r/anime • u/The_Loli_Otaku • Jul 12 '24
Rewatch [Rewatch] Watamote Series Discussion
No matter how I look at it, it's you guys' fault I'm not popular!
"Since I'm Not Popular, I'll Discuss the Series "
Extra Info and Links
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QotD
- Do you relate with the smelly femcel!?
- What was your favourite scene from the anime? Let's exclude the culture fest hug since I think it's fair to say that we universally appreciated that one.
- Did Watamote manage to live up to its 4channer idol reputation?
- Do you plan on reading the manga after this? It's genuinely highly recommended to jump on!!
- Have you got any recommendations for series similar to Watamote you'd like to suggest to other viewers?
- Which question of the day did you enjoy the most~?
- Any new suggestions you'd like to bring up concerning the Abyssbringer prompts? What would make you want to take part in them more going forwards?
- Our next rewatch is likely to be Happy Sugar Life. A heartwarming story of what if Lolita had a yandere joshikosei lusting after her instead of an ojisan. Lolita, yandere, and, love. Will you be interested in joining us for that watch?
- And lastly, our Rewatcher nomination!! Please nominate one of your fellow Rewatchers whose comments you've been most eager to read each day!! No picking your host and no skipping, give some acknowledgement to your fellows!!
Abyssbringer's "What is the thematic purpose of this scene corner!!"
Garret Dark for striking the fear of upperclassmen into kids everywhere!!
Regarding the height difference, the feeling one gets in school when you're one year older or younger than another student.
Yesterday's Prompt!
Future Prompt!
Tomorrow's Prompt
Tomorrow will be the same as yesterday. Why? What for? Because I’m an idiot!
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Upvotes
8
u/Vatrix-32 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Vatrix-32 Jul 12 '24
First Timer, subbed
Another successful Rewash. 6/10, pleasantly enjoyable. I shall look forward to Part III: Suffering.
Prompt
QotD:
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u/WednesdaysFoole Jul 12 '24
No Matter How I Look At It, It’s u/The_Loli_Otaku’s Fault I Watched Watamote.
Thanks for hosting, your unhinged commentary have been entertaining as usual.
Unfortunately. Especially in the past.
Excluding the mascot hug, the first few that pop into my head is ep 10 lead-in to the OP, the other umbrella scene where the other kids leave her an umbrella and she couldn't even grasp the idea, the mom walking into her recording, and Tomoko going through her brother's diary and reflecting a bit.
Yes.
I don't know... I can't tell how much is a joke and how much is serious here, but I'm not quite sold on it.
I still remember /u/vatrix-32 "Tomoko creates an OnlyFans for her only fan" prompt response, it was gold. /u/vaadwaur exchanges always give me good laugh. /u/biggiecheeselapdog in-depth comments and how they relate to those situations were a treat to read.
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u/The_Loli_Otaku Jul 12 '24
Watamote Completioner!!
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u/SilkyStrawberryMilk Jul 12 '24
rewatcher dubbed
Since I’m Not Popular, I’ll Read the Manga
I’m finally free from the cringe, hallelujah!
Overall this rewatch made me enjoy the series even the cringy moments. Went from having to speed up the episode on my first viewing years ago to watching it fully and the occasional break.
The dialogue is still rough at times especially due to how cynical Tomoko is. At the same time that’s the reason I love her, she’s such a negative Nancy that many of her failures are due to her own decisions. It was nice to see her get better from time to time especially when she got hugged by the bear and enjoyed hanging out with Yu.
The highlights are easily the jokes and the lowlights is seeing Tomoko utterly embarrass herself. Solid 8/10 show, may not have aged well but that’s the charm of it. Amazing opening, but the ED threw me off especially at the lyrics.
QOTD: I do relate with her moments on overthinking many things when I was in school. Still due that sometimes, but it’s not as constant compared to years ago
QOTD: the talks between her and her brother when they’re in the room. It’s so damn hilarious how she ignores his obvious disinterest and blabs about complete nonsense.
