The Days of Whine and Moes. Have you met Ms. Yukino? (meditating on WataMote)

tomokololi

Oh, WataMote. Mokocchi (Tomoko) suffers from not being recognized. Yes, loneliness. Isolation. People don’t talk to you. There is no person to hit off at school. Totally transparent. That’s the same feeling that Sakakibara Seito the chuuni (8th grade murderer) talked about, and that word Toumei-na-jibun “透明な自分 (transparent self)” resonated in our heart. That psychological feeling, that was the exact word that described and reflected our youth’s state of mind, just like Eva captured the tormented Japanese young heart at that time, like Goethe’s Werther in the 18th century Europe. And I believe Mokocchi’s heart is totally like that, she feels herself as “transparent self.” You scream, “I’m here!” like Ceily from Color Purple, but no one recognize you, I know that feeling. So she failed “high school debut.” While her best friend from middle school, Yuu, successfully made high school debut, and even made a first boyfriend, which was totally shocking to Mokocchi the incel.

Solitude and sorrow (koi) = saudade.
Solitude and sorrow (koi) = saudade.

Of course, the opposite sex, if you’re straight, will be the other that you can’t reach. Mokocchi wants to be touched. And I also want to be touched. Or I also want to touch them. Yes, mutual touch, oh yes, skinship. Just an accidental touch with a girl will make you horny. If you hug girls a lot, then it would be nothing. Just a little accidental bump will be nothing. But for kimo-ota like me, with skinshipless life, when you get changes at Starbucks, you accidentally touch a cute cashier’s hand, and that’s already awesome. “Darn, I just touched her hand! What am I going to do?” Then, after you go home, you don’t wash your hand, but think about her again, eroticize that scene, a power of imagination, then you use that unwashed hand to have indirect skinship. Yes, indirect sex with her. Yes, you use that as okazu!

I also had that same feeling with Mokocchi, she is also a transparent being like I am in this capitalism world. Unproductive, unmarketable, low wage, hard to make ends meet. Louise from Hayate says, “Hataraitara makekana? (働いたら負けかな?”If we work, we lose, don’t we?”)” Workers are losers in capitalism. If you are transparent in the market, you starve to death. So, got to be visible in the market. When I read the passage from the Bible, the scene that Jesus throws out capitalist pigs from the temple, I feel excited. That’s totally pandering to our ressentiment, and you wait someday that the messiah will come and overthrow capitalism. I had the same high hope for Obama. But seems the system never gonna change, oh yes, Obamacare, nullification of DADT and DOMA, and all that, but I want America to be fundamentally changed. That’s what I want in the 3D world.

ikemen

Yes, this longing for messiah is also a longing for romantic/sexual partner. The Platonic philosopher king, or an amante. Inferiority complex makes us extremely susceptible to romantic feeling. The more you feel inferior, the more you want romance. Yes, when the whole nation is depressed, there would be a charismatic messiah figure like Obama, but if personally depressed, then a sexual partner, or a cult leader. It’s the same, idol-worship. Welcome to NHK, that girl Misaki was from a cult group and also a potential sexual partner that we fantasize. So, I fall in love at first sight really easily, just some random cute chick at Starbucks or MacDonalds will be my romantic fantasy (okazu). Why? Because she is the only girl that has a broad welcoming smile. Ordinary girls don’t smile like that to me. I know Starbucks employees are well trained to smile at customers, I know that very well, it’s a kind of million dollar smile that Obama puts on in front of the camera. But still, I can’t help but feel very happy looking at that smile. And also, because I feel lonely all the time. Yes, loneliness (孤) and sadness (悲), that is koi (孤悲) or saudade in Brazilian, and that creates the want for romance. Yes, Sakamoto Maya sings in Escaflowne that if we fall in love, we will get lonely. No, no, no, it’s the other way around, we feel lonely, that’s why we fall in love or seek savior.

