Title: No Matter How I Look at it, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular Vol. 9
Author: Nico Tanigawa
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 144
Genre: Slice of Life, Comedy
Publication Date: November 22, 2016
The Story
In volume nine of Watamote, the class trip is over and everyone returns to school. While Tamura still remains friendly with Tomoko, Yoshida lets it be known that she was only tolerating her because of the school trip and even goes as far as to hit her with her bag. So much for my theory on them being friends after the trip. The volume deals with Tomoko returning back to her ordinary, dull life; however, she notices that more people than usual are talking to her at school… even if it’s just for a simple greeting as they pass each other by.
Tamura does invite Tomoko to lunch, which was a pretty nice turn of events; however, Tomoko blows it by mentioning pornographic topics and completely freaking them out. She even tries to impress them by explaining she burned her finger by lighting a cigarette and how she’s a heavy smoker, which backfires as usual. Sooner or later, the manga arrives at the sports festival where Tomoko is sent on a scavenger hunt for a hot guy. Knowing only one, she turns to her brother for help who, like usual, wants nothing to do with her. He goes and asks a friend from the soccer club to tag along with Tomoko until they finish the race, which actually makes a lot of the other students jealous of her!
Characters
There really wasn’t much character development in this volume. This volume of Watamote was all about simmering things down from the school trip arc and while Tamura did continue to try and be friends with Tomoko, Yoshida made her position known clear as day. Komiyama and Tomoko had another exchange between the two of them that makes you wonder how these two are still considered “friends?”
Outside of that, we are introduced to Akari Iguchi. She was the girl who came to visit Tomoki when he was sick several volumes ago. She runs into Kuriyama and mistakes her for Tomoko. Kuriyama takes this opportunity to destroy her competition and tells her that Tomoki only likes older girls. Then, Akari ends up seeing the real Tomoko in the hallway interacting with Tomoki and gets the wrong idea that Tomoki really likes older women, thus crushing her hopes and dreams.
Final Thoughts
There wasn’t as much progress as I had hoped there would be in this volume of Watamote. Sure, Tomoko is getting talked to a bit more and having someone from the soccer team assist her in the sports festival did earn her some cool points, but it doesn’t seem to be helping the situation at all. In fact, this volume felt like filler more than anything. There was barely any character development, but all the while, it was still a nice break from the big story arc that we just came off of.
I think the best part was the final day of the school trip with Tomoko was sharing a room with Ucchi. Ucchi had inadvertently walked into the bathroom when Tomoko was trimming her pubes and after realizing it was her, Tomoko decided to get some dirt on her in case she said anything to any of the other students. She peeked in on Ucchi when she was taking a shower, making a comparison between her pubes and her own. She accidentally spilled Ucchi’s luggage and to avoid getting caught, hid one of her panties under her blanket. When Tomoko was taking a shower, Ucchi found them and got the wrong idea. She then even went as far as to stare at Ucchi while she was sleeping. Now, every time Ucchi sees Tomoko, she gets completely creeped out. It’s amazing!
Now that things have finished simmering down, we’re off to volume ten to see if it will pick up! Still a great series, nevertheless!
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