Also known as “Kiss Him, Not Me”, had not planned on watching “Watashi ga Motete Dousunda”, the new fall season anime adapting the “私がモテてどうすんだ” shoujo manga by Junko. Did watch the first episode on a whim and will likely keep on watching this absurd shoujo otaku comedy throughout the season.
Although I am curious to discover if “Watashi ga Motete Dousunda” will remain enjoyable, because its core plot being built on a single gimmick makes it likely that the show could collapse in on itself once that gimmick is resolved or no longer fresh enough to carry the series.
Although it is labelled as a shoujo genre series, there is plenty of comedy and typical otaku humour in “Watashi ga Motete Dousunda”. The story centres around overweight fujoshi Kae, who despite being a closet otaku, is on good speaking terms with several of her school’s most popular guys. Unbeknown to them, Kae’s otaku tendencies are not limited to fictional characters, she freely fantasises about these real life acquaintances having bl romances as well.
When her favourite fictional character is killed off, Kae goes into shock and shuts herself in without eating for over a week. Emerging from her seclusion, she has become a slim, attractive girl and not unexpectedly all the attractive guys try to woe her, which Kae is rather oblivious to as she prefers pairing the guys together in her mind, which leads to plenty of situational humour.
My personal biggest complaint about “Watashi ga Motete Dousunda” is Kae’s incredulous transformation, it is too sudden and too extreme. She does not merely loose weight, but because the anime wants to render her as cute as possible, it turns her from a shabby, unkempt girl clad in trainers into a fashionable style icon. However, I do realise that if they would have handled it in any more serious or realistic manner, then it might have made the core story’s content even more objectionable.
Makes me wonder though if this is because I am misinterpreting what style of story “Watashi ga Motete Dousunda” is actually trying to be, is it a comedy that tries to cleverly accuse and point out how unfair and shallow most of the characters, their motivations and prejudices are? Or is it a shoujo styled comedy that actually succumbs to the very pitfalls it introduced into its own story?
Nonetheless, I’ve really enjoyed this comedy so far and Kae is a cutie, thanks to her many reactions, faces and the excellent voice work of Kobayashi Yuu (even though there was no need for her to use a different voice for Kae before and after the transformation).
I can hence recommend fans of shoujo series or romantic comedies to try “Watashi ga Motete Dousunda”.
You can watch “Watashi ga Motete Dousunda” as “Kiss Him, Not Me” on Crunchyroll.
