Title: No Matter How I Look at it, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular Vol. 7
Author: Nico Tanigawa
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 144
Genre: Slice of Life, Comedy
Publication Date: May 19, 2015
The Story
Volume seven of Watamote centers around Tomoko’s second summer break as a high school student. Yuu and Komiyama make plans such as going bug catching, going to the beach and going to summer Comiket. Before she can start summer break though, Tomoko has to babysit her cousin Kii.
The Kii arc was probably the best one of the volume. Kii wrote a letter to a magazine stating that she had an older cousin who didn’t have a boyfriend. The magazine told her to give her a makeover. When Tomoko came to visit, Kii dressed her up and lead her around to a spot where people are likely to hook up. Tomoko never gets approached by anyone so it ends up in failure. The best part was that Kii was treating Tomoko in the same sense as a pet dog and Tomoko couldn’t help but make the comparison. After that, Kii ends up teaching Tomoko how to ride a bike. It excites Tomoko so much that she tries to peddle her way home, but after 20 km, her butt got sore and she ended up calling her mom to pick her up anyway.
As for the summer break, it was a typical fare that wasn’t really all that interesting. The only part where I laughed was the bug catching story where Tomoko assumed that Komiyama was used to living with cockroaches so she would be fine catching bugs with her bare hands. Going to a polluted beach infested with red stingrays near the industrial section was kind of grim, but with this being Watamote, the setting actually fit. Yuu got a bit upset because it wasn’t exactly the kind of scenario she had envisioned. After Comiket, they went to a proper beach and left Tomoko buried in the sand while they had to ditch perverts from hitting on them
Characters
There wasn’t really much development, per se, but they are really building up the whole Tomoko/Komiyama love/hate relationship. It’s like the two of them can’t stand each other, but at the same time, they tolerate each other because they would just end up alone on summer break if they didn’t. It’s a nice chemistry that works and makes their encounters interesting. It actually reminds me of my friends as we get along great despite the fact that we insult each other on a daily basis!
Kii has developed her own personality. It’s great to see Tomoko try and play the role of the one who asserts dominance over those younger than her only to have Kii end up being the one in the big sister role. Heck, Kii even had to teach Tomoko how to apply perfume because she had no idea how to do it herself.
Final Thoughts
Even though I’m sure it’s not going to last, I really enjoyed Tomoko’s newfound attitude. It seems her
I’d have to say that out of all of the volumes, this one was the least interesting. While there was some good comedy in here, it was filled with the usual tropes that you would find in almost any manga/anime story. I didn’t feel like there was enough personal development with the characters, but at least we did establish the love/hate relationship between Tomoko and Komiyama.
Am I the only one getting annoyed with Tomoki? He doesn’t really serve a purpose in this series at all. He’s just that angry little brother that shows up from time to time just to kick Tomoko out of his room or tell her to shut up. Beyond that, his involvement with the series is pretty moot. If there is anyone who is in some dire need of development, it’s him. It’s gotten to the point where every time I see Tomoki on a page, I can already predict what is going to happen or be said. That’s not a good thing because it just makes things predictable and stale. Hopefully that will change in future volumes.
With summer break over, Tomoko will be entering her third year in high school. Hopefully things will pick up and something big will happen with Tomoko before she graduates!
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