Initial Impressions: Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui!

I am hideously torn between saying "that's me" and "I would hate to be Tomoko"; clearly I have a problem.

Despite having read some of the manga and not really caring for it, I actually liked this premiere quite a lot. Now, I'm not planning on blogging it, simply because I honestly don't have all that much time in my week and because this is kind of a toughie to talk about, but I'm pleasantly surprised to realize that this was a pretty good premiere all around, for Watamote standards anyway. I liked that it was so quirky because if it wasn't, this would be at least four times more uncomfortable than it already is, and not necessarily because of Tomoko's situation. See, the difference between a series like this one and Oregairu is that, unlike the latter, most of the problems at the center of Watamote are self-inflicted, and that's kind of a terrible truth for people who identify with the heroine.

See, Tomoko (Kitta Izumi) isn't just a social outcast; she's someone who's in denial about the fact that her actions and thoughts isolate her, and who thus blames other people around her for her own social awkwardness. As she herself points out, it's not as if she's ugly or otherwise unapproachable, but because she's put in zero effort and because she hasn't tried to make friends, she's ended up without any. As a bit of a loner myself, I can understand how scary talking to people I don't know can be. In fact, like Tomoko, I can barely talk to a sales clerk without first hurriedly planning what I'm going to say and even then constantly fearing any unexpected deviations in the conversation; so it's understandable that she doesn't yet have the courage to face those things and get out there. However, as I've also learned at college (painfully, I might add), if you don't face up to those fears, you naturally end up alone, and no one even really knows or cares that you're socially awkward and couldn't make friends earlier on.

Unfortunately for Tomoko, she's still at that point where trying is just making things worse (mostly because she's trying to be something she's not, and then cursing the people who are that way for the sake of making herself feel better), and she's also going about it all the wrong way. Instead of embracing herself and trying to perhaps say hello to someone, she's trying to dress up, to act a certain way, to learn to talk through her brother (whom she then threatens suicide on in a hugely dark but mortifyingly amusing manner), and trying to avoid classmates who might notice her. And even worse, because of all this, she's only digging herself further into a hole of no return, and honestly, this series is portraying that oddly well. Well enough that I'm definitely going to be watching this from now on, even if it's really a bit depressing to do so.

N.B.: Thanks to Ivan for the screencaps!

OP "Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaete mo Omaera ga Warui (私がモテないのはどう考えてもお前らが悪い)" by Konomi Suzuki n' Kiba of Akiba
Episode 1 Screencaps: "Since I’m Not Popular, I’ll Change My Image a Bit"
ED "Dou Kangaete mo Watashi wa Warukunai (どう考えても私は悪くない)" by Izumi Kitta