Nico Tanigawa

Here we are again, another volume of No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular!, Vol. 3 down. This series by Nico Tanigawa, pen name for the two creators of the series, is about Tomoko, high school student determined turn things around from her middle school days, make friends, and talk to boys. Unfortunately, this is harder than it originally sounded. Already at the start of second term, none of Tomoko’s plans have come to fruition.

Now, the usual notes. Both show more the manga and anime series are referred to as Watamote, because, while the actual title is a perfect fit for the series, it’s so long that it boosts the word count of these reviews by quite a significant amount. Since no one's trying to boost the word count for a college essay here, I’ll be using Watamote to refer to the series throughout the rest of the review.

If you haven’t caught up, you can find reviews for Watamote, Vol. 1 and Watamote, Vol. 2 here as well.

There were quite a number of moments in this volume where Tomoko makes the belated realization that she should never have wanted whatever it was she was looking for in the first place, even if it’s to fit in better, have something to talk about or get sympathy from, or to stay home from school for a few days. As usual, her plans backfire, some more massively than others.

I like how we see the simultaneous and conflicting inner wishes of Tomoko here. At once she is trying to have something to talk about and seem cool about in the form of falsely telling her friend Yuu that she was groped to taking care of her sick little brother in the hopes that she’ll get sick too and need to stay home the next day and not deal with her social life or lack thereof. The need for friendship and camaraderie is conflicting with her desire to just not be at school or a part of activities at all.

This is very human, and something I think the vast majority of people can relate to. At some point ‘screw it, I’ll just give up’ often does overtake, or at least conflict with, ‘maybe it’ll work out this time’.

In either case, the desire for something and how it works out in one’s head often doesn’t coincide with the reality of it. Tomoko doesn’t want to participate in helping her classmates setting up the school festival, and she certainly gets her wish. However, it is most definitely not in the way she desired. After several similar situations, she beings to learn that maybe there are things she should never have wanted in the first place. This is something Tomoko begins to learn, and verbalized later in the volume.

The more subdued, sad feeling we get from Tomoko at times in the second volume continues here, as opposed to the misguided furor she attacks her problems, real or perceived, in the first volume. Tomoko does seem to be changing, little by little. Maybe not a lot. Maybe not quickly. But she doesn’t feel stagnant, which is something that I feel can happen in slice of life or high school related manga.

This volume is just as relatable as the others. Tomoko, despite her sometimes extreme reactions, is someone who is easy to relate to. The awkward factor is doubled in places simply because we’ve all done or said similar things or been in similar situations and know how things are going to turn out before Tomoko does. We can commiserate with her. And I think this is why I gravitate to this series in particular, as opposed to the plethora of other high school manga.

As for the artwork, there were a few singularly amazing faces (of horror, despair, etc.) Tomoko makes within this volume. This is something I feel was most prevalent in the first volume and I found a bit lacking in the second. Here, while maybe not quite as numerous, we have more of this. And what we get certainly stuck out in my mind after finishing the volume.

If you haven’t already started reading Watamote by Nico Tanigawa, you should. The story is fun and relatable, and the volumes themselves aren’t terribly long and easy to get through. If you like humorous stories or were a fan of the anime, you’ll like this volume. If you didn’t like the anime or don’t like slice of life manga this may be one to skip. show less

Tomoko is 15 years old and has no real friends. She thinks that both friends and a boyfriend will just fall into her lap once she enters high school. Sadly, this does not happen, so she tries to figure out why not and fix it. That is, when she's not mentally grumbling about slutty girls and the stupid guys who gravitate towards them.

In this first volume, she forces her younger brother to speak to her for a certain amount of time each day, because she's out of practice talking to people. She show more meets with a friend from middle school, who now goes to a different high school, and is at first pleased that they still share an interest in geeky things like anime. However, she, too, has managed to find a boyfriend where Tomoko has failed. When the rain briefly strands Tomoko with a couple good-looking guys, she finds herself unable to talk normally to them. At school, she's horrified when she's assigned to do a make-up assignment with a male student in her art class.

This was the worst thing I read during my recent vacation. Tomoko was the female version of the stereotypical male geek who silently stews over his inability to get a date with one of the popular girls, obsessing over them while scornfully referring to them as sluts. Flipping the gender did not make that stereotype any more appealing.

The depth of Tomoko's lack of popularity was painful (she considered herself to be popular in middle school because, during those years, she interacted with guys a total of six times), as was her complete lack of knowledge about how to fix it. For example, at one point her appearance was better than normal. When she thought about it, she decided she looked better because she'd spent the night playing a really good otome game. She'd heard that sex makes people look more appealing, so she figured that a game that made her feel sexually aroused would work the same way. So she played it nonstop until her hair and skin were oily. I think this was supposed to be funny, but I didn't feel like laughing.

I both loathed and pitied Tomoko. To her, all pretty girls were fluff-brained sluts, and all good-looking guys were probably idiots who'd only be interested in makeup slathered sluts. Even as she thought these things, she tried to make herself look more like those “sluts” in order to become more popular. And failed miserably. She was interested in manga, and yet she viewed the other people browsing manga in the same store as her with disdain, labeling them all probable NEETs. Yu, Tomoko's only friend, confused her by still being a fan of anime like her, and yet also having a boyfriend and looking like one of the pretty “sluts.” Personally, I felt Yu could have done better when it came to friends and was glad that she didn't have the ability to peek into Tomoko's thoughts. At one point, Tomoko thought of her as a “sow.” I'm not kidding.

