Watamote Episode 7
What They Say:
The protagonist, Kuroki Tomoko, thought she would naturally become popular once she became a “high school girl”, but reality was different… Tomoko panics at her situation and decides to take action to become popular. But… she doesn’t stand out in class, she’s extremely shy, and bad at communicating with others so she has to start by talking to someone other than her family first… The unpopular girl, “Kuroki Tomoko” fights her hardest to become popular, but… Does a bright future await Tomoko?! The struggles of an unpopular girl start here!!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With summer vacation fully underway, and having some really sad moments when it comes to Tomoko in the previous episode, we’re now seeing how she’s handling her break. The first few days are comically fine as she gets to basically do whatever she wants, which is to play lots of video games and spend her day enamored of her own interests and just relishing the time spent with them. And she’s gloriously happy that no matter how much time she spends during a day doing something, there’s still so many more days ahead of her summer break to enjoy them. But as it happens with those that are essentially cut off and alone, it doesn’t take long for boredom to sink in and the realization that she is alone in all of this.
Watching her go through all of this is definitely comical, even with the understanding of how alone she is and what it means, as she can see just how badly her summer is going to go. What helps though is that with a little one-click same day ordering, she’s set to create her own radio web show with a camera in order to interact with others and become popular in her own way. Of course, once she gets a look at herself on the monitor, it’s all over from there and she has to come up with a cover in order to be able to run the show without being who she is. That, of course, is comical in its own right and her brother’s reaction to seeing her doing all of this is absolutely spot on.
She also starts looking at going to an upcoming event for a game she’s purchased but her research online of what events are like for people proves to be difficult at best and plain spooky and dangerous in general, especially for women. She desperately wants to get out with people but can’t and the more she researches, the more she scares herself into doing nothing. When she does get out to the event and mingles with other women, more outgoing women to be sure, she ends up retreating even more. But when she meets the male voice actor, a rather handsome young man to be sure, her mental processes are comically beautiful as she imagines what she wants him to say for her and just being in his presence with his hand on her. You practically expect her head to explode.
In Summary:
Tomoko’s life doesn’t come across as badly here when you get down to it, especially compared to the previous episode, but you still have to feel bad for her and the troubles she faces. So much of it is still self inflicted, which at least keeps it consistent, but it doesn’t minimize the overall end pain that she suffers emotionally. The show builds well here as we deal with her vacation and what she gets done when it comes to the voice actor is hilarious in and of itself. That it ends with a great chain of storytelling events here that her mother overhears, well, you just have to laugh at how Tomoko copes with it but also her mother. There really needs to be an intervention here for Tomoko by her family, but the more we see of them, the more you realize that they’re perhaps too similar to her, just different shades of the same problem.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.