WataMote

*casually doesn't study for finals*

My next three blogs will probably be about anime. Or no, maybe I'll do one about Gorillaz. But this one is going to be about anime. Specifically WataMote. The full title translates to "No Matter How You Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!" But WataMote is much simpler, so we'll just go with that.

I've seen people give this anime negative reviews and I can understand why. The animation isn't the greatest, and the main character has a lot of very negative qualities. She blames everyone else for her problems (which is where the series gets its name) and can be extremely perverted at times.

However, I do like the main character because I think that, while she is dramatic and comedic, she is one of the most accurate representations of depression and social anxiety I've seen in an anime. Or in any media for that matter.

She longs for friends and even a boyfriend, but she can hardly stand to put herself in social situations. She tells herself that she will have a boyfriend within her first month of high school, but she goes two without talking to a single one of her classmates. She is proud of herself for saying two or three words to her teacher, and my friend who suffers from social anxiety tells me that she is the same way. She feels immense pride from accomplishing even the smallest of social feats.

There are many times when Tomoko, the main character of WataMote, has to lock herself in a bathroom stall in order to remove herself from a social environment and calm herself back down. She has trouble ordering food from restaurants, and when somebody accidentally calls her "Momoko," she makes no attempt to correct him because she is scared he'll think badly of her.

The friend I mentioned earlier commented about how there was a significant lack of media with main characters who suffer from social anxiety and she would like to see more representation, and a few days later, I happened to find WataMote, so that was a weird coincidence.