It's possible that future volumes show Tomoko growing as a person. It's possible, but the series title tells me it's not likely. I opted not to read the other two volumes I had available, and I doubt I'll ever continue with this series or watch the anime adaptation.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

Imagine a Shoujo with a female lead who is painfully shy and awkward. You would naturally expect that she would have a tragic (or utter nonsensical) back story that made her that way. There would be the hottest guy in school who is most likely also an arrogant jerk. If he is a brat, there would be a backstory that tries to convince us that he may look cold, but he is actually a nice guy. He would be Mr.Popular and all the girls would have a crush on him, but he would obviously falls head show more over heals in love with our female lead. They would start dating and then his friends become her friends too. Slowly, she would learn to trust people. Some obstacles to their relationship may be present, which they would overcome and be together happily ever after. That is what most shoujos are about, right? Except, this one is not!

In this manga, the female lead is extremely shy, painfully awkward and perverted, but there is none of the above cliche. Our heroine, Tomoko, is the classroom outcast because of her personality. Even when people try to talk to her, she finds it hard to reply. This manga is all about her misadventures on trying to fit in, hoping to find love and becoming popular. Let me tell you that this was one hilarious manga. I wonder how the author managed to make me laugh, feel sorry for Tomoko and root for her, all at the same time. show less

Another day, another manga read. This time it was No Matter How I Look At It,It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular, Vol. 2 by Nico Tanigawa, a pseudonym used by the two creators. The second volume in the series continues with Tomoko's misadventures in high school. It's just as fun as the first volume in the series, and one I definitely enjoyed.

Small note here: The title is often shortened to Watamote, which is also the title the anime is known by. This is what I will be using to refer show more to this volume for the rest of this review. Because the full title is just too damned long. Great title. Perfectly explains the manga. But just way too long.

Volume 2 of Watamote continues following Tomoko through her high school career. We’ve reached the end of the first term, and summer break is looming just around the corner. She still isn’t popular, with just a single friend to her name. But that’s going to change. She’s going to make a friend and go watch the fireworks with them. Or, at the very least, keep being the cool older cousin when Kii-chan, who is still in middle school, comes for her annual summer visit. However, this proves to be much harder than it sounds.

This series never ceases to make me squirm uncomfortably. Not because Tomoko’s antics are all that bad. Okay, well, maybe they are sometimes. She does make multiple dubious choices that have us cringing before their full consequences are actually played out. But the real reason for all the uncomfortable squirming is because the manga hearkens back to my own high school days and the awkward things I wish I’d never done, no different than the first volume. The scene in the coffee shop rang particularly true for me.

I feel that Tomoko was a little more honest with herself in this volume. Where in the first volume she’s utterly convinced that things will just change for her now that she’s in high school, she doesn’t act quite as passive here. She isn't quite as overtly angry at the turn of events (or lack thereof) as she was at times during scenes in the first volume. She is obviously upset by the lack of change through the first term, but we see Tomoko make an effort to change things. Maybe not a very coherent, well-formed effort, but an effort nonetheless. We did see a bit of this in volume one, but it feels different here.

The scene in the school library where she falsely assumes that anyone there on the last day before summer break is a loner with no friends like her is probably the most honest with herself she has been thus far. It’s Tomoko’s first somewhat coherent attempt at making a friend. That’s not to say she goes about it perfectly, or even half-decently, but we see her try.

Something else I noticed in this book is that in some scenes Tomoko loses her gung-ho attitude and does become a little more sad and subdued. She really does want to make a friend and not be quite so alone all the time. More importantly, she states this, maybe not aloud to those around her but to the reader nonetheless. The incessant rantings on how her classmates are all horrible, terrible people and why would she want to hang out with people like that anyway are also a bit fewer. There are times, plenty of times, where she name calls or makes a too-hasty judgement of strangers, but overall there there is a little less of it.

Volume 2 of Watamote is also a bit more focused on Tomoko’s role as a the oldest sibling and oldest cousin. She wants to be the cool older sibling/older cousin. And, well, yeah, that’s another thing we’ve all tried to do. At least those of us who are the older sibling and oldest cousin. Like the first volume, I still find the representation of the sibling's behavior very true to life, which is something I find is often lacking in many manga and novels. This is best seen in the scene where Tomoko is too scared to go to the bathroom after reading scary stories all night and wakes up her brother to escort her through the dark, quiet house. He does walk here there and wait for her. He’s not happy about, but he does it. And he definitely makes sure Tomoko knows just how unhappy with it he is. And that’s pretty much exactly what would happen between me and my two siblings.

The art is once again wonderful. I did find that I enjoyed some of the over the top faces Tomoko made in Volume 1 more than in Volume 2. Her expressions were still exaggerated, but a bit subdued in comparison to Volume 1. However, I do feel that the faces fit the overall tone of this volume well. Once again there is a section at the end of the volume for translation notes. It’s a bit shorter this time, only one page, but still just as useful as the last time.

This is a series I will definitely continue. No Matter How I Look At It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular, Vol. 2 by Nico Tanigawa is funny and strangely heartfelt. If you are a fan of the anime, like humorous stories, or are a fan of young adult novels looking to branch into the manga genre this is a manga you'll definitely enjoy. If you don't enjoy slice of life manga, or disliked the anime you might want to skip this one. show less