Anime 48926 Komi-san Wa Comyushou Desu Reviews Filter Check 3

“Why use style over substance, when you can use style to fake substance”
~RealKurapikaTard (RIP)

--SPOILER FREE REVIEW BECAUSE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPENS IN THIS CRAP WORTH MENTIONING--

This was a frustrating watch to say the least. Expectations were non existent and this still left me in a sour mood.Comedy is a genre that is the most controversial to work with and critique, after all what someone finds funny differs from person to person.
But never have I seen such a bland, repetitive, generic piece of media that has ridden the hype train so far, that a vast majority of viewers actually think it is good in any way.

I went ... into Komi expecting a story similar to A Silent voice(Koe no Katachi) where the work atleast attempts to tackle social issues and disorders present in kids and young teens head-on seriously, but instead all I got was an overexaggerated, pathetic, kawaiified version for otakus to call their waifu and goddess. The characters are singlehandedly the worst part of the show. Every single character is a cardboard cut-out generic excuse for substance and has absolutely nothing unique or interesting about them. Characters and plot don't always need to have excellent writing with deep morals or philosophy behind them to be enjoyable but when a piece of art fails even to suffice the bare minimum you can rest assured that it is not worth a minute of your time.

Komi and her disorder is unnecessarily exaggerated and treated as a gag joke that got old in 3 eps. She has nothing going for her except that every person in the show drools over her and are obsessed with doing anything remotely close to her.
Tadano is a bland typical dense shy nice guy that we've seen a hundred times already. Himiko the stupid masochistic submissive dog female who's name I googled ten minutes back, is perhaps the unfunniest and cringiest character ever. Her existence makes me skip scenes as if I were watching a kissing scene in a movie with my parents.

Every episode plays out exactly the same way.
-Komi has a problem
-The whole world bows at her feet and worships her
-They make a few dumb jokes. Show a little bit of teasing and hints relating to romance. Some character either gets in the way of things or Tadano is too stupid and dense.
-Problem solved everyone happy
-REPEAT THE SAME SHIT.
There's absolutely no change in plot structure, jokes or any sort of development and it was tiresome to get through.

On a more positive side atleast the art and opening is good or else I wouldn't have even completed the show. The animation is fluid and crisp, although the Music and the character designs are nothing worth speaking of.

CONCLUSION:
It is nothing more than plain average predictable unfunny comedy that outstayed it's welcome. If you're looking for a show to play in the background and still follow without paying any attention to prevent losing braincells I highly recommend this. If you don't want to waste your time find something else from the plethora of titles available for your consumption.

Forget this show exists, and imagine I'm pitching you a new story I want to write:

"A heartwarming comedy about a low-confidence student who befriends his classmate with crippling social anxiety. Everyone thinks they're just unfriendly or quiet, but really they're incredibly anxious but desperately want to make friends. Slowly he helps them come out of their shell and learn to socialize"

Now you're thinking, maybe it's this nerdy guy who gets bullied, or a chubby person who's extremely self-conscious about their weight. It's a wholesome story where they help each other develop confidence and integrate into normal social life.

Now I give you the final detail: it's ... an anime. Now it all falls into place. The awkward classmate? Big boobs, hottest girl in school. The main character? Completely generic self-insert male. Does she actually end up making friends? Maybe like two, but it's a gay guy or something (anime still does not understand trans people), and some social outcast girl, so we don't actually have to worry that Komi-san will outgrow the main character.

That's the problem I have with this show: it presents itself as this wholesome story about helping a poor girl who just wants to make friends, while it actually has no intentions of making her any less reliant on Tadano's support. Because it's really a self-insert fantasy about taking care of a helpless, beautiful girl. If she actually made progress and learned how to talk to people, she wouldn't need Tadano (our self-insert) anymore.

When you look at it this way, all the contrivances become impossible to ignore. How is that Komi-san has gone ~16 years of her life without ANYONE noticing her anxiety, even though Tadano figured it out in 5 minutes? Because we're supposed to feel special when we project ourselves onto Tadano: only a down-to-earth guy who doesn't care about popularity (just like you!) would be able to see her as a person. Somehow Tadano is the only decent human being in the entire school, and the anime expects us not to question that, because that's how it assumes we think about ourselves.

Literally everyone else in the school, even the teachers, have to act like they're from another planet in order to maintain this fantasy. Every guy is so obsessed with Komi that they won't let each other interact with her, every girl worships Komi so much that they don't feel worthy to speak to her, and even the adults rationalize her antisocial behavior as some kind of enlightened nobility.

Now, I know what you might be thinking, "but that's the joke! It's ironic that everyone thinks she's perfect!" And yes, it is humorous for a bit, but the joke overstays its welcome. Why keep doing the exact same joke episode after episode, stretching its believability way beyond the breaking point, when all it does it prevent the story from making any progress? Why not let Komi break out of her shell, let the students realize she's not some superhuman goddess, and let her actually start speaking to her classmates and making friends?

Because, that would ruin the fantasy. If Komi-san learns to speak, suddenly she doesn't need Tadano anymore. She's the most desired girl in school, she'll have a hundred friends instantly. She'll have a dozen boys trying to date her. Tadano won't be able to maintain his monopoly over her, because his entire character is that he's a mediocre guy. The anime is forced to keep Komi isolated, only give her one or two friends who are carefully established to be incapable as romantic rivals, so that we can keep her to ourselves.

That's why I don't like Komi-san (the show). The need to maintain a wish fulfillment, self-insert, power fantasy poisons every joke, every interaction. The humor is alright, the characters are cute, it's an exciting premise, but because its priorities are so clear, any hope of it turning into a genuinely heartwarming story are gone. And just to prove my point MINOR SPOILER: I skimmed ahead to chapter 200 of the manga and Komi-san is still not speaking, while Tadano has to supervise all of her social interaction.

Knock Knock...
"Who's there?"
Komi-san!
"Komi-san, who?"
*shudder... Nervous... shudder... Nervous... shudder... Nervous... shudder... Nervous..*

"Komi-san is no doubt a masterpiece because of its fluid animation."
-not me (but wut the heck?)

This review is about the full season of the anime and whatever you do, don't get triggered...
...
Ahhh... SoL. One of the genres that are being discriminated against because they are 'boring'. I like SoL shows, alongside romance and comedy, and one of my favorite genres. At first, I don't believe in others said that SoL shows are 'boring' because for me they are entertaining. Comedy. Comedy is like a dart game, whether it will hit the mark or miss. For me, comedy will be never missed but this? This is the first SoL comedy show that made me feel annoyed.

I will extend and revise my statements from my previous preliminary review.

Komi-san Can't Communicate is one of the anticipated animes by many manga readers that were hyping this show from the first episode. Seriously, this season is more annoying than a weak season from Summer 2021. We got a Symphogear parody Takt Op. Destiny, edgy-wannabe Platinum End, annoying Fruit of Evolution, etc., and this anime is one of them. I have two words to describe this anime; cringe and ridiculous. And it's pain in the ass to say this but this anime is OVERHYPED and OVERRATED.

Story:
To be straightforward, the story is NOTHING. You can describe it as a gag manga because the story is episodic but seriously, the sub-plots are just slightly moving forward. This is a SoL show, right? The story wasn't realistic at all. If Komi wants a hundred friends, did she know that some or many of them will backstab or might be toxic to her? Nothing is interesting happens because it always uses the same formula all over again. Boy meets girl, the boy helps the girl to find friends because she's lonely, she found friends, the plot will back to boy and girl, it became a romance, and the cycle repeats itself. It's like an endless semester. In short, it's just your typical SoL that you can find on other SoL shows. Oh right, the comedy... Tbh, still very missed the mark. The comedy for this anime is for elementary students. No quality of humor, and still the jokes weren't in the right timing. If you tell a joke to your friend or partner, or whatever, timing is always the best thing, even your joke you'll say is dumb. Still, the comedy was so unfunny and it made me cringe and felt annoyed, while watching this show. Even Gintama's poop, dirty, or dumb jokes were funny because it was in the right timing (considering the other dumb gag shows like Saiki K., A Destructive God Sits Next to Me, etc.). And the wholesomeness? I didn’t felt a single wholesomeness factor in this show because the show was trying to be funny but it wasn't.

