I think I already said it in the past, I had promised to read other manga from NT with the purpose of understand what it made Watamote to outstand above them.
As I had read Choku! of beforehand, I put there again interesting elements which I found there.
The another NT's manga which I read was Number Girl, if I had to describe it, for the moment, I'd say it's the most 'moe' work made by them, and as in Choku!, I also found interesting elements.
The joke of bar hostess girl didn't stop only with Tomoko.
I know it's not strange mangakas have the trend of making similar characters in different work of them, but I couldn't my eyes apart when I noticed the doppelganger versions of Nemo and Akane, a possible Mako/Wada, and is that a toddler Ucchi?
A less uncoincidentally event, but there is also the purikura.
And maybe this one was used like reference (well, that depends whether that chapter was published before or not) for chapter 135, the make up disaster.
And maybe I'm just over-seeing things, but that alien from fantasy looks kinda similar to certain well known plushie in Watamote.
I'm not sure if this information is useful to this wiki, but I wanted to share it with you.
Now going with "Write Sisters", unless there are other chapters which have not been translated, I'd say it's the biggest NT's failure in their career as authors, in view it had only 8 chapters and the las one doesn't show any 'end'.
Regarding story, it can be noticed elements shared with Watamote, such as cringe seen in first chapters, as well as meta-references to otaku culture. However, it feels like if metaverse of series goes out from boundary of 'realism', like if this were losing any factor of credibility in certain moments, and that I'm saying while having knowledge Choku! and Number Girl manage with even more unrealistic moments, yeah, I know, I myself don't know how explain I'm talking about, though of course, that is just my conclusion with basis in my reading.
And in what concerns to elements, this time I couldn't find so many of those, lets see, Watamote wasn't first series in making reference to One Piece, the well known place where Tomoko and Yuri went to practice table tennis, and I recognize it sounds too ambiguous and risky to assert it, but it seems like if those background students are wearing the school uniform of Haramaku.
PS. By looking the appearance of those two protagonist of Write Sisters, I'm kinda curious about how the things would be if Tomoko and Asuka were sisters.
And finishing with "Kuzu to Megane to Bungaku Shoujo (Nise)", I'd say that together with Choku, it was one of Nico Tanigawa's series with more potential (not counting Watamote of course, that series is in another league).
With regard to elements, the set is quite ambiguous. However, I'll post what I found.
Taking borrowed dad's gloves, by similar way than the happened with Tomoko's dad glasses.
In more one occasion, I found comments about a recycled idea concerning lo looking at someone less attractive for calming him/herself down (reference to Aoyama University), now I know what they were talking about.
Watamote wasn't the first NT's series in managing the No-Disneyland trip trope.
Bad actions aren't exclusive from Tomoko, and taking dad's credit card without permission for the buying of inappropriate +18 content seems like a common issue in middle school.
In a more lasting extension, the gag of Another is used once more, though this time is focused mainly in the book, instead of Anime, I mean, it's almost like an entire arc talking about that novel.
Because jokes about what it sees underneath skirts are never enough.
Once I've listed the different interesting elements which I managed to find in other Nico Tanigawa's manga, I'm going to post my ranking of these ones with basis in what I interpreted at reading them.
Choku!: The first manga published by Nico Tanigawa, it could be said it's the Watamote's elder sibling, and among all other NT's works, I'd say it's the one with more potential, it can be noticed authors were experiencing with their characters, there are cringe humor with extravagant elements which almost touch into the surrealist mood and sometimes something very sadist, the protagonists are interesting and it's fun their interactions, and there are also misunderstandings which accumulate until moment of big catharsis, this manga is the closest what NT has made regarding developing a romantic story (by their very peculiar way), which I appreciate a lot. If there is something which I'd consider a fail in this series, it's the fact the male protagonist frequently doesn't have pants to make front to the girl when situation gets more awkward, literal and figurative talking (You'll understand by reading it). It's a shame Choku! didn't keep on, I'd like to have seen a real conclusion of relationship between its protagonists.
Kuzu to Megane to Bungaku Shoujo (Nise): The last one manga made in parallel with Watamote by authors, and which ended up with an open finale, in view this one got cancelled due its low sales, more than one in 4chan blamed Watamote because of that. If there is something which I have to give thanks to this series, it's this gave leadership to male characters (one thing which its lacking in Watamote is still frustrating for me). One can find there cringe, misunderstandings, and references to novels, being the latter one an important argumentative pivot in story; one can notice a slight character development in characters as one goes reading the manga. However, I'd say there are two main fails, the 4koma format in it definitively doesn't help to course of story, because this does it feel paced, and that goes strongly linked with the other issue, around 70% of story is set in school library, and when it isn't so, characters spends big part of time reading novels, I know literature is a main aspect of this series, but it does the same feels claustrophobic, if in Watamote this aspect is a slight problem, in Kuzu to Megane to Bungaku Shoujo (Nise), not even in Watamote characters spend a big part of talking about either manga or anime; and in a lesser aspect, whereas characters aren't necessary hateable, they lack of enough desirability for you to care about them. For concluding, Kuzu to Megane to Bungaku Shoujo (Nise) finished where it seemed an important twist for story, which it's a shame because in case of not having been cancelled, this could have given to it a new breath of fresh air.
