Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui!
No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui!, (Shortened to Watashi ga Motenai for the sake of reviewing), is a manga about an antisocial girl named Tomoko Kuroki whose only desire is to cut loose of her shut in ways and become popular so she can get a boyfriend,but that's easier said than done... Especially when you're too socially awkward to talk to a boy, let alone an actual human being.

Now on the surface this manga doesn't look remotely entertaining but it slowly,but surely, sucks you into it and days later you'll find yourself thinking "Gee, I wonder how she's going to embarrass ... herself in the next chapter."

The real treat for the people reading this manga is for anyone who has also gone through anything Tomoko has.... From embarrassing herself in public, to being socially awkward around just about anyone and anything, she truly is the definition of a loser. And it's sad because you just can't help from laughing at all the mistakes she makes while trying to socialize with people.

Overall, I'd highly recommend this manga to anyone who has had antisocial moments at any point in their life,(me), because you will find the situations she's in really similar to situations that you yourself have experienced.

Disclaimer: I only picked this manga back up recently after a long period of time. My memory may not be perfect.

WataMote is a manga not to be taken lightly; if you've already been through high school or currently going through it, you'll probably have a harrowing experience. All the embarrassing situations, self-deprecation, you'll going to be reminded of. It's a comedy at heart, so don't expect any kind of drama at all.

I'm not going to go through everything in this review, instead, I'm going to concentrate on one aspect the previous reviews have skipped (due to they were written in a different time period): this ... is a manga of 3 acts - currently at least. Be advised, minor spoilers if you don't want to know about this.

What I mean is at first, you'll have Tomoko - the protagonist - driving herself into embarrassing, cringeworthy situations and have her comeuppance. I had hard time sympathizing with her, since she almost always had her own hand in her undoing. Kind of like a teenager girl version of Dick Dastardly - I'm not even kidding. Each chapter had this dynamic and it was kind of a hit or miss. You could have started it anywhere and you wouldn't have missed anything.

At chapter 46, one of Tomoko's old acquaintance is introduced. It means she starts to interact with other people in her life other than her brother Tomoki and Yuu, her "friend" from junior high. The tone of the manga changes somewhat because of that.

And there's the current act, which starts around chapter 70. The manga introduces a whole bunch of new characters. There seems to be a continuation as well. I'm not going to spoil anything beyond that, but let's just say the new characters changed the manga for the better. It was a great decision, at least from a story perspective.

I get it if this won't convince you. Going through so many chapters so you can get to the good part may not be your cup of tea and you probably value your time here. Good thing is the chapters are usually very short, no more than 10 pages. You might want to take a breath sometimes though because of all the cringe, especially at the early chapters.

Right now, at chapter 109, it stands as 8/10 with me.

When it comes to popularity and being the talk of the student body, I wouldn't know, but when it comes to anime, video games and manga, then hey, conversation topics can never end, Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaetemo Omaerea ga Warui features a high school girl who's both of those characteristics, even though the former is a delusion of embarrassing proportions.
The series revolves around a shut in girl who's never actually had social interactions with anyone (Save for her friend in middle school and occasional reply when someone asks or need something from her), Kuroki Tomoko (Think of her as Konata from ... Lucky Star but in a more realistic sense, what Konata would actually be like in real life) is what she brings up several times, a Mojo, an unpopular unattractive girl, and takes this chance to change herself to be popular in high school and attempt to get a boyfriend, mostly through strange and unorthodox ways (From failed attempts to pretty herself, to thinking that playing an otome game makes her attractive because how it turns her on).

The series mostly operates as an episodic oddball comedy, but not to the point of being random or over the top. But rather than being an average comedy, it's more like a mirror to the reader in a sense, her actions can lead anyone reading to avoiding to look, and even groan or facepalm, especially to those who are in the deepest depths of the anime and manga fandom, but what can she do? She's always been strange and unsociable, but her actions can remind the unfavorable misfortunes of others who may have experienced her misadventures similar to their own.
However, in some ways she's not exactly someone to applaud for when her own attitude is rather uglier than she thinks her appearance is, thinking she's above everyone and cursing out anyone "normal" and wishing death among her peers in her mind, kinda makes you realize why she's unpopular in the first place.
In turn though, it's makes her character rather interesting, and a fascinating one to observe, especially in one chapter where she meets up her old friend from middle school, thinking that her friend is just like she is, she starts to feel a sense of security, only to find out that her friend has drastically changed her appearance and adapted to high school life while Kuroki is still the same as she ever was, but at least her friend hasn't changed on the inside, making Kuroki a little more inspired to change herself.

