Genres: comedy, romance, slice of life Themes: dark personality, Hikkikomori, Otaku Objectionable content: Mild Plot Summary: Tomoko Kuroki is about as socially dysfunctional as it is possible for a first year high school girl to be. We start the story when she realizes she has attended high school for three months without even talking to anyone at all. Not all is lost, however, since she is irrepressibly optimistic about her chances to turn it around and live a fulfilling high school life. Number of episodes: 12 Vintage: 2013-07-08 to 2013-09-23
The title of this show is definitely in the running for “most awkward English translation of the year”. I hope that Sentai will have something a lot less awkward for their physical media release of this title.
Though seeing “You Guys’” in a title causes what few rules and guidelines of grammar they bothered to teach me in public school to writhe…no matter how I look at it
My god, this series is just awesome!
Wasn’t sure what to expect with this one, but man it sucked me right in and is just funny as hell.
Especially Tomoko’s random faces and nihilistic internal dialog about others around her.
I give this kudos just for the OP. Can’t wait for the OST. As for the eps., I like what I’m seeing so far. Hopefully, they start showing Tomoko actually begin breaking her chains/growing/etc.. If it’s just gonna be the same thing for all 12 eps., then…
A guy actually shows her some kindness by buying her a new umbrella and she sleeps through it.
Not realizing it’s a new umbrella and not her old umbrella mysteriously fixed.
Poor Tomoko is so delusional and starved for attention, she actually even tried to get molested on the train.
And she actually did too! Though it was by a stray naginata.
That actually made even me go “WTF!” in an unconfortable way, but it was nice to see she actually wasn’t comfortable with the thought of molestation when she thought it was happening.
So we get another look at how delusional Tomoko really is when she starts her inner monologue twinged with a feeling a sense of pride and superority over her classmates that she’s going to try and become a cabaret girl.
So she takes a trip to the red light district, only to find it scares the hell out of her and she runs away. Though her mother calling her worried about her, at just the right time made it somewhat better for her mental state.
I’m thoroughly enjoying Tomoko’s inner monologues. I think she’s just painfully shy and that makes her seem strange. I can relate! LOL Too bad dating sims aren’t real life. I also think Tomoko did a little too much research on increasing her “cuteness” factor. And trying to practice conversation with her brother was just as bad. Tomoko is also a little perverted – probably picked that up from those dating sims. LOL But even her pervertedness makes me laugh. Although she congratulates herself on each one, her imagined “normal” interactions are pretty sad. And then everything backfires at the restaurant when she runs into classmates, and then her brother and his friends. It was nice of her brother to find her afterwards. Poor Tomoko is just a sad, lonely girl.
Why on Earth is Tomoko listening to a “Yandere Boys’ Verbal Abuse CD” and why does she find it so amazing? LOL
When her middle school friend, Yuu, asks Tomoko to meet her, Tomoko decides she has a week to live a fulfilling high school life that she can tell her geeky friend about. I wonder how she’s going to pull that off! Of course it doesn’t work and she worries about what she’s going to talk to Yuu about. Does resting in the nurse’s office with a boy in the next bed over count as sleeping with a guy in the middle of the day? LOL Tomoko is just so delusional! But now she has something to tell Yuu!
Her comment about the baseball team was hysterical too. But now it’s Friday and she doesn’t have much to tell Yuu. I had to laugh about Tomoko’s fantasy where she replenishes her mana. And I couldn’t stop laughing when Tomoko tries to get back to her interrupted fantasy, but she’s in too much pain and swears she will remain a virgin forever!
Then she has to make up an art assignment – with a boy! He finishes her portrait really quickly and leaves before Tomoko even starts hers. She draws the guy from memory to complete the assignment, but gets curious about the picture the boy drew of her. Tomoko is really impressed by it and asks the teacher if she can copy it. For some reason, she thinks the boy likes her and now I am curious about this picture.
The day of meeting Yuu finally arrives and Tomoko is nervous. But the Yuu that meets her is not the plain, geeky girl that was her friend in school. This girl is gorgeous! She even smells good and Tomoko is freaking out. Yuu tells Tomoko that she hasn’t changed and Tomoko tells Yuu that she’s changed “a little”. Yuu explains that all the girls in her school get done up so she got contacts. But that doesn’t explain the rest of her! But when they start to talk, Tomoko realizes that she’s the same Yuu. Funny that Tomoko is so lively and animated with Yuu, yet she can’t talk to anyone in her class that way.
