Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku
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Meongantuk
 Posts: 353 |
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1. Being in touch doesn't mean they meet every week or so. At the very least they meet every events which can range twice a year to once every season (depends on what event). Not to mention they usually meet wearing casual clothes which can give pretty different aura. 2. Because Narumi had no obligation to tell him and Hirotaka has been pretty passive regarding his feeling prior to his confession. They were friends who share similar interest (being otaku). These kind of friends usually don't talk about their private life often instead they talk about their hobbies instead (or in their case, play games or goes to bookstores). |
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meiam
Posts: 3442 |
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You're basing a lot on the assumption that she was just trying to put distance between them (which makes no sense since she originally called out to him). They're probably just friend on Facebook (or jp equivalent) and he see that she does comicket, as Nojay said too much doesn't add up otherwise (not to mention he didn't recognize her).
You're pretty much describing what I'm saying there, they're just dating because they happen to be both single and share hobby (or closely related hobby) and that's it. I'm not saying it's unacceptable, but I'm pretty sure most relationship that start like that fail (which would not be a very good show), so I'm not sure the "more realistic" label apply. |
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mandisaw
 Posts: 140 |
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Maybe this is one of those "read between the lines" things, or maybe we're not all working from the same sub translation. I read the scene as Narumi recognizes Hiro immediately. She considers the idea of pretending not to know each other at all, but that fails (and wouldn't have worked long-term anyway). So she goes to Plan B - pretend we are just casual, childhood-friend acquaintances, not convention-regular drinking buddies. That fails too, hilariously. Hiro & Narumi may not see each other weekly/often, but once it's off-hours, they act really chummy-chummy and relaxed for "haven't seen you in 15 years" once-upon-a-time classmates. My experience might be unusual(?), but I don't get into personal details of my love-life, work/life wishes, and all with those folks. It's pretty much just "Oh, you're married now? How many kids? That's a cool job, blah blah blah." Even if they were share-everything confidantes as kids, it's very unusual to fall right back into that emotional state.
Yeah, this is another life-experience difference thing. Before the age of online dating apps, sharing a hobby/interest/activity was exactly how most relationships (in the US at least) started. Sometimes the "activity" was something broad like school or church or more rarely, working together, but still, super-common in real life, and fodder for many fictional relationships as well (certainly every workplace rom-com). |
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explosionforgov
 Posts: 80 Location: United States of America |
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One of my exes was a straight guy who knew I was into BL, and was fairly chill about it. He even wrote me a male/male fanfic once as a gift. I've dated a full gamut of sexualities and genders since then, but I don't remember if it ever came up in conversation with my other straight male ex.
I also sort of hope the gay man at the con was more a reflection about how people of every sexuality and gender tend to be awkward at conventions, especially around attractive people, and not a reflection of how the show treats gay characters as a whole. |
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minamikaze
Posts: 221 |
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I wasn't sure if that was meant to be ironic or not. In case it was not, it wasn't a mystery, it was a punchline: "So that's where Hirotaka hid his stash before inviting everyone to spend the night!" |
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meruru
Posts: 471 |
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I personally read what happened in the anime as more of as you said, otaku are often awkward in general. Especially when you consider that Hirotaka wasn't actually bothered at all, so that particular person could have hypothetically gotten the impression it was fine. That scene would have certainly played out differently if Hirotaka had had just about any other reaction. Though I could be just misremembering, that particular event didn't even happen in the manga. Very few characters even appear in the manga besides the main four characters. But who knows if they might change that for the anime. The manga is of an odd format of having sort of mini chapters. Like a few pages. It seems like the anime is adding details so one of those stretches to fit into a half episode. |
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JacobC
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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It's clearly a joke. Because it's treated like a joke in the preview. |
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Merida
 Posts: 1945 |
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I chose to generously interpret it as trying to show that Hirotaka really isn't bothered at all by anything related to BL. But yeah, the others reaction to it played right into the "sexual harassment is sexy as long as it is between men" fujoshi stereotype... That aside, i'm still thoroughly enjoying watching two adult nerd couples enjoying themselves! The "underwear scare" is all the drama i need, to be honest, so i hope the show manages to stay this fun and relaxing. |
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Shougo Amakusa
Posts: 2 |
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Honestly, since a few years ago I got fed up of what I call "epilogue couples", which means "slow/late romance". I know that's a proper style to write, but it just became the dominant style and almost all the anime had it, which forced to watch too much shows with that structure.