Art:
The more I watch this show, the more I get used to the art and it was fine though. It may be not a masterpiece of art, but the art for this show is decent and suitable for the series. Sometimes, the art sequence or cinematography is like in the Monogatari series. You know, the angles and the frames looked like in Monogatari but no head tilting. I thought they copying that style but whatever. Still looks good though.

Characters:
I will say it, the characters are freaking annoying. This is one of the worst characters that I've in my history of watching anime. The craziest part of that is, Komi, which is a waifu bait for the fans, befriends with a cross-dressing trap, a masochist, a violent yandere, a ninja, and a normal guy. I mean, who will befriend that kind of person? Don't get me wrong, I like school animes that have eccentric characters like in School Rumble, but in this anime, they are so ridiculous. The perfect definition of overreacting and cringe. Do you know Teruhashi from Saiki K.? The girl who was always been followed by many guys in her class because of her beauty? Komi is just like that but more on the opposite and quiet. Komi was just a fanservice mascot for the men who want to add her to their waifu list.

Sound:
This was pretty fine. Definitely will buy the soundtrack. The OP was pretty catchy and the ED was pretty fine too. I'll say that sound saved the whole anime, even just a little bit of it.

Overall, this anime is so overwhelming to watch. The characters and the story are so forgettable as heck. This anime is sort of a guilty pleasure or for those people who want to kill time. After all those good production values, the story, which is the most important factor, is the weakest part of it and I didn't like it that badly. This anime is a shame for me as a SoL comedy stan and maybe I'll believe those others said. A nonsensical story doesn't deserve this kind of production value. For those who love little things, this anime can be for you. But for those who seek pure high-quality comedy and worth of your enjoyment, please don't watch this crap. You will just waste your time and your precious brain cells.

Alright listen here weebs. Outside of a select few shows, I'm someone who views anime as a guilty pleasure. I only ever watch anime if it's popular or to spend time with friends. Anime is not a defining trait of my life nor do I wish to participate in communities about it.

That said, I will gladly make an exception just this once, for rarely has an anime, nay, piece of media ever sparked as much hatred within me as Komi Can't Communicate. I have made a AnimeNew account just so I can post this review.

Before I dig in, let me say first that the sound ... design is ok. The quivering noise is cute. Music is mediocre and the art is passable.

Man, saying good things about KCC leaves such a stench in my mouth. Lemme wash this foul taste out with some refreshing Hate-orade. First, this show fails to deliver its main message so badly that it ends up mocking the very demographic it's trying to relate to. I'll admit, the show's sneaky. There were moments that I could definitely see other anxiety-sufferers latching on to. However, all that is instantly invalidated once you remember that if Komi wasn't hot, no one, especially not mediocre-McAveragepants Tadano, would want anything to do with her. Basically, this show's saying "See anxiety-sufferers? Making friends is easy! Just wield the powers of Aphrodite herself!" This issue is further aggravated through the character Agari, another socially awkward character in this show. She doesn't have Komi's charm, so what does the show think she should do to address her social-anxiety? Should she focus on developing a more stoic mindset? Improve herself? Nah, let's make her Komi's lapdog! Let's completely forget that she's shy and have her act like a dog in public! Let's basically have her give up and dedicate herself to her queen, only gaining friends via association with said queen! Honestly, I would keep every socially-anxious people I know far away from this show. It cannot offer them anything but false perspectives and insecurity, especially dangerous for anxious people who may have more trouble differing satire from actual advice.

Moving beyond these blatant insults, it's clear that this show's for questionable people with questionable fantasies. Tadano's the blandest MC to date, which makes him the perfect self-insert character. Ever wonder why the show never introduces any other significant male characters, not even taking the positively succulent opportunity to see how Komi handles the school chad hitting on her? Because this show wants to attract viewers either with saviour complexes or a desire to manipulate women. We can't have any actually charming guys show up or else Eugene-san over there sitting at his desktop with his Komi body pillow's gonna have his girl stolen! As the show says, Komi can't communicate. She rarely objects to demands and will give in with enough pressure. What kind of guy do you think this would attract?

Finally, please tell me that some of these character designs were a bad joke. The fire girl made me want to kill myself.

I wish for this show to fade from history. I do not recommend this for anyone to unironicaly watch this.

You may be thinking, "Why the hell did you rate this masterpiece of a show just a 5?" I know it may be crazy for you guys to believe in, but please have the decency to explain why this show shouldn't be considered as a 10/10.

Story (5/10):
I'm sorry but like this show's plot is pretty underwhelming. To anybody who doesn't know what this show is about, it is pretty much showcasing the journey of a high school teen with a communication problem who is trying to make 100 friends before the school year ends. That's it. Although it is "supposed" to be romantic story with ... the side of random shenanigans mixed with it. It just another technique that all slice of life shows use to show their audience that it isn't just "normal" high school life the mc is dealing with. Because of this, it just makes the show just generic, and later on repetitive, as seen in the manga.

Art (7/10):
This is the 2nd thing I like about this show as it's animation quality fits well with the issue that Komi and her friends faced throughout their school year. I'm actually pleased to see that the animators did a great job with following with adapting the art style of the manga, and I do believe it does show the elements of the show better than any other slice of life shows that I have watched recently.

However, one thing the animators forgot to was add details to the show's backgrounds. The backgrounds of this show in the last 3 eps felt "empty" and had no "wow factors" that didn't want to take my attention away from the characters. Some of the backgrounds didn't even have background sets nor even people with in them, and even if it was initially added to show some sort of message to the audience, it isn't the best "excuse" they come up with. Besides for that, it's art doesn't fall off compared to its other shows coming out this season.

Sound (6/10):
All I can really say for the sound in the show is "okay." From the other reviews for this show, a lot of people enjoyed the sudden sound pauses in some scenes. I enjoyed it as well, but they used it far too often. It's a running gag in the show, although it gets a little tedious and "unfunny" after a while. Aside from that, it performs a good job at showing its elements and cueing the crucial parts in near-perfect timing.

Character (7/10):
Despite the fact that the story is solely concentrated on the MC and Komi. All of the other characters are given a "decent" amount of screen time and development. I appreciate how the filmmaker and writers did not relegate these minor people to the background. The last three episodes feature screen time/gag signals to demonstrate that they are relevant to the plot of the show to the audience. Not only that, but I appreciated how they didn't make them into stereotypical side characters, since most of them had their own unique personalities and traits that make them neither boring nor irrelevant to us. But, aside from that, that's all there is to it.
(fix this)

Entertainment (5/10):
The first three episodes did not leave me with an interest in watching the rest of the series. The comedy was mildly entertaining; but, the emotional sequences failed to connect with me in the same way that other sad episodes had done in the past. All I can say is that it isn't the most entertaining anime at the moment, but I do expect it will improve after a couple eps/seasons.

Overall (3/10):
Everything about this adaptation isn't the best so far, and I hope it'll l become a praiseworthy show that make me reconsider my current score with it.

Or not...

tl;dr: The show isn't at its prime time at the moment, and we just have to wait and see if doesn't become into another generic slice of life anime.

Notes:
"Also, if you don't like my opinion about this show, it's fine with me. I don't mind if you love this show, and I won't bully you just for that. Go like what you like. I'm not here to ruin your favourite things lmao."

Thanks for reading.

Komi is a highschooler suffering from extreme social anxiety but she wants to connect and make friends before graduation, 100 friends is the dream but she'll be happy with just one.


