Komi-san is a manga that I have been reading since 2018. This cute slice of life manga featuring a socially awkward girl has really grabbed me for three years straight, even if the manga started to stutter more in quality the longer it went on. Since the lead didn't talk that much and most of the manga was text, it was thought that this manga could never be adapted right. So years went by with constant rumors and speculation, but no anime announcement. But then, finally it came, the announcement, and my jaw must have gone through several floors of how well it was being adapted. It did have that one annoying visual glitch in which it displayed that it was being hosted on Netflix but other then that I was excited. And did it live up to hype?... yeah pretty much.

Tadano is just an average guy. He aimes to have a normal life at school, but that changes when he bumps into Komi-san, the prettiest girl in class. In fact, the entire school worships her beauty to an almost scary degree. Through Tadano's power of picking up context clues, he finds out that Komi-san beauty doesn't stem from how she is deliberately quiet, but because she has a communication disorder. Through her whole life she wasn't able to speak to other people due to her social awkwardness, which manifested in thinking that everyone hates her (despite the exact opposite being true. Through coincidences, Tadano's becomes her first friend, and both go on a quest to make as many friends as possible.

It is pretty easy to see how the premise has captured the hearts of so many people: Social anxiety is something that all people have, and taking that concept to a "realistically" extreme degree only highlights the relatable parts of being socially awkward. And we don't just see Komi-san's silent form of social awkwardness, but we also see chuuni social awkwardness, being from a different side of the country social awkwardness, or social outkast akwardness. No matter who you are, there will be a character you will see yourself in and relate to how they act.

And let's talk about those characters, shall we. Probably the biggest highlight and downside of this anime are the characters. Ofcourse we have our name-in-the-title character Komi. Komi-san seems like a good ol' Mary Sue at first with how beautiful she looks and acts, asome people might still consider her one now, but her social flaws is what makes her so human. Her communication disorder might be a bit silly at first, but the way how she struggles with the most basic things is highly relatable. It really makes you want to root for her to develop her social skills and get more friends.

Tadano is a fun character, often the straight man. He may be average, but he is still someone who thinks of his own and genuinely tries to help others, even if he can be kinda dense at times. Najimi unspecified gender is often a punchline which can be a bit much at times, but most of the time he is a fun, bold character that brings a bit of chaos in the anime. A lot of the sidecharacters are fun, especially Onemine-san is enjoyable. But then you have Yamai... Yamai, Yamai, Yamai. A popular cute girl on the outside, but an obsessive stalker of Komi-san on the inside. Her psychopathic tendencies are often joked about, and.... it sometimes works. I have to praise the anime for toning down her creepiness... but I can't deny that she still makes the anime awkward to watch at times. There is a reason she is considered the worst character in Komi-san.

Since I brung up the manga, how does the anime compare to the manga? I actually think it is an improvement. I mean, animation, music and voice acting is always better then a piece of paper, but often the direction the anime takes can screw up the source material. Luckily, that doesn't happen here. The voice actors are chosen well, the music is really good (banger OP and ED), and the animation is surprisingly the highlight of the anime. The manga contained a lot of text, which seems difficult to translate over to an anime, but they pulled it of by variation of how the text is presented. The animation itself is gorgeous, with flued movement, great expressions, tons of visual gags and great direction.

One sticky point that of the anime/manga is its humor, and there is no denying in that it can be pretty one note. The amount of wacky characters are fun, but they then also just have one character trait and thus one joke. While this isn't that different from other comedy anime, this is especially notable in Komi-san for how each character is presented as a character trait. Still, I think the anime is really funny because of how they pair up characters really well and how well they are able to lean on the relatability without going as far as pandering.

Now for the most important part (besides the score): Is this anime worth watching on its own? Being a good adaptation is all and well, but is it worth checking out on its own... if it isn't obvious by know, it is absolutely worth checking out. It is very funny anime that is really cute. It is really relatable and the colorful cast constantly bring tons of fun chaos. The jokes might get one note and some of the characters might get on your nerves, but if you can look past them it is tons of fun.

As for how I enjoyed it, I thought it was amazing. It is everything I would have wanted out of an adaptation of one of my favorite mangas and thensome. The improvements in almost every category also makes it an improvements of the manga (at least the early parts) and I can't wait for season 2.

Check this one out! It is really good!