The artwork is average at best, but does a great job at showing Kuroki's emotions, but looks rather sloppy at times and kinda simple.

This manga is something I highly recommend to anyone in the anime and manga community who has ever felt like an outsider socially, Kuroki's action are cringe worthy and sometimes to the point of being disgusting, but her endeavors are interesting to watch unfold, and she will most likely be easy to relate with for good and bad, but endearing none the less.

Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaete mo Omaera ga Warui! (or Watamote for short) is a slice of life anime about a high school girl named Tomoko Kuroki. If you think that you're socially awkward, wait until you read the story of Tomoko. She has such a hard time with even the most basic conversations that she almost brings herself to vomiting. She praises her skill with romance games as being equal to real-life experience yet she can't even say two words to people.

Tomoko spends the duration of the story trying different quirky things that are supposed to help her make friends but ... in the end, all she does it make a fool out of herself. The anime is very a light-heart story that has some moments of despair every now and then. For the most part, it's a comedy that many people who have experienced social awkwardness can relate to which allows the viewer to have some sympathy for Tomoko that creates a desire to see her succeed in her endeavors.

While all other characters take a back seat in the manga, it's interesting to see Tomoko's relationships with the very few people in her life and how much her personality differs by each person. From being a stubborn annoyance to her brother to being an energetic otaku around her best (and only) friend.

The few characters in the show all have interesting personalities and the art design is very enjoyable. 9/10

its 2021, i have just watched the anime and decided its time for the manga. Picking up where i left off maybe chapter 30 or some. And for some time it was really enojayble. Enojoyable to a point i really liked this manga, however as you continue, it just gets worse and worse and bad.

Let me remind you, this manga has 190 chapters last updated today. And i do not think it is going to stop soon.

And another reminder, this manga has been going for 10 YEARS.

Let me give you a quick rundown of what happens.

First we meet tomoki, the mc. She os ... a loner, and only has one friend. Until now we experience life in her point fo view. She does emberrasing stuff n all that shit. Up til 20 or some we meet her new friend glasses girl, she fine n all.

In chapter 60 or some the big climax happens and she goes on bus party n gets 4 new friends, yakuza girl, another loner but cuter, popular girl and a last one i fucking do not remeber. Its all fun she gets friends yada yada.

We continue on to chapter you know what fuck this.

ITS NOTHING, NOTHING EVER FUCKING HAPPENS AFTER THAT. WHY DID I READ THIS HOT GARBAGE.

Now i get that this may seem like a good fun comedy but, i legit needed to quit reading it at like chapter 132 cus it just got fucking boring. I hoped something major would happen to this but, nothing. nothing happens.

Get this she is in the same school for fucking 10 years, without the authors doing nothing, just trying to milk it until its fucking dead.

Do not read this manga, it is not worth it.

Its the kind of humor where anything the supporting c do is funny, hahah guys she painted her hair XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Nah fr fuckk this manga, These authors are something else man i am fucking telling you. Making the same manga for 10 years, 10 years. And Doing nothing but, spending the whole place in the same school.

But, but the art is good and the charachters!!!

No they are not, if you really look at the characters they are not even drawn finished, they look like fucking sketches. And do not make me start with these boring ahh characters.

We have girl that is like a mom
We have girl that is a emoji
We have girl that that is annoying
we have girl that wondes why mc painted her pubes silver
we have girl that say gross
we have girl that has no face

so on and on

And i even have forgotten all their names. Tomoko and ucchi are the only i remeber.

I reccomend you not reading this actual garbage peice.

However if you really want a manga like this. You could try reading LITTERRLY ANY SCHOOL/COMEDY MANGA.

Oh and spouler alert, she gets popular and eventually i think some will change but i doubt it. Just a reminder, 10 years.

