Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Is Komi Can't Communicate All Laughs and No Heart?
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4082 |
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With every episode, it gets harder and harder for me to watch. I like Komi, I like Tadano, I don't like the rest of the cast. I don't think they're aggressively weird, I think they're aggressively obnoxiousness.
Look, this series most reminds me of School Rumble... Yakumo! Anyway that's not important right now. School Rumble worked because as weird as everyone was, they were charismatic. Ever the perverts had charm and the only one who had no presence was Nara... called Tadano here. The side cast of Komi are in your face because if you could get a good look at them, you'd see how shallow they really are. The best Komi can do for me is remind me how much I miss Harima, Eri and Tenma. Speaking of which, this show really needs a Harima, Eri and Tenma. Side note: I have noted that the opener openly steals School Rumbles epic pool cleaning scene so it knows what it is stealing and where. |
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Joe Mello
 Posts: 2260 Location: Online Terminal |
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I'm not that much more knowledgeable but I get the same vibe as well. It's obviously part of the Japanese consciousness (the concept of a NEET or hikkikomori have to be about 15 years old, if not before that) but cultural norms seem to prevent the normalization of getting help even more so than they do in the US. I'm not saying the US is any great shakes, but Komi could've at least had an IEP. |
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meiam
Posts: 3442 |
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I feel like the real problem with Komi isn't her anxiety (which we see she can overcome really easily in the first episode), she's just very stupid, and it makes it really uncomfortable to laugh at the situation she gets in. Like she goes to startbuck and she has to order a complex drink. She could easily write it down in advance and just pass the note to the person (something she know she can do since she just had a long written conversation with the main character despite not knowing him). But she... doesn't even think about that. It could be funny if she had an inner monologue where she'd be all haughty and think really highly of herself, but instead she look like a poor defenseless bunny and seem to be in constant state of panic. It feel like the show and character around her are just constantly punching down at her. It's really a shame cause the production value are really good and heroically trying to carry the show.
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MFrontier
Posts: 11191 |
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Komi is a bit of a spaz. |
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Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6525 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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Removed soapboxing posts and responses.
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jmaeshawn
 Posts: 170 |
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I've read up to the current chapter in the manga (chapter 333 as of the December 1, 2021 issue) and the problem isn't that the series doesn't have heart. In fact, I think the series is mostly heart, and is also helping to make the concepts of mental illnesses and gender fluidity more prevalent in the minds of people in Japan, and now abroad.
The problem is that (with the exception of Tadano Hitohito, or "Ordinary Person") the characters are so over-the-top due to their mental illnesses that they almost become comical, and that over-the-topness stands out in people's more than the message the manga is conveying. Komi and most of the rest of the cast all have some sort of mental illness, and Osana Najimi, who by their very name, is gender fluid so they can be everyone's childhood friend. |
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar  Posts: 16935 |
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She might have, been given how mean spirited and jerkish she was at first it's quite understandable why many would not want to sit around and wait for the growth. The amount of growth is also debatable. I've read through vol 6 of the manga and yes, I do admit there is growth. She doesn't always cross the line into being too mean spirited as the series progresses. That being said, she is still walking a fine line with it and she does not always stay of the safe side of the line. Furthermore her "friends" often cross it when she doesn't herself. So it's trading one abrasive character for 2 others. I can see why many might feel Komi might have more laughs then heart. I don't agree entirely with the points brought up and I would still say personally it has a fair amount of heart behind it. Maybe not as much as many might have expected, but certainly much more then Nagatoro. |
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AJ (LordNikon)
 Posts: 504 Location: Kyoto |
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This seems like a ridiculous statement for two reasons: One, saying its blank year is dated. We been using that line back in 1960s. So what? "For god's sake, you cant say that about _____, it's 1984 for crying out loud..." 
