Category: Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii

Certainly a better episode than the last but I think I have come to an understanding about this show. I don’t think the comedy will work on me quite as well as the manga did. For example, that running joke about Narumi not being able to remember the colour of her panties when she was going to Hirotaka’s apartment had me chuckling while reading the manga. But here I was mostly stone faced as they did it despite the actual events being pretty much the same as the manga. It could be that I simply knew the joke was coming and what it was building to so it wasn’t funny anymore. However I think there may be another factor, one that I can’t quite pin down. While watching I just have this general vague feeling that while the presentation of the is show is serviceable, it feels rather routine. This show doesn’t require a massive animation budget but here it seems we only meet the bare minimum and there is a lot of reliance on still reaction shots. The direction as well just feels uninspired with it following the manga panels and any other content being bland shots with no life to them. People just feel a bit too stiff in this to me and I think they could take notes from KyoAni in how to make characters feel alive with minor actions.

Still while the humor of this show isn’t quite catching me, I find it a relaxing show to chill out to. Really these characters just have great communication and exchanges. Narumi and Hirotaka know each other back to front so they are always on the same wavelength. The only time they seem awkward is when it comes to romance which both of them have trouble incorporating into their previous friendship. Hirotaka doesn’t quite know how to approach Hiromi ending up with is more aggressive moves being too abrupt and not suiting the mood. It certainly was amusing that he invited Narumi over just to play games while Narumi was mentally preparing herself to go all the way. Certainly there is a disconnect between them when it comes to romance as Narumi seems more experienced while Hirotaka seems less and thus he takes things slow while Narumi expects more. Oddly the other couple of the series has the opposite problem, where in romance they seem to get along swimmingly while fighting like cats and dogs when it comes to anything outside of that.

I don’t think I could understand just how someone could put that much work into something like Doujin though. I already struggle with updating this blog and having a job so the idea of taking on making Doujinshi seems ludicrous to me. I got anime and videos game the get through damn it! But man Hirotaka was the ultimate wingman on this and coming through on his promise to help her with it. Again outside of romance these two seem made for each other as each supports the others lacking areas. Though Hirotaka’s denseness did help him not notice that a guy selling BL manga gave quite the wrong impression to people. This episode does show the mangas age as we got people playing Mariokart on the Wii which is rather odd as they did show that Hirotaka owns a switch. Huh. Also Hiro’s stashing his porn at work cause he knew they might search the place was quite clever but what makes it quite odd is that he seems prefers big breasted women and he’s dating Narumi. In the same way that Narumi declared that Hiro wasn’t her type it seems that she isn’t his either. Yet they date despite that. Made all the stranger when the other couple seems to be both their types. I guess you could say that when it comes to love, personal preference isn’t really a factor and I suppose what attracts these two isn’t their looks but the actual personality behind them. Which is rather romantic when you think about it.

After a strong first episode I come back to this show and find a rather middling second episode. There is some good content here, namely the Evangelion references, one of which was butchered by the crunchyroll translators.(Narumi and Hanako were arguing over who was best girl in Evangelion with notes over their head about whose team they were on. The order being Narumi on team Rei, Hanako on Team Asuka, Taro on team Mari and Hirotaka picking Unit 01 as best girl) But the anime original scenes which were a boon to the first episode have become rather problematic. Case in point, this episode starts with three minutes of Hirotaka waking up, going to the kitchen to play games, attempt to make coffee, realize he’s out of coffee and travels to work sleep deprived.

That scene was too long and while I can certainly relate to going to work sleep deprived due to late night gaming, nothing happens here. It’s more or less filler and I don’t understand why they are dragging out the runtime like this. It could be due to the short number of chapters that they are attempting to pad out the runtime which could be quite problematic. Seeing scenes of characters talking their preferences in manga and whatnot is fine as I enjoy the interaction but it more the other scenes that feel supplementary that bug me. The actual scenes from the manga where pretty good, I got a chuckle out of Hirotaka saying to Narumi that he shouldn’t have told her that he liked her only to realize that he didn’t actually tell her that when asking her out.

I do still quite enjoy the banter though at times it was trying a little too hard for comedy. The animation seems to have gotten rather bare as well and while a show like this doesn’t necessarily need godly animation, it is good for the subtle motion which give these characters life. What this episode basically established is that the other two coworkers also happen to be going out and are big otaku’s as well. Rather coincidental for them all to meet at the same workplace while happening to work in the same room but hey I will bite. Again the general scenes were fine but it felt there were too many moments of nothing happening on screen. I enjoy the characters enough for this episode to be fine instead of boring but going forward we need more content in here. At least so I have something to actually talk about on these episode reviews.