Forum - View topicWatamote (TV).
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HaruhiToy
 Posts: 4118 |
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What he said. Geez that poor little girl. Watching this you really really want something nice to happen for her but you just know it ain't coming. At least not yet. The only thing that can save her is if some insightful person takes her under his/her wing and mentors her. Somehow I don't think that's in store for her anytime soon either. On a side note, that scene (fantasy of hers) where the art class kid bikes up to her window and rides off with her. What anime was that copied from? I know I saw it but I just can't place the characters. |
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Chiibi
 Posts: 4829 |
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Strongly reminded me of Sousuke and Kaname's bicycle scene from Full Metal Panic...but I don't know if that's the parody or not.... Wouldn't be the first time that anime was mentioned in another anime. 
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15492 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 2
I love this show, the only downside I found while watching it was that time was passing while doing so, and thus there was less of the episode left. One of my favourite moments was when she overheard her classmate spoiler[talking about how happy people should die, and her to call their talk stupid], when she is on a totally different level of them, and she does not even realize the irony. Some of you are finding this depressing, well I will repeat I had (and still often do) huge social anxiety, my hair is almost always a mess. What I find so funny is how much I can relate to her. I remember how it feels to have to do something with someone of the opposite sex and you don't want to do something that makes it look like you are interested in them, but then you fantasize about what if you did do something. I can recall feeling really good about myself from a simple compliment, although looking back it was probably as fake as that portrait she got, and I actually find really funny. You see, I am not just laughing at her, I am laughing at her and myself. I dressed in a formal conservative way, yet most likely looked a bit like a dork, not too different from Tomoko. I once ate food early in the day between classes, partially expecting myself to look charming person that is always hungry. Being happy with stupid technicalities which really mean nothing, thinking poorly of the normal people and thinking that they are doing things behind closed doors. The opening has even grown onto me, it kind of conveys the inner rage that you can be something awesome, but feeling that you are chained back, I like that. And then there is the subject of what was the ED, they actually managed to make me find it creepy instead of hot that she was listening to a spoiler[track of yandere guys, which is good], so I can revel in creepiness, we all do something like that at times. it can be good for individuals so who are we to judge. And her friend, an individual, and a huge strike against her. I will have an avatar of her, I just need the right picture. |
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HaruhiToy
Posts: 4118 |
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I'm thinking more like a Studio Ghibli anime. Whispers of the Heart maybe? Dang this is going to bug me until I figure it out. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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^
I was also thinking of Whisper of the Heart. Truth be told, there are probably lots of Anime and Manga where that exact scene has happened, not just one or two. ---------- Kind of disappointed that she's suddenly so much better at talking to people. She's gone from barely even being able to say "goodbye" to being able to ask a teacher a question and answer various people (the fat Manga geek, the baseball manager, the waitress at the coffee house) without overly stammering. It's too abrupt an improvement. That said, the humour is still fantastic. She really does have it in for female baseball managers, doesn't she. And I love how she got skewered at the end of the episode not once but twice, although she only knew about one of them. The rape joke had the potential to fall flat but her earnestness made it work. But the best gag was the "Yandere Boys" tape she was listening to; god it was funny. At the end of the episode she held out her hand at a stray cat trying to get into garbage but the cat hissed at her and ran away. Perhaps I'm reading too much into this, but the cat seemed very symbolic of her own situation. She could easily have friends if she wanted to - she's actually pretty cute underneath her messy hair and a professional makeover would definitely work - but she's her own worst enemy. She despises the very people who could help her, and so is consigned to being a lonesome social dreg. Even when faced with the evidence that dorks can become popular - her ex-friend being Exhibit A - Tomoko retreats into her comfortable fantasy world. I guess I'm finding Tomoko to be quite Moe. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23818 |
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God, I hate my terrible memory. I don't remember anything about a rape fantasy - can somebody remind me about where that happened?
