WataMote Chapter 230-1

Linkypoos and Proofreading to be done.

Chapter 230-1
Information
Volume Number	27
Chapter Title	Because I'm not popular, it's each stage (First Part)
Published	February 5, 2025
Previous Chapter	Chapter 229
Next Chapter	Chapter 230-2

私がモテないのはどう考えてもお前らが悪い!

Watashi ga Motenai no wa dō Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui!

No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys' Fault I’m Not Popular!

Synopsis

This is a multipart chapter divided into titled parts. The cover depicts Yuri standing in front of a projector screen staring out at the reader. In the foreground, Akane appears to talk seriously with Shiki. The narration reads, "I'm inside my world. . . ."

Stage Greeting (舞台挨拶・butai aisatsu)

The room sign reads "3 – 5." Inside, Yuri appears on the screen looking back at the audience. The audience consists of various Anonymous Chans 'n Kuns along with Hina, Yuri, and Mako in the back, and Akane, Masaki, and Megumi sitting in front of them. The next panel views Yuri from behind. As there is some laughter, she inwardly admits that it is a little funny, and she wishes Tomoko was here. She continues to watch between the smiling Mako and Hina. She continues to think that it is a shame for it to end this way: "For Tomoko's sake . . . and for me. . . ." With a focus on her eye, she addresses Akane. Akane emits an "E?!" and appears surprised to be addressed by Yuri. She asks what is wrong, and Yuri replies, "After the movie's ended. . . ."

The next panel depicts Hina and Yuri standing together in front of the class. Yuri holds a microphone. From her perspective, Mako in the audience inwardly marvels, "There?! Yuri" Yuri closes her eyes, exhales, then starts to speak: ". . . eh, for watching our film thank you very much." Viewed from behind, Yuri continues to note that the film has been uploaded to YouTube and asks them to watch and like it again and to spread the word on social media.

Mako sits stunned over Yuri advertising to everyone: "This Yuri. . .?!" She imagines Yuri's "Resting Bitch Nonplussed Face" as she mentally lists:

• Selfish
• Kid
• Passive
• Egoist

Shown: Yuri Blushing Uncomfortably
Also Shown: "You are Welcome!"

As students applaud, Hina looks over at Yuri who is blushing uncomfortably and emits a small sigh. She takes the microphone and brightly asks if "Tamura-san" has an episode from filming. Yuri looks at her. The next panel takes the perspective behind them. Yuri curtly replies that she does not. Inwardly, she fumes, "Come to think of it, I had a bad feeling about this when you came next to me without asking." Hina enthusiastically insists that there were a lot. With a view of their superior posteriors skirts, Yuri inwardly confesses that she was still that she did accompany her. The next panel views them from the front. As Hina talks, Yuri continues to muse that with one question from Nemoto-san, this has turned out to be like a stage greeting from a boring idol for a boring movie based on a manga. She is interrupted by Hina asking her what was her favorite scene. Yuri reacts with some surprise and inwardly screams, "Are you still going on?! It's bordering on harassment!!" She suspects Hina is holding a grudge over what happened yesterday. She recalls her conversation with Hina where she told her, "The most unfunny in the world, Nemo. Worthless."

Shown: Sparkly Hina-Chan!!

However, she notices Hina is looking at her with a bright anticipatory smile and animesque sparkles. As a chibi, Yuri silently fumes. The next panel resumes depiction from the two from behind. She inwardly admits that that is not the case, and she has no sense. Nevertheless, she turns sharply as she concludes that since she has promoted the movie, she is done. However, her feet stop as she thinks, ". . . wait." The next panel focuses on her face, which has a look of confusion, while Hina similarly looks back at her in the background. She thinks that if she really loves movies, if she thinks about their movie, then perhaps this is not a good idea.

The next panel pulls back to show Yuri paused and looking slightly down. Behind her, Hina watches in silence while she holds the microphone. Yuri concludes, "At this moment, because we made this movie together, I understand. Those actors called it a stage greeting, but it was just a boring inside talk. . . . To that, there was a meaning, now I understand."

Yuri turns to Hina, smiles pleasantly, then answers that on her day off, in the early morning, she played baseball on the field, it felt like I was filming a movie, which was fun. She continues to muse that by talking like this here, they hope to continue to share some fun times together and leave a lasting memory for everyone. Beaming, Hina declares she understands. Hina continues, to her surprise, to explain that it was a baseball scene, but no one knew the rules, so it was a bit of a mess: "A dead ball's a strike": "Well, in the movie also it's a mess." Yuri starts to laugh. The next panel focuses on her face as she closes one eye and appears to cough. Hina looks at her with some concern and asks if she is okay. Still smiling, Yuri replies that she is, then explains, she choked a bit because she could not handle it.