The anime brainwashed me and got stuck in my head for months, was too good, and ended in the best part, when was just the begining.
Afters months of constaly remembering the anime because i'm not someone who reads manga easily, i decided to read it, i just didn't expect that, this series could become my favorite of all time.
The way in the manga tells the story, their interactions, the themes treated, the tomoko development, the characters, etc.
I fell in love with this manga, even more than the anime, this isn't a normal SoL with yuri bait, this is a treasure forgotten and undervalued.

Wasted potential :( The first 12 volumes are fantastic. Tomoko is such a popular character because she's relatable, duh. But on top of that, to see such an unabashedly disgusting loser painted so earnestly was really refreshing. Much of the comedy came from the misunderstandings and awkward situations she would find herself in, giving the manga endless fuel to create comedic situations. You felt for her as she navigated through this world while clearly suffering from mental illness. It had a simultaneously tragic and comedic tone while never compromising one over the other.

Sadly, the manga loses serious steam around 12 volumes in. The story ... arc was always going to be about Tomoko making friends and coming out of her shell. I looked forward to it. But it happens way too fast. It feels like the authors dumped a dozen characters into the story who are all weirdly obsessed with being her friends; it doesn't feel organic at all. But much worse is that Tomoko just becomes an entirely different person. She goes from a tragic, cute, and unpredictable mess that feels like she may never be able to fit into society to a pretty bland protagonist that will sometimes get shy or say something vulgar. Again, I must emphasize that the issue is not that Tomoko changed. It's that it happened far too early and unorganically in the story.

The manga has transformed from being a tonally unique story, with an engaging protagonist with equally hilarious gags and painfully uncomfortable situations, to a sllightly above-average slice-of-life manga focused on melodrama. The characters are likeable enough, but I've decided to drop the manga because I can't get over that tinge of disappointment when I remember how good it used to be.

Worth reading up until the 100th ish chapters. Watamote has been going on for over a decade since 2011. At some point, the series decided to forget what it was about and took a 180 on what made it special and unique from others in the genre. Thus it has been on a gradual downhill with no hope of returning to it's former glory.

If you're like me and just finished watching the anime, you know what you're in for. Tomoko is relatable, she does stupid shit and that's the entire premise. The characters introduced before the decline were fun and memorable, they work well off ... each other. The artstyle is simple but the composition of the pages are dynamic and interesting which easily made up for it. The reason why the Tomoko is so relatable is because of the ingenious monologue she has every few panels. These are the fundamentals of what made the anime so great.

Continuing from where the anime left off, there's still some volumes before the insane quality drop. Tomoko continues goofing off and doing stupid shit with her middle school friends. During the field trip arc Tomoko finally gets some new friends. I am okay with this (I'm not butthurt just becuase she has friends). I really liked the small friend group of Tomoko, Yoshida and Yuri, they work well off eachother and just goof off.

But it gets super boring after this, I couldn't find myself caring about the new characters. Tomoko still makes dumb sex jokes every now and then but it never sticks. Tomoko rarely interacts with her family anymore. Tomoko is a shell of her former self. She might act similar but it just doesn't hit the same. Something is just off, and it's not because Tomoko has grown and developed as a character. She's basically been killed off and replaced by some generic girl.

The composition of newer chapters are super boring, especially compared to older chapters. Most chapters are just girls talking and nothing interesting ever happens. Watamote isnt even about Tomoko anymore, Tomoko is so generic now that there are multiple pages where she doesn't even appear. There are even several chapters where she doesn't appear because the spotlight has been shifted to some new cliche character that I honestly don't care for. The authors once ran a popularity vote once and "Tomoko" lost to Yuri as most popular character.

As of now, every chapter is a chore to finish because it's so fucking boring. Every chapter will feel the same. Some girls talk to each other, blah blah blah. End. That's it?? Yeah, and the fucking panels are just girls talking. Nothing interesting fucking happens. The composition of the pages are super boring, rectangle panel after rectangle panel. They try to throw in some dumb mindless fanservice every now and then but it never sticks.

The few good chapters in recent times that come to mind is when Tomoko has a sleepover with Yuri (best character) to discuss the movie they're making and that one time Tomoko went to Yuu's school for a festival, for a brief moment Tomoko goes back to her roots and she becomes her old self. PLEASE GIVE US MORE OF THIS. I'm not interested in "Tomoko" figuring out which college she wants to go to with "Student Council President Ripoff Girl (As*ka)". Somehow the authors were able to return to their roots and make something interesting with these basic premises.

