By Eu
Whoever decided that the person beside a prince should be a princess?
Junko is one of my favorite BL mangaka. So when they first released this years before, I had a mixed reaction. One part of me went “ZOMG shoujo by Junko!” while the other part was “shoujo by the BL mangaka Junko? Yes, some mangaka do cross-genre but it is certainly not an everyday occurrence.
Junko is known for their BL works. And guess what their shoujo is all about? A fujoshi heroine!
2D over 3D
Serinuma Kae is the typical otaku and fujoshi. When I first read the summary, I thought, “Hey! She’s like me!”. But as I go through the book, I realized that she’s much hardcore than I do. For one, her room is full of anime posters and other merchandises. She rarely goes out of the house but when she does, she attends every convention. As a fujoshi, she craves BL and even pairs her male schoolmates with one another. While I can relate to her BL love, I can’t relate to her in pairing people. ;;;
Kae is deeply attached to a game character named Shion. So when Shion died, Kae did too, figuratively-speaking. Don’t we all die a little, feeling empty and all when something happens to our favorites? Kae’s mom and brother had to drag her out of her sheets after a week of isolation and had the biggest shock of their lives.
Normally, when people are depressed, they either binge-eat or lose interest in life and looked liked zombie. But not for Kae, who after shedding some weight turned into a bishoujo. She doesn’t even recognize herself! www
What’s adorable about that is she only changed physically. Before she turned into a cute girl, she is already kind and cheerful. It doesn’t get to her when people make fun of her weight. I love the fact that she is contented with her own. That might make her look like thick-headed but she’s happy as long as she can pair guys. She could have chosen to be a proud popular pretty girl but nope. Her fandom always takes priority over everything else.
Living the otome life
On her first day coming back to school. No one could recognize her, even her best friend. Her life did a 360-degree turn. Not just because everyone did a double take after seeing her transformation, but Kae starts living the otome life with four bishies fighting for her attention.
I find the guys cuties but shallow. Just because Kae turned cute, they all fall head over heels for her when they’ve been ignoring her before. So the guys are:
Igarashi – I go dokidoki for this guy. Kae ships him with Nanashima though. Igarashi seems to be the most romantically invested among the four guys but it also appears he’s only interested in Kae’s face. He has yet to prove if he really likes her.
Nanashima – the blunt guy who used to make fun of Kae. He looks a lot like Shion of Mirage Saga.
Mutsumi – Kae’s senpai who is the only one who recognizes her right away. Unlike the other guys, he’s been consistently in her aide even in her chubby days. But he’s also the odd one in the group because he doesn’t appear to romantically like Kae. More like, he’d been drifted there by accident.
Shinomiya – the tsundere kouhai whom I find cute but just like everyone else, really shallow and judgmental.
The thin line between reality and fantasy
Kae treads a dangerous line between real life and fiction. WagaMote shows how society can be unforgiving if you look plain and geeky but it’s all fine when you are cute. There’s a scene when her best friend warns her not to let the guys know that she’s an otaku as if it’s a mortal sin to be a big fan (well, this is Japan…). The guys like her just because she’s cute so they let her fangirling slide. But I loved how Kae chose to reveal who she really is. She doesn’t regret it, at the very least.
Watashi ga Motete Dousunda is a mix and match of everything that I love, from the mangaka down to the theme. It’s a fun read, not just because it’s funny per se, but also the fact that I can see myself in some of Kae’s fandom struggles
Oh! This sounds like a really interesting story! The plot is definitely different and the heroine is very likeable by the fact that she isn’t hiding anything about herself and stays true to herself. Definitely will put this on my read list. But from what you said about the guys…they are truly shallow. Is this shoujo categorized as romance?
Yeah, she’d choose 2D ikemen over 3D guys anytime. XD
Yep, romance. Though based on vol 1, it’s 90% comedy and 10% romance. lol
I like reading non BL works from BL mangaka, they are usually pretty good reads… This looks like such an interesting manga, your post has definitely piqued my interest. As always awesome post, I’ll definitely have to check this out when I have the time! XD
I’m glad that my post piqued your interest about WagaMote! And thanks for dropping by! 😀
Absolutely! Thank you for sharing such a wonderful post! XD
I don’t know why Japan sees otakus as something bad bc they created this XD
Well, Japan is Japan…
I had moxed feelings about this manga too and for the same reason. I still plan to finish reading it.
It’s quite hard for us to understand it since we’re looking at their culture from the outside. ;;;;;
While I do wish that Junko goes back to BL world soon, I hope that they won’t half-baked the ending of this manga.
I also read it & loved it! Normally I don’t read BL manga or like BL stuff in general, and I also had mixed feelings about this, but damn it is pretty good (made my heart dokidoki all the time, consideringt that I read almost every shoujo cliché manga ever and I’m getting to old for this haha). I like the references, because I can totally relate to them (fangirling etc).
What I don’t really like, but also don’t really mind that much, is that the heroine is so oblivious, but I guess it’s also one of her charm points ^^’.
I’m very excited about how this Manga will end and with whom she will end up with (or not), so yeah I’m also going to continue this. 🙂
Riiiiiiiight?? I went ‘kyuuun’ over Igarashi. ahahaha
I guess that’s because her only RL connection before her transformation is her family and best friend. She’s dense on how RL works. lol
Who is your fave character? 8D
I love this manga! I can totally relate too because 2D men yasss ^q^ I do feel like the guys are pretty shallow because they’re really only nice to the protagonist after she lost weight. She’s nice and been there since the beginning but they never noticed her. _(:3」∠)_
Oh gosh. Sorry it took me a while to reply. >_<
Yeah, it's kind of ridiculous (though for the most part, this manga is ridiculous xD) how they all fall for her right after she came back. It's only Mutsumi-senpai who did. He's kinda, uhm, shady for me though so idk what to think of him. ;;;
I don’t know…it’s a tie between Mutsumi and Igarashi. I like Mutsumi because, like you said, he recognized her first and is considering her feelings and Igarashi? Well sometimes he’s kind of bold towards our heroine haha.
But who am I kidding? I love them all （ｉДｉ） <333 (oh and the big bro from Mutsumi is also a cute hottie, I also like his forwardness)
Yeah! Igarashi would do something and it’d make me go kyuuuun ahaha.