One of my favourite jokes frome the episode was when Tomoko wondered if the fact that her friend was spoiler[wearing a mini-skirt constituted some kind of "invitation."] 
Clearly Tomoko considers herself spoiler[irresistible to both sexes.] Ya gotta love that level of delusion. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15492 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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She was spoiler[daydreaming in class that she got her clothes torn off, and apparently her ex-allys then proceeded to do something pretty full on]. While spoiler[recovering from RL pain] she then had this DBZ reference visual in her head.
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MadMan400096
 Posts: 266 Location: Chicopee, MA |
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I think this is probably shaping up to be my favorite show of the season. It's just so hilarious to see Tomoko react the way she does, and her desperate attempts to be popular.
Tomoko got Yamcha'd!
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Gatherum
 Posts: 773 Location: Aurora CO |
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I apologise for being late to the party; I have just completed the first episode, the very fact of which, by the way, serves as something of a relief for me, since nothing else this season has enticed me. To be honest, this one was not an exception at first glance, since I tend to be very wary of slice-of-life, especially when one of the major themes is (the pursuit of) popularity, not to mention that the art style of Tomoko as she appears in the promotional image... doesn't have anything wrong with it, but it just... didn't look like it was my thing.
But then, after one or two more times stumbling upon the WATAMOTE article, having another look at that image, reading the premise again, and finding out that it is streaming on Crunchyroll (my subscription to which having gone unused since I dropped From the New World halfway through its run, despite continued Paypal transfers), I changed my mind. I can't tell you precisely why; nothing "clicked". I was still aware (and still am now) that this is not typically my forté. I guess it just "called" to me. I am now experiencing a plethora of mixed emotions, and I would consider none of them to be indicative of a negative reaction on my part. First of all, major points for that OP! I cannot stress enough how refreshing it is to be greeted by what is essentially a melodic metalcore song, with dual male/female vocalists. Which is to say that, musically-speaking, this is pretty standard melodic metalcore fare--nothing extravagant. But I haven't heard anything as hard as this being used as an OP for any kind of anime since Maximum the Hormone slammed a slab of concrete into all of our faces with their track, "What's Up, People?!", of Death Note fame. Except, I like this better, because this song actually has a noticeable melodic death metal flavour to it, as good melodic metalcore should. That little jazzy piano interlude they threw in there was a nice touch, and, in general, the band seems to be capable of pulling off some impressive dynamic shifts without breaking the pace. The ED was more of the standard anime fare, but by the time you're done with it, you realise that both songs, in a way, manage to capture the inconsistent mental depravity of the show's protagonist because they may as well be entirely opposed to each other in terms of style, that very fact perhaps standing as a vague, symbolic reference to the capricious nature of her mood. Indeed, as comically light-hearted as this show tries to be, Tomoko stands as a worrisome, if not outright terrifying, example of someone with extreme social withdrawal symptoms, bipolarity, and anxiety (spoiler[which is a particular cause for concern when your attacks induce vomiting]), not because she is dangerous or appears to be as such, but because you naturally feel that she is quite vulnerable, mentally-speaking. With that in mind, I find myself echoing earlier sentiments: I really do hope that the creators don't make it an exercise in picking on her. I would be okay if she experienced a low point, yes, but only with the promise that she can ascend afterward. On that point, I am nervous because I am aware that the above analyses are perhaps lost on a work that isn't intended to be a psychological thriller of any kind. Judging it in less morbid terms, it was cute and amusing enough. Not laugh-out-loud funny or anything, but she is an enticing character all her own, in spite of, and, at the same time, because of, her overblown mood swings and reactions. I can also thoroughly appreciate the Chaos;Head-level product parody and placement (even if it's not quite as creative or subtle), and, as always, otaku caricatures welcome! Actually, now that I think about it, Tomoko does remind me quite a bit of Takumi, from Chaos;Head, except female, much cuter, and not so far gone that she is annoying and/or hard to relate to or feel for. I shall continue to watch, hoping for an upturn in this poor little girl's predicament. 
