Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku 1

Warning, I am very biased in liking this work as I own the Japanese volumes, and the English eBooks already, I'm just picking up the English physical volumes for collections' sake.I will start this review off by saying that your enjoyment of this manga will heavily depend on how in tune you are with nerd culture, especially Japanese nerd culture. Every page has some reference or other to a game, show, meme, etc. and some of the plot points depend on you being familiar with certain popular entertainment icons. Fear not as each volume has a several page explanation section where it points out much of the less obvious references and provides context for those points.It is worth noting that the translation of this work is really good. I've read a few of the volumes in Japanese and have read the fan translations as well, and while I generally dislike English translations as they usually localize too much, this one was very well done.Moving on to the story and characters. Once again, you will most likely enjoy this much more if you're an adult nerd yourself. I found this a very refreshing change from the usual setting of highschool, mostly because I'm in the same mid-twenties age range as the characters and relate to them much more than to a bunch of highschoolers.The story follows a girl who leaves her old job when she is outed as a hardcore nerd and joins a new company. Determined to keep her mega-nerd status a secret, her plans are ruined when she runs into her openly nerdy childhood friend who is an employee there. Things advance quickly and they decide to start dating almost immediately out of the gate. The story also focuses on two of their colleagues who are also their own flavor of nerd. Overall it represents the various subnerds, the gamers, the yaoi/yuri fans, the cosplayers, the fanfiction authors, etc. quite well.The pacing and format of this work is worth noting. The stories are somewhat disjointed yet also follow a loose arc overall. The focus is on the more day to day slice of life and what our lovable protagonists get up to in their grind to enjoy their hobbies more. Each chapter tends to be a self contained story that wraps up its events at the end, but some will connect over the course of the multiple volumes.This brings us to the title. Love and romance isn't actually as big of a focus here. Our characters are not love stricken children with their first relationships, so the nauseating romance many Shojo and Josei manga are known for isn't really here. Instead the relationship goes along at its slow pace as they slowly get comfortable with eachother and we start to see how much they care for eachother. The steamy passionate, dare I say, smutty romance isn't really a thing here.Overall, if you're a young adult nerd, you will probably enjoy this manga a great deal. If not, you might not like it as much.

I’ve been hoping and praying that Wotakoi would get licensed for a few yrs now and Kodansha delivered.Even though there are complaints about the actual characterization about Narumi, Hirotaka, Kabakura, and Koyanagi they are SEASONED otaku, they’re not going to have the cringey aspect that most anime/manga fans seem to think is what an otaku is ALWAYS like. Being in my early to mid-20s it’s actually refreshing to see representation of anime/manga fans and cosplayers and video gamers this way because it’s come a long way.Anyway, this manga was voted best manga in the last few years for a reason: the characters are loveable, the relationship between Hirotaka and Naruto may not have as much “spark” or excitement, but this is a josei manga, they’ve known each since they were children, and they know each other’s quirks like the backs of their own hands. Them being in a romantic relationship with EACH OTHER is not something that they’re used to, which is the whole point of the manga lol. I find it charming that they know so much about each other, but romantically they have to basically start from scratch and learn about one another on a diffeeeny level. Their relationship is great and comedic.Kabakura and Koyanagi are the previous pairs’ work buddies and otaku buddies who have been dating since highschool (NOT just out of nowhere which I read in another review...they literally say it in one of the first few chapters). They, unlike Narumi and Hirotaka, know each other and at times help them with their relationship but they have their own romance that’s just as funny and cute.TL;DR: All in all, I’m ecstatic that Wotakoi is being released in 2-in-1 volumes and even releasing at ALL by Kodansha because it’s a cute, refreshing, relateable read for any 20+ part-time or full-time workers, college students, whatever(!) that know how funny and difficult it can be to find a partner who understands, accepts, and/or even relates to your passions for anime, manga, cosplay, and/or video games.

Like some of the previous reviews have mentioned, it is wonderful to have a romance manga that is not set on a High School. This manga series feels like breath of fresh air on a genre that is saturated with the usual high school premise and clichés.Enter Narumi Momose, a lovely and sociable woman, but clumsy on her job. She's a fuyoshi that enjoys reading Yaoi (Boys Love) manga, which has led to multiple boyfriends breaking up with her once they've found our about her hobby. That is why she has vowed to keep her otaku life a secret from her co-workers on a new company.Then we meet Hirotaka Nifuji, a childhood friend of Momose that works at the very company Narumi starts working at. Like Momose, he is an otaku, but enjoys playing video games non-stop and doesn't really care what people think of him for being an otaku. How would these two fair when they enter in a relationship with each other?I've been watching the anime and was immediately hooked on the humor and loveable characters which led me to buy the volume. It has become one of my favorites series this year and I highly recommend it!