Komi Can’t Communicate

For those of you who have read my Welcome to the NHK review, it shouldn’t be much of a shock that I find narratives around social anxiety deeply relatable. It’s probably even less surprising to you that it’s the entire basis for why I do these reviews—not only because I like sharing my opinions but also because I see this as an opportunity to improve my ability to communicate my thoughts better, as my social anxiety makes stuttering through even a simple “hello” unnecessarily difficult for me at times. So you would think a show like Komi Can’t Communicate would be straight up my alley, right? Well, it’s a bit more complicated than that.

Off the top of my head, I can name three other anime that deal in themes of social anxiety pretty heavily, with two of them being among my favorite pieces of media ever conceived. I usually don't like to start my reviews off by immediately comparing whatever I'm talking about to other things, but unfortunately it's the only way that makes sense this time around, so bear with me.

Welcome to the NHK’s protagonist is a hikikomori NEET prone to paranoid delusions, unhealthy ideas of intimacy, and a tendency to avoid accountability for his shortcomings. The entire show’s premise is that Satou does his best to shirk responsibility by lying, manipulating, and leeching from the people around him, though because of his relationships with the surrounding cast of mentally ill unfortunates, he unwittingly takes several steps in improving his condition. We learn from watching Sato stumble that while life can feel like a punishment for a good 90% of the time, we can take refuge in what little happiness we can muster and make the most of the cards dealt to us.

Bocchi the Rock! is another of my personal favorites and features an even more personally relatable protagonist in Hitori Goto, whose aspirations of stardom and human connection propel her with the help of her bandmates to improve her ability to function not just as a part of a musical group, but as a human being with a sense of self-worth.

Even a show like Watamote, despite the horribly cringe-inducing situations Tomoko is subjected to every single episode, represents its teenage socially anxious hermit in a painfully believable way, even if the plot never really develops beyond that (regrettably, too, because I really liked Tomoko as a character). If you were to assign a sort of purpose to it all, for a socially anxious viewer it could provide a bit of black comedy relief (not for me, mind you), and for others maybe it's an insightful look into the world of someone who struggles with it.

Now that was a lot of words but I promise you there’s a reason for all of it. The underlining similarity that runs through those three shows is that social anxiety, as well as the person it afflicts, at least serves to portray something beyond its own existence, and the characters themselves take active steps with varying levels of success to improve their social standing and ability to function in public settings. But even more importantly, these characters all possess one thing that makes them compelling.... depth.

That brings us to Komi Can’t Communicate, which beyond having a whimsical cast of unabashedly loud and exuberant side characters and at times being admittedly somewhat cute, doesn’t offer much other than the statement “Hey guys, this girl really sucks at socializing, are we laughing yet?”. Komi herself is the butt of an agonizingly simple joke: she’s embodiment of every surface-level alluring quality her peers wish they possessed, but the catch is that because she suffers from selective mutism she comes off as unapproachable and people don’t really know that much about her. If that doesn’t sound funny to you off the bat, it probably won’t be any funnier if you decide to actually watch it. Even just having finished the first season, it gets repetitive and annoying really quickly, and I’m not a fan of the way Komi’s handicap is exploited for comedic or moe purposes.

Truth be told, there isn’t a whole lot of depth to Komi’s character. Like Bocchi the Rock’s protagonist, most of Komi’s progress completely hinges on the initiative of the surrounding cast (mainly Tadano), but what makes her a worse stand-in for social anxiety is that she seemingly possesses no interesting character traits or lofty ambitions to make the struggle feel worth it. The idea is that she wants to make 100 friends, which is an admirable enough feat to strive towards, but not only is it low hanging fruit for this kind of story, it doesn’t feel earned because besides Tadano, the posse she gathers over the course of the season really does a poor job of making a genuine connection with her. We also don’t get to see many of her innermost thoughts which would do wonders to make her a more compelling character. As she is, all I can think is, “yeah, uh, anxiety kinda sucks”.

The surrounding cast of characters is absurd to the point of not being in any way realistic, but at the start I think it serves at least somewhat of a purpose. The subservient, almost worshippy way they perceive Komi communicates society’s general indifference towards or lack of understanding of socially anxious people and how this type of outward perception can further isolate them. The problem is that not only does it repeat itself over and over, but also that nearly all of them are annoying, trope-riddled freaks. Forget the eye-rolling double-down on both the classic lesbian sexual predator gimmick that is Ren Yamai and the submissive lesbian puppy girl gimmick that is Himiko Agari, everyone here is just loud and overstimulating and a pain to deal with. I mean, yeah, I guess it’s perfect contrast to Komi’s silent nature but that gets tiring and aggravating after a while. If I was in Komi’s shoes and had to deal with this comically obnoxious group of characters I would more than likely be reclusive too, minus actively desiring to be friends with all of them.

I’m also not a fan of the narrator’s presence in this anime, and I could do completely without it.

I do admit that I enjoy the bits of interactions between Tadano and Komi and I would be doing this show a disservice by calling it anything but cute and touching during these moments. Tadano is a likeable dude that serves as a bridge between Komi and the rest of her peers, and that’s well and good at first but it also opens up an entirely new set of pitfalls during later episodes. I haven’t seen season 2 nor do I plan on reading the 400+ CHAPTERS of manga (and counting) so I don’t have a concept for how much of a slow burn this story is but 12 episodes is more than enough for me to complain that I wish I could see Tadano’s interactions with Komi encourage her to loosen up more on her own terms, even if in minute ways.

Overall I don’t think it’s as offensive a portrayal of social anxiety as it could be, but I think it’s an example of how you can make it feel half-baked and insubstantial. It wasn’t an anime doomed from the get go but it was extremely quick in showing its hand and letting you know that it doesn’t have anything to say. Unless you don’t tend to think deeply about these sorts of things, your enjoyment of Komi Can’t Communicate will more than likely hinge entirely on whether or not you enjoy the visual gags or the abrasive nature of the cast, but as for me, this ain’t really doing it for me, slime.