Besides, I find that approach unrealistic even for teenagers. Perhaps, japanese teenagers behave that way, but western teenagers (especially latin-americans) don't. That's why I decided one day to only watch/read stories with a more realistic approach, which made me focus in the "fast/early romance". After reading this introduction, I assume you know why I ended up watching this show. Wotaku is almost the definition of what I'd like to see in any other anime in terms of romance. The main couple got established in episode 1, and the other couple was already established when the anime began. Many people argues that there is no more to say once the couple is established, but for me that only shows lack of experience. In my opinion, the real adventure starts precisely one the couple is established and we can cast away all the issues related to the confession process. In that matter, wotaku shines strongly. The story shows in a very mature and realistic way how things develop after that confession, considering that we are talking about 4 otaku. Even for the second couple, which has more time together, there are still issues they have to deal with, and that's natural. I cannot wait for the anime to catch up with some chapters of the manga where the author shows in depth the relationship between Hanako and her boyfriend. I think the key point for this anime is precisely how the author portrays relationships. Many people got used to the "late/slow romance" approach and sometimes forget that in real life nowadays, that approach is not the common one. Besides, we have to keep in mind that the main characters are adults, no matter if they are otaku, they are still adult people. The problem is many other anime forces adult people to behave like japanese teenagers (in terms of romance), and some people could infer that that's the normal behavior for adults in general. However, for people like me, which are 25+ years old, are married or have a couple, and are otaku, this anime is something we can easily relate to. In fact, I thought wotaku would not be popular precisely because of it, its demographic target was not teenagers but young adults/adults. Fortunately, many teenagers are liking it, or there are more young adults/adults watching anime than I thoguht, or both. Anyway, this is a great show which made a leap of faith by using a more realistic approach towards romance. We obviously have some of the classic anime romcom gags along the way, but mostly we can see how two otaku couples deal with the fact of being couples, and yes, that can be hilarious. Wow, I have written too much, but I cannot close this post without mentioning how great is this show making references. Wotaku would be awesome to start a finding-easter-eggs competition. It's amazing hoe many games, anime and manga it has mentioned in only three episodes. Not to mention miscellaneous references such as the Asahi Super Dry beer. I think this is a nice complement for the anime because it makes us feel more in context, and it makes believable the fact that we are watching the lives of 4 otaku. |
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meruru
Posts: 471 |
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There are couples out there that are as slow and clueless as commonly depicted in anime and manga. Though I totally get being sick of couples being portrayed that way. Trends get stale. I personally think it's more a problem with trends getting old than something inherently wrong with showing "slow couples." Couples getting together quickly then dealing with their relationship problems is actually becoming something of a trend in shoujo manga now, even if it seems it's not getting animated as much. (Though slow couples are still quite common.) Read enough of the fast couples ones, and you start to realize that can be a turn off too if it's done really badly (and a huge percentage of manga is kind of bad). The ones where it's done badly just recycle the same old tropey relationship problems, like extreme jealousy over what should be nothing to the point that the jealous person is just being a jerk until you start wondering why the couple should be a couple in the first place. Then I start missing the slow couples because while they have their own tired cliche problems, the tropes in those don't usually make me start thinking they shouldn't actually be a couple anymore. |
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Shougo Amakusa
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Instead of getting old, I'd say there are just too many. Furthermore, in many cases, when you have the "slow/late romance" tag, you also get the "dense protagonist" tag. That combination means hell for me because it takes the unrealistic approach to new heights... and let's not talk about the cases where the harem tag is added to the previous mixture... I understand that many people consider great and fun those shows which have those three tags (they are quite popular, and mainstream, for a reason), but that popularity ended up making the studios to mass produce that kind of show. Moreover, in order to try to avoid being too similar to each other, in some cases you see the unrealistic approach stretched and stretched until it is too absurd to be funny. In the end, nowadays you have extremely dense protagonists, continuous interruptions, a huge amount of deres, a lot of the infamous "reset" (where all the road walked by the two characters get undone, and they have to start all over again), and so on... Even when you have only the "slow/late romance" tag, in many shows the author abuses of the same cliches so many times and just for the sake of keeping the couple apart, that when they finally get together you don't care anymore.
