No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular! Vol. 5 TPPublisher: Yen Press
Release Date: October 28, 2014
Price: $13.00
Creator: Nico Tanigawa
Format: 144 pgs., B&W, Trade Paperback
ISBN: 9-780-3163-3609-3
Age Rating:16+
ICv2 Rating: 3 stars out of 5
I liked the Watamote anime series. It was a fun, tongue in cheek look at someone who is socially inept and unable to cope with the real world. One of the big problems with it was that it ended a little too quickly and there isn't likely to be more. Luckily fans of the series have the manga to pick up so that they can get more Tomoko Kuroki in their lives. Is that really such a good thing though?
In volume five of this series, the heroine is now entering her second year of high school. She still hasn't really made any friends and is getting scolded by her teacher for not doing so. Some people are showing some vague interest in being friendly with her but Tomoko is still more interested in coming up with schemes and plans than actually opening her eyes and seeing that there are people around her that do want to be her friend in between the jerks who are doing their best to tear her down.
Five volumes this has been going on. Five volumes.
Early on Tomoko was difficult to like but eventually her personality grew on the audience and we collectively wanted to cheer her on and see what she would make of her life. After five volumes though, it feels like we as an audience have gone about as far as we can go with this gag and are desperate to see her grow and change as a person and character but we're just not seeing that and I'm almost wondering if it's time to say enough is enough and it's time for a change.
Eventually something big has to happen here and if you've stuck around this long there's no harm in seeing how it ends. Long time fans have little reason to back out now as you've been rooting for this heroine for this long. Just know that this volume might test your patience a little bit.
--L.B. Bryant