Sounds sweet right so why I am rating it so low. The answer is EVERYTHING ELSE!

Komi is made to be perfection, so much so that she is given the title (god) by her classmates. Everyone and everything around her is willing to put their life on pause to fulfill her perceived wishes. Like a blackhole this Mary Sue sucks everything into her. It's too much.

What makes it worse is that there is another ... character in the show that is known to have social anxiety, it's common knowledge that her anxiety is so bad that it gives her physical pain.

It is also known that this character is less. By that I mean she needs glasses, is a little chubby and looks about average so the show thinks she doesn't matter. She can just be a joke character and literally a dog to the prettier Mary Sue...

Whatever little sympathy I had for the character evaporated at that. This isn't about a girl with social anxiety it's about Mary Sue waifu and dedicating your everything to "saving" her... ew...


The one complement I give it is how creative they get with the animation and angles sometimes when they try to visually change the mood. Sadly this is only when Komi is involved, only she matters. The rest can have plain and sometimes overly simplistic art and animation, they are not Komi.

I really wanted to enjoy this show. Before I started watching it, I had read lots of positive reviews,
but even though I ended up being extremely dissapointed, and here's why.
Komi san can't communicate tells us a story about a girl (or maybe I should call her a goddess, because that's how everyone at school sees her)
with social anxiety, who's goal is achieving 100 friends before graduation.
The first thing is that I probably expected more realistic approach to the problem. Her anxiety is enormously idealized - She's still
popular, has lots of admirers and no one really cares about her not being able to speak.
The ... way it's shown doesn't really cover with how it is seen in real world
Non-fictional people who deal with this kind of problem are usually very lonely and not romanticized by society.
I feel like this series just downplays social anxiety.
I decided to give this anime one more shot, trying to put previously mentioned fact aside.
But even this haven't encouraged me to give it a higher score.
Side characters are irritating, causing to spoil the enjoyment of watching it.
The plot with every episode begins to be more and more boring.
There are for sure things that are great about it - animation and characters design. I can even admit, that the first two episodes were quiet promising.
But in my opinion, it's not enough
to make me say that this show is worth watching.

*SPOILERS*


Komi is one of those adaptations that simply wont work because theres not enough story or character development to justify a full season. If you really wanted to you could cram up all the info in one episode, or they should had released 5 minute episodes.

Sure, memes and OMG KOMI SO WHOLESOME doesnt harm anyone.
But this is just a brainless watch. I would be better off to stare at the wall 20 minutes.

This being a gag manga adaptation and especially with typically japanese romcom humor (duh) youre in for a bland experience.

Firstly we have 'Normal Person' (yes this is our male protags name [Hitohito ... Tadano], his name is literally blank) whos physical design is clearly there for the male audience to be able to self-insert and imagine they are Komis bf or something.
He is equivalent of a blank page, theres nothing going on with him. Hes just there so Komi has a romantic interest and he somehow deserves a girl like her just by existing? Or something. His life seems to shut down when Komi isnt in the scene, so you can imagine, he gets no development whatsoever.

Komi...wait Komi is actually her last name? Huh. Well anyway, shes our big heroine.
I find it insulting they start every episode with 'anxiety is serious. its so spooky. people who have it struggle! but they actually want friends' blah blah blah. Making it seem like this is some woke show, like they are giving exposure to a big issue, or that anxiety only equals speech related problems.

Lets look at it realistically - its a gag manga turned into anime. Of course its gonna be mainly fiction with things that dont exist in real life. But why then tie it to real life issues? Komi and Tadano could not exist in the real world.

Plot: Plot implies Komi is somewhat struggling. But she is not nor ever has. Lets go point by point.

Komi is misunderstood: Due to her lack of communication. This is false. Everyone in this universe LOVES Komi. Theres not a single person thar dislikes her, thus causing her struggle. Despite her not talking people worship her like a god, they did so before the timing of first episode, and they continue for eternity. Nobody really misunderstands her in traditional sense of the word, shes just seems like cool and reserved by not talking and nobody gets offended or insulted by her demeanor. Her demeanor is actually whats making them go crazy for her and be in love with her.

Komi cant talk because she is anxious: This is confusing. Imagine youre anxious and it affects your ability to express yourself verbally in front of others like show is trying to say Komi is. Youre in class, at work, etc. You stutter and stumble around your words and you fail to deliver coherent message. People would be confused and probably dislike you (not Komi tho-shes loved like already mentioned). You are finished with your day, feeling defeated, and alone in your room...you should feel safe? Relaxed?
Well, not Komi. She seems to have sort of magical anxiety that even tho she makes it appear is caused by people, she cant talk even when she is completely alone, in her room, comfy and in her pyjamas. I am personally anxious and more quiet. Why the heck would i not make a single sound when im alone tho? Or with my family that SHOWERS me with love and care, like Komi has it? It makes no sense whatsoever.

Komi has to change in order to gain things she wants/Her lack of communication is her PROBLEM: False. She never changes or shows willpower to do so. She is day in and day out straight up rewarded for the way she behaves. Show is trying to convince us that because she cant communicate, some problems ensue. This is completely opposite.

Komi has problems overall: False. Her life is perfect. She has loving and caring family, some of which also high-key enables her not talking and aprooves of it, and even encourages it. She was never bullied. She was always doing amazing in school. Everyone who sets eyes on her, straight/gay/trans/bi/male/female/other genders/etc LOVES her from first second they got to see her, even before she communicates/doesnt communicate which is premise of the show. Shes always in center of attention, never left out and very, very rarely put in a situation where she has to do something, like having to order coffee for someone (and failing miserably, but still being rewarded for it). She doesnt even seems bothered that she failed these things, like saying a single word or making an order. She doesnt have some phychological trauma. She wasnt abused or shunned. She lived a life of a goddess from moment she stepped foot in this world, to now. Only difference from then and now is that she now KNOWS that everyone is obsessed with her, while in later episodes we see people were obsessed with her for the whole time, just too shy to approach her, so she felt left out at times but never bullied or some sort of negative thing happening.

Komi cant talk but...can she communicate any other way? This is confusing. She cant talk so uses pen and paper sometimes. This makes sense. But...she never owned a mobile phone until the Normal Person told her to? Ok, so youre anxious in real life and quiet and reserved...but youre unable to also TEXT and hang out online? Write coherent texts? What? People in real life who struggle in real find escapism in using the internet. They can be themselves, relaxed, maybe even different personality, and more open. But Komi...she never talks or expresses her thoughts in any way, other than few scribble in notebook few times in class? Does she even think? How the heck did she even ace the school grades without talking? Oral exams were exempt for her for being a god? I can imagine your friends and family enabling semi-toxic behaviour, but your teachers? I dont know.

Komi wants friends: This is confusing. She says she wants to make 100 friends. OOOOoOO big shows premise! But this is kinda lost along the way. Did she really ever even make friends? Who IS actually her friend? Tadano? Show likes to make it look like she got friends now. And she herself, actually is really, really happy. But...they more seem like her worshippers.
Also, think about the other side. Youre friends with Komi. Shes attractive and her every friend kinda wants to bone her and literally OBSESSED. Thats already bad enough. But...she doesnt communicate...talk...or even put effort into it, yeah, thats what shows title is. But, even into writing, which she can do but doesnt anyway. Whats the point of your friendship? Surely Komi appreciates it alot, but whats it in for you? Imagine every day every time you talk to your 'friend' Komi you get nothing but blank stares back, no feedback, no back and forth, no texts, doesnt initiate anything literally ever. Its like you got to do 100% or the 'friendship' is over.
Who ever made friends like that? And if you did, how long would that live? Its truly confusing why would it work for Komi. Human relationships are so delicate and people can grind day in and out with their charisma, presentation, etc and still be friendless and depressed. But character like Komi pushes premise how anxiety is hard but never has anthing hard or bad to show for it. She is SHOWERED in good things, good life and all that comes with it. Its completely unrelatable.