They spend the day at the arcade and have a nice day together. It looks like Tomoko is actually starting to feel better about herself too. At the end of the day, the girls plan to see each other again and say good bye. But before Yuu leaves, Tomoko confesses how awful her high school life is and promises to keep trying. She tells Yuu to do her best too and Yuu tells her that she had been depressed over a fight with her boyfriend. That bursts Tomoko’s bubble and throws her right back into her usual depression! And she runs back into the arms of her “Yandere Boys’ Verbal Abuse CD” for comfort. LOL
And I finally got to see her portrait. It was really cute. I was expecting something more Picasso-ish. The artist, Hatsushiba, is in the manga club and it’s noted that all his background characters have the same face – Tomoko’s portrait. He tells a fellow club member that it’s the face he can draw the fastest. I wonder how Tomoko would feel if she found out that her portrait is just some generic face. She just seems so happy about that picture!
Oh, those rainy, windy days! Loved Tomoko’s hair and it was that funny she didn’t even notice it herself. But it was kind of sad when she forgot her book and couldn’t even bring herself to ask the boy next to her to share his. Sadder still that she tries to make herself invisible and of course, the teacher notices both her and her missing book. The teacher makes her stand up and humiliates her before telling her to share her neighbor’s book. The way she is, I don’t know how she even made it through the class.
Then going home, she realizes that her umbrella was stolen and it’s still pouring rain. It’s weird that Tomoko can speak so strongly in her mind, but she hardly squeaks in the presence of others. It’s hard to be so painfully shy. After her tirade, she sees her umbrella in the other stand and acts as if nothing happened. LOL And she gets scolded on the way home too. It just isn’t her day when her umbrella also breaks. She ends up taking shelter and then has to share it with two guys. She tries to make conversation, but naturally, it backfires. The picture after that was closer to the one I was thinking of when her portrait was drawn.
It was funny when the boys brought her an umbrella and she wakes up to find it next to her. Then she feels guilty about stealing it and wishes that a boy would be nice to her for once. If only she had been awake! At least she finally made it home. Back at school, she isn’t picked for a team during gym, so she has one of her fantasies instead. I really enjoy these! But in the end, nothing goes right for her. She can’t even catch a cold right!
Well, the advice Tomoko gets online for having sex dreams only gave her nightmares. But that’s just her typical luck. Then she ends up falling asleep during her test and gets the dream she wants. Loved the look on the teacher’s face. LOL
At lunchtime, Tomoko overhears a conversation about girls getting molested on the train. She begins to fantasize about that. But when she thinks it’s happening for real, it scares her, and she berates herself for ever having wished for it. Tomoko panics even more when she can’t get away. But it turns out that she wasn’t being molested at all and I’m not sure if she was relieved or a bit disappointed.
Another fantasy and Tomoko decides that cute panties may be her salvation in getting to be popular. I liked her phone call to Yuu! LOL Yuu takes Tomoko to a lingerie store and Tomoko goes into a frenzy. Too many choices! Starting to feel embarrassed, she has Yuu pick out something for her. She buys the panties, but decides that she can’t let her family find out about them. Then she ends up losing them, only to pull them out of her pocket at school. Once again, I loved the teacher’s reaction. Tomoko thought she was waving around a handkerchief. Embarrassed again, she ends up tearing the panties to shreds.
Sure, something like that embarrasses her, but buying that game doesn’t? And to top it off she wins a massager. I cracked up as she walked down the street, massager in one hand and sexy game in the other. She thinks if anyone sees her, they may get the wrong idea. Hasn’t the girl ever heard of a bag? She could at least put the stuff in her school bag.
That night in her room, she plays her new game and massages her neck. Tomoko starts getting sleepy and falls asleep. Her father brings a cake home and knocks on Tomoko’s door to ask her if she wants any. Getting no response, he enters the room and sees what is on her TV. And his darling daughter is passed out on the floor with the massager and a very happy smile plastered on her face. After a long hesitation, he just puts Tomoko to bed. Too funny!
Tomoko decides that she’s lacking a character setting and I can only imagine what she intends to do about it. She also thinks “silent and expressionless” is the way to go, but hasn’t she been doing that already? She may be a “silent, cool, cute girl”, but it was sad to see her begin to cry in the classroom.
I can’t believe what Tomoko did to that cappuccino! That whole thing really backfired. Back in her room, it looks like she’s reading “Servant x Service”. LOL Then Tomoko decides “to be a girl of many expressions and a cute smile”. I wonder how she’ll pull that off. The pictures came out pretty bad, but at least Tomoko found a good use for them! I think her brother would really love to kill her. LOL
Watching a TV show gives Tomoko another idea – a cabaret club girl. She kind of looked like an arsonist, sitting in the park like that. Practicing with her brother didn’t work well either, although she believes that she has perfected her skills. I think that’s the first time she’s actually had a sincere smile in class too.
A late night trip to the red light district has Tomoko checking out the clubs. When someone begins to approach her, she’s scared, but she ends up getting ignored. As she looks around some more, Tomoko realizes that it’s nothing like her fantasy and she really doesn’t belong here. She flees in terror back to the main street. And comes face to face with the robots from the robot café! LOL Just when she’s feeling her worst, a call from her mother comforts her a bit. This girl really tries too hard! But I do want to see her succeed.
