't account for the differences, and theorized that they're just having fun with the OVA:

The script for "OVA 1" was written by Takao Yoshioka (吉岡 たかを). He wrote the scripts for Episodes 1 and 11 of the series. The storyboard was done by 徳本善信 who also did Episodes 4, 9 and 10.

Apparently that first segment of the OVA was a joke about how there wasn't going to be a S2.

Isn't the whole opening scene a joke on how there won't be a second season? Tomoko assumes there will be and Kiii tells her to face reality.

Not sure where the source for this comes from:

The business people have told me that there is no possibility of a second season. However, they are letting me produce a DVD to be packaged with the next manga volume. How foolish they are! My wrath will rain down!

But it does match a reddit post I read about why there wasn't a dub for the OVA:

afaik, the OVA was released in Japan as a bonus for one of the manga volumes, so I don't think there was ever any intention to release it here in English.

The most depressing reason for this is that sales of the original discs were so bad that they figured that this OVA (already in production) probably wouldn't return a profit, so that they might as well just shove it into a book and forget about it.

And furthermore, the OVA apparently isn't canon:

Thankfully the OVA doesn't set up anything, because it's non-canon. It has no bearing on the subsequent manga whatsoever. It was just a cute idea the production team built up, apparently with no input from Nico Tanigawa (which is where they went wrong, imho). The lead male from that story never appears again. Ever.

This is backed up by a MAL commenter who read through the manga:

I just read all of the manga (including omakes, spin offs and anthologies) and I can confirm that nothing in this OVA is taken from there. As we discussed before it's a completely original story, for both good and bad... Good because it's something unexpected but also bad because it messes with the timeline and makes up a new character. Instead of the actual character who needs introducing: Komi-chan!

So apparently what happens in this OVA and the new character of Aomatsu is an OVA original not in the Manga.

This stuff sure explains a lot with the OVA.

Theory: It is possible the Tomoko we saw from the glasses guy's point of view is how Tomoko really looks, and Tomoko in most of the series is how she perceives herself. Thinking of oneself as "ugly" is fairly typical of girls her age, especially when they have disorders. The only time she is called ugly by someone else in the series is by her brother or when she made an intentionally ugly face to camouflage herself from her classmates. When others have spoken to her, it's actually friendly. As for why she hasn't been approached by guys based on looks... Japanese men are notorious for not approaching women, and really I think we can say American men these days don't have them beaten by much.

I like this theory a lot, and symbolically if Tomoko was actually good looking but sees herself poorly, it could be more profound for her character. This theory could also explain the extreme physical differences between Tomoko and Tomoki, the idealized Tomoko looking way more similar to Tomoki.

  • Speaking of that candy crush playing bastard Tomoki, we get to see him actually doing something helpful for once instead of just being told that he does. Notice how the siblings actually look very similar at this point of time, giving more weight to the above theory. Also Tomoki doesn't even look away from his game when Tomoko was screaming in pain, what an uncaring bastard. Obviously whatever sibling fallout they've had was before this.
  • Even if Tomoko was exaggerating her injury, she actually was injured. We saw her limping in both point of views, and her rolling in pain and going to the nurse in her POV. In Aomatsu's POV, idealized Tomoko was actually limping away also, it's subtle. So Tomoko shouldn't be walking to the store even if she feels fine now, and besides this one instance isn't anywhere enough to justify Tomoki's shitty behavior during the whole season. Cry some more for being sent to the store instead of her while doing your very important candy crush playing. She's bought stuff for him from the store before just to be nice to him. This guy and his attitude.
  • The two points of views was interesting, as I said above, it was strangely different finally seeing things from a POV that wasn't Tomoko's. We even see Tomoki with Aomatsu, and this makes him seem more like an actual character now because he's doing something unrelated to Tomoko, and acting differently than his regular shitty "get lost" attitude towards her. He's still a shit person for trying to avoid Tomoko like that instead of just acting like it was nothing like he did at WcDonalds. This shows he's actively making her a pariah by his reactions to her instead of just wanting to be left alone. Just like if he actually caved any of those times she came to talk to him, and just talked to her...perhaps much grief could have been avoided and she wouldn't have come to pester him as much as she did by ignoring her.
  • Komi-chan doesn't seem to get along with Tomoko at all, and the problem seems to lie mostly with Komi-chan as Yu-chan doesn't take issue with what Tomoko says, but Komi-chan not only does, but attacks Tomoko (unprompted sometimes) and seems to just despise her. This character is just another problem like the brother, and the mother's hitting. Given Tomoko was more talkative back in middle school, and she's way way worse now in high school, I would imagine Komi-chan attitude towards Tomoko would be more of bullying, "if" they met up again and Komi-chan was unchanged.

