by Whitney Grace
Staff Writer
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Quite a long title for a manga, isn’t it? The title is equally as long in Japanese and fans have taken to calling it by the shorthand WataMoto. It is about Tomoko Kuroki, a shy and socially awkward girl in her first year of high school. She had the notion she would be popular once she entered in high school, because she is an expert at dating sims. Digital experience rarely transfers to real life and Tomoko can barely speak to her classmates, much less get a boyfriend.
Anyone who has lived on the outskirts of the social spectrum or was trying to find themselves during the high school years will with identify with Tomoko. Her story is told via constant internal monologue as she deliberates her actions, curses her classmates, and struggles to make even the most basic communication with her fellow humans. Tomoko is a character to empathize with because of her social awkwardness, but at the same time there are situations where you have to dislike her. She is unmotivated to do her own chores and spends all of her time playing videogames. Yet that is a standard formula for most teenagers.
Reading through her daily struggles, one cannot help make comments about how Tomoko can change herself to gain a semblance of popularity. Ideas include tailoring her uniform to actually fit, cutting and styling her hair, and joining an extracurricular activity. You have to remember it is easier to make these observations when no having to deal with high school social horrors anymore. As quickly as the time is over, people tend to wipe it from their minds and forget about the hardships they had to endure.
Nico Tanigawa captures the essence of the awkward teenage years by having Tomoko appear grungy, moon-eyed, and at contrast with her surroundings. The other characters are the typical manga fair and Tomoko feels like she could have come from an entirely different manga, better to emphasis her internal conflict. The art is not going to keep the people coming back, though, it’s the story.
WataMoto is a new type of manga. It is categorized as a shonen (it was originally published in a magazine that has multi-demographic appeal), but if it has to be categorized it should be called real life shojo. Manga fans will know that genre doesn’t exist, but shojo comics are about romance and super heroines, hardly touching on deep issues. WatoMoto is truly how adolescence is for many teenage girls (boys as well) with some creative liberties of course.
