[New][April 2018] Wotaku: Koi wa Muzukashii

Rathian! That's a Rathian! He's hunting a Rathian!
I got the reference!
*quiet mental squee*

Last Seen: Episode 2

Summary: Narumi Momose makes a sudden job change, when the secret she was trying to keep gets discovered: that she's an Otaku, specifically a Yaoi(AKA Boy's Love) fangirl. At her new company, she bumps into someone she was friends with in middle school, Hirotaka Nifuji: An unabashed Gamer Otaku, who immediately blows the secret she swore she was going to keep this time, by asking if she's going to Comiket, right in front of two of her coworkers!

First Impression: Expected pure gags, got a surprisingly grounded romcom.

My Opinion: This was a surprise. I was giving it a shot mostly because it was in a list of 'anime you should watch this season' and it wasn't an outright reject. Once I started it up, I really enjoyed it, the humors on point, but...there's just one problem. In case the massive amount of weeb'anese in the summary I wrote up there didn't give it away, this show is basically founded on the idea that the people watching either are otaku themselves, or are familiar enough with them from watching anime to get all the jokes. It seems like all of the humor for this one is based on getting all of the in-jokes the characters are throwing at each other from otaku culture.

For point of reference: I kept getting hitched on all of the shots they were showing of Hirotaka playing his game...monster hunter. Which I immediately identified by the sounds, before they even showed it on screen for the first time, since I've been up to the roots of my hair deep, in Monster Hunter World which just recently released.

Specifically I kept eyeballing all of the monsters he was fighting to see if I recognized them, or if they were monsters only in the old Monster Hunter games, because that's what the cuts are, actual footage of an older copy of monster hunter! I just found that so ridiculously charming...which then immediately had me wondering if maybe I shouldn't be slightly concerned with how much it felt like I was looking in a mirror...

Well in short, that's the feeling I get from this one. If you're familiar with Otaku culture, one way or the other, this show's worth your time to check out. The comedy isn't over the top ridiculous, and the 'romance/drama' is all...rather level headed and mature, like the show's actually taking that part of itself seriously. The Otaku part always seems to be cracking a joke, but whenever they flip the coin, things aren't serious business serious, but much more level-headed than I'm used to expecting from this kind of setup. It's all very refreshing after the recent frog march of low-tier stuff like 'Another World Smartphone' and 'Black Clover' that have come out recently. Stuff that feels like it's hot off the clone stamp machine, y'know? Nothing particularly original about them.

No recommendation just yet, this one didn't have me in stitches like Hinamatsuri did, but that could just be a matter of time. "I can't understand what my Husband is saying" was the last time a setup like this was great in my opinion, and it took a few episodes for that show to grow on me too. (that may have just been the short-show format though, if I'm completely honest).