Every season there are a small handful of shows I do watch, and a much larger number that I don't. The others just aren't interesting to me. But it's not that they actively repel me. Only rarely does a show come along which give me the "not even at gunpoint" reaction, but Watamote AKA "Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaete mo Omaera ga Warui!" does.

And it keeps doing it because several of the other anime blogs I follow are doing the show. Enough so that I've decided to post a "never watch" for the first time since the end of 2010.

I haven't seen any of it and I don't want to. But based on what I've read, the show is about a girl in high school who is miserable. It's not that anyone is being mean to her, it's that no one pays any attention to her at all. She's intensely lonely, and full of resentment. Each week she evidently comes up with some idea for something to do that will get people to pay attention, and they never work.

Part of what repels me is the character art: she looks like a ghoul. But I'm also repelled by the idea that this is a comedy, and we in the audience are supposed to laugh at her misery and ineptitude. I'm sorry, I am not amused by watching people who are in pain, even if they are ridiculous people (as, apparently, she is). And I don't think there's anything even remotely amusing about loneliness. It hurts.

It strikes me that watching this show is a bit like rubbernecking at a car crash on the highway. I don't do that, and I don't want to watch this show.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Never Watch at 08:04 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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