Blushing slightly, Hina happily continues to note that the movie is about "this kind of youth," then asks what "this kind of youth" means to "Tamura-san." Yuri starts to reply, "No, you say it so suddenly even . . . " but then in a panel that demands to be in the Gallery, she pleasantly continues her chat with Hina before the anonymously-drawn student audience.

Still with a pleasant smile, and with bleached eyes, Yuri muses, "Maybe the memory of this moment will be gone forever."

Awakening (覚醒・kakusei)

Not Shown: Yū-chan
Also Not Shown: An Emoji

There is a view of the artificial festival gate with the school buildings seen through it. The walls have cubicles filled with stuffed stars, bears, and soccer balls. Tomoko, who is apparently prone, hears "Mokocchi." Seen in the reflection of her eye, a girl with blond hair is peering closely into her face. Tomoko asks, ". . . Yū-chan?" The next panel reveals she is lying on a bench, with her head on someone's lap. There are three other girls standing around her. "Everyone. . . ?" she asks. The next panel depicts the costumed character giving a balloon to a happy little girl. Concerned Chibi Yū asks if she is okay. Frazzled Chibi Tomoko responds, "yeah . . . I think I was dreaming a bit." From her eye, she sees Mitsuki sweating as she explains, "No, that's an exaggeration! It was just a light push from the top of the costume!" Kiko and Asuka regard her with their Perpetual Pleasant Smiles. Tomoko thinks, "That scum is making my eyes blurry. . . ." The next panel looks down on Tomoko, and Tomoko starts to say, "I'm getting sleepy . . . let's hear Yū-chan's voice. . . . "

However the girl looking into her face is not "Yū-chan"; with her Natural Face[Tm – Ed.], Emiri screams, "Disgusting!" This elicits an "E?!" from Tomoko. As Emiri grows hysterical with a More Natural Face[Pat. Pend. – Ed.], Tomoko inwardly wonders, "Yū-chan. . . ?" Looking hurt, Emiri screams, "disgusting," then "creepy!!" Tomoko continues to wonder, "What is this? A dream about Yū-chan insulting me. . . ?!

The next panel depicts a sheepish Tomoko trying to mutter "A-," as Emiri leans down with her Irritated and Jealous Face® and continues to scream, "DISGUSTING!!" Yū-chan, whose lap Tomoko's head rests upon, watches shocked.

"I Support Lot● and Want to Lick His Eyeballs" (ロッ●を応援してて眼球を舐めたい・Rot●wo ōenshite te gankyū wo nametai)

"Come! Play with Us! FOREVER!"

A surprised Hikari holds a wrapped treat with Kotomi behind her. She thanks Miho: "About yesterday . . . that . . . thank you. This." Miho insists that this was fun too. Next to her, Fuka similarly smiles. Miho then turns to present a wrapped treat to Kotomi. Addressing her as "Glasses-Chan," Miho, happily, expresses the wish she had confessed properly and not with a "gag (キャグ・kyagu)." "Gag?" Kotomi repeats. Happy Chibi Miho enthuses, "Hey. you told Kuro-chan's little brother to call you 'big brother.' Chibi Kotomi emits an "Aa-"

She then explains that she really wanted to express her feelings, but the sudden appearance of the Lotte cheering song got her excited. This was "sublimated" into sexual desire (性欲・seiyoku), and she blurted out her sexual desire.

Still beaming, with a shocked Fūka next to her, Miho emits an "E?" and repeats, "sexual desire." The duo recover with pleasant silent smiles. Fūka muses that, as expected, as part of the "Kuroki Team," she is no ordinary person. Miho muses, happily, that, sorry to "Kuro-chan," if "Glasses-chan" and "Little Brother-kun" were to date, it would be crazy. Hikari startles and thinks that these two have done a lot to be on "Koto and my side," but if she does not do something they will pull away: "Koto has to make up for this with a normal episode." She turns to Kotomi and remarks, "Koto, in spite of all this, roots for the Chiba Lotte, right." Miho enthuses that it was the same with yesterday's song and during the study camp.

A panel repeats as a silent pause.

Then Hikari adds, "Koto loves Tomoki-kun and wants to lick his eyeballs, right."

