Not much to say on this one, it’s a pretty simple show. I don’t know how they’ll fill twelve episodes at the moment – normally comedies have to either evolve or gain purpose to avoid becoming stale, and so far it’s seemed like actually humanizing Tomoko to the point where either I or the show care what happens to her would basically destroy the main source of humor – that it’s funny when terrible things happen to her. But I figured this show would be terrible before the first episode and I figured it would fall apart before the second, so I’m pretty resoundingly 0 for 2 on Cassandra-ing this very improbable comedy. Let’s see where it goes.

Episode 3

0:57 – I actually didn’t find this joke very funny  (and man, they are really bad at making Tomoko not look adorable – though I guess her looking adorable is kind of one of the key points keeping her from being a truly unsympathetic protagonist, a trick which has a shallowness to it I think she’d appreciate), but I still think it’s a good joke – it was set up well and used good direction to slowroll itself. Oh god, I’ve reached the point where I no longer experience joy, I just tap my chin and think “yes, yes, effective use of delayed expectations there”

1:20 – This OP remains the show’s best joke, and one of the only times I actually feel sorry for her for being trapped in that perspective

2:35 – Her being such a silly, adorable thing also helps. I guess I find hideously maladjusted but still believable and opinionated characters a lot more cute than the drooling ones anime normally tries to sell me

2:52 – “IT’S NOT HERE!” It’s not surprising to me I like this but couldn’t enjoy the manga – so much of this works because of the extremely good direction and timing

3:42 – “Satire is short lived. Why is that? Well, social satire is very much a product of the topics and events of its time.” Dear god, a meta-commentary joke on the satirical nature of this show set as the background of the actual joke? Watamote, you just bought yourself another episode no matter what happens in this one

4:41 – “You think this is funny?” “N-n-no…” Alright, it’s pretty hard not to feel sorry for her when she’s actually forced to interact with people. Goddamn, though. I’m a pretty huge introvert myself (I say, having rushed home from my job to sit in my room and write about anime), but was high school really like this for some people? This is a hard, hard life

8:11 – “I-it’s raining…” Oh man, I actually do understand that instinct of feeling awkward trapped in a space with strangers, but jeez. Thank god Hayama’s  there to act nice and pick up the slack

8:55 – “What’s with all this sweat?” Stop talking stop talking stop talking

11:05 – And Hayama brings back a new umbrella! A shame there isn’t an actual full-time Hayama in this show, but that’d probably result in more character development than we’re looking for

14:56 – It’s too damn bad they’re not gonna get financially rewarded for committing this hard  to this show. Dem otaku aren’t big fans of hard truths, huh?

15:15 – I like how Major Tomoko still has the bags under her eyes

16:56 – “It’s your sister in a uniform. Perks you up, doesn’t it?” “No.” Unfortunately for all of us, the sales numbers disagree

And Done

Well, they’re certainly not running out of horrible things to happen to and be said by Tomoko. A great victory for cringe comedy in general!