Reading Watamote is like that fucking digging for diamonds meme but it's probably just trash at the end. So should you read "WATAMOTE :No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!"? idfk read it if you liked the anime ig. you might even end up enjoying the moe shit unlike me

Its one great manga. It strays from the "put lovers everywhere" attitude most manga are appealing to and instead centers on the single goal of making the life of a single girl one major hell on earth. A refresh is that finally the fail is not on the boy, but on the girl depicted. Certainly not the most original take ever published on manga but well executed nonetheless.

One thing of note however is that this manga could benefit of a different format. Since the reader already knows that Tomoko is a major screw up it gets tiring to read only the small details. There are ... little pages per chapter too so theres not a lot you can do. That said, the manga would benefit a lot from another support character or two. It could shine a lot from 4koma if that was the case but too late for that.

The art is relaxed. Im not sure if thats intentional. It sure feels like the authors want to pass to the reader more feelings of fail through the poor art but this is a double edged sword and its not always clear when they are doing it intentionally or just slacking off. Anyway, this is not major for a manga such as this so its forgiven.

Its probably a manga that is safe for making friends too. You can give this to someone without fear of being labeled an otaku, which is rarity nowadays, if you even care about that. If you are reading this review however, you probably dont, so have fun.

I will start off by saying that I originally hated Watamote, which is why it is so surprising that here I am completely advocating people to read it.

Way back when the anime first started airing I took an interest, but quickly lost it when the secondhand embarrassment became too much for me to handle. So instead I tried the manga, which while not as bad as the anime, still was painful to read through. Ultimately I shelves the couple of volumes I had and gave up on going any further than that.

Fast forward to a couple of months ago when one of my friends very ... adamantly told me to keep reading because it got better. Boy was he right.
I don't believe I have ever done such a hard 180 flip of going from completely hating to absolutely loving a manga before.

If the cringe humor isn't for you I for sure recommend you to at least read past chapter 50, because for me that is when the manga really starts to shine. The cringe humor is still there but it becomes more sparse and easier to sit through. The tone also shifts from a comedy-of-pity to a coming-of-age type of story that I wasn't expecting, and personally hit home in a lot of ways.

The art has always been one of my favorite parts of the manga, and is most likely the reason I took an interest in the first place. I love the basic designs of the characters and the overall sort of messy way of drawing. It feels like just enough care is put into the art to keep it not boring, but also not taking itself too seriously either.

As the manga progresses I would say that the genre also changes from "Cringe comedy" to "Character comedy." Which is good because all the characters introduced are fantastic. Each one of them adds an extra element to the humor and really helps breathe life into the arcs that take place.

I actually cannot recommend the manga very much more than I already have. Even if you didn't like the anime if you try to tough it out and read the manga you might actually find it to become one of your favorites, like I did.

The first 12 volumes were great and I would say its one of my favorite mangas.
A very funny and a worthwhile read.
The main character and the first characters that got introduced and appeared often were very good and played off each other. While intresting and funny situations that happened made it a very enjoyable and funny read.
I could relate to the main character and I found my self laughing at a lot of the jokes and enjoyed nearly every page.
In later volumes some new characters had gotten introduced and even tho I didn't like most of the new characters it didn't matter too much since ... I still found the volumes funny and enjoyable even if not as much as I used to.

Then i read vol 13.
The tone had changed and the focus had shifted completely.
Instead of following Tomokos daily life filled with interesting events and good jokes this volume and future ones started following Tomoko and all her new friends daily life with nothing really interesting happening and no jokes.

It just became so boring. There are barely any jokes anymore and the pages were just filled with either endless conversations that were not enjoyable to read or just mindless fanservice.
The new characters got more focus and turned out to be very bad characters.

First i need to talk about Kotomi. She was a very good character and one of my favorite until she just became a shell of her former self and now she only appears to remind us she likes baseball and wants to fuck Tomoki.
And then we have the new characters.
Yuri is emotionless and dead inside. Her whole character is that she likes and find Tomoko funny.
Ucchi was okay as a one off character in the field trip arc but for some reason she became a recurring character that only serves the purpose of repeating the same joke over and over again.
Asuka is a very feminine motherly type that likes to enable tomokos deviant behavior for some reason and is pretty big snore fest
Yoshida i was hopeful for at first but it seems that the writer doesn't want to do anything interesting with her.