Episodes pretty much follow textbook examples of 'I am a beach episode' or 'i am a school festival episode'. You know, the worst slice of life has to offer. Komi never gets a rival or someone to challenge her or put her out of her comfort zone. Which means episodes are the same, repetieive its just different event in school that day/you get what I mean. Tadano has crush on her for some reason, i guess solely because hes a boy, shes a girl? They never really dwell deeper into it. They have no chemistry or anything in common.
Side characters are mostly background noise. Extremely forgettable and there to fill in a certain 'fetish' or a trope. Oh, hers a yandere girl. Ah, heres a nerdy horny library girl. Oh, a sporty sporty-sport girl!
ONLY character from whole show I liked was Osana Najimi [Name translates to Childhood Friend...ugh]
Najimi is AMAZING. Najimi is funny, Najimi is energetic, you know its gonna be ok scene with her in it. Najimi is only one who tries to put Komi out of her comfort zone, Komi fails cuz didnt even try, and shes instantly forgiven and nobody rly dwells on it. Id honestly tho just watch a show about Najimi.

Komi-san Can't Communicate tries to present itself as a wholesome story of a girl who with anxiety disorder slowly making friends. While this main plot is present in each episode and has potential to be strong, the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The characters are one dimensional and make the same repetitive gags each episode, it demonstrates the exact opposite of "show, not tell" by constantly explaining what is happening, and it constantly objectifies Komi in almost every scene and subjects her to the “Male Gaze™”.

The structure of this anime is basically every episode a new “character” who is obsessed with Komi gets ... introduced and “hilarity” ensues. I say “character” because most of these are literally just some character archetype that was pulled out of a hat. There’s a Chunnibyou one, an energetic one, a sadistic one, etc. Since there are so many of these side characters (at least one or two added per episode) we never get the chance to see them properly developed, and by the end of the series they continue to just be the same characters as when they were introduced. Additionally, I say “hilarity” because each character has their own joke that just gets repeated over and over and over, and usually it's not even funny the first time.

Also, these characters are just pretty bad. In one of the first episodes it was claimed that each character at the school had some special ability for why they were at this high school, but they seem to have forgotten about that for every character but Najimi. Most of these characters are insanely obsessed with Komi to the point of kidnapping the MC or pretending to be Komi’s dog. But good thing these characters are female so fans will think they’re cute and not super weird!

Additionally, this anime has a really bad habit of telling and not showing. This is lazy writing and shows the writer doesn’t trust the audience to understand what’s going without being constantly told. We can look at Tadano’s introduction in the first episode to see an example of this. Also, see if you can count how many separate times they repeat that Tadano just wants to have a normal high school life and fit in.

1:10-1:50: Tadano and the narrator talk about how dull he is and how he just wants to fit in. Then “joke” is displayed on screen as a barrage of text for us, that he just wants to fit in because he used to be edgy in middle school. What is the problem with doing it this way? It is that this joke was communicated to us with the actual animation being irrelevant. We could have just been given a black screen with the audio/subtitles and some text bubbles for the same effect.

2:05: Tadano sees Komi and is excited because she’s so hot. In this scene Tadano both is yelling she is gorgeous, but for some reason there is another text bubble that has to point at Tadano and reaffirm to us that he is excited. Could we not have figured it out without that text bubble? These text bubbles are there in almost every scene in this anime, and don’t really allow the audience to think for themselves to engage with it in any way.

3:02: Tadano tells the audience he is an average guy
3:48: The narrator tells us Tadano is sticking out instead of blending in
5:06: Tadano tells the class that he is good at reading the room. Then his classmate tells the audience that he actually isn’t good at reading the room. Then the narrator tells us how Tadano’s high school life is over. This scene was pretty irritating. Could we not have figured out Tadano any of these three things in some other way than the anime explicitly telling us? What if instead of his classmate TELLING us that Tadano isn’t good at reading the room, there was a five second awkward silence to show us this. Basically, this scene ends up being an example of many scenes in this anime where the audience is just told what to feel rather than having to engage with the show.
6:41: Tadano says his goal is to have an uneventful school life

For those keeping count with me, it was five separate times in the first seven minutes they repeated how Tadano simply wants to have a normal high school life and fit in. Thanks Komi-san, I definitely wouldn’t have gotten it after the fourth time! It makes the show feel juvenile that we are told exactly what to think and shows a lack of creativity in storytelling by the writer.

Finally, we have this weird obsession by every single character in the show of Komi, only because she is just that beautiful. In almost every scene with her, there is a reference to how beautiful she is. What does her beauty add to this show? Honestly I have no idea. It makes a lot of the relationships she creates throughout the show seem superficial, as a lot of her friends (ex: girl who wants to be her dog) like her due to her looks alone.

Luckily, Tadano is not a crazy person who only wants Komi to step on him, and seems to be one of Komi’s real relationships created in the show. This brings us to the Male Gaze™/main character stand in aspect of the show. Tadano seems to be living out a male fantasy where a beautiful, popular, quiet, subservient girl who has no opinions of her own needs his help. Luckily for him every other character in the show is completely insane and doesn’t realize she has problems speaking, making him the only person who can possibly understand her. This is quite a nice fantasy for male viewers watching the anime. It just weirds me out that the ideal girl this show is pushing for is mostly revered for her beauty, while also being helpless and dollike.

Overall, Komi-san Can’t Communicate has a lot of glaring problems that keep it in bad high school romcom tier and nothing more. The animation and music are quite good, and the timing of a lot of scenes shows a lot of effort by the studio. However, it's held back by the writing.

Komi Can't Communicate is about a guy who meets a socially awkward girl who can't talk to others due to her anxiety and tries to help her make 100 friends throughout the school year. See, the problem is...she's already the most popular girl in the class! Problem solved. So you might be asking yourself then, "what the fuck are we doing for the next 12 episodes?" Well, apparently even though every student in the class will go out of their way to defend her when some no life tries to make a move on Komi-san, they won't actually talk with her and be actual friends. ... So everyone basically cares but doesn't care at the same time.

Everyone except for our protagonist, Hitohito Tadano.

Since he'd have no other purpose in this show than to be the unreasonably helpful main character, Tadano breaks out of his comfort zone to help Komi make 100 friends throughout the school year because she's the prettiest girl he's ever seen and not because he knows for a fact that she's a genuinely good person who's simply flawed when it comes to socializing. The rest of the show basically just plays out as a generic slice of life with a ton of shounen tropes mixed in, like your typical beach episode where the boys just stare at the girls' swimsuits the whole time like you've seen a million times before. It's like the show tries to be purposefully unoriginal when in fact it could've at least made it more interesting with some deeper conflict involving the entire cast, which consisted of a diverse number of characters, being focused on to add on to Komi-san’s personal issues.

Speaking of which, they’re very lightly focused on. The story does give some sense of progression, like when Komi-san starts to open up towards Tadano by squeaking out words every now and then, but it feels like it's forced since the depth of her struggle is barely touched in detail, so the audience basically just has to wait for some kind of clarification from the plot to try to figure out what’s going on with her. It just feels very slow and uneventful, like we’re going through a bunch of pointless slice of life filler for no reason. And that’s pretty much the whole story.