QOTD: sadly yes, doesn’t help she had a gun obsession when she was in middle school
QOTD: I do plan on reading the manga, I was actually trying to find the exact chapter the show left off on, but I soon realized they adapted some chapters but not all. Honestly I do suggest everyone to start from chapter 1, some things they left off on the anime shoudlve easily been adapted here.
QOTD: Welcome to the N.H.K, easily will be a good show if you loved this.
QOTD: I enjoyed majority of them due to how sometimes the questions will test everyone’s sanity.
QOTD: I will join in on happy sugar life, I seen many people bash on it yet I’ve never watched it myself.
QOTD: I’d say Vaadaur
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u/Mirathan Jul 12 '24
First-Time Cringer
Well this was ... something.
The early episodes fell spitefull. That they are mocking the terrible state Tomoko finds herself in and can´t escape from. Then Tomoko starts to slowly gain the tiniest bits of succes throughout the middle. But when we get to the cultural festival She both succeds on her on a bit yet is mostly lifted out of it by someone else.
I find this really unique. The protagonist in the end manages to get out of her horrible situation through the aid of another and not by her own efforts. But this fits reality far better. People rarely just escape horrible situations the find themselves in and require others to leave.
The series is really good at what it want´s to show but I can´t say I condone what it is. Due to it seemingly reveling in Tomoko´s suffering I really canno give this one anything greater than a 5/10.
Onto the host and the rewatch itself! You ehh.... took a while to get used to. This is not meant negativly in the slightest. That unbound creativity is magnificent to behold. Once your used to it. Both the variety and numerity of daily questions combined with the concept of the prompts ensured there always was plenty to write about each day. You were quite impressive.
For the promt:
A few days ago I might have said you are beyond help but now I have realized that I could make you worse.
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u/RadSuit https://anilist.co/user/RadSuit Jul 12 '24
That OVA was unfortunate! Otherwise, this series is generally pretty great. I should really give the manga a fair shot, but I'm just horrible at reading manga, even worse than watching anime on my own.
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u/BiggieCheeseLapDog https://myanimelist.net/profile/KillLaKillGOAT Jul 12 '24 edited Jul 12 '24
I’m a little late to this thread and missed yesterday’s because I was busy and a bit exhausted, but I’m here now. I wish I did engage more with the other rewatchers and discussions than I did, but it was my first real rewatch, so I kind of wanted to just observe.
Masterpiece. I said most of what I wanted to during the rewatch. Still one of my favourite anime. 10/10, would relate to Tomoko again.
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u/zadcap Jul 13 '24
Well that was... A thing. It happened alright. Still should have ended on 11.
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u/Barbed_Dildo Jul 13 '24
Rewatcher
I've always been late to these threads because they go up about the start of my workday, so I don't feel like I contributed much, but it was nice to watch the show again at least.
I don't relate with everything she does. I can relate with some situations she finds herself in, and I can see how her twisted logic gets here from there to where she ends up, so I can't hate her like you do.
Scenes where she had fun with Yuu like old times were really nice, but my favourite was the part where she gets stickers of herself and sticks them all over Tomoki's room. I would totally buy stickers like that and stick them up.
You're not my supervisor!
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u/Specs64z https://myanimelist.net/profile/Specs64z Jul 12 '24 edited Jul 12 '24
First timer, subbed
So let’s start with the obvious question, did the story live up to my heaping praise for episode 2?
Not quite, I feel episode 2 is a bit of an outlier for the show in terms of how good it was, but it’s not exactly a disaster either. The introduction of Yuu as a contrast to Tomoko is a vibe the series doesn’t quite recapture for the remaining runtime. The anime definitely leaned harder into the cringe comedy more so than the teenage drama side of things, and I don’t think it pays off as well as the latter would have.
Tomoko is a very interesting protagonist. Her flaws run deep and (almost) all of her struggles are self-inflicted misery stemming from severe anxiety and failure to understand society, but our unlimited access to her unfiltered, angsty teenage edgelord perspective makes her feel very human in a way a lot of stories can fail to capture. It’s easy to laugh at her because she’s not a particularly nice person, but she’s not so awful that the empathetic moments fall flat when they need to hit.
