Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku

## Season 1

### Soundtrack

While the overall soundtrack of Wotakoi is just fine, albeit with some nice tracks here and there, where it really shines are in the opening and ending. Wotakoi's opening song is one of the best opening songs out there. Paired with the animation, it just makes this anime a classic. It's so iconic. What an incredible opening. I will definitely be adding it to my playlist.

Even though the ending song isn't as good as the opening, it's still a solid track. Perhaps both songs are a product of their time, maybe, but they sound just as relevant today. Amazing.

### Thoughts

Wotakoi is an office adult romcom about the romantic and social life of otakus. It sets out to portray a somewhat accurate version of the reality of otakus and it does that perfectly. While it may lack emotional depth, it makes up for it in the form of interesting characterization. I truly felt the realness of each character. It's like they could exist in real life and act the exact same way. To put it into one word: believable.

The overall plot of Wotakoi isn't as essential to the story as most other romance animes. The entire season could be boiled down to Hirotaka becoming closer to Narumi. Though that may be true, I still feel like the way their relationship develops is quite interesting. It's really nice to see at the start that Hirotaka and Narumi just continue their childhood friendship where it left off. It felt so maturely natural when the two of them just suddenly decided to start a romantic relationship. Every kiss, hand-hold, and hug after that was met by me with a satisfied and unsurprised reaction.

My only gripe Wotakoi is that the characters are relatively shallow. Yes, it's true that this show does a really great job in portraying the various kinds of otakus, but when you remove the otaku from the characters, on their own they're quite boring. They're almost two-dimensional, in a way. Like, there's a bubbly character, then a loner, then a ballsy one, then finally a brash one. The characters really rely on their otaku-ness. While that's completely fine, they really could've been better written Other than that, I also just don't like the depth that the show gets into regarding backstories. I feel like a lot of scenes are just about relationship and character development.

To me, the best part of this anime is the depiction of otakus. Yeah, it's incredibly realistic how the otakus in this anime act. They just seem like real people you can talk to. More than that, the relationships between the characters are so mature and professional while still keeping the fun that anime has. It's genuinely incredible.

Overall, Wotakoi is an incredibly fun anime that belongs on a TV channel. It's not emotionally driven, but it's relationship-driven. While there are some emotional moments, the reason most people would stay and watch this anime is for the main 2 relationships. They really are quite fun. It's a 8/10 Mid-Mid anime, no higher no lower.