A deeply blushing and horrified Kotomi demands, "WAIT!! Itō-san what? How'd you know that?"

A Somewhat Shocked Chibi Miho marvels, "A virginal girl's embarrassment, but the content's disgusting. . . ."

Characters

In order of appearance

• Yuri Tamura
• Akane Okada
• Shiki Futaki
• Yoshinori Kiyota
• Mako Tanaka
• Hina Nemoto
• Masaki Yoshida
• Megumi Imae
• Tomoko Kuroki
• Yū Naruse
• Asuka Katō
• Kiko Satozaki
• Emiri Uchi
• Mitsuki Wakui
• Kotomi Komiyama
• Hikari Itō
• Fūka Sasaki
• Miho Narita
• Tomoki Kuroki (Mentioned)

Referbacks

• "The Bitch is Still Back!" Stone-Cold Sober Stuporous as a Matter of Fact!: In Chapter 226-3, Tomoko took without permission the dog costume, donned it, then felt free to fool around.
• "Let it Go!" The Ice Princess Melts: Work with WataMote Wiki here. Yuri inwardly appreciates Hina being with her in front of the class. Small steps.
• "Judas is watching over you!": in Chapter 227, Megumi met up with the delinquent gang, once there, Masaki splitted from the group and took her to the class 3-5 to watch the movie and see if she could meet with Tomoko. Without knowing it, Mako watched those two from distance while conversing. It's now known that Mako followed Masaki and Megumi to class 3-5.
• "How known can a school movie be?": it was revealed in Chapter 224-3 how "A Youth Like This" was uploaded by the student council which wasn't taked as a big deal initially, but later in that same night during Chapter 225, it was revealed how it already had 7,219 views, and in the next day, it passed from 12,364 to 12,572 views in Chapter 226-2. Who knows how much Yuri's advertisement will affect in the views.
• "Revenge or chūnibyō fantasy": in Chapter 224-3, Hina suggested to perform an audio commentary for the movie where both her, Tomoko and Yuri commented about the production of it. At the end in the real deal, Nemo too advantage of the situation of Yuri stepping up on stage and dragged her to do the mentioned performance at expense of Yuri's embarrassment.
• "Let it Go!" The Ice Princess Melts: Work with WataMote Wiki here. Yuri inwardly appreciates Hina being with her in front of the class and even admits she was wrong about some of her judgments. Small steps. Hina stepping in to provide support to Yuri is similar to her inviting herself over Yuri's home so Yuri would not have to spend the night alone with Kiko in Chapter 225.
• "Revenge, revenge everywhere!": Yuri believes initially that Hina could be revenging on her by performing audio commentary for her dissing such a suggestion in Chapter 224-3.
• "A baseball game to remember": in Chapter 209-1, Tomoko gathered and coordinated her friends and classmates from both her and other classes to perform the baseball game scene that was shot for the movie.
• "Say that thing to the judge, Mitsuki Wakui": after seeing Megumi in Chapter 226-3, Tomoko hugged her while being dressed in dog's costume, something that Mitsuki couldn't bear and led her to punch her seriously, in Chapter 227, Mitsuki undermined her action and argued with no hesitation that Tomoko was only exaggerating her reaction. Later in chapter Chapter 229, when Yū entered Haramaku, Tomoko ran to embrace her without taking notice of her surrounding, and again Mitsuki punched her; however, this time the hit was so serious she fell unconscious. Now, with Tomoko aided in Yū's thighs, Mitsuki again tries to undermine situation and arguing that she was just giving a light push over Kigurimi, but unlike the last time, Mitsuki looks nervous while excusing herself to ones angry-staring Asuka and Kiko.
• "Different incident, same expression": when Tomoko was receiving makeup by Asuka in Volume 14 Omake, she was showing a lewd expressiong that Emiri who watched from outside of the classroom called gross. This time, because of still recovering from Mitsuki's punch and mistaking up Emiri with Yū, Tomoko believed that Yū called her gross over and over and showed the same lewd expression.
• "Being a crazy weirdo is not a gag, Miho": in Chapter 222-3, after Kotomi almost caused a fight at schoolyard with Masaki and Hina and this one was calmed after Hikari, Fūka and Miho played Chiba Lotte's theme, Kotomi asked Tomoki to call her 'Big Brother'.
• "We're not friends!!": it's not been few times along the series that people have assumed Tomoko and Kotomi are friends, as seen at cafeteria in Chapter 133, or when Kiko met her in Chapter 133 and she assumed Kotomi was one of Tomoko's best friends, or Miho in Chapter 209-2 when talking about Tomoki.
• "Komi-san, always creeping out": during one of her videochat study sessions in Chapter 143, Kotomi commented how she wanted to lick the circles under Tomoki's eyes, something that pitifully, Hikari ended up hearing through the screen.
• "You're Just Another Face that I Know from the TV Show!": With reference to her character page, Emiri takes on a number of caricature faces, with her "Emoji" face being her classic and often resting bitch face. Others include her Temper Tantrum and River in Egypt Faces.™ She reveals her Natural Face, thus far, in moments of stress. These include when she realizes Tomoko gave her key chain to others, sees Tomoko holding onto Miyazaki on a train, at the Study Camp she realizes that Tomoko recalls the "virginity test" that appeared on television when they shared the hotel room at the end of the Kyōto trip. The Volume 18 Special Edition includes the first color drawing of Emiri with her natural face, and the official art of WataGirls™ in bridal gowns for the 2022 Comiket presents her with a normal face. Both are still stylized. The important point is, like this chapter's very detailed depictions, Emiri "gains" her Natural Face when she is emotionally stressed. Does this mean her resting Emoji Face is a façade? She has always had it even when a middle-school student. Stay tuned! "I can see another face!"
• Will Light Dawn on Marbleheads?: Emiri is the one on stage, and she quite literally reveals herself to Tomoko and others. She is upset that Tomoko would mistake her for Yū, but even she admits that Yū looks like her. Yū at least heard Emiri's screams of "FEELS GOOD!" during Gropegate II: Electric Boogaloo. Will Tomoko, Asuka, Kiko, or Yū finally figure "it" out? Perhaps Mitsuki will will blurt out, "hey! This girl really likes this creepy girl! I read about it in a manga!" Stay tuned!