In the end the shift in focus and the introduction of too many boring or useless characters was the thing that made me sadly give this a low score
If i only read the first 12 volumes i would give watamote a 8/10 but after reading up to volume 17 i have to give it a 6/10

I'll start this review with this phrase "Don't judge a book by its cover", or rather in Watamote's case "Don't judge a manga by its first 40 chapters". The reason for this is because the first 40 chapters are somewhat of an introductory storyline where you essentially learn about the MC Tomoko and her socially awkward, and somewhat petty personality. Although it does get monotonous throughout that, and I'd recommend you just skim through those parts if you don't want to be bothered.

But after that, the manga slowly starts to take a shift in tone. It all starts as Tomoko tries to reconnect with her ... old friends, thus requiring her to socialize more than what she's comfortable with, which creates some rather hilarious moments. As the manga goes on more and more characters are introduced, and their interactions with Tomoko and her obscene and straight forward language makes way for what is one of the most hilarious manga that I've ever read.

Besides the humor you also do get a sense of progression of the plot through following Tomoko's journey through high school (or junior high?), working on herself little by little to overcome her social anxiety. But that is not really what is important, since it's essentially a gag manga that is episodically structured. Rather than that, focus on secondary characters are emphasized in the later chapters, with each character bringing a unique and absurd dynamic to the story.

It felt like it was never going to develop further when I read the first 30 chapters, but I'm glad I picked it up again. If you follow it past the 40 something chapters it's a manga well worth the read, and its sure to make you laugh uncontrollably every time. Also I recommend you don't watch the anime as it likely only encompasses the pre development chapters (1~40).

I watched the anime a couple of years ago and I went in expecting cringe and maybe some relatable stuff. I got what I was expecting and then some. While I think the anime adaptation was good, I chose not to read the manga as well because, I thought, there was so much cringe I can stomach.

A couple of days ago I ended up picking up the manga as well and I am still glued to it. I saw that the anime did a pretty good job adapting the manga. The cringe factor was the same, but reading the story further than the point where ... the anime ended made me realise that I came to enjoy all those cringey moments, and I, as a reader, began to accept Tomoko for who she is, just like she does throughout the story.

Without getting into too many spoilers, the thing that I appreciate most about the manga is the character development that Tomoko and everyone else go through. With time, you realise that, while Tomoko is still the protagonist, it is not just her story anymore. And for a story centred around a loner, that is the best outcome in my opinion.

Another thing that I appreciate is that the character development does not feel forced. It feels organic and real. There were many instances where I'd watch her doing something and only at the end of the chapter would I realise that she, in fact, changed (for the better).

I fully recommend the manga for anyone who had seen the anime and are interested to see how Tomoko lived her loner high school life after the last episode and also for everyone that wants to read a good kind-of-a-slice-of-life-but-not-really story.

If you can go through all the cringe situations in the beginning and remember them afterwards, the later chapters will feel even more satisfying.

Good up until after the field trip arc, then it seriously declines in quality. I loved watamote before then, it was one of my favorite mangas, I loved the komi-san introduction arc, tomoko's inner monologues and how many of the characters played off each other (BEFORE the huge expansion of the cast post field trip) For a while it seemed like watamote was moving in a direction where tomoko would self improve and grow as a person, basically escaping her genre. Although tomoko does become more social while still remaining an introvert, that's not quite what happens. Basically she near spontaneously gains a clique that ... enables her pervy behavior and harassment (Remember, kids, sexually harass literally everyone and they'll still like you!) and the series devolves into disgusting Fanservice that makes me ashamed to associate myself with this series at all anymore. I don't hate Fanservice, it's ok when kept at a minimum, and Fanservice did happen before then, mind you, but it usually served the cringe comedy or tomoko's self growth and Fanservice that didn't fullfil either was more rare. Tomoko kind of went from being a jerkass woobie who is a horrible person but also broken and pitiable, to a regular horrible person that's not very pitiable or sympathetic at all. She becomes more social, but she doesn't grow up morally, and she's kind of enabled by the extra cast members that for some reason still want to hang out with her even despite her serial sexual harassment. Yoshida at least beats her up for it

