WataMote (Anime Series)

WataMote
Written by: Takao Yoshioka

Based on the manga series by: Nico Tanigawa (Yen Press)

Directed by: Shin Onuma
Produced: Sentai Filmworks
Release Date: Began July 8, 2013--ongoing 

Welcome, Dear Readers, to a GUSHING review of a strange little, heartbreaking, anime with a long name. The title of this slice-of-life, teen-angst, anime series: Watashi ga Motenai no wa do Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui! , better known by the shortened title Watamoto, translates to No Matter How I look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular! and, in short (or long...considering the length of that title) that's exactly what this anime is about. 

Lead character Tomoko Kuroki is a fifteen year old girl with crippling social anxiety and self-esteem problems...a fact that makes her high-school life and her desire for popularity awkward to the point of painfulness for both viewer and character. So, why would I not only want to watch something that is painful to watch, but encourage others to watch it as well? That's a good question I don't really have an straight answer to. 

One thing I want to make clear though, is that I am in no way watching this to ridicule or make fun of this character. Although I have never had to face the depths of social awkwardness that Tomoko faces on a daily basis, I cannot help but feel a sort of horrific empathy with her as she moves throughout her day: panicking at each small social interaction; swinging wildly between utter disdain for her fellow students and her desire to be more like them; misjudging and misinterpreting social cues, actions, and reactions; feeling isolated and trapped in that isolation without any direction to turn; and trying madly to find some IN to a world of friends, popularity, and social ease that she seems to be excluded from. To call Tomoko simply anti-social or neurotic is to sell her short...she is a strangely compelling character, who invokes joy, sorrow, and pity in me

I promise you that she's not as scary as all that...most of the time.
And although she is the loner-type, she's not going to snap and go through with any violent actions towards others.
She does however sink into some fairly depraved, and self-indulgent fantasies involving sex and violence.

Fiercely independent by necessity, Tomoko TRIES (and fails) to be "normal"...something that may stick out in propriety-conscious Japan even more so than other countries. Countering that independence, though is a desperate need to fit in somewhere. Tomoko is so desperate that she negotiates every move she makes in an extensive inner-dialog that viewers are privy to...we see the misconceptions she is under, and the, at times, very sweet nature that motivates her. Of course we also see all those plans fall flat on their face, and we see a lot of her perverted and violent side as well (Tomoko is a well-rounded character). The end-goal to all her schemes is something most people take for granted...a handful of friends, a little bit of love and self-confidence, and a chance at the "normal life" those around her seem to find so easily. One issue keeping her from finding that "normal life," is that much of her understanding of what is normal and what makes a person popular is skewed as a result of her reliance on pop-culture artifacts that serve as a poor road-map; she reads countless manga and fan-magazines, plays Otome games (dating and relationship games targeted towards a mostly-female audience), and constructs elaborate fantasies. 

One of the things I find most fascinating about this anime is HOW we as an audience understand Tomoko. Tomoko's inner life is elaborate (it swings from highs to lows as she attempts to navigate the real world), and her outer life is withdrawn, awkward, and stilted (she can hardly speak to others, but when she does it involves some faux-pas, oddity, or social misstep). Somewhere in the middle is the real Tomoko...an interesting and strange girl who with a little more (or less, at points) self-confidence would be a "normal" high-school student (there are no "normal" high school students). Tomoko doesn't seem to realize that she's not completely alone...that each person is a little bag of neuroses and second-guessing just filling to burst. But, unlike many of us, Tomoko has no outlet for her very contradictory thoughts and impulses. 

She hates the popular kids, but she wants so desperately to be popular. Who is to blame? Tomoko herself? Yes, to a point, but who does she have to turn to? She's navigating this alone. Should we blame the popular kids for excluding her? Absolutely, but they're in some ways JUST like Tomoko, and perhaps fear letting her into their lives. She is, after all, an honestly odd person, who keeps others at well-beyond arm's length, and they most-likely have no idea how to approach her. 

Her attempt to escape a frantic situation in which she is stuck beneath a shelter in the rain with two cute boys. She tries to talk to them. It gets, as expected, a little weird. She tries to sneak off, and they ask "Where are you going? You'll get soaked."The sentence above was her impromptu answer.
My empathetic reaction was to scream "NOOOOO!" It took a while before I could laugh.

I love her oddity. I love the completely unaware and disastrous lapses in logic she has. I love that she tries so hard, and I feel sorrow when she fails. In some ways she's a cool kid...she has passionate interests (albeit perverted passionate interests at times); she's unique; she's imaginative--she's absolutely fascinating. She's the kind of kid we've all been at one point or the other (I hope, I'm not alone here in admitting that). She's the kind of person I'd befriend...a fellow outsider weirdo holding "normal life" at a distance while secretly desiring all of its pretty trappings. 