As for the characters, they’re essentially what makes this show such a horrible experience. All of the characters are defined by simple attributes that are overused to death and as a result show no hints of any nuance. Tadano is pretty much your cliched mc who’s defined by his naivety and behaves however the story wants him to behave in that specific moment. While all of these characters are simple shounen paper cutouts, they’re at least somewhat tolerable since the story treats them like normal high school students. Komi, on the other hand, is not. In fact, she’s the main reason what makes this show nearly unwatchable. Kinda like Shinji Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion, the story treats her like she’s treated like she’s the center of the universe, but at least in that show I could sympathize with Shinji because he only received attention from others because he was specifically needed to perform actions for others’ sake, and it was only for that reason he received praise and encouragement. Komi, on the other hand, just shows up to school without making an example of herself at all and yet she's treated as the center of attention just because she’s attractive, and thus receives constant encouragement from others because of and not because of actual talent or purpose. While this may not be necessarily contrived, it makes the audience wonder, “why should we give two shits about a kid who doesn’t need to make any sort of effort to gain attention from others?” If Komi was set up as an “average-looking” girl, the show would ultimately fail due to the lack of interest from her classmates, but at least I’ve been given some reason to sympathize with her in some way. Instead what we got was nothing more than a self-insert mary sue that’s well-liked by everyone and hated by no one (except that one grumpy asshole Convent). Now if this was the point of the story, it honestly would’ve worked a lot better. There are plenty of main characters who take advantage of others throughout their respective stories but have nuanced motivations for doing so, like Makoto Itou for example. If Komi was portrayed as a self-centered bitch who clearly takes advantage of boys her age who think with their dick, it would’ve at least made more sense from a storytelling standpoint, plus there might've even been some room for some extra development besides forcibly making her capable of talking. And with that, I've finally made my point as to why these characters are insufferable to watch.

Now on to other matters, the artwork. So far I’ve only seen praise coming from people, but I’m gonna be the fish swimming up the water and say it was bad. I can at least find some kind of enjoyment in an objectively bad show if it has good visuals, but Komi Can’t Communicate was not one of them. The animation itself was decent, but nothing really special. The entire casts’ appearance can be described as My Hero Academia knock offs with the only defining traits being their hair and chest size. Even those traits are ridiculously often over the top and unrealistic for the high school setting it’s trying to set up, but then again, it is a shounen, so I won’t hold it that much against it. There’s also the constant adoration of Komi-san’s face and how it basically carries the show from being a drag like it was for me, and I’m gonna be honest, it’s pretty overrated. Up close her face really bothered me as her mouth looked disproportioned from her chin and nose, and her lips it’s way too small too. She’s like a 3 in my book. Maybe her disfigured face made her handicapped and she can’t talk to others because of that, or she thinks her face is ugly too. That probably is the reason. Anyway, I digress.

The comedy is what you’d expect from any shounen, drawn out gags centering around toilet humor that expect you’re laughing your ass off. I’m not really going to go into it, but there’s a decent number of jokes regarding one of the character’s sexuality, as they’re described as being non-binary if I remember correctly. I’m fine with that kind of thing if the show desires to have it so badly, but the show shouldn’t go out of its way to portray what are almost acts of sexual assault to get some kind of point across regarding this topic. Just when I thought Japanese entertainment was safe from this kind of thing unlike America, this show was basically an example of Japan flipping me off.

Well, I guess I can recommend this show if you’re a 10-year-old who along with the main cast also gets turned on by Komi-san’s disfigured appearance. But to anyone else, there’s a whole genre to this sort of thing that actually does it at least somewhat better most of the time. If you were looking for a show that features a character who struggles to overcome social anxiety and pressure, I guarantee you’ll feel the same way I did after watching this.

Probably the most way overrated anime from this season.

The cast is made up of characters ranging from annoying to creepy. Everything is so over the top and ridiculous while failing to be anything more than mildly entertaining. The whole deal with everyone obsessing over Komi just got tiring, and wasn't particularly funny. The plot was basically non-existent, consisting pretty much just of Komi's goal to make 100 friends... yet everyone already wants to be her friend...

It's not that it's just boring as many SOL shows are, it's that it's annoying, and its attempts at being funny are simply not.

Very rarely have I been compelled to write a review on My Anime List, but this show has finally done it for me, because I feel absolutely baffled by how this is considered a good show. To be clear, if you enjoyed this show/manga, that's great, more power to you, and I'm definitely not trying to take away any of your enjoyment. With that said, this show frustrated me more than any I've ever seen. The TL;DR of it is that is a massive pile of wasted potential.

I'm sure you're already familiar with the premise of the show, and the premise is actually quite ... good. The problem is that they do absolutely nothing with it at all, at least from this first season. The entirety of it just feels like a massive piece of filler. I understand that the show is a bit of slower-paced, slice of life show, which is fine. But the show does absolutely nothing to keep me engaged for it's duration. Instead, the show is almost entirely made up of one single joke, which they repeat over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. It's basically as if Komi's classmates are Spongebob and Patrick, and Komi is the magic conch shell, only there's about 12 times as many Spongebobs and Patricks, no Squidward (i.e. a straight man [yes I know there's Tadano, but he has almost no personality so he hardly counts]), it goes on for 24 times as long, and most importantly, ISN'T FUNNY! This show has the comedic value of a piece of toast on top of a cardboard box. They also try and literally explain the joke, Peter Griffin meme style, for when Komi and crew are acting in a certain way, like I'm not a child, I can tell what they're doing.

Furthermore, most of the characters are absolutely hollow with nothing interesting about them. I know almost nothing about Komi's interests and hobbies, nor Tadano's. All of the side characters make me want to run a railroad spike through my skull. The only decent one is Najimi, who actually has a distinct and entertaining personality throughout.

I guess a big part of my problems with this show may have also been my expectations going into it. I was going into this show expecting a bit more serious and less bizarre take on social anxiety issues and things like how we perceive people based on appearances, and it really annoyed me when I watched it and it felt like a collage of various overused anime tropes, unfunny jokes, and overreliance of dialogue. I'm someone who personally struggles a lot with social anxiety and connecting with others, and while I don't want to just throw around allegations of ableism, I feel like this show wasn't at all an accurate representation of what it's like being the average person with these kinds of issues, at least to me.

So in the end, idk. I just don't see why people enjoy this so much. To me, it feels like an amalgamation of the worst aspects of anime. My advice for those looking into it would be to try the first few episodes, and if it isn't doing anything for you by then, just bail, because it certainly won't do anything for you later on.

Thank you for reading.

„Why did I watched this? Am I some kind of masochist?"
These were my first thoughts after completing this show.

Needless to say that sense of humor and comedy differs to each person. Still when I somehow managed to finish this creation and looked on meta score, I was surprised the most in a while. First of all it’s comeady, so I started to watch this and take it somehow easy expecting to deal with most things by humor and then watch some serious moments in addition. Instead of this I got almost
zero serious moments and humor was same thing over and over. There was ... so many things I hate like worshiping of a person, bullying, SIMPs, terrible romance and mainly repetitiveness. YES there are literally 2-3 major jokes which are repeated all the time. It’s really not funny to see how is some guy mistreated and despised for no apparent reason at least not for me, it wasn’t funny for the first time, second time and it’s not funny even the 4512th time. I hoped it would be something like Yamada-kun to lvl 999 for example, perfectly mixing and uniting humor with some personal issues and social/mental health dissorders. Instead of this I got generic comedy which is not even funny.

STORY: 2/10
Generic and repetetive simple as that. Another slice of life/romance anime where main characters are "dealing" with their everyday life "problems". You’re asking why that irony? Simply because problems are petty and are often dealt by the most stupidest way just to make that medicore not funny gag humor. Whole story revolves around the fact that girl MC is beautiful and if she wasn’t nobody would pay her any attention, THE END.

It feels like authors are trying to say to you „Doesn’t matter if you are suffer from social dissorder as long as you are pretty", yeah... Each episode has that same narrative of Komi entering the scene and being worship, making friends or spending time with them, some MC misstreating, wannabe romance and going back to main duo, repeat. There were actually few sparkles of hope and moments which I enjoyed a bit, but they were overshadowed by some stupid joke right after.