I am aware of that, but as you said, the majority of those manga rarely are animated, so you have to dig a lot in order to find them. There are even a few shounen novels where the main couple is established pretty fast, such as Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou and Boku wa Isekai de Fuyo Mahou to Shoukan Mahou wo Tenbin ni Kakeru, but the anime of the first one got delayed until next year, and the second one doesn't even have a manga adaptation... So, the mainstream trend right now is still the slow romance with or without dense protagonists and harem.
I get your point, but I don't read all of the stories that have a fast romance, I apply other filters as well. In fact, I started reading chinese cultivation novels in order to have more options in that matter. Besides, to be honest, if I have to choose between a story with slow romance and a story with fast romance (considering the case where both are poorly written, and are full of annoying cliches), I will always pick the later one since at the end it's more realistic to me. Of course, I will try really hard to avoid ending up having only those two options (chinese cultivation novels became a lifesaver for me in that regard, because they allowed me to escape that trap) |
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CorneredAngel
 Posts: 854 Location: New York, NY |
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Unfortunately, one of the customers was a total creep who sexually harassed him, and the way Wotakoi treats this is bad for two reasons. First, it tries to make this into a humorous situation with Narumi's and Hana's over-the-top reactions, but there's nothing funny about unwanted physical contact or being unduly harassed by a stranger at an anime convention, no matter the context. These are still very real problems in the community, not things to make light of for a cheap joke. Secondly, this faceless creep is the only gay person who's been portrayed in the show, which is a pretty busted debut.
If you're a guy, and somebody "sexually harasses" you, you know what to do. Violence is rarely the answer, but it's sometimes the answer. But, when you're a guy, and somebody "sexually harasses" you, that is inherently funny, because, unexpected! Like, yeah, what *do* you do! Uh, so, what is your required ratio of positive portrayals of gay persons persons per show? Which ones this season no longer qualify? |
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Yazu13
 Posts: 129 |
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I love how adult this show is. Like, the characters are still goofy and have those moments of child-like energy, but they're very much in their adult lives and little things like kissing or having friends over to play video games doesn't elicit this big, crazy response like most romantic comedy anime. It's highly relatable and doesn't need to rely on slapstick to earn its laughs or melodrama to bring its protagonists together.
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Dumas1
Posts: 75 |
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I love the manga and as someone currently lacking an Amazon subscription, I gotta ask: Does Hirotaka really have a Switch in the anime, or is the reviewer misidentifying his handheld? Because he's definitely a PSP dude in the manga; that single joystick and big circle on the back are unmistakable. On the other hand, the PSP was already a bit outdated when Wotakoi started and Hirotaka owns a ton of Nintendo hardware anyway.
I suppose that question leaves no doubt where I fall on the otaku specturm. It's great to have a series focus on adult otaku in (mostly) mature relationships. |
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meruru
Posts: 471 |
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I do recall him in the anime using some controller with a joystick right in the middle, since I thought it was a weird design, though I think it was a controller, not a handheld. I don't recall any controllers that look like that, so they might be drawing not real consoles (but as obvious riffs off real ones.) |
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