Recap: With Summer vacation quickly approaching, Tomoko desperately searches for someone to watch fireworks with. She tries a few… unconventional methods of snaring a companion with varying degrees of success.

Jel’s Thoughts: I think WataMote is at its satirical best when it pulls back the curtain on Tomoko’s delusions, especially when they allow her a little glimpse of how things really are. There were good examples of that this week, like when we hear the other students talking about how they also don’t have fireworks plans or when Tomoko starts to question, even if momentarily, whether her clearly misguided logic is healthy. Coupled with Tomoko fueling her issues with a fake Japanese version of Cosmo, its becoming clearer why you can still empathize with her ridiculous, cartoonish character. It’s true her poor decisions are the cause of all her horribly awkward and uncomfortable situations. But at the same time you still feel like she’s trying, still putting up a fight against what society says she needs to be happy without knowing how exactly to do that.

The most satisfying moments though are what I keep calling “reverse karma”: the scenes where Tomoko receives some kind of reward or punishment for her actions that she didn’t expect or even necessarily deserve. This episode ended with a somewhat weird (and creepy if you think too hard about it) reward as Tomoko somehow ends up with some company for the fireworks. I actually thought it was a pretty sweet and appropriately awkward way to stay on message though. Most of the episode was spent showing society convincing Tomoko she needed to have a romantic or sexual relationship to be happy, but really she could still have a good time if she’d just poke her head out of her shell every once in awhile.

After the tasteless rape jokes in episode 4 and last week’s underwhelming antics, this week’s episode of WataMote felt like the series was firing on all cylinders again. This show is so much better when they give us even the slightest glimmer of hope for Tomoko, and that’s really all I’m asking for. Next week appears to be the Summer vacation episode, so hopefully we’ll get more great satire and sweet revelatory moments for Tomoko instead of the more mundane skits we’ve seen previously… and if we’re really lucky, maybe more cat sex.

Zigg’s Thoughts: I’m going to go against Jel and say that I don’t really feel this episode did much to pep up my feelings about the show. Yes, it’s better than last week’s one and there are some pretty decent jokes here, but I still feel we’re largely treading water.

My key issue remains the fact that there’s so little actual interaction to come by. Being trapped inside Tomoko’s head befits the character, but it’s not a fun or interesting way to tell the story, and I’m feeling I’m  drifting away from her simply because of how deep down the rabbit hole she is. Increasingly I feel the need for an ‘anchor’ character to pull her kicking and screaming into reality. I do feel as the series has gone on there’s been less and less actual human ellement to it and it’s retreated into crazed set pieces and sex jokes.

That’s one of the reasons I found the ending of this episode frustrating. I absolutely could have dug Tomoko hanging out with a couple of middle-schoolers to watch the fireworks – it would have struck the exact lame-but-still-sort-of-charming tone I feel the show is capable of, and demonstrated to Tomoko it’s not necessarily about a sexy date but the joy of experiencing something alongside people. As it is they sacrifice a chance for pathos for a cheap sex joke, which, while admittedly funny, sort of felt like squandered potential. The best comedies have both laughs and heart, and I feel Watamote is still a little light on the first and increasingly unconcerned with the second.