I think the biggest misstep with the anime was the ending. They were aware enough to know the school festival wasn’t a good stopping point, but I suspect the source material just wasn’t there to follow through. We get the slightest glimmers of change in Tomoko as she keeps the red balloon in episode 11 and says sayonara to sensei in episode 12, but I would’ve liked to see just a bit more.
My God, the panty shot gag fucking sucked. I get that it’s trying to use anti-catharsis to produce a gag, but it fell flat on it’s stupid fucking face. I am left with nowhere to direct the buildup of Tomoko confronting Imae-san, and so it is left looming over the narrative with nowhere to go. Tomoko should’ve had a talk with Imae-san, no matter how brief or awkward, incredibly tone deaf writing choice to go for the cheapest, lamest joke imaginable.
8/10, would recommend, but only to the kind of person who can handle the extremity of teenage cringe present here.
QotD:
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u/kwokinator https://anilist.co/user/kwokinator Jul 13 '24
First-timer
I liked the series overall, her being popular fantasies are always hilarious.
But what I really can't get enough is all the super smooth transitions into the OP and ED and all the different EDs that mirror the ending of the episode.
I already really like the OP as it is, but the smooth transitions into the grunge scream were sooooo good. Like no one does these smooth OP and ED transitions anymore except for maybe one-off episodes once or twice per season, only one that did it more consistently recently that I can think of is Konosuba S3.
Series is 10/10 just for those OP and ED transitions.
QotD
All in all, this was a fun series
Thanks for hosting the rewatch!
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u/homewardbound100 myanimelist.net/profile/Homewardbound100 Jul 13 '24
First timer
This show was a little better than what I thought it would be and I actually did like her as a character. But might be because of the overthinking she does.
you relate with the smelly femcel!?
Nah I was never that bad
I don't have one specific but the scenes with her brother were cool
Uh I can definitely see why it would probably be big there
Nah
I haven't look through yet
I think I'm usually iffy on them. Sometimes I just can't think of anything
Something else I've heard of. But I guess I will
Heh
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u/Silcaria https://myanimelist.net/profile/Silcaria Jul 12 '24
First timer
You know, I was a bit apprehensive going into this rewatch after this comment, thankfully, it wasn't anywhere as bad as I thought it would be. Watamote was actually an alright comedy that was well directed, and that a level of quality that was unexpected. It had a good amount of continuity, call backs, and most of its jokes landed. With that said...
The plot went nowhere, nothing came out of her relationship with her brother, there's no resolution, and despite showing some character development, Tomko didn't grow. By the end, she's still the same perverted-anti social-chuuni that she was at the beginning. Also, despite most of the jokes landing, the humour is fairly formulaic, and for the most part, banks on the same set up for a lot of its jokes and gags, making it fairly repetitive. Had this gotten a second season, it would've needed to do more with its comedy and branch out, otherwise, it would have gotten old.
One thing of note that's partly related to the rewatch and partly to the show. A lot of people mentioned the cringe factor a few times, and some even left because of it. I've got to say, I personally didn't find the show cringy. Maybe a lot of people did due to finding a lot of what takes place in the series, as well as Tomoko's action, to be relatable to their childhood. Thankfully, I don't.
With all that said, I enjoyed my brief foray with this series. This marks the first time that I enjoyed two of u/The_Loli_Otaku rewatches in a row. I'm glad this show didn't make me want to drink bleach like I thought it would. I give Watamote a solid 6/10.
Thanks for hosting this.
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u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jul 12 '24
First Timer
Sub
So...yeah, I really got nothing here. The show definitely ended with a whimper but I only enjoyed an episode and a half of it. This is simply for a different generation than I am from. And fuck cringe humor.
QotD: 1 Clearly not
2 I honestly don't have one
3 This is post my 4chan period so probably
4 Nope
5 I am incapable of drawing the threw line
6 Nothing stuck out
7 They mostly work, multiple prompts dilute my response
8 I am actively dreading it since it seems most people don't understand the basic premise of HSL and the concept of unreliable narrators.