CHARACTERS: 2/10
There isn’t a single character which I would enjoy from all my heart. All of them are somehow annoying and some almost not bearable. Type of people who would buy Komi onlyfans right after she would make one - her pathetic simps which are praising her like you would praise the sun in Dark Souls. Who knows they would maybe bought her excrements to fill their pillow with it. Komi which character stands on her beauty and overshadowes her dissorders and other traits, because authors need to throw it to your face in every episode. MC which is perfect example of generic romcom MC and has every trait of character like that. Side characters have better development then main characters. I appreciate they want to indicate that some of the side characters are just as important to the story (that means Kaede and Najimi). Don’t get me wrong they weren’t anything special and felt medicore, but at least i didn’t have that intuition to punch something like in case of an MC.

ART: 6/10
There’s not a reason to praise it or neither hate it. If you consider it’s made in 2021 you somehow expect solid animations and art style. Still in it’s own genre and vintage it looks on point. On the other hand there are few which looked better in my eyes like Horimiya, Koikimo, Higehiro, Taisho Otome Fairy Tale etc.

SOUND: 8/10
Best part of the anime in my opinion. OP perfectly fits to this art style and anime overall. Music and sounds throughout the show was nice addition to atmosphere.

ENJOYMENT: 2/10
Although I praised last to aspect little bit, there was still a lot of things which were destroying this show in my eyes. It bothered me to the point where I had serious issues to not drop it. For sure it’s not my type of thing and I’m pretty sure it would be enjoyable for me if authors would choose different approach to the story and main characters. It’s hard to pick a serious theme like social dissorders and mental health which is such a big topic nowdays and turn in into a good comedy. I’m a type of guy which can make fun from almost anything, but I didn’t find this style of humor funny at all. This is my main issue which authors didn’t handle.

OVERALL: 2/10
Despite the fact that I scored two aspect quite high my conscience doesn’t allow me to go higher. Komi is type of anime which you either hate or like and nothing between. If it’s style of humor fits you well, you will have a good time and if not you will probably drop,
because humor is the thing it stands on. Don’t expect real dealing with dissorders and social anxieties or you will be dissapointed.

Komi-san wa, Comyushou desu or Komi-San can't communicate?????Seriously, excaly, what was going on in the mind of this series' original creator named Tomohito Oda, for coming up with something that involves a girl namely Komi Shouko with communication problem, where she prefers to write what she want's to say rather than just saying it? Now here's the juice:

Story:

Pros: It was "Good" as in, it was unique, cu'z it was something new to the table, cu'z this time a round it involves a girl with comm skills problem and a guy who has to be this stupid to help her overcome her comm skills problem , ... but pathetically aiding her to make 100 friends. To help him achieve his gola of helping the girl with comm skills problem he has to enlist his childhood friend's help to do so.....unfortunately.....

Cons: What the guy and his Childhood friend do, was anything to but to help the girl overcome her comm skills problem. In fact what the original creator does, was stick to the premise that "Komi-san can't communicate." Ok, so we have see a lotta anime where the character was just plain pathetic and it involves guys, but here in this anime the pathetic one is a girl and yes just like those pathetic guys in other anime which you wish you can go there and give that guy a Karate chop on their heads, it was the same with Komi-san, you would also wanna give that girl a Karate chop on her head....cu'z the main character in this anime's story plot were just proving to be annoying.

Verdict: 7 over 10 ( the score was for the part where it has brought some new to the table.)

Art:

Pros: Ok, as for the girls' illustrations, some where eyecandy like Komi, Osananajimi, Onemine Nene, Yamai Ren, and Makero Yadano.....

Cons: Tadano HitoHito's illustration what I really hate about it was that cowlick that kinda looks like a flower that makes him gay, Agari Himeko's illustration that makes her look like a freak, to which you would find a boring Otaku more fashionable that her...and Inaka Nokoko's illustration, that portrays her as this country bumkin with the worse fashion sense, man I see much cutier country bumkin than her.....

Sound:

Pros: That's for the opening theme "Cinderella (シンデレラ)" by Cider Girl" and there is that Osana Jimi's seiyu, Murakawa Rie who did a good job of portraying her as this happy go lucky bokuko that basically enjoys life and friends, in fact her voice outshines the main female character , Komi....to which..

Cons: The seiyuu hired to do her voice was just a complete waste....let's face it man, studio OLM, shouldn't just have any female seiyuu do Komi's voice since her dialogue were compose of short phrases and whispers which doesn't make any sense to give that main character her own seiyuu.

Verdict: 7 Over 10 ( the score is for Osana Jimi's voice and the opening theme)

Character:

Pros: Given that the support character Osana Jimi outshines the main female character, Komi, I gotta give credit to her, since it was her that gives spice to this anime's otherwise boring outcome, given that her character's spunk and outgoing personality does a lot to make up for this anime's story plot to have a certain direction. There was also that yandere Yamai Ren, that gives this anime some bit of horror and some bit of comedy...... Unfortunately.....

Cons: Same cannot be said for the main character, Komi whom simply was just annoying that her character would've have been better off getting bullied and teased for her pathetic condition of unable to speak, when she's not a deaf mute that needs some communication assistance...I mean even a deaf can communicate opening through sign language, so wtf does Komi can't simply just say something...IMAO, them Japanese always have the knack for coming up with some strange illness, disorder or condition. For a girl like ,Komi, who wishes to have a hundred friends and be able to communicate with the help of HitoHito Tadano was just very much a dichotomy as in how can you make friends when you can't communicate and how can a guy like HitoHito help someone as Komi, when what he does is one step forward and 2 step backwards, in fact in this anime he hasn't even gain any ground. IMAO, HitoHito Tadano 's character ought to be bullied along with Komi for being a fool to help her when she hardly put's any effort to improve herself....

Verdict: 8 over 10 ( that's for Osana Jimi's character , who gave this anime's story plot some direction)

Enjoyment:

Pros: If not for Osana Jimi, I would've dropped this, cu's her personality outshines the main female character.

Cons: Komi and her stupid friend / stupid therapist Hito Hito, whom , if I can have it my way, would like to give both a Karate chop on their heads.

Verdict: 6 over 10.

Overall:

Verdict: 1 over 10.

They're not lying when they give this anime's title "Komi-san can't communicate", IMAO, they should've titled this "SPEAK UP, BAKA ONNA!" On ward to season 2........(sic).

Merry Christmas!

being honest? dropped. i had high expectations about this anime since it speaks about two things i'm interested (social anxiety and non-binary people) but they missed the point BADLY. their only non-binary character is overly-sexualized (they basically treat non-binarity as a fetish), and there's a very poor opinion over social anxiety?? you can't just make a anxious person talk normally and act like you're curing them from a curse. Komi couldn't speak her whole life, how is pushing her through her limit helping in any way?? they could just work with the written dialogue.. they clearly didn't search for more than five minutes about both ... subjects and didn't talk to anyone who could properly adress them on it, and i'm very disappointed. this anime is almost gross to watch for me

The only thing I have to say, this is a very bad representation of social anxiety.

Komi has what you would call "pretty privilege". Social anxiety is horribly romanticized in this. I had high hopes for this, I thought it was good at first. But the representation is horrible. I can compare this to watamote, where Kuroki is unpopular because she has social anxiety. Komi is "cute" and everybody flocks to her because she is pretty, and her "shyness" makes her "cute", or whatever. They are complete opposites, and I would say watamote is a good representation

I have watched 6 episodes and it was super repetitive, ... and I was sick of that too, so I've dropped it. Basically, every episode is: Let's find a friend for Komi, but wait haha look she can't talk and is shaking how funny.

Overall I would say everything else is average, the art style was a little unique (in my opinion I did not like the art style of the characters) and not anything special, animation was also average. I didn't really pay attention to the sound. The characters were not special, and I liked najimi except for the fact their whole character was just, dressing like a boy and actually being a girl or vice versa, and I had a problem with that. Just let them be whatever gender, instead of turning it into a (bad) (and repetitive) punchline. The whole show is pretty unfunny for a "comedy". Especially since the comedy part is just Komi not being able to talk. That's not funny.