There's a tragedy to her failed attempts that's reminiscent (I'm about to get word-nerd here, so bear with me) of Hamlet. Now, I'm not saying this is Shakespearean exactly, but the inner struggle with identity and presenting our "self" to the world, the frustration of feeling bound by circumstance and expectation...those are HEAVY human concerns, and they are addressed in this anime. If Hamlet were minus one ghost-dad, and plus a comedy-of-errors feel, Tomoko would be hamletesque. 

I highly recommend this ongoing series. I have watched through episode six of Watamoto  so far, and am hooked. I will say that I don't recommend it for people who have a tendency to be overly-empathetic, or who get anxious when others are in awkward situations. There's a Michael Scott (from The Office) element to Tomoko...she means SO well, but she's so wrong at times, and misjudges so much in the world and about herself. It could be too much anxiety for some viewers, but if you can handle the elevated stress of watching this, it is well worth the risk. 

I'm going to leave you with a teaser....Watamoto has some of the best opening credits I've ever seen in an anime...hard heavy-metal, Japanese-style and some nice imagery reminiscent of Tomoko's inner struggles. I might actually go purchase this song, if I can find it...wow. 

All in all, I'm really loving this series...I'm loving it THROUGH the pain I sometimes feel watching it. My heart goes out to Tomoko, and I know that I'll be cheering through her victories...as soon as she manages to have one. 

So-Good Sunday: The Rebuttal of Dr. M's Misguided Post on Excel Saga: or How I Learned to Stop Caring and Love the Madness

Excel Saga is my child.

Perhaps that statement requires a bit of explanation. Every otaku has a special series, might not be the best in the world, but every single one has a series that is near and dear to them, because it was one of the first that they followed. I have two: Lain and Excel Saga. They are my childs. :P

Lain was probably the first anime series that I ever watched and was truly, truly blown away by. (The actual first series was Shaman King, back on FOX. Glory days, glory days....). Excel Saga, on the other hand, was the first series that I watched and was so cracked up by it that I practically pissed myself every five minutes.

I have to admit one concession about Excel Saga, the manga is far superior to the anime, and the anime takes some liberties and leaves out a lot of material that would have been much better had they not decided to mess with the formula. There's some stuff about the anime that makes my skull hurt, like, idk, CHANGING VOICE ACTORS EXCEL HALFWAY THROUGH THE SERIES. That pissed me off but good.The Great Will of the Macrocosm is a mystery to me. I have no idea what that was about, it's actually totally at odds with the manga, because in the manga, one of the main running jokes and a point of great amusement is Excel's fantastic ability to never die, despite being put through the paces in a number of ways. So, Great Will's constant reviving after Excel gets killed...bad kill on the producer's part. There's also a lot more fourth wall breakage that I don't know that I approve of. All in all, READ THE MANGA, OKAY?

Because, the manga is brilliant. Everything good about the anime, is in the manga. Everything bad in the anime, is not in the manga. There's also an entire surplus of good things in there, just for fun!!!!

For example! There's some amazing characters and backstories. Ropponmatsu and Ropponmatsu II are more present, everyone loves those homicidal androids, right? Also, there's a lot more of Dr. Kabapu and the ever-growing fight between him and Il Palazzo. The fight, by the way, gets huge and completely insane. There are some really crazy implications for these characters so far, and in one section Dr. Kabapu and Il Palazzo both run electronics corporations and go at it economically!

Also, as I recall, Dr. M's post was a Ta-Ta Tuesday. There are a plethora of fine ta-tas to be had in the manga, even more so than the anime. For example, Elgala, who joins Hyatt and Excel, has a sizable chest and flaunts it as often as possible. Elgala is another example of why you should read the manga!

The spoiled Elgala.

There's also the Oubliette. This is the section at the back of every book that takes up anywhere from two to ten pages, and has in-depth explanations of sound effects, cultural references, and so on. The editor that writes this is genuinely very clever, and I always make time to read them because a) they make the manga easier to understand and b) they're hilarious!

But being a simple parody is easy. I wouldn't have the entire manga series, up to now, sitting on a shelf if it was just a parody series. Excel Saga becomes, slowly, and without warning, a real, heavy-hitting, masterpiece. If you've read any MegaTokyo, a very similar thing happens. Characters become deep, they have real emotions and backgrounds, and you start to really, truly be intrigued by them and invested in what happens to them. I firmly believe that a well-written comedy series can be among the most highly empathic styles anyone can do. To make someone laugh, but also to make them care...you realize true talent has been at work.

In summation, watch the anime first, because without any outside knowledge, it's still hilarious and lampoons some pretty obvious anime themes. Then, pick up the manga and experience a truly masterful parody series that goes beyond simple lampooning to become a series worth standing on its own.

