I got into this anime because I befriended a woman (now good friend) with whom I have the honor of working on a project with. One day, we somehow ended up talking about all sorts of childhood things and eventually the cringe as well. Of course we werent really too keen on sharing many of our experiences but she said something that raised my eyebrows: "I was basically like Kuroki from Watamote."
There were two reactions in my head:
The first one: I've heard of that anime before and the description from a friend was something amongst the lines of: 'Now, I've done cringe things but this was uncomfortable cringe I've never known existed.'
The second reaction: I gotta watch that anime. And goddamm, I did not except to see the things I saw.
A pretty size-able chunk of Kuroki's experiences I've went through myself and with that, similar to the Bocchi anime, I could empathize. Sometimes some of Kuroki's experiences were so insane that the cringe levels were off the charts, but I could still empathize to the point where I think that many of these experiences came from real life examples. They're sometimes too accurate and specific, eventhough they seem fairly ridiculous. With those feelings just after the first two episodes, my perspective changed. Before it was just cringing, laughing, empathizing a little bit but that fairly quickly now turned into a lot more empathy, compassion and the copium thought:"She'll have a the good ending in life, right?". Well, only the manga readers will know the answer but I peeked a little and from what I can understand, she thankfully sort of does.
Still, this anime has been quite a surprise. I went in expecting cringe and went out with:"Honestly, if I were to stumble upon Kuroki while studying or at work, I would try to befriend her fairly quickly and whatever comes after that." Because I know that these kinds of people need someone who leads in the dance of socializing, making connections and friends because they simply can't or don't know how to.
If I were to compare Bocchi and Watamote, I'd give Watamote the "most relatable" prize and Bocchi the "hilarious & relatable" prize. Both have their own humor and they both go to some extremes in terms of scenarios but Watamote feels more "real" from what I can tell, especially since I've been going into writing myself for quite a while now (which requires you to understand all sorts of people and their psychology for example).
Watamote is not just "a funny, cringe anime". It's an anime that gives us glimbses into someones or even multiple peoples cringe high school experiences wrapped together with comedy. Just something as simple as "So far behind everybody else she thinks she's ahead of everyone in the social game." in this anime can be funny, cringe, relatable and/or everything at once and for me that is exactly what I felt throughout the anime.
Worth the watch, especially with friends so you can share your "Oh no" or "Awww" moments together.
And to the irl Kuroki's out there: You'll get there, trust and it might happen way more randomly than you think. Just hang around in as many social hubs (internet or irl) as possible and you'll catch or get caught by someone's social net. Even if you're desperate though, have some healthy standards otherwise you'll get hurt way more than you'd think in the long run.
But like with everything in life: “If you wish to succeed, you must brave the risk of failure.”
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