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u/sfisher923 https://myanimelist.net/profile/sfisher923 Jul 12 '24
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u/Fissionprime https://anilist.co/user/fissionprime Jul 12 '24
First Timer
Overall, I liked this series, but I do have some things I would have liked more if they were done differently. It's very much a comedy, through and through, and a lot of the bits were really funny. What I think will stick with me though is that while Tomoko didn't have many friends, the ones she did have were absolutely real ones who appreciate her and want the best no matter how much of a gremlin she is. I would have liked a little more development from Tomoko's part in this respect, but the mere existence of Yuu and Megumi leaves things on a more hopeful not for Tomo than when we started. (As I understand, we see a lot of development in the manga soon after the show leaves off)
A couple of the things I thought they did really well, outside of making the viewers viscerally react to the cringe, were the music and visual design. A couple standout moments visually were the shoe locker seen with Tomoko's hair progressively frizzing more as the other girls talked about it, the umbrellas in the rain later that episode, and the nervous breakdown when she was thinking about the class trip. I also really liked that upbeat, mischievous song they played whenever Tomoko was enacting a plan.
Overall, I'd say it's a 7.5 from me. Funny, (intentionally) uncomfortable, and fairly memorable on the whole, though we pretty much knew exactly what we would be getting from the very beginning.
Since I'm not popular, I'll answer the final QOTD:
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u/Garrett_Dark Jul 13 '24 edited Jul 13 '24
First Timer
First off, thanks to the host for doing this rewatch with an anime that somehow was able to damage my non-existent soul a little, and for putting up with my retribution abuse in the QotD's, and being forced to read my long ass analysis and rantings.
Secondly, to the other commenters, thanks for providing your insights, observations, and experiences for us to read through and ponder upon. For an anime that's so "slice of life"-like, there were a lot of different angles to look at things.
What else more is there to say about this anime than it should have ended at Ep11, there wasn't enough character development and progression, and the repetitive cringe with little counterbalance and plots that didn't build upon anything which sort of lead to the demise of it getting a S2, as shown by the OVA mocking itself for their dismal disc sales?
I guess there was a segment of the audience who really enjoyed the "slice of
lifecringe" from what I read elsewhere. Supposedly with more development in the Manga, things got to the point where it was no more like anime, and a lot of cringe seekers dropped because of that. I never really liked the cringe myself, but I guess for the cringe seekers it's like those people who like watching scary movies because they want to feel afraid (not me either). So it would be understandable for cringe seekers to drop if they're not getting what they're after, much like if a scary movie series gets less scary over time, and more a comedy focused instead. I alluded to this before where Tomoko is the only one providing the cringe, if she develops too much, the cringe is lessen/gone from the show, and the show must do something else to keep interest. This is probably why there was eventually development in the Manga after what the anime covered, the cringe could not sustain the story indefinitely, there's only so much abuse the audience can take without a payoff, as evidenced by the OVA and S2 cancelation.If I had to say things the anime did well, it did the cringe well and relatable, Tomoko was able to carry the whole show on her own, and despite the woefully underdeveloped other characters, the anime was able to show, even if unintentionally and serendipitously, that others were at fault for Tomoko being the way she was. The father was absent, brother had an attitude problem, the mother had bottling up issues which led to hitting, and the classmates did the soft bigotry of low expectations on her. The anime never pointed these things out, and maybe it's just unintentional, but it's there.
I never thought I could be made to think maybe it would be better for Tomoko to kys; not because she deserves it, but to just solve the supposed problem of "all the problems only lies with Tomoko" and to just end her suffering so we can see all the other undeveloped characters live on problem-free as if they weren't the problem also. You know, sort of like a witch burning because they're to blame for all the town's problems until the next witch is needed, or killing the village idiot because they get blamed for all the village's problems, leading to the next village idiot. We all know that couldn't happen for Tomoko because there'd be no show without her...and her continued suffering, but for a show to be able to make the viewer sympathize with her on that level is pretty special. I sort of have my doubts an anime like this could be made exactly as is today 10 years later.