Number Girl: Among all mangas from this list, this manages the most fanciful setting. I said it already in the past, all the mangas created by Nico Tanigawa exist in a same Universe, except for this one, that unless it's set in a far future where the Number Girls are actually modified clones made from Tomoko's cells, though I can't imagine why scientists would use Tomoko's DNA for that purpose, ok no, I'm branching off from core subject. Talking about plot, this is filled with cringe, misunderstandings, and a little of philosophy in story, I myself must admit I laughed more by reading Number Girl than with other 3 mangas from this ranking, at difference of Kuzu to Megane to Bungaku Shoujo (Nise) where the 4koma format played against of it, with Number Girl, this isn't a problem, maybe it helps the fact characters is constantly changing of location. However, it holds a big problem which I couldn't look away my sight, series manage a big amount of characters, and this causes not all of them have the enough screen-time for developing them the enough (a similar problem shared by Watamote), and given the fact of what it says in its premise, this is counterproductive, it's like reading a manga about Emoji Gang, where only two of them outstand, and the other three are little more than background characters, and even so, the outstanding two are memorable just because of either a change in their appearance or a gag built in past chapters, that is like I felt Number Girl, perhaps with more duration, that problem could have been corrected.
Write Sisters: Probably the one with the most premature end. Charged with the proper Nico Tanigawa's cringe humor and references to otaku environment. Although I consider its premise a pretty interesting one, as well as how this could be developing itself, the elements involved around this manga, as well as the cause-effect relation feels quite implausible and unrealistic, and that the events which happen in Choku! and Number Girl are way more extravagant and out of place, in some way I feel the plot of Write Sisters is quite unbelievable like as for that I can buy it; and it's pretty clear series was cancelled instead of having at least an open finale. Who knows, if series would have lasted a little more, perhaps this could have been more outstanding.
I must put clear this listing, I did it with basis in my observations and my likings, it isn't absolute truth, though you're free to debate it.
Hi. I just wrote up a wordy update on Shizuku's page, showing that chapters 157 and 158 show a developing but real and stable senpai/kouhai relationship between Tomoko and her.
If you would put up whatever seems appropriate, I'd appreciate it. I'm very tired and inert, and you can put it in a sharper form:
Evidence of a continuing and stable senpai/kouhai relationship between Tomoko and Shizuku appears in Ch. 157. Tomoko, who is just beginning her suspension, has remembered that she was going to have lunch with Shizuku and gives her a call to let her know. Yuri, who finds Shizuku alone at lunch, tells her that Tomoko has been suspended and Shizuku tells her that her senpai informed her of that. This bemuses Yuri, who feels out of the loop.
In Chapter 158, before the 157 incident, while looking out a window, Tomoko sees Shizuku walking by and realizes she needs to call and tell her they won’t be having lunch.
These things suggest that since Tomoko took a leap of faith and comforted Shizuku as Megumi comforted her, she has taken her senpai responsibilities seriously, a huge change from when she first assumed the role because she wanted to use Shizuku for her own purposes.
I did link it to the NicoTanigawa article. I started skimming it because the intervieweres were silly and Nico clearly does not want to give away a lot of information about himself or the series. He does admit changes, but what series does not develop.
I do not see why it would be. Unless he sat down and mapped out a 200+ chapter series, his characters will develop as they will. It is not as if he wanted 200+ of constant and increasing cringe until Tomoko was either arrested, committed suicide, destroyed the school, or joined a J-Pop group but then suddenly thought, "well, what if she went to Disney World?"
I don't know, but in context the term "boastful" as applied to Yoshida in Ch. 158 sounds like "bold" or gutsy", "boastful" in the sense of ready to rumble.
This is my usual blind guess based upon nonexistent Japanese.
Unfortunately, your comment did not "alert" the Recent Activity for some reason so I missed it. I just replied.
Thanks for that, I will check it out and add it to his section. I am busy translating all of those Relationship Charts since they are quite interesting. I am putting them with their respective volumes since . . . why not?
