Title: No Matter How I Look at it, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular Vol. 17
Author: Nico Tanigawa
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 144
Genre: Slice of Life, Comedy
Publication Date: December 15, 2020
The Story
Volume seventeen of Watamote carries with it the theme of summer… well… at least for the majority of the volume. It starts off with Kuroki and Yoshida’s suspension coming to an end. They are forced to meet with the principal along with their parents to reflect on what they did. Kuroki is pretty surprised to see just how smoothly it went. She kind of gave a “said nothing” reflection on riding a motorcycle to school and they bought it without giving any sort of feedback! (Wish I had it that easy back in high school!)
After that, everyone got together in order to celebrate their suspension coming to an end. Emoji girl (aka Ucchi) tried her best to apologize to Kuroki for calling her creepy but it doesn’t exactly stick. She still thinks she’s creepy and tries her best to explain her way out of it… saying something that the world “unreal” can mean different things. No one is buying it though!
After that, it is time to make wishes for Tanabata! There was a bit of a touching moment with Shizuku and Kuroki; however, as part of the running gag with Ucchi, she wished for creepy people to increase their creepiness! Also, in another joke that continued on from the last volume (and this one), Fuuka wished that she could touch Asuka’s hair.
Now the summer part of the manga beings. Kuroki decides that she’s going to go to prep school which gets some of the others interested. She tries to stave off having a good time during her summer break in order to study; however, in doing so, she ends up gaining a lot of “Dinfo” (read it to find out what it is!!)
In addition to studying, they revisit her going to Tomoki’s baseball game and her cheering him on. Seems like typical slice-of-life antics with the volume ending a little bit of a precarious situation involving Tomoki and a naked Yoshida in the shower. (They were cleaning up after getting caught in a downpour).
Overall, with the exception of the “Dinfo” moment, this series seems to have made its transition from a raunchy comedy about the misfortunes of Tomoko Kuroki to a slice-of-life story about a girl who now has a bunch of friends. It’s like night and day compared to the beginning of the series and I’m kind of on the fence about how I feel about that. I know that stories evolve and change over time and there is only so much you can do with raunchy humor but I kind of think that Watamote has begun to lose its identity. I loved it when Kuroki tried too hard to fit in and ended up getting embarrassed every step of the way. Now, she just seems… normal. While it’s something I always felt would happen, now that it has… I’m not sure if I like it.
Characters
I, honestly, cannot think of anything that stands out in the way of character development here outside of the wish scene with Shizuku. She wished that she could get closer with her senpai (Kuroki) and shortly after, Kuroki ended up calling her by her first name. That made Shizuku really happy and it was kind of a touching moment.
Plus, Ucchi is kind of developing into this unintentionally sassy character. She has it in her head that Kuroki is creepy and even though she doesn’t mean to call her that, she keeps doing it over and over again. It’s getting to the point where she, herself, is realizing that creepy might be a metaphor for something else! Especially when they decide to go to training camp and she wants in on the trip as soon as she remembers what it was like sleeping next to Kuroki on their class trip from a few volumes back.
Closet yuri tendencies anyone?
Final Thoughts
I won’t lie… without the raunchy humor that this series became known for, these volumes are getting slower and slower-paced. It’s kind of a yin/yang feeling with me now because on the one hand, I don’t really know how to feel about the direction the manga has taken in the past few volumes but at the same time, I’m also happy because when Kuroki was all alone, I wished that she could come to make some friends in due time.
I just thought that maybe there would have been a better balance here and that the series wouldn’t go completely slice-of-life but it seems that it has. Sometimes a shift in focus can make or break a series but I’m just not sure which one of those paths it will take right now. As long as it keeps putting in that raunchy humor, I think we’ll be fine. In fact, maybe once high school is over and everyone heads off to college, things will revert back to the way they were when every friend Kuroki made goes to a different school?
I’m sure a few might go with her to the same college but still… that would be pretty interesting and a nice way to bring things back around full circle. I guess we will have to wait and see.
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This item was provided for review by Yen Press.