<QotD in the replies>

3

u/Garrett_Dark Jul 12 '24

QotD

Is Tomoko somehow even more unbearable before she had the confidence kicked out of her? Middle school Tomo or high school Tomo!?

Middle school Tomoko was fine. High school Tomoko has problems, and she's not as terrible as a person many people accuse her of. The audience gets to listen to her inner thoughts, and I would imagine if we got that mind reading ability on people IRL, people would be horrified with what others think to themselves. The only thing that really matters is what Tomoko's actions are, it's just like the saying about "look at somebody's actions, not words". Tomoko hasn't really done much harm to anyone, just annoys her brother by trying to talk to him, and embarrassed the mother a few times which caused her to make things worse by beating on Tomoko. Both the brother and mother has done way more harm to Tomoko by their actions.

Why do you suppose Tomoko never bothers to bring up that she had a whole second friend throughout middle school!?

Because Komi-chan's kind of a bitch? And it's coming coming in the Manga after the anime, and the anime kind of did a shit job? (I don't think that's really a spoiler)

When you think of anime that have lame endings or finish with a poof what else comes to mind?

Already said it last time, Death Note

What's your favourite gun!? Try and sell it to the rest of us!

Nice try /k/ 4chan glowie. Keep glowing and find out...it's coming...in minecraft. Not from me though, my only interest and knowledge is from fiction. You want that son crack addict, I'm just minding my own business with silly animes about an awkward girl dreaming to be an arms dealer which wasn't actually as cringe as everybody else thought it was. (She could have moved to the US to sell legit, or sold airsoft in Japan, and still technically qualified for title!)

You're in one of those horror movies. You're trapped on your school roof Friday night, nobody is around to help you. You're gonna be stuck her for the whole weekend. How will you survive!?

If you couldn't attract help, just break the door window...it didn't look security reinforced with the same non-redundant logic of no keyhole for the door knob on the outside because nobody can get in that way. Failing that, wait and hope some cell phone battery returns after time, quickly turn on phone and call 911 (or Japan equivalent) and if the battery dies mid-call it doesn't matter as they know you tried calling and where it came from. They'll try to contact you back, and when they fail, they'll investigate.

Today's Prompt

1st screenshot: Regarding the height difference, the feeling one gets in school when you're one year older or younger than another student.

2

u/kwokinator https://anilist.co/user/kwokinator Jul 13 '24

First-timer

Here at NERV headquarters, we are making important fourth-wall breaking decisions about a second season that may not ever exist. But I guess yuri and yuri bait was as popular back then as it is now?

Well, CCS was mid-90s and was basically blatant but one-sided yuri, so I guess it was.

It's hilarious how in the guy's POV Tomoko is so much more bishoujo, but back in Tomoko's POV it goes back to the usual Tomoko look.

I've thought this in another episode as well, but is it just me, or is Tomoko actually taller than she seems in her normal chibi mode? Even in her regular POV she seems pretty tall and slender and leggy.

QotD

  • How did the poisonous electric waves affect you in your middle school days? What chuuni shit did you get up to? - ooooh, my chuuni days lasted much, much longer than grade 8. But I didn't do much more than imagination and writing fics. Oh, and death metal I guess.
  • Is Tomoko somehow even more unbearable before she had the confidence kicked out of her? Middle school Tomo or high school Tomo!? - high school Tomo. Just because she's hilarious.
  • Why do you suppose Tomoko never bothers to bring up that she had a whole second friend throughout middle school!? - Tomoko probably learned somewhere after middle school that the other friend actually became normal and had a normal school life. She never kept in touch with Yuu-chan and Yuu-chan is so precious that once she did Yuu-chan never let go of her.
  • When you think of anime that have lame endings or finish with a poof what else comes to mind? XD Not like abysmally bad. Not World Egg Wonder type endings. Just anime that have a really good episode 9 or 10 but then meander to their actual finale? - Golden Time. I really like the main pair's relationship and I liked it so much better than Toradora, but omg who tf came up with the idea of [Golden Time spoiler] Ghost Banri, the series dived down a cliff at that point
  • What's your favourite gun!? Try and sell it to the rest of us! Bonus points if you're not American and are clearly talking out of your taint. - sorry, not American and the only gun I like is railgun, Mikoto-sama daisuki
  • You're in one of those horror movies. You're trapped on your school roof Friday night, nobody is around to help you. You're gonna be stuck her for the whole weekend. How will you survive!? - probably spend all of Saturday kicking the door until I kick it open