And if we take the whole "pretty girl with social anxiety struggles with life haha" bit away, there is no show. And that basically tells you all you need to know about how they make fun of her social anxiety and romanticize it. This show does not have a speck of reality. It reminds me of Tumblr or something.

So yeah, I absolutely hate how it is portrayed, again it is overall romanticized.
So If you want to watch something with a good representation, well it's not here, sorry.

Really do not get the hype. I was hoping for a more serious story considering the show is tackling ideas about social anxiety, however the serious moments are few and far between and the comedy is painfully bad.

This show is really similar to Saiki K in the sense that seeming the author runs out of ideas so they are forced to introduce a random new character to try and shake things up and to create an arc around them. While I dislike this in Saiki, it works in respect to the universe because the premise is highly unrealistic i.e. psychic antisocial protagonist, as well as ... the juxtaposition between Saiki's desire to live a quiet life, which is being invaded by others. Komi wants to make friends, yet there is little to no progression in terms of her improving with her condition. This is the problem, Komi has been shown to not have been able to make friends in the past, yet soon as she enters the school she is immediately the centre of attention. The message of the show is generally awful, basically saying that she doesn't need to try and overcome her faults because she is attractive. Each character, like Saiki, has a crazy wacky personality trait that defines them and is the entirety of their character. Unlike Saiki, not one of these characters have succeeded at being anything that wasn't just straight up annoying or irritating.

The characters are some of the worst I've ever seen in a show. The green hair and the yandere character I would describe as hilariously bad but they never made me laugh even once so I don't think they even deserve that. It makes it hard to sympathise with Komi's anxiety when these characters are in the frame. It would have been fun to see Komi overcome her fear and stand her ground against Yamai, who basically tried to kill Tadano, by voicing her opinion. Rather, they are immediately friends again in the next episode. A terrible outcome. There could have also been a way that Komi, due to her lack of communication skills, exhibited bad communication by upsetting her or angering her because she can't phrase what she wants to say properly.

Another flaw is that the title is redundant. Komi can in fact communicate, she does not have any problem communicating. She is not socially anxious, she is just randomly mute. She can't speak but this becomes redundant because Tadano can read her mind randomly and she writes everything like a budget Elizabeth from Gintama. There are many ways of communicating with someone, she can't verbalise, however she exhibits no other symptoms of social anxiety. This basically ruins the premise of the show, the only gimmick is that she can't speak. If it was actually hard to understand what she wants to say or we were mislead due to her social anxiety I would be way more impressed, however she just writes whatever she would have said - the conversation randomly halts to allow her to write. It would have been nice to see her being unable to keep up with the flow of conversation, as socially anxious people usually struggle as well as writing being significantly slower than talking. Alas this is not the case.

When people are saying that the show would be better with just Tadano and Komi in the picture instead of the side characters, that just goes to show how bad the writing is. Komi literally doesn't even speak and Tadano is a self insert, which is interesting because people complain about self inserts in other media when Tadano, literally having no personality traits or interesting features, is exactly that.

Few pros include good art, but significantly better in ep1-2 than the rest of the show, realistic scenes with Komi such as the scene with her quiet father and her trying and failing to get Najimi's drink (because of her social anxiety, stuff like this should be more common where she not only fails in verbal communication, but is also unsuccessful with her writing/body language/pointing etc.).

Komi-san is probably one of the worst new anime I've seen since Mahou Shojo Site and that's saying something considering I got through all of Wonder Egg Priority "ending", Akudama Drive, watched every single episode of Carole and Tuesday, and rewatched King's Game TWICE. And yet I still got more entertainment from King's Game. So what makes it so bad? Let's start with the story.

STORY 2/10:
The story is much like Hioribocchi or Akembi's Sailor Uniform; all these plots involve a girl wanting to make friends. Except those other two are adorable with adorable girls who aren't surrounded by weirdos. Komi is surrounded by weirdos because ... she herself is a weirdo, but not nearly as much as one like the side characters. The story is bland and forgettable and even the show forgets it. Nothing more to say about it really. Oh, and there's an uninstersting main character who is like the typical male MC you find in most romance or harem anime who befriends her to try and help her make friends. There's nothing to him.

ART 5/10:
The art isn't bad though the animation isnt really there considering you don't need to animate much. It's no Kill la Kill or Takt Op. Nothing that bad like most day it is. It's just very typical art for this kind of plot.

SOUND 5/10:
Same with the art. Nothing good and nothing bad. The OP and ED themes aren't very good and you probably won't remember them like Promised Neverland, Shiki, Basilisk, Code Grass, etc. Nothing good, nothing bad. Just average.

CHARACTERS 1/10:
The characters, to put it lightly, are terrible. We've got bland Komi, bland MC, a crazy lesbian who stalks Komi, a crazy girl who wants to be a dog, some weirdo dude who thinks he's from an anime, a trap, a rival, and some other unimportant side characters. Komi's mom and dad are irritating along with the rest of the cast. The problem I have the most with them is how unrealistic they are and how if anyone acted this way in real life, they would be thought of as freaks and probably jailed, especially in the stalker lesbian example. Do I, as a lesbian myself, have a problem with the stalker girl being a lesbian? No. No, I don't. I could not care less about her being homosexual or not and nor do I care about the trap being the way he is. I could not care less and I certainly don't care about any "representation" in anime or any other media. There are many rapist lesbians, stalker lesbians, creepy lesbians, etc etc... And I could not care less about them. They do not matter and never will outside of these shows. So, the characters are shit and I don't care that the lesbians are crazy weirdos.

ENJOYMENT 1/10:
I did not enjoy this anime at all and I ended up just playing it on my phone while gaming. I didn't find this funny and I didn't enjoy any of the characters. It's very boring and the only people who seem to really like it are those who've read the manga or those who just like Komi. I am not either of them, but hey, this is just my opinion and humor is subjective.

OVERALL 1/10:
I hated this anime so much and I will never pick it up again. I rarely like anime set in a school and I like comedy even less. I don't even really like American comedies so it's safe to say I won't really like Japanese either. I realize that many will disagree with me and that's find. This is my opinion and you should like what you like. Don't skip this anime because of what I said and don't change your opinion about it because of me. I didn't watch Kill la Kill for the longest time because of what people said about it. I now understand why those people were wrong and I really enjoy it. And for other anime? My friend thinks Neon Genesis Evangelion is overrated and not a good Mecha show. I still love that show and it means a lot to me. My review and opinion should never change yours and should never make you feel bad or feel ashamed of liking this. Like what you like and don't let people bully you over it. I didn't like it but it's fine if you do.

Komi Can’t Communicate is a comedy about a 15-year-old girl with extreme social anxiety who attempts to make friends. It fluctuates between “Mildly entertaining” and “One of the most unfunny comedy anime I’ve seen in my entire life.”

Komi begins the show with the goal to “Make 100 friends.” That premise becomes irrelevant when you realize everyone is magically drawn to her. For some reason, everyone in this high school finds her irresistibly attractive. She quickly becomes a passive protagonist shortly after meeting her second friend. Her goal no longer motivates the plot. Instead of making 100 friends, she should’ve filed 100 restraining orders because these ... students are absolutely insane. In the first episode, the recurring, completely unnecessary narrator warns us that the school is full of weirdos, creeps, miscreants, but they’re far worse than she made them sound. Everything the narrator says reiterates what we’ve already seen, adding no comedic value. There’s a wide variety of appalling cliched archetypal characters who hover around her like a swarm of bloodthirsty mosquitos: stalkers, psychotic lesbians, and more creeps.