I was wondering about the translation of the "Rumor" section of the ch. 156 narrative summary.
Describing Akari's thoughts:
"Akari starts to calmly reply while wondering if she should respond that it is fine since she is her best friend."
I'm not really sure what this means. I was also wondering about whether you disagree with World Three in their interpretation. They rendered that sentence as Akari wondering whether if she punched Sayaka, Sayaka would forgive her since they are friends.
In this translation, World Free is VERY loose, adding words and intepretations.
With Akari, she does not, in anyway, in any interpretation, says "punch."
She says what is in the summary. I rendered it literally. She says: 親友だしグーでいってもいいかな. This is "Because she is my best friend is it also good (should I) say 'good?'" In other words, Akari is getting pissed, but given her attempt to tolerate her friend who always supports her crush on Tomoki, she is trying to let it pass since she is her "best friend." Akari does not appear to be the type to punch anyone. She does not punch Sayaka when she rants to her about moving on from saying she wanted to see Tomoki's dick in their classroom.
They do a better job than I do, and faster, but there are a lot of loose to mistranslations that miss the point:
Miss Fūka thinking Tomoko says "dick."
Miss what Miyazaki recalls what Uchi said: this is important since Uchi asks Miyazaki if she and Tomoko are together without finishing the sentence. Miyazaki thought that Uchi was asking if they were "friends." With the montage, Miyazaki is starting to wonder what Uchi meant which is probably why she wants to find out what Tomoko has been saying about Uchi.
Suspended?: wrong word. Heck, there is no indication that Ogino had Tomoko suspended for the Searching for Dick Incident.
However, they figured out that when Tomoko seems to literally thank Asuka for giving her "sexual harassment to study hard" Tomoko probably means that Asuka interpreting a "non-sexual harassment" move like touching her hair--though do not try that at work!--as touching "down there"--has given her the energy to study harder given her explanation that touching Yū helped her when she was fatigued.
I don't really understand what Akari meant in its literal sense, though.
I read a lot of Japanese stuff and am stunned by some of the divergence over the "literal" sense. Sometimes I wonder whether it isn't infinitely more tonal and associative than English is.
It is since it is so "different" from the languages that we get English from. Translation is always interpretation, whatever language one translates into another. I find appeals to "literal translation" hilarious since you cannot do that with most particularly since sentence structures can be completely different. You get a mess. The phrase "dream a dream" in English comes from the Hebrew practice of combining the verb form with the noun form of the relevant root to describe an activity to give an example.
She is basically saying that since Sayaka is her best friend she guesses that it is best for her to just tell her "it is fine" rather than explode over Sayaka's accusations regarding her "needs" with regards to dicks!
Japanese is not tonal as in stress and accent changing meaning. Length of vowels can do that. The idioms are different and require interpretation and that you cannot always get from bloody textbooks--though I have one on "dirty Japanese" from long ago that explains what "Butter Dogs" are!
As with my comment on origins of language, unlike French or Spanish when one finds words that come from the same origins, you do not get that with Japanese. Every word is "different" including loan words since they pronounce them the way they want and meanings change over time.
Where I do object to World Free is when they change the meaning. From the previous chapter, the Auther included the censored Japanese rendering of "fuck" for a specific reason. Tomoko is trying to sound "cool" and "delinquent" and "speak Masaki's language" and all of that. It comes out as rude as it is suppose to be. Like the Late Great R. Lee Ermy saying to Pvt. Joker, "I like you! Hell, you can come over and fuck my sister!"
Rendering it as "have your way with my brother" just . . . well . . . we completely miss what Tomoko is doing. Further, Masaki does not react as Tomoko would expect, but I do not think Tomoko has fully grasped how uncomfortable Masaki is with sex. Hilarious given the NEXT chapter! Anyways, does Masaki finally "put two and two together" and figure out the "Punk" she flirted with is Tomoko's brother, given she heard he is a brother of one of her friends?
But . . .
Many chapters ago, Kii asks Tomoko what she likes, and Tomoko responds, "I like rape!"
Then I realized she meant "rap music." 😰
Made for an "interesting" interpretation of the scene between the two in Tomoko's room!
They have to take the time to clean away the Japanese and then fit in the English. I am glad they are usually able to provide a translation in two or three days.
I'm grateful to them as well. They usually move at staggering speed. This is a really important chapter, so I'm glad they're not.
I wasn't criticizing them. As a matter of fact, I don't know how they do what they do. Other than Mieru, how many people are there in the team? Not many.
For better or worse, I think this chapter represents a major turning point, toward what I do not know. But some central questions that have been obscured by a lot of gentleness in the previous chapters are emerging in force.
