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Watamote is certainly sticking to its guns – if you’re looking for moderation and restraint, look elsewhere.
Sometimes I try (don’t ask me why) to explain the appeal of anime to non-anime fans. It’s never an easy process and rarely successful in terms of communicating the point, but looking at what’s really exceptional on TV at the moment gives a pretty good illustration of why this medium is so unlike any other. Where else are you going to get shows as different to the quantum level as Watamote, Hunter X Hunter and Uchouten Kazoku and have them all be great? For all the harem, moe pandering and formula crap that exists, this is still an art form that presents amazing diversity of theme and content. And that, as much as any other reason, is why I love anime.
I took note of the fact that Tomoko made two statements this week that are 100% out of the manic depressive handbook, further clues of how the mangaka is relating this story from personal experience. The first is a question – “Is it really OK for me to be like this?” It’s possibly the fundamental self-inquiry for everyone with social disorder and self-awareness, one that they always confront sooner or later – incredibly painful but also brutally necessary at the same time. The other was “I didn’t want to go, anyway” – which really needs no explanation or elaboration, but which gets a lot of exercise for someone like Tomoko. In this case it’s spoken in respect to the fireworks display that coincides with the end of her first semester in high school, one of those moments that tends to force self-assessment on us whether we like it or not.
There are times when I wonder if Tomoko might be growing just a bit, but mostly she and the experience of watching her are consistent. I almost always laugh and feel terrible for her, though the order changes and sometimes it’s simultaneously. The stuff she gets into is obviously exaggerated, but her path to destruction is always surprisingly natural and believable. Tomoko’s desires and delusions always lead her down to disaster and this week was no different. First it’s the completion of a “true love” sim that gets her convinced that she’s experienced a kind of virtual sexual gratification with has turned her into a pheromone-secreting beauty, when in reality she’s closer to how Tomoki describes her – “a crow dipped in oil”. In some ways it’s almost harder to watch Tomoko when she’s under the grip of her delusions of grandeur than when she’s facing depressing reality, because the truth is always so plain to us and you know it will eventually be revealed to her, too. Is it worse to see her happy for a few moments knowing the moment will come when that happiness will be crushed, or to watch her suffer through a steady, consistent malaise?
Sex is never far from view in Watamote, because this is Tomoko’s world and it’s never far from her own thoughts. Be it the impressively varied VNs she plays or two cats humping in the street (the dude did everything but wink at the camera) sex is the engine that drives Tomoko’s fantasy world, and usually the cause of her undoing. Her fantasies this time lead her to drench herself with Coke Zero in the belief that black is her lucky color for the day, which in turn leads to her being swarmed by ants during gym class (to be fair this may be poetic justice, as she was trying to herd them into an ant lion pit). Here again we see her remarkable ability to selectively screen out the swathes of reality that contradict her fantasy – she sees the guy hovering over her in the hall as she gazes out the window, but blocks out his explanation that he was trying to get a bug off her. She sees the guy texting that a “hot high-school girl” is sitting next to him on the train, but doesn’t notice that the one he’s talking about gets off, or that he soon texts about the high-school with ants in her hair.
This is that much sadder because reality always crashes into Tomoko sooner or later, usually sooner. And desperate to find someone to attend the fireworks with, she finally resorts to what she considers the domain of the lowest of the low – the school library. There’s the girl reading a book Tomoko has read, which almost gives her an in to converse – but it turns out the girl has actual friends. This prompts a “Don’t read and be a bitch – then there’s nothing I can beat you at!” from Tomoko – because of course having friends is synonymous with being a bitch. The last hope is a megane-boy reading by himself, but Tomoko can’t bring herself to ask even a guy she considers pathetic to the fireworks and he stubbornly refuses to budge. So she concocts a scheme using her phone alarm to press his buttons, which unsurprisingly fails miserably and leaves her fully in forever alone mode, minus three hours of her life which she’ll never get back.
All this wraps up with a scene that somehow manages to be both tragic and – almost impossibly – a little hopeful. Tomoko retreats to the rooftop she and Yuu used to hang out on before Yuu became popular, thinking of watching the hanabi taikai alone from there (I feared for a moment the implication might be darker than that). But a love hotel has been built next door, and the roof has been discovered by a pair of middle-school boys who have designs on watching a different sort of fireworks. The potential for disaster hangs heavily in the air here as everyone eyes each other nervously.
It says something about both how bleak and how brilliant Watamote is that the two most touching episodes endings have been so completely wrong – first, a father stumbling in on his daughter in the aftermath of playing an eroge with a massager in-hand, and here a high-school girl peeping on a couple making love in the company of two horny schoolboys. As depraved as that is (in truth, having an Onee-san watch with them probably works the lads up even more), it’s oddly the most positive moment in the episode – Tomoko managed to overcome her crushing social anxiety and ask the boys if she could stay (the fact that she felt the need to ask a measure of her low self-esteem) without realizing what she was asking to watch. And somehow, she ended up connecting with people at last – in the act of spying on a couple having sex, true, but it was a shared experience of sorts. It’s the sort of contradictory moment with Watamote seems to be built on, playing with the emotions of the audience until we’re not sure what to feel and uncomfortable with what we are.
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ED4: “Natsu Matsuri” (夏祭り) by Utsu-P & Minatsukitoka, feat. Hatsune Miku
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misspapillon24
August 14, 2013 at 6:25 amI feel sorry for her brother
admin
August 14, 2013 at 6:31 amWell, I do too. I feel sorry for both of them, for different reasons…
misspapillon24
August 14, 2013 at 7:49 pmYeah… what I like about this anime is that they show that tomoko's attitude it's hard not only for her but for "everyone" (her brother) around her. I have a friend that has a really negative attitude about herself and the world and sometimes it's really hard to deal with her, cause you can see how talented she is, and it's pointless to try to persuade her because she won´t believe it. I like the anime because it shows that depressive people are not necessarily the result of extremely sad or difficult situations.
