WATAMOTE ~No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys Fault I’m Not Popular!~ - Episode 2

For all of her foibles, even Tomoko isn't completely friendless - bleak though her high school life might be, she still has a good friend from middle school to hang out with if nothing else (although even she isn't exactly a regular part of Tomoko's life).

Having agreed to meet up for the first time since Tomoko and Yuu began their respective high school life's, our protagonist naturally frets about what she's going to tell her friend given how uneventful her life is.  Given that her grand plans to become some kind of class moe character really don't work out well at all, Tomoko is instead relegated to small fry incidents - sharing a sick bay with a boy suddenly counts as sleeping with one, and Tomoko is left thoroughly delirious by a cute picture that a boy drew of her as a portrait in art class.

Upon actually meeting Yuu however, the geeky, bespectacled girl she remembers is nothing like the beautiful young woman she finds before her at her meeting place.  Still, looks are only skin deep, and Yuu clearly hasn't changed deep down as the pair chat about anime, go to the arcade and so on.  What's more, Yuu seems to be equally frustrated as Tomoko with her high school life; the trouble is, her problems are on an entirely more normal level to Tomoko's...

Having not been particularly impressed with its opener, I have to confess that this week's WATAMOTE grew on me at least a little - its pacing felt just a little tighter, its eye for comedy a little sharper, and Tomoko just a little more like an actual person than a hideously exaggerated character.  Much of what the show delivers is very predictable, even at this early stage - it's almost like a teenage anime comedy version of Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em in that sense - but predictability isn't always a huge problem for a show of this nature, and perhaps it has a little more heart than I initially gave it credit for judging by this episode.