Two. This is Japan. We may be backward compared to "enlightened west" Get over yourself, America. Look at the past eight years of political elections, you guys do not seem any better. Just saying. /snark 
I am glad that I am almost eighty and will soon be dead. To think in a decade no one can joke about anything. Everything is offensive, and everything is a trigger. To think my grand kids will live in a world where knock knock jokes are offensive to the deaf, and pie gags promote violence. Get over it. |
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Animeking1108
Posts: 1244 |
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And it baffles me how people justify her behavior and victim blame Sempai. |
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Animeking1108
Posts: 1244 |
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If you can't be funny without punching down, you're a bad comedian. Also, real cool of the admin to delete my post calling out somebody who justified bullying, but not the initial post. Shows where you people stand. [Comment: if you have issues with moderation then raise them in the feedback thread. Errinundra.] |
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MFrontier
Posts: 11191 |
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I think by episode 2 and 3 it becomes clearer that Nagatoro's behavior is just her projecting because she can't be honest about her feelings and she's trying to get a rise out of Senpai so he'll stick up for himself and pay attention to her, and we see her "mask" fall apart more and more in subsequent episodes and Senpai turn the tables on her a few times. Her friends do have their moments but we also see them driving Nagatoro to defend Senpai and by the end we see them supporting her in their own way. |
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4469 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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As someone with quite severe social anxiety, I'm definitely on "Team WataMote", which started off very cringe but so was I in high school so I can easily relate to Tomoko Kuroki. (I started buying the manga after I read the "The Most Mean-Spirited Anime I Have Ever Watched" review on Kotaku and didn't actually get around to watching the anime until some time later. I think reading the manga first was the right call as I didn't have to hear Izumi Kitta being forced to act out Tomoko's most uncomfortable social interactions until I already knew how they played out.)
I haven't seen that much of Komi-San Can't Communicate yet but what I have seen of it reminds me a lot more of something like Baka and Test (sans the mini-avatar battle elements) with there being a classroom full of wacky classmates right down to the yandere girl and the "otokonoko" and I can appreciate it on a slapstick comedy level but WataMote rings more true to me as being an at least semi-realistic depiction of teenage social anxiety (while still being a comedy) where Tomoko does get some more friends eventually in the manga but it takes a while for Tomoko to warm up to her classmates and stop assuming the worst of them (and it also takes some degree of intervention by her teacher spoiler[forcing Tomoko to be a group leader during the Kyoto field trip]), and Komi-san herself reminds me more of Hitori Bocchi, where social anxiety is somewhat played up as a cute character trait, compared to Tomoko Kuroki, where it's a challenge that she is forced to overcome. |
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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Yeah, it's almost as if as time passes, humanity gradually updates its standards for acceptable behavior and interactions, so that we don't remain perpetually trapped within the increasingly outdated social framework of a bygone era, or something. Weird. I only ever read the first volume of this because I only liked the two leads; almost everyone else was either forgettable or extremely irritating, for all the reasons covered in the article. It's too bad, because it seemed like it had real potential before they started introducing the unfunny gimmick squad. Maybe I should just edit them all out of the anime. |
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AnimeFlyz
Posts: 366 |
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How would her sticking to writing the drink order down and handing it to the barista help her with her communication? Wouldn't it be more beneficial if she learned to get over her anxiety and talk to people other than Tadano? |
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StarDango
Posts: 91 |
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I actually would recommend people stick with the manga/anime and get to the point where they become second years. You could also just skip to second year in the manga, if the first year characters really bother you that much (but I wouldn’t really recommend it.)
Some fans I know (and me included) believe the friend group in Komi and Tadano’s second year is much more entertaining and more palatable than some of the first year friends. It’s also when the story really picks up and we see great character development for Komi. Of course spoiler[your opinion may vary near the end of second year. Depends on how much you like love triangles.] To put it into perspective, the characters that get more focus in second year actually feel like a real group of friends. No perverted attraction or weird fascination with Komi. They hang out with her and Tadano because they really are friends. spoiler[I genuinely miss them now that we’re in their third year and Komi and Tadano are in a different class. I’m not sure if the new third year friends will have the same chemistry yet.] |
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