I’ve been watching anime for over 20 years now, and reading manga for a good 8 years or so. You’d think that by now, all plots were pretty much predictable, all dialogues and storylines pretty common and repetitive. I’m a person who gets giddy enough quite easily: give me a little romance there, a little rom-com here, and I’d be gushing like the hopeless romantic that I’ve always been. But sometimes, I bump into a story that just speaks to my very soul and gets me all jumpy and excited beyond the normal, and that’s just what happened to me a few days ago.
Meet Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashi, a manga by artist Fujita. The title literally translates as Loving an Otaku is Diffiult, or It’s Difficult to Love an Otaku, or something to that effect. The title pretty much explains it, in all its simplicity.
I don’t want to dwell too much into the actual story as I feel that personally reading it will be a much better experience for whoever decides to try out the manga (versus just reading my description of it), but here’s the more or less summary of the chapters I’ve read so far.
It’s the story of anime/manga otaku girl who happens to meet childhood friend and gaming otaku boy at her new company. Somehow through their gaming and manga/anime exploits, they enter into a relationship, tackling everyday work and life while living their otaku lives with their friends, and discovering more about each other and themselves along the way.
Somehow, the description I wrote doesn’t do the actual manga any justice, but I feel like talking about it too much will ruin the beauty of the story and the chapters. It’s really something that you have to read to understand and fall in love with.
Reading aside, I’m quite excited for the upcoming chapters. Apparently, the artist uploaded her works onto Pixiv, where it was recognized and later turned into its own manga. So as of right now, there’s only a handful of chapters available, but rest assured, the giddiness of the storyline doesn’t require chapters upon chapters to introduce. Most especially for gamers, and anime/manga fans, and even cosplayers, this is the kind of love story that hits home. There’s a lot of realism to it, a lot of things people can relate to, or learn from. Aside from the comedy parts, and there’s a lot, Fujita goes to a great deal to explain the otaku nuances that non-otakus might not understand right away.
So far, here are the things I really really like about the manga:
(Warning: Spoilers/Photos Ahead)