Komi’s first friend is Tadano, who sits next to her in class. He makes it his job to help her form a friend group by communicating with her via writing because her anxiety prevents her from talking. The romantic feelings between them progress at a snail’s pace, but hey, it’s better than nothing. Their relationship is wholesome and unique, aside from a few weird comments from Tadano. The first red flag was when he described her to the audience, “Her skin is pure white…her hair is smooth, she smells good….” Dude, can you turn down the creep factor a bit? Honestly, Komi-san would be a decent slice-of-life if you removed everyone but Komi and Tadano. You’d get a show like Teasing Master Takagi-san without teasing and replace Takagi with a knock-off Rei Ayanami. But then they threw in all of these god-awful stereotypical characters that do nothing but drool over Komi like blossoming sex offenders.

Creeps and weirdos from Komi’s high school fawn over her so much that it crosses a line into sexual harassment territory. One of the lesbians tried to make Komi eat her “sausage,” and I want to ask the author, what the fuck were you thinking? Why would you add raunchy sex gags in a wholesome slice of life? Another girl lasciviously pleads for Komi to ‘abuse’ her—which is just her misunderstanding Komi’s anxiety as disgust. We’re not even at the bottom of the barrel. Some of Komi’s stalkers kidnap Tadano because he’s getting too close to her for their liking. It’s like I was suddenly watching an episode of Mirai Nikki, except everyone was the yandere. Then as if nothing happened, everyone went back to being besties. It wasn’t funny when Kazuya stalked Chizuru in Rent-a-Girlfriend, and it’s not funny now. The way to make stalking humorous, if it’s even possible, is to humiliate the stalker. They attempted to do this with an ironic sight gag in episode 2: While Tadano followed Komi, right behind him was a sign that read “Watch out for stalkers,” and passersby proceeded to mock him. The side characters who aren’t bizarre homophobic tropes or mentally ill are simply annoying. Your enjoyment will depend on whether or not you think yelling is funny. Audiovisually, the presentation accomplishes very little to elevate the underwhelming sense of humor.

I don’t get why people say this anime has great animation. The studios blew the budget on the OP art and the first two episodes. The character designs are barely animated besides a few motion-tweens, slight movements, and lip flaps. Aside from the opening, it is very drab to look at. There are only a handful of ways this adaptation takes advantage of the animation medium, such as adjusting the aspect ratio during flashbacks. There are a handful of clever transitions in the second episode. Using an analog rewind effect to portray multiple awkward conversation attempts is a genius idea but underutilized. A real problem was how they simply put manga text boxes on screen a lot of the time. In moderation, this is fine, but it’s all the time. Since Komi can barely talk, she writes her thoughts in a notebook for Tadano. It makes sense, but then they use text boxes for everything else. Perhaps this would work for an animated comic, or if they were translated at all. They did not translate much of the text in every version I watched.

Another gag comedy that lacked impressive animation was Saiki K. Except where Komi-san’s jokes failed to land, Saiki K’s rapid pacing and excellent comedic timing kept it fresh and hilarious. Often the jokes left me thinking, “That’s it?” Good anime gag comedies employ a loud bang or crash in sync with a joke’s punchline—Komi-san has those, but frequently they’re too soft, mismatched, or flat out missing. More elegant directing and sound design aside, Saiki K had way better material to work with thanks to the over-the-top personalities of the vast supporting cast. On the other hand, Komi-san has perhaps the WORST side characters of any comedy anime I’ve ever seen. And I’ve watched the depths of the genre.

Najimi is the side character I’m most conflicted on. They identify as male or female whenever they want because they're gender fluid. Part of their running joke is that “they’re actually a boy even though they look like a girl!” All I ask is to let trans characters be funny on their own merits rather than relying on unfunny 2012 “trans panic” jokes. In the second episode, a brutish man grabs Najimi and threatens to sexually assault them—all of it is played off as a joke! Najimi is portrayed as manipulative in how they trick people with their gender, exploitative of Komi’s kindness, and sexualized with fanservice. It sets a horrible example because they’re the only gender fluid character in the show. It is no surprise the fandom debates what their “true gender” is because the author treats being trans as a joke. One of the only funny jokes Najimi is associated with is when they found communication and speech textbooks under Komi’s bed. The gag works because it relies on the funny parts of their personality, not mocking trans people.

I don’t know anyone who has anxiety so bad that it prevents them from speaking personally. However, I know it is not uncommon for people with extreme social anxiety to learn ASL. But part of the appeal here is watching Komi struggle to communicate for laughs—at times, it’s painfully relatable seeing her dread awkward social interaction, like worrying how to tell someone they have food on their face. Sadly, this author is not concerned with alleviating Komi’s anxiety, educating the audience, or portraying her disability in any way resembling reality. Throughout the show, she becomes slightly better at communicating. But it’s hardly a driving force of the plot. They could fix this glaring issue by making Komi the narrator or perhaps the main character rather than Tadano. She may be non-verbal, but she’s full of thoughts—why not let us hear what she’s thinking? Movies about deaf and non-verbal people have used this storytelling tactic. It would help the audience empathize with her. To see her as a real person instead of an artificial waifu figurine manufactured to be laughed at and pitied.

There are a ton of better comedy/slice-of-life anime you should watch instead of Komi-san. Here are a few to start with: Cromartie High, Kaguya-sama, The Disastrous Life of Saiki K, and Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-Kun. The premise is tone-deaf, the comedy is painfully unfunny, the romance is stagnant, and it lacks a distinctive style or visual spectacle to be worth watching for surface-level entertainment. Just as I don’t get why the vast array of awful characters adore Komi so much, I don’t get why people love Komi Can’t Communicate.

Alright, get your torches and pitchforks out because I'm gonna say it: Komi san can't Communicate is bad.

My main issue with the anime is that the characters that make up the cast range from delusional to bland, with one of the most generic and uninteresting main protagonists I have seen in a long time. I know a lot of animes make characters with names related with who they are and whatnot, but Tadano Hitohito literally just translates to "some guy." Like come on.
I know that this is a comedy based show so there's got to be a wild cast to keep things interesting but they ... are largely uninteresting and cringey to me. That one girl (can't remember name) literally kidnaps Komi's sole friend (Tadano) and at the end of the episode Komi really just goes "'Kay ur my friend now too.'" wtf. The librarian girl who wants to be Komi's dog makes screen time with her involved a cringefest, Tadano is about as interesting as a sheet of printing paper, and the only normal person in the show that I've seen throughout half of the first season is the gender ambiguous childhood friend of Tadano, who more or less acts as a counterbalance to Komi as a person with a bustling social life.

Now, the entire premise of the show revolves around the character, Komi. The basis of her character is that she's beautiful/cute and the entire school populace idolizes her without knowing about her social awkwardness. With that, comes the ability to just about get away with anything "because she's cute." However, there is one problem I have encountered with this aspect: Komi is not cute. I'm aware that the artist has a certain style and whatnot but she's kinda suffering from Yugioh hair sydrome where its in a weird shape and looks like its holding a pound of hairspray. Her eyes are humongous and her mouth is uncomfortably tiny and the scenes where they zoom in on her face kinda makes me want to recoil and look at something else until its over.

So why do people like the show so much and why does it have such a good rating? From what I have gathered, the show's mainstay is that it is:
1. Relatable to a lot of people who also have trouble socializing.
2. Some people out there actually find the show's jokes funny (somehow).
3. They are interested in seeing Komi's character development, socially and romantically with the piece of cardboard that is Tadano.

To summarize, I don't like the show because:
1. Not funny, jokes cringey and repetitive
2. Characters make me want to scratch my skin off for fun
3. Komi not cute in the slightest, despite being school idol
4. Would be invested in character development if not for reason number 2

However, with the show being praised and rated so highly by the general audience, I do suggest that you try watching it. As a wise man once said, "If you don't love it, you don't get it." Obviously the show was off the mark for me, but maybe you will love it to death after giving it a go, or you'll see what I'm talking about and drop it like I did. No harm in trying.