Trivia

• Kidney Punches: have long been illegal in boxing and are illegal in mixed martial arts due to the risks of severe injury.

Memorable Moments

• ". . . it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.": While the each of the three principle characters, Yuri, Emiri, and Kotomi, "take the stage," they reveal themselves. "O, for a Muse of Fire!"
• "That Her Face, at First Just Ghostly, Turned a Whiter Shade of Pale!": Emiri reveals her face in not one, but two full panels! These are also the most detailed and realistic depictions thus far.
• "I'll suffer the public embarrassment in Tomoko's behalf!": for someone like Yuri Tamura who generally acts like nothing cares to her, the fact that after noticing how audience acted in a good way to class 3-5's movie, and knowing Tomoko was not there to withness it, it's a great advance in her character she willingly stepped up on stage and talked in front of public to advertise the movie, all for Tomoko's sake.
• "Betrayers don't know mirrors": even if Mako's assessment on Yuri's personality is technically right, it's interesting and sad at the same time that after all seen about her so far, Mako still has so bad view of her as only someone selfish, childish, passive and egoist.
• "The movie changed us in unthinkable ways": similar to Tomoko, who in chapter Chapter 217-2 showed feeling and empathy for the classmates who got on stage to perform plays, up to the point she questioned it this was because she'd became a writer since she'd just see herself like the kind of people who looks down on those ones who cry over plays. It's now Yuri's moment to show her aftereffect, being someone who would find boring the discussions that actors pass off as stage greetings, she understands now that doing that stuff will extend everyone's enjoyment to create memories to be shared.

Cultural References

• キッショ: means "creepy" according to linkypoo.

Quotes

• "Come to think of it, I had a bad feeling about this when you came next to me without asking." – Mistress Tamura thinking about Mistress Nemoto
• "Are you still going on?! It's bordering on harassment!!" – Mistress Tamura still thinking about Mistress Nemoto
• "The most unfunny in the world, Nemo. Worthless." – Mistress Tamura ever still thinking about Mistress Nemoto
• "At this moment, because we made this movie together, I understand. Those actors called it a stage greeting, but it was just a boring inside talk. . . . To that, there was a meaning, now I understand." – Yuri inwardly
• "Maybe the memory of this moment will be gone forever." – Yuri inwardly
• "Sorry to Kuro-chan, but if Glasses-chan and Little Brother-chan dated, it'd be crazy." – Miho Narita inwardly happily

Gallery

Original Art from Nico Tanigawa's Gallery

"You are welcome!" – WataMote Wiki

Shown: "Is that You?"