Nowadays every chapter after chapter 100ish is purely mindless Fanservice without the series humor, and even in the (very very rare) chapter that isn't pure ecchi the chapter is just..boring. Tomoko and her inner monologue takes a major backseat and the series suffers for it. It seems like the writers just add new characters to the cast at the drop of a hat, without really doing too much with the already existing characters, this results in a cast that's way too big for what this series was supposed to be, that's mostly filled with one note characters with the exception of Tomoko, Tomoki, Yuri, Nemoto, and Yuu. Here, I'll break down the extra characters: UCCHI/EMOJI: Constantly thinks Tomoko is perving on her whether she is or not, secretly wants it but won't admit to herself because that'd be gay. She's the same joke repeated a thousand times. YOSHIDA: I liked her at first but she doesn't develop much past being a punk looking tsundere that likes cute things and basically exists for tomoko to accidentally perv on and get beaten up, she shows hints of deeper personality but we never really see it because she appears sparsely and the writer would rather introduce new characters than develop her. ASUKA KATOU: Traditionally feminine, beautiful girl that likes tomoko for some reason and seriously enables her sexual harassment. Acts kind of like a mother figure sometimes. No deeper character than that FUUKA: Character that, like Ucchi, exists soley to react to tomoko, which isn't necessarily a bad thing I guess. She reacts to Tomoko and Asuka's relationship and wonders if they're boning, that's it. She gets way more screen time than a character like that should probably get. KOMIYAMA: A favorite character of mine that played off Tomoko very well and had an interesting dynamic with her as your Frenemy/Sort of Friend. That is until she was massively flanderized into her most basic qualities: Wanting to fuck Tomoki, Being a secret pervert and liking baseball. That's it. Pre Flanderization Komiyama was actually my favorite character other than Tomoko. MINAMI: Alpha Bitch Wannabe that doesn't appear all that much HIKARI: Sattelite character for Komiyama. Reacts to her perviness and does little else. SHISUKU HIRASAWA: Naive Girl popular with boys. Views Tomoko as her wise senpai and takes Tomoko's advice uncritically. Very interesting concept for a character, she isn't done much justice though because, again, the cast is too big and doesn't handle the new characters all that well or give them more than one chapter in a row.

Tomoko Kuroki strikes me as a very excellent character in the hands of a poor author.

She's a hopeless NEET and if you don't know what that term means then you wont be the kind of person who relates to Tomoko.

But she's not really hopeless, a lot of the manga starts with Tomoko declaring her intent to achieve some small often meaningless goal to try and improve her social life. Then the author shoves her back into her NEET box and punishes her for wanting to improve herself.

Tomoko is a character cursed with self awareness, she knows everything she's doing is wrong and how its ... effecting her and strives to change. A change that is denied her by essentially God.

Reading Watamote becomes a depressing Sisyphean task after a few issues and I just gave right up.

I personally love Watamote (It's not my fault I'm not popular!). The main character Tomoko Kuroki is very relate able. The story is much like Nichijou, not following a linear story path but keeping some aspects from older chapters intact. I love this manga, this can be a hit and miss from time to time ( like Space Dandy) but overall gives a better interpretation of high school than any other manga i've read thus far.

If you're like me, then most of the reason you read manga, is because you like to see the development of relationships and characters. This series does that really well in my opinion. I think the development of Kuroki (the main character) is done very well. It doesn't feel rushed like I've seen in other stories. She and the other characters are also much more human feeling. She's kind of a terrible, petty person but it makes her more relatable, interesting and in a strange way very likeable. Her sort of delusional views of people and situations make for some extremely funny moments that had ... me in tears laughing. All the characters are distinct and enjoyable.

On a side note. If you're in it for the funny, you need to read through her second year. The first year I felt more sympathetic and bad for her but it still had some very funny and cringy moments. But her second year is where things get much more funny in my opinion. I really wish the anime had continued past her first year primarily for this reason.

Enjoy.

It's weird coming back to this series years after watching the cringe riddled anime series, only to be pleasantly surprised about the slice of life direction the manga has taken in the latter half of it.