W3 just put their scanlation up and I read through it. I get the feeling your translation is more on-target in general, but I don't know a damned thing.
As they often do, they softened it... Tomoko's savage "bitch" stuff isn't there and Yuri's last statement is more discouraging than discouraged.
Here's what I'm wondering:
1. In your translation as written on the ch. 154 page, you have Kato telling Tomoko that "It's good we won first place." I figured her saying this might indicate that she's an airhead. In the W3 version, it's "It's good we won third place", as was the case. Did the original text have "first" and the W3 version have it corrected to "third"?
2. In the restaurant at the end, W3 has it that Tomoko is pissed off at Yuri for doing "difference games" (supposedly what she's working on) rather than about Yuri's talking about people's differences. Was there a slip, here? Something doesn't square.
3. In the W3 version, Yuri doesn't say "I don't care", but "I don't care either way." The difference kind of colors the ending. The first can sound like being discouraged, the second like being discouraging. Did W3 add the equivocation?
It seems to me that the tension with Yuri was that Tomoko was trying to snap into an encouraging group scenario where she could cope quietly with her self-doubt, that Yuri kept acting against that through negative perspectives and inappropriate actions, like -- the old Tomoko.
So Yuri's "win" at the end was that she succeeded in bringing down the level of group interaction.
1. That was a typographical error I just happened to recognize before reading this.
2. That was a difficult translation for me since I did not know the game. I looked at two others and what she is doing is noticing the differences in the pictures.
3. That is not what she says, I included the Japanese. I guess someone can argue "either way," but I think Yuri is doing with they all do: extending a bit then retracting. She wants to have friends but because of Wall of Text trust issues, she does not want to admit it, just as Tomoko knows Yuri will not recommend that Yuri played table tennis to play with her.
This was a very important chapter regarding Tomoko, Yuri, and the extent to which a loner should contribute to the well-being of a group. I just wish it hadn't felt a bit ambiguous to me. But it's miraculous how much clarity emerges.
World Three seems to be very loose, but the quick "fantranslation" on reddit, which tends to be very literal, mistakes "Mako" for "Tomoko" which makes no sense since it would imply that Tomoko should know that Yuri plays those games.
What is interesting--and I will add it as a memorable moment--is Yuri does listen to Futaki. She invites her to join her after hearing how Futaki preferred individual sports. We do not know much about Futaki; she does not seem a "loner" given she has male friends, but she certainly did not seem to interact with any of them other than that one time in the calvary . . . cavalry game. So it indicates a willingness of Yuri to interact. This is probably, I think, the first time she invited a "stranger" to join her in something.
I am creating the "Template" for the next chapter! Have fun adding to it! Should be done in a few minutes!
Between the relative intimacy of the "arcade/game center" chapter and the quiet alienation of this one, there is clearly some tension in Yuri and Tomoko's relationship. But it's true that she's opened herself up to Futaki and she was actually interacting with others in terms of that last game.
I think the "problem" is they are both "works in progress." We all look back and see the progress Tomoko has made: She has friends! She even seems to care about the feelings of others! However, it took awhile, and she sometimes retracts to form. Case in point: she has not shed her judgmental superior nature. Her calling Futaki weird--and she is weird!--is a bit "Pot calling the Kettle 'black!'" Tomoko still fits people into categories based on her ignorant prejudices.
I did not expand on it, but notice how she misses Katō's point on table tennis: Tomoko just assumes that Katō thinks it is beneath her. Of course, we see her make a different argument to Fūka. Part of Tomoko's problem relating to people is she still struggles to get to know them without judging them as I suspect she thinks people judge her. Hence her belief that those other students will "shit talk me" when she leaves the Not McDonalds.
Same with Yuri. She is like a prarie dog slowly peeking her head out, then pulling back in. Which is why I think her "I don't care" is so "funny." I am sure fans will deem her "tsundere"--"Not that I care, BAKA!" and all of that. She is just slowly, slowly, slowly steping out.
Another funny thing: Tomoko sort of accuses her of retreating into a shell by playing that game while everyone is talking. Futaki is saying something that makes sense. So Yuri reverses it by inviting Futaki to play.
The "Cry for Help" does seem to apply to WataMote in that a lot of characters seems to expect things to happen and/or others to pull them out of their shells:
1. Tomoko sort of expected to just "be popular" and live "the fantasy" she never could create.
2. Yuri expects friends to jump hurdles to pull her out of her shell.
3. Uchi, if I read her correctly, wants Tomoko to explain what she is feeling.
so I think Yuri does lay it out there, and "while she won't admit it," she hopes Tomoko, Katō, and the rest will continue to invite her in.