Check-in Station: Watamote ep1 (but I think you’re cute, zombie cute maybe)

Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaete mo Omaera ga Warui! or It’s Not My Fault I’m Not Popular (very loose translation), or Watamote (as I’ll now call it from now on) doesn’t look especially like a show I’d be interested in, I already have a show that kind of fills the same niche. Not to mention, I never cared enough to pick up the manga. I just didn’t get hooked. In any case, I seem to be watching the first episode of nearly any and every anime I can this season. Hell, I even kinda watched Free! the other night (don’t judge me). Don’t expect me to ever post anything on Free!, but you may be able to expect me to talk about this show more. If it can give me a half-decent episode, of course.

Is there really a plot here?  Or is it a series of unfortunate circumstances displaying the painfully lonely and delusional life of an obsessive failure?  Tomoko Kuroki (I’m sure there’s a pun in there) is a girl just beginning high school with high hopes of becoming popular and having plenty of friends and a boyfriend.  Too bad for her, she has a ton of things working against her.  She’s introverted to the point that most of her conversations are with herself and her games.  She has the deadest eyes I’ve ever seen on a living girl her size.  And she has a fashion sense so terrible that the words “fashion” nor “sense” apply to her.  And to make matters worse, she can’t even stand to look at herself in the mirror.  Even among delusional introverts, she’s pretty bad.  That said, she’s not as terrible looking as she thinks (at least in my book), and the show has reasonable entertainment value, too.

The episode starts off showing us just how hopeless this girl is, as she comes into high school with the highest of hopes.  Unfortunately, she’s not made a social dent to be recognized in two months of school.  And at the two month point, you’d think she’d at least find someone with similar interests, or who she likes to annoy, or who annoys her.  She spends and ends her days at school talking to no one, and hating the social successful kids day after day.  Just a series of failures.  So she decides one day to confide in her younger brother for help.  Another failure.  But hey, at least she hasn’t killed herself, yet.

The episode ends on a downer, but with some hope.  After a long afternoon of doing nothing but mooching some manga reads from a book store, and eating some McDonald’s (it’s McDonald’s dammit), she decides to hide her appearance from some classmates as she leaves the restaurant.  Man, her idea of a disguise is making the ugliest face she can and donning twin tails.  But she comes across her brother and his friends on the way out of the building, and one them mentions how ugly she is in passing.  Later that evening, her brother finds her alone on some swings and says that they should walk home together.  Maybe he’s found enough pity in himself to help her.

I can’t say I found anything particularly interesting or funny in this episode.  Like I said, it just seemed like a series of unfortunate events.  But still, I’m intrigued enough to see if this pitiful mess of a girl can climb out of this abyss.  And you know what?  I think Tomoko is actually a little cute.

Yeah.  *ahem*  Anyway, there’s also the added bonus of her little brother’s voice actor being Yuuichi Nakamura, who I’m a big fan of from his roles in Clannad (Tomoya), Macross Frontier (Alto), Ore no Imouto (Kyousuke) and a bunch of other shows.  And then there’s that ED theme!  Oh that wonderful ED theme!  It’s like a twisted “Vanilla Salt”, my favorite anime ED theme ever!  I know, it doesn’t take much. But I’m comfortable giving this show a fair five episodes to see if it’s truly worth my time.  After all, how much pain could this show really cause?

Note:  I forgot to mention something.  One little thing.  As much as I love the ED theme, I HATE the OP one!  AAAARGH!  I hate all songs like that one!