Lore
Another Entry to the read-about-someone-worse-off-than-you-and-laugh genre and the cry-about-how-similar-you-are genre. Watamote garnered so much love that anons from /a/ and /v/ sent the author their dick pics and laughed or cried at her responses. Years passed and the author got so much money (and dick pics) from her depressing manga that she wasn't depressed anymore. Oh no, how can you make depressing manga when you're not depressed? The answer is you can't and unlike Hideki Anno who tried to continue sad Evangelion even after he was married and swimming in pools of money, Nico Tanigawa pivoted out of cringe-dep and into yuri with grace. This made anons enraged.
"Noooo," shouts the anon, "I am sad therefore my waifu must also be sad. How dare you make her happy."
"Noooo," shouts the anon, "I have no friends. How dare you give my waifu friends."
Dick Pics were once again sent en masse to poor Tanigawa except the intent was not love but rather, hate.
Parts
Watamote has 2 parts. Part 1 is when Tomoko has only one friend and Watamote is beloved by anons. Part 2 is when Tomoko has a lesbian harem and Watamote was beloved by /r/anime. I rate Part 1 a 9/10 as it made great strides in the cringe-dep genre. I rate Part 2 a 7/10 because, while enjoyable to read, there are much better lesbian harem manga out there. Overall 8/10.
Characters
Part 1:
Tomoki is Tomoko's brother and the male audience surrogate.
Yuu is Tomoko's only friend who goes to a different school. After middle school, Yuu reinvented herself and became popular. Tomoko hangs out with Yuu while calling her a "slut" in her mind and alternates between lusting and hating her.
The unpopular glasses girl provides some good comedy and plays the straight man to Tomoko's gags.
Kii is the most interesting character in Part 1 as her disillusion with Tomoko's anti-influence corrupts her once cheerful personality into Yandere territory.
Part 2:
Tomoko doesn't have a boyfriend but she sure has a lot of girlfriends.
The new characters overlap to the point of there even being in-universe gags about them.
One of the transition characters, from part 1 to part 2, was the Yankee girl/abusive boyfriend trope who would punch Tomoko whenever she said something stupid. I don't remember the other characters that much because they are one dimensional and uninteresting.
Conclusion
I'm happy that Tomoko found friends and happiness. The author has moved on to the fresher and funnier Number Girl. Anons, to this day, continue to seethe in rage over Tomoko becoming happy. I suggest you read Watamote from the beginning all the way until the Lesbian Harem's class field trip and then stop because by that point you know Tomoko has friends and is going to end up just fine.
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