ChesireBae
August 14, 2013 at 8:26 amWhen I've had/wanted to explain the appeal of anime (and manga, cause I believe the two go hand-in-hand), I go with this:
"The sheer variety.
You can find anime/manga about just about anything. Cooking, ski-jumping, boxing, star-gazing, surgery, and it's all done in the standard engaging story formats, whereas books and live-action shows usually turn out like textbooks, documentaries, or reality TV.
You name it and there's probably an anime or manga about it, that effectively conveys why some people are so passionate about it."
—-
As for WataMote…
This episode was especially hard for me to watch due to much the world was coincidentally reinforcing her flawed logic.
When she came to the conclusion that the pure-love eroge made her cuter, I wanted to shrivel up into a ball from my inability to stop her from going down the slippery slope. T_T
I am terrified at what may transpire from her having peeped on a couple making love…
Ronbb
August 14, 2013 at 9:41 amWhen Tomoko was at the rooftop, I was worried that she would jump off the building, but then I felt a little hopeful when she spoke up and later had fun — for whatever it was — with others. To be honest, this is the first time that I laughed out loud watching this show. but then I felt bad at the same time. I also like how Tomoki kept his thoughts to himself…I was the same no matter how irritating the situation could sometimes be.
About the ED again…love that we have another ED that's different from the usual Jpop.
admin
August 14, 2013 at 9:54 amYes, that's what I was alluding to in the post with "darker implication" – it was a bit of a dicey moment there when I wasn't sure if there was a place even Watamote wouldn't go. But hey – it's only episode 6.
Riliane
August 14, 2013 at 9:42 amah yes, the constant change between suicidal depressions and delusional optimision. the author cerainly knows his stuff about about how people with depressions ac, which was always one of the reasons I like this series so much.
Roger
August 14, 2013 at 12:47 pmcan't help but really feel sorry for tomoko here. while she finally gets the chance to notice that she is indeed pretty, she failed to see it as (despite it being too cliched) her inherent beauty i wonder how much longer before she realizes it and finally come out of her shell.
oh and by the way, i can't help but be amused that the ED they used today sounded a lot like black rock shooter's opening.
Ragefat
August 14, 2013 at 9:45 pmIt's because they used Hatsune Miku voice for the song.
Beel7831
August 14, 2013 at 2:16 pmHey GE, I've been following your blog for a long time and finally decided to write a comment. I really enjoy your posts, they're all constantly interesting, well-written and fun to read (watamote and silver spoon especially this season).
I really liked the ending. although it seemed like she's going to take her own life, she eventually managed to talk to people outside her family, even if they were middle schoolers. this shift makes me hopeful that she'll advance socially, even if just a little, this season
admin
August 14, 2013 at 3:07 pmThanks for de-cloaking, hope to hear more from you.
Nothing wrong with those kids being middle schoolers. Tomoko is so hopelessly inept socially that interacting with guys her age seems a lost cause, so middle-school boys might be her only hope. It's still better than only ever talking with her brother – she can practice flirting, and whatever else she feels like practicing with a willing audience. It would destroy her socially if her HS classmates ever found out but as Tomoko has zero social standing ATM anyway, I really don't see a downside.
TigerxDragon
August 14, 2013 at 4:25 pmThose middle schoolers could also be only a year younger than her for all we know so in a way the age gap could really be inconsequential for them.
ishruns
August 14, 2013 at 4:52 pmI'm wondering honestly here but how do social outcasts usually become normal people? Their frame of mind is quite distorted. Jun I understand because of how he must have been ridiculed and shamed by the dress he designed but Tomoko has not been through such a harrowing experience.
This might sound a bit arrogant but I don't know anyone who ended up being simply ignored by everyone like Tomoko. I know people who've been bullied into it and forced into it by their parents overbearingness but never anyone like Tomoko. Or is that the point that because I don't know anyone like Tomoko, there probably was one that I too ignored?
Back to the main question, so Tomoko and I guess most people like her prefer their comfort zone of being alone and ridiculing others in their mind to actually opening up. So is the only way out therapy or help from family or a new friend? Or can they do it on their own? In anime harems a bevy of chicks come but what about actual life?
Rias Gremory
August 14, 2013 at 9:41 pmHey, really off topic, but I remember you saying in one of your posts a couple of weeks ago about how you were worried that they're seemed to be no Bones series' coming out, but I just saw a few days ago that Shinichiro is directing one and it will come out in January. Not sure if you've read about it http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2013-08-10/shinichiro-watanabe-reveals-space-dandy-comedy-tv-anime
admin
August 14, 2013 at 11:53 pmYeah, we knew Space Dandy was coming… But that's still only 1 new series in over a year, which is very worrying.
Hangman
August 15, 2013 at 1:18 amSounds like a good thing. The quality of their last few shows have been on a decline so saving up for something worthwhile sounds like a wise move.
Hangman
August 15, 2013 at 1:23 amAssuming Shinchiro doing a comedy is worthwhile. ^^;
ishruns
August 15, 2013 at 4:35 amRapper samurai wasn't too bad.
Awet M
August 15, 2013 at 5:15 amI used to date a depressive who shares similar traits like Tomoki, and it helps me appreciate this show so much. 🙂
Paul Winchel
August 18, 2013 at 3:28 amI'm agoraphobic, and trust me, it is amazing the things she says that show the mangaka must understand social anxiety disorders very well. the only thing that I felt connected to like this before was Daria.