Last edited by Gatherum on Thu Jul 18, 2013 10:12 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Bango
 Posts: 1122 |
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Glad you found something worth watching this season. Don't worry about being late to the party though. It's not a race. Just be weary of people spoiling you if you're behind.
I'm glad you saw that deep into it. While I think they don't mean it to be, I like seeing people looking deep into stuff but being responsible enough to say "I think" rather than "it is". I too have been looking at her character far deeper than likely intended but to me that just shows how interesting she is. As much as I'd love for this to get a "happy ending" I can't help but feel that it'll have a "very little has changed" ending. Of course I hope I'm wrong and only time will tell but it just feels like one of those shows that won't commit to her seeing any major life improvement by the end for fear of "ruining her character". Sadly anime often seems to have problems with accepting positive change and negative change as different. I blame the ravenous otaku for that, btw. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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From what I've heard, the Manga is really depressing. Which saddens me, but I can take solace that the Anime - so far at least - has been playing up the dark comedy and making Tomoko sympathetic. I think Bamboo put it best; Tomoko is endearing because she still holds out hope that her situation will improve, and she even tries to improve herself (even if the results do hilariously backfire on her). She's just a good person at heart, even if she's wrapped in a ball of spite. I've heard scores of people on various websites say that they want to give her a hug and help her out; she wouldn't get that sort of positive reaction if she wasn't sympathetic. Plus the fact that she's also extremely funny does help a lot to endear her to the viewer.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23818 |
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As I have said before, I find the character of Tomoko equal parts wonderful and terrifying. Wonderful because of her sense of humour, her charming delusions (she honestly believes she was a conversational crackerjack back in middle school -
) and her genuine desire to be liked. I find her character terrifying because I'm still worried the show is going to take a giant shit on her head and I just don't want to see that. Every encounter she has is going to be fraught for me because I'll worry she will really get her feelings hurt.
That's the difference between how I feel about her and I how I felt about Hachiman from SNAFU. First, I never really bought Hachiman's isolation. Yes, the show constantly told me that he was treated as a non-entity by most of the people around him, but it never really convinced me. Plus, it was obvious he had "friends" of a sort. Watamote is much more realistic and convincing about Tomoko's social isolation. We have seen how difficult it is for her to interact with others. Hachiman seemed to have very effective coping strategies for what I consider a fairly bogus isolation anyway. Tomoko does not. It's a whole different ball game. |
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lossthief
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 1398 |
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I wouldn't necessarily describe it as depressing. It's more that it's really unflinching when it comes to Tomoko's social insecurities, and for every comical bit of anxiousness, there's usually something that hits close to home for somebody who's been in a similar situation. So far the show seems to be doing a pretty good job of combining various chapters of the series to create episodes. Considering the nature of the series, it makes sense to move some scenes around and change some things to fit an episodic format, and I'm glad it's not just a lazy "copy and paste the manga" adaptation. |
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Hentai_JP
 Posts: 605 Location: Toronto, ON |
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You see in Yahari etc etc.. Hachiman already accepted that he can't be popular in the regular sense and hence isolated himself and created a very complex justification for it all. Hachiman is like an older Tomoko who has lost all the hope and surrendered to their spite. I see them as the same character only during different time of their lives. That is assuming Tomoko never does manage to escape from the gripping spiral of anti-social depression. They are alike. Hachiman's non-existence confuse you? He shies away from people so they learned to ignore him. He has friends? They were forced on him by his teacher who doesn't know not to meddle with other peoples' lives. There is nothing bogus about his isolation, he learned to reject people as they, some of them, have rejected him. Tl;dr Tomoko and Hachiman may not have same reason for their social ostracism yet they are very similar; and Yahari is a great show so don't you dare... |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23818 |
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SNAFU sucked big, hairy donkey dong.*
*I don't really believe that, I just want to see you lose your mind. 
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