I think it's a testament to how much character development was given to Tomoko, and how it completely contradicts the title of the series, as Tomoko manages to make a harem of female friends and thus a whole bunch of fluff and yuri undertones.

If you liked Watamote purely for the cringe value of it, then you probably won't wanna stick around after around chapter 50.

I enjoyed reading it, it has ... a whole bunch of humorous moments and it's pretty wholesome, and most importantly those YURI UNDERTONES.

Shout out to the big onee-san
Ucchi otp.

Tomoko is iconic. Weird to say, but people who have never watched this anime or picked up a single chapter of this manga know Tomoko. They are a meme. And that meme is usually centered on a complete loser.

Watamote (shorthand of the much longer title) is fantastic. Yes it has a major shift at some point in the series, yes it is not the same lately, but I think this is a deliberate choice in showing growth. This manga has been going on for a few years, people who related to Tomoko probably graduated before she did (or rather, will seeing as she is ... still in school). But let's look at how that affects the story.

In the beginning Tomoko is a mess, debilitatingly so. It is basically a mental illness, her ability to communicate is non existent. She is alienated from others, her interactions are only through the virtual. This is played up for comedy, but overall it is a sad state to be in. Even early on Tomoko is affected by the kindness of others, because overall the message of the manga is already showing. People tend to attract each other. No one wants to be alone. Later, Tomoko begins making friends through circumstance. Completely at random, friendships are made. Honestly, my friends are all circumstance. I never tried, it just happened. Tomoko experiences that as well.

People might dislike the newer volumes, but it is supposed to show growth, hopefully experienced by you as well. Tomoko no longer stutters, she no longer feels alone and isolated. Hell, at times she feels like she has no free time to herself anymore and laments it, but comes to the conclusion that she feels more fulfilled being "forced" to do things with others. She even says oh no i'm becoming normal. Her friends reassure her she isn't normal, that's why they like her.

Tomoko doesn't "change" to fit a mold, she's still herself. Yet, the perspectives of others and her constant growth eventually brings her to a new "way" of being herself. She's still true, but has the advantage of a loving group of people. There are still jokes, they just shifted to a more school centered gag marathon than just Tomoko going "guaaaaaaaah" for the 50th time. Everyone goes "guaaaaaaaah" sometimes, but they can still have friends.

Out of 100 Nobles watching...
80 were impressed!
10 found something to be desired in character designs and expressions.
5 got sick of Tomoko's perpetual terribleness.
5 are angry they can't describe what's happened in this dang manga without people looking at them weird.

Because I'm not popular, I'll write a review.
"Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui!" or as everyone calls it for short "Watamote" is a story about an unpopular girls high school debut and the beginning of her own personal quest to combat her extreme social anxiety in an attempt to not be a loner.

The story itself is extremely unique in it's absurdity ... and unrelenting penchant for creating the most awkwardly painful situations for our protagonist to experience. The visuals of the series are rather fair with the artist falling back on a lot of the same faces and poses but presenting some unique and fun panels for good payoff. I would say however that this manga shines in its comedic appeal and writing and not on the merits of its visuals.

Saying I get a lot of enjoyment from the manga is kind of an Oxymoron as the main character Tomoko Kuroki is genuinely a very negative and mean person and many of the horribly awkward and terrible experiences she faces are brought onto herself by her own actions.

Many people seem to read the series for the schadenfreude obtained from Tomoko's suffering but I've honestly enjoyed the story for it's slow build to Tomoko obtaining friends and learning social skills. It's kind of like watching one of those weird legged robots with a learning computer teach itself to walk. In addition I find myself earnestly wishing for the happiness of the supporting cast of characters. Despite Tomoko's awkward and mean-spirited nature she seems to enrich people's lives regardless and that's a sweet message... I think...

The series has a 12 episode anime adaptation of the first few volumes of the book which covers the material fairly well, but given that we're likely never getting a second season and there is so much more content that goes so much farther than where the anime leaves off I would heavily recommend giving this a read. Just be aware it's very hard to describe what exactly this manga IS and why you ENJOY it to your friends. Go on. Try. They'll probably awkwardly get quiet or just look at you with empty eyes!

... I guess the story was probably written that way to give you an immersive Tomoko Kuroki experience...