Watamote – 12 [END]
さらば (｡´∀｀)ﾉ
Well it’s all over now. After 12 long, grueling episodes, Tomoko’s journey at long last comes to an end. And even though many tears have been shed, she has nothing to show for it.
Basically What Happens
Why does she look cuter when she’s crying? Something must be wrong with me.
Before you guys throw a fit, no, Tomoko’s story hasn’t really come to an end. She’s still got 2 years ahead of her to change her life (not that it’ll happen), but you’ll have to go to the manga for that. Anyway, back to the anime. Basically this episode has all the hallmarks of the Watamote formula. Tomoko realizes how pathetic her life is and comes up with some stupid idea to turn it around. Then she puts it into practice only to fail epically and become emotionally crushed. You know, the usual. So lets skip that boring stuff and get to the good stuff. After her heart-warming appearance last episode, Angel-san graces us with her presence yet again. We learn that her name is Imae, and this episode further confirms her status as best girl in the show. Not only is she kind and compassionate, she’s also smart and responsible and looked up to by pretty much the entire school.
Return of the best girl.
I mentioned last time that it would be just perfect if Tomoko were to befriend this perfect girl, and we’re pretty much teased with the idea here. The previously stated generic Watamote shenanigans this episode revolve around Tomoko trying to be like Imae, but that’s not important. After she fails, the pathetic heroine finally realizes that maybe she can just directly ask the master for advice. So she does. Except she is intercepted by an untimely breeze which reveals Imae’s panties for a parting fanservice shot. And then Tomoko runs away flustered and loses her chance at possibly gaining a new shoulder to lean on. Oh, and I should again add that Imae would probably be a better friend than Yuu-chan. Even though the latter cares for Tomoko as a long-standing friend, she’s always preoccupied by other things, which this episode brutally exemplifies when she is distracted by a cat and forgets about the wailing Tomoko who makes a beeline for her bed.
Extras
Even though this is the finale, I’ll have to make this a short post yet again. There’s really not much to talk about at this point since Watamote unfortunately remains the same by and large. It’s been a great run and I have to say that I certainly still enjoy the show more than I dislike it. I might have sounded rather negative about it as of late, but let us not discount that it has managed to hold my attention for so long using only one trick over and over again. Being able to pull that off probably means they’re doing something right. And to be fair, Watamote is also very capable of drawing us into Tomoko’s life. When a character-driven show gets the audience invested in and sympathetic to the main character, it’s doing its job properly. So I can say with utmost confidence that Watamote is without a doubt one of the better works this season, and something that everyone should watch if they are able to stomach the pain it inflicts upon its heroine.
8/10
About Sumairii
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
I have to salute the creators for giving us a no holds barred look at the desperately lonely, and socially mal-adjusted. It lived up to cringe comedy every step. I’m glad Imae gave her that hug she needed, and I hope that friendship can develop, with all the comedic pitfalls it entails.
Thanks for covering the show, Sum.
I wonder what you’ll cover next season? I’m thinking that over long title; The Reluctant Hero has to get a Job.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I dunno, this finale didn’t really do it for me. Maybe because I held out some hope for Tomoko to make progress, I dunno, and it even seems that Imae-san is looking to help her if she can. But this episode just seemed to waste so much time, with both the flashback at the beginning, and that running at the end, it just felt like that stuff dominated the episode.
It’s nice that there are people who care about Tomoko, and helps to temper her self-sabotaging behavior. But ultimately, this is about the limit for my interest in the show. If there was another season of the same thing, I probably wouldn’t watch it.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
If there is a second season it has to focus on Tomoko slowly and haltingly coming out of her shell. And this episode showed that is what it would probably be about. Tomoko realizing she’d wasted 2/3 of the year without making any progress towards making friends, telling her brother she was no longer going to be coming into his room for “consultations” and her attempt to try and become friends with Angel-san Imae all point towards her making some actual progress in a second season. Of course, being Tomoko there’d undoubtedly be plenty of disasters and embarrassment along the way.
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 175 comments
well finish watching give some ugh yet some good & fine sorts.
overall yea worth some endurance to watch & yet wonder dub version be like someday?
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
Well, it’s over, and while this last episode was really nothing special, I think it did show that Tomoko has actually made some progress over this series. As she looks towards the future she begins to think of all the ways she messed up, all the things that she’s learned and perhaps that being popular is not really all that important. I hope that she and Imae-san aka Angel-chan become friends in the future and that Imae is able to help Tomoko to at least become more sociable. She doesn’t have to be the most popular girl is school, simple social skills will do.
I did like at the end that she looked at the same definition of “unpopular girl” that she did in the beginning of the series and instead of going nuts, she simply laughs and states that it’s not that big of a deal anyway.
We’ve all gone through some awkward phase in our lives and I could totally see myself in Tomoko’s shoes at times. I like that this anime was able to show that and show a girl who goes through these everyday real life struggles as they go through adolescence.
I give this episode a 7/10, and the series a solid 8/10.
POWUH: Novice (36-50) with 47 comments
“Even though many tears have been shed, she has nothing to show for it” did you not watch the whole episode? At the end she’s reading the definition of unpopular just like in the beginning and no longer cares about being unpopular and realizes it doesn’t matter. ( to some extent)