So, I have a question for Mokocchi. “Have you met Mr. Jones?” She doesn’t have someone particular in mind? She doesn’t ever fall in love? With that psychology, we look for messiah or lover. That longing and yearning. Yes, she must be a choroine (choroi “too easy to fall in love” + heroine). So, during 2008 right after the Lehman shock, America turned into a nation of choroine (John McCain’s economist called it “nation of whiners,” similar to Hideaki Anno’s “nation of children”). Basically choroines elected the first black president of USA. So, they were the one made the history. See, being a choroine is not always a bad thing. So, Mokocchi as a whiner has a power to create something historic. Anyway, not particular person in her mind? Any crush? Because without a particular person, each episode is probably going to be the same. The plot doesn’t develop but stays dull. Like Tora san’s madonna, no Fabio will show up in each episode of WataMote? The story will clearly stagnate.

Where is her Fabio?
Where is her Fabio?

Because from my experience, without some particular person in mind, you never take action. It stays the same. Her hikikomori/bocchi status quo. Because you fall in love, you feel something may change. I would have been living in Japan now if I didn’t fall in love. Yes, because you fall in love, you get fired up and make a romantic confession to a girl. Then, get rejected, and then move to other country. I want to see Mokochi actually fall in love, confess, rejected, and then move to other country, yes, like Korea to chase Korean boybands, or anywhere abroad. So, I’m just saying that without a potential sexual character in anime, WataMote will be the same, no development of story, thus I may eventually lose interest watching it.

Yes, a romantic crush makes you take bold actions. Either way, to confess and accepted-happy ending, or rejected and move to other community-BAD ending. In my case, I moved to America. I wish I had moved to Brazil or Spanish-speaking South America since I didn’t realize America was the most obese nation on earth until I moved here (now Mexico is No.1 obese country in the world). I prefer slender girls, but not as skinny as Japanese girls, but fairly voluptuous like Latin chicks. But anyway, yes, because I felt I was repudiated by the entire community, I moved to the States. The same with President, when he got turned down in high school, he felt the entire community rejected him. Call me paranoid, but the President was also paranoid in his teen years, so my logical thinking is justified, and so is Mokocchi’s, so she should run for office. The first fujoshi prime minister of Japan. “The community once rejected you now elected you as the leader of the community.” Yes, even Jesus got rejected by his home town he grew up in, but now, billions of people worship him. So yes, a great person is always rejected by his own town. Then, move out, got fame, and come back, and then everyone bows down to you, makes them admit that they were wrong about you!

But anyway, that Ko-hi (solitude-sorrow), more melancholy than romance. Yes, saudade or sehnsucht, that is the feeling of Koi originally. So, it’s very bossanovatic. Mokocchi has that ko-hi, so she is ready to fall in love. I’m waiting who that person will be.

Takao sings, “Have you met Miss Yukino?”

Or she can meet a ikemen salaryman reciting tanka at gazebo. So, during rainy days, she should be skipping schools at gazebo, not in her own room playing eroge on DS. And then like that Sinatra song, “Have you met Miss Jones?” To Takao, “Have you met Ms. Yukino?” Yes, that beautiful career woman from The Garden of Words. That moved the story of The Garden Of Words. Yes, she needs a crush. That way, Mokocchi can sing, “Have you met Mr. Jones?” instead of singing, “The Days of Whine and Moes.” Yes, we moe pigs are whiners, whining about reality (3D), and have moe on 2D characters, that’s our version of “The Days of Wine And Roses.

So, what I want from WataMote is romantic/sexual objectification of a real person by Mokocchi. That will move the entire story forward.

euphoric

Author: Monsieur LaMoe

A refugee from Japan. Live in NAFTA. Get hooked on Moe. Moe is opium? Twitter: @MonsieurLamoe

2 thoughts on “The Days of Whine and Moes. Have you met Ms. Yukino? (meditating on WataMote)

  1. I wish the author of the manga was reading this, but then she (or he?) might just play with our minds with regards to Mokocchi’s love.

    Too bad Mokocchi can’t do her brother. ;P

    1. LOL, Yosuga no sora? If more innocent, then that would be Wata-Oto (Watashi no otouto ga konna-ni ikemen-na wake ga nai). 私の弟がこんなにイケメンなわけがない!”My little brother can’t be this ikemen!” The opposite of Ore-Imo. The author of WataMote is a duo of male writer and female manga-ka, and that unit is called “Tanigawa Nico.”

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