DMP/Akadot Retail --Site/Store

http://www.akadot.com/


In honor of their 801 line of Yaoi manga, Digital Manga Publishing and Akadot are celebrating Yaoi Week with some fairly good sales. All this week 8/01 to 8/08 discount bundles of random yaoi will be available. Plus if you buy $30 dollars worth of books they'll throw in some mystery gifts. (I like a mystery gift!)

Your mystery gift will not be a fruit tart, I can almost guarantee that!
But it could be some yummy food-centered manga!

Although they are pushing Yaoi this week, remember that DMP doesn't JUST produce yaoi manga.  They do have a wide range of other titles for those of you who aren't as into the boy/boy as perhaps...um, me?

I usually wouldn't be pushing you, Dear Readers, to part with your well-earned money, but after the sad/slightly-expected demise of TokyoPop in the spring, it seems important for us anime-junkies and manga-philes to support the industry. While it is true (I remember seeing a t-shirt that said this, so it MUST be true) that crack is a cheaper addiction than anime/manga, please consider giving back to the those publishers/distributers/manga-ka who form the supply line for your addiction...and lay off the crack. DMP isn't a huge company, but they are prolific, and they do produce (mostly) decent translations (there have been a few glaring exceptions) of Japanese-language manga into English. They also carry quite a few of the titles Ms. Shakespeare and I have reviewed, including some of my favorites Yellow, Little Butterfly and Love Song for the Miserable and Ms. Shakespeare's favorites from Fumi Yoshinaga (Antique Bakery). If you've been tempted to purchase some of the titles we review, think about doing it now while there are deep discounts to be had--I saw a copy of Antique Bakery listed for $4.00...that is cheap!

So, go support these distributors who so kindly feed the addiction for your hostesses here on Squeefinity.

More reviews to come!

Day 14 - Current (Or Most Recent) Anime Wallpaper: LOVELESS…a million years ago.

Yeah, I don't usually do anime wallpapers. Right now I have a photo of a graffiti poet's work as my desktop. Before that, well...some Supernatural wrongness. Before that?
A human heart.
A dead squirrel.
James Dean.
The Pentacle of Solomon.
A woodcarving of Fenrir the wolf.

But once, a long time ago, I had a Loveless wallpaper. It was Soubi and some butterflies. I don't remember who did it, where I found it, or even what it looked like.

I did once have some fairly graphic Dee and Ryo from Fake as my wallpaper. That was hot. I'd share it with you, but it's just too hot.

Day What? Saddest Anime Scene...

Oh, man, I should have left that Mirage of Blaze epic scene for the saddest scene. It is pretty sad. Along with Epic, most anime is also really good at Sad. What do I mean? Well, there are plenty of cliched "sad" anime-types.

Nobari No Ou's Kira Wielding Angel of Death ninja kid, Yoite, is pretty sad:

Both Ritske and Soubi from Loveless are sick sad tragic figures:

How about Yami no Matsuei's Tsuzuki and Kurosaki?

Here is a familiar anime cliche: Character X is abused as a child, maybe locked away or shunned because he/she had some differentness about them, light hair, psychic powers, nothing-definable. Character X is miserable. He/She reaches out innocently only to be abused and abandoned again and again. Maybe Character X had parents who he/she really loved, but some douche bag killed them, those wonderful people, right in front of Character X (Bonus points if said killer is someone Character X really loves and admires).

Character X is hard on the outside, but so lonely inside. Character X seems apathetic. He/she can't understand why anyone would want to be nice to him/her, but all sorts of people are. All sorts of people spend a lot of time convincing character X of his/her greatness.

There is a long journey in which Character X grows thinner, weaker and stronger at the same time. There are a lot of long pauses. There is wind, possibly swords, staffs, ninjistu. There is definitely an epic battle, in which Character X emerges triumphant and softer with some kind of understanding.

Everyone loves Character X, and Character X begins to little by little find worth in him or herself.

One of the reasons we girls squee over anime and manga is because it is full of pain and suffering. Our favorite characters are tortured, dark, unloved by their parents, abandoned, abused by their teachers, left for dead, beaten, starved and special. Our favorite characters are the saddest of people. We want to gather them up and hug them. They stir something inside of us.

Sad in anime is overdone. I like it both ways, when it's fresh, and when it's an obvious stereotype.

I think I actually really like the scene from "Welcome to NHK" when Tatsuhiro Satō accidentally enters a suicide pact, which he thinks is a tropical vacation.

After some misadventures, he decides he will commit suicide, but he is talked off the ledge by his friend, Misaki Nakahara, who convinces him that she needs him to live because she needs someone more pathetic and lower on the social ladder than she is. Then his other friend, Kaoru Yamazaki, tells him, he is too boring to have a dramatic death like suicide.

This scene is so depressing because it feels really true. Enjoy.