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Jumping from the anime to the manga

Anime Tomoko (right), manga Tomoko

It's the number one most frequently asked question in the WataMote subreddit:

  • "I have watched the anime only, where in the manga can I start?"
  • "I would like to start reading the manga. Where do I begin?"
  • "Reccomended [sic] Chapters for catching up with plot?"
  • "Finished the anime and OVA. How's the manga?"
  • "Finished the anime long time ago, wanted to go manga but don't know where to start."
  • "Finished the Anime, now where to start in the manga?"
  • "Just finished the anime, where do I start in the manga?"
  • "Want to start reading the manga after watching the anime."
  • "I have watched the anime only, where in the manga can I start?"
  • "What's next??"
The short answer, but read on anyway.

Related questions:

  • "Is the anime done? Or will there be more manga material coming out?"
  • "Should I read the manga after watching the anime?"
  • "Does either the manga or anime ever get... happier?"

Answering the last three questions first:

WataMote is an ongoing manga series published online, with a new chapter or two posted every month by Square Enix on Gangan Online. So there's new manga material coming out all the time.

If you've seen the anime, you should go ahead and read the manga if you've come to care about Kuroki. We hate to think there'll never be a season 2, but there might never be a season 2. There's always talk about WataMote's weak sales in Japan, but another obstacle rarely talked about is the fact that Tomoko's second year would be more complicated to produce, and likely a more expensive production. So if you put off reading the manga, you may never know how things turn out for Tomoko.

Finally, does Tomoko's world get...

happier?

Well, we'll tell you without giving too much away.

Yes.

Her first day back to school. No, really!

But the series doesn't lapse into happy fantasy. This ain't Lucky Star. Tomoko, more than most manga characters, has her feet planted in the real world, and happiness comes to her in fits and starts, and in ways she doesn't completely understand herself, and always mixed with the bitter and the embarrassing.

This is another reason why you want to read the manga. The last episode of the anime ended with Tomoko in the grip of a spectacular panic attack, and her maniacal laughter in the denouement offered little comfort.

We can't just abandon her like this!

So now we get to the number one question, asked so many times in so many ways.

"What's next??"

Most fans of the manga will tell you to start at the very beginning, and it's easy to understand why. However, I have a good argument for why you probably do want to skip ahead. Tomoko's first year in high school was spent in almost complete isolation, and consisted of one disappointment after another. If you watch the anime, and then read the manga that tells those same stories all over again, you are actually forcing yourself to relive the trauma before finding out how things get better.

So my suggestion is to start with the volume after the anime, catch up (it won't take long, anyway), and then go back and read the prior chapters, which will now feel richer because you know Tomoko's first year in high school was just one really bad year, and not an entire lifetime. You might also want to read the fan translation of new chapters, since it is an awful long wait between online publication, archiving the chapters in Japan, and finally hitting our shelves in English. Just be sure to buy the books when they are made available!

Basically, the anime covers the first four volumes. The fourth volume contains some material that wasn't in the anime, but it'll keep.

Volume 5 begins with Tomoko attending the graduation ceremony for the upperclassmen, and in no time flat she's starting her first day as a second year student. The cover of Volume 5, as pictured at the top of this article, features Tomoko with her brother, who is now a first year student at Makuhari, himself. Tomoki, however, has forbidden his infuriating sister from speaking to him at school. But she keeps doing it anyway.

Second year Kuroki makes a mockery of her series' title by getting her head straight. Sometimes.

Additionally, I would recommend at some point reading the prequel, No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault My Friend's Not Popular! or TomoMote, for short. These are short form comics that chronicle Tomoko's second year in middle school, when she first makes friends with Yuu-chan.

If you ever wondered why Yuu-chan cares so much for Tomoko...

The only hitch is that TomoMote is not officially available in English. Until it is licensed, you can only read it in the fan translation.

As you adjust from the anime to the manga, just be sure to understand that the manga is a more personal work. The writer-artist team of Nico Tanigawa are not the sort of manga creators who served under apprenticeships, developing a slick, pro style, but rather talented people who switched over from retail jobs. This has actually served them in breaking free from a lot of the cliches of the medium. WataMote has very few of the trappings of manga/anime that honestly have no bearing on the real world. Nobody's nose shoots blood when they see big boobs, and Tomoko never winds up with an octopus on her head when she's humiliated. Though Tomoko is a master of the human rage face, under the right circumstances, the manga team have set up some rules in order to restrain themselves from typical excesses and over-exaggeration, such as mouths falling out of their jaws, and that sort of thing (the sort of thing that actually creeps back in via the anime).

Tomoko discovers the awful truth in the anime, and in the original manga.
Tomoko's strained smile is a more realistic reaction to horror. It's a sign of tension, and also a defense mechanism. A good example that carried over into the anime is when a teacher busts her for not having her textbook. Because Tomoko is smiling and laughing nervously, the teacher demands to know if she thinks this is funny! Later in the manga, she retreats to this expression when her homeroom teacher grills her over her progress making friends.

Yes, her progress making friends. Her second year homeroom teacher noticed that she never talks to anyone, and always eats lunch alone, and won't let Tomoko alone on the subject. You'll see.

However, if I've convinced you that Tomoko's second year is worth waiting for, take the advice of the rest of the manga fans, and start with year one, Volume 1.

It all starts here.

Right away, you'll find familiar stories structured a little differently. Shorter vignettes were combined for great effect in the anime. A good example of this is Tomoko's first reunion with Yuu-chan, which in the anime is effortlessly extended with other stories, under the guise of "finding things to talk about".

So go ahead and get them all. Volume 8 comes out in late March, 2016. There will be more. Volume 9 gets released in Japan the same day, and what will be Volume 10 is already underway on Gangan Online. Some readers are calling recent chapters the funniest yet, and we're beginning to see the emergence of a sort of Alpha Tomoko who can decimate opponents psychologically without even trying.

Tomoko goes on a school trip in the latest volume, and the series gets even better.


Tomoko still has one more year of high school to go, which probably means at least two more years of comics.

Maybe by then we'll be talking about season 3. 

2 comments:

  1. This was very well put out. Watamote shall end when Tomoko has died... of bad decisions that is

    ReplyDelete