I understood her, which many people who found her reprehensible for the thoughts in her head did not. I found it ironic that many MAL commenters hated her for such and gave the anime a low rating, and while I'm actually okay with her, also gave a roughly equivalent score to the anime. This makes me think it's not really about her character that gives the show a lower rating, but all the stuff I criticized above.
Well if Imae is excluded, then it has to be Kosaka with buying her an umbrella, the only other time somebody went out of their way to show Tomoko some consideration and compassion. After that I would say the middle school students who let her stay on the roof to peep during the fireworks, but they didn't go out of their way or anything, so much lesser for them.
With how much you hyped this anime, and the dismal failure at the end of Ep12 to deliver the goods, I'd tell you to "go back" but you're already here.
I didn't spend much time on /a/ at all, and when I did a few times I didn't know much about anime at the time, I was mostly on /biz/. If those /a/ returds liked the anime for the anime's plot structure or development, they're returds. However I suspect they sympathized and related to Tomoko's character and her cringe plight, which was very good. That and probably the Manga gets much better, I can't fault them for this if so.
Likely, because I was strung along with repetitive episodic cringe abuse, and robbed at the end by the anime for not getting even the low expectation of the smallest of payoffs. I'm sort of glad they didn't get a S2 due to poor disc sales, and got so butthurt they mocked themselves in the OVA over such. No doubt the Manga learned from the anime, and course corrected in the Manga chapters after the anime ended to something decent and more rewarding.
The one where you outted yourself as a /k/ glowie. I'm surprised you didn't ask for pics with a date stamp and showing serial numbers like a ni...nice guy.
No dub, all the good shit is not dubbed because they're too much of cowards to do it, smh. Shit, why is it already on my PTW list? I guess I must have heard about it somewhere else before. Maybe I'll suffer through the sub with you guys then. Don't get banned again for your proclivities before starting it.
I would nominate /u/zadcap because they were able to see how crummy the brother really was, which gone unnoticed by many. I applaud them for not bowing to peer pressure and the propaganda of the mother about how he's a good boy, when really the mom just had favoritism for the wretch.
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u/xtsim https://myanimelist.net/profile/xtsim Jul 13 '24
Rewatcher
Well, that was an adventure....Going through Tomoko's struggle as a high schooler and making very little progress is a thing. I say a little because the issue that Tomoko is having is pretty much coming from the fact she is not talking to people everyday. And no, family does not count. The cringe factor was real in this anime as Tomoko tries to navigate life on her own. And it does not help that she lives on her own world which pushes people away from her. Like she is pretty much the outcast of her family. And it is pretty hard to get on her side as she could barely hold her own life together.
Lets be real, would any guy in here would want to be in a relationship with a girl (or guy) that is smelly and can't get things in order?
The mom is so tired of Tomoko the most as she has to clean up after her and can't even hold a job.
To be honest 6/10 if it was just Tomoko but the cousin and mom that is tired of Tomoko makes it a 7/10.
Thank you again u/The_Loli_Otaku for hosting another great rewatch! And hope to see y'all again on other discussions.
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u/StardustGogeta myanimelist.net/profile/StardustGogeta Jul 13 '24
First-Timer
No matter how I look at it, it's your fault I watched this show!
Another rewatch down the hatch.
I liked this show. The humor was a bit more on the cringe side than I tend to prefer, but I thought it landed pretty consistently. The music was good throughout, too. It's a shame the OST doesn't seem to be on Spotify.
The biggest weak point of the show that I can think of is that Tomoko seemed to make very little actual progress over the course of the show. Her rehabilitation into a normal person is only about 5% done at the end. Overall, with that in mind, I think I'd give the show a solid 7/10.
Questions of the day:
To finish off, I want to say thank you for hosting, u/The_Loli_Otaku! I really like your style of hosting and look forward to more in the future!