I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for an honest review.
This does not affect in any way my opinion of the book nor the content of my review.

Series: Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku #1
Published by Kodansha Comics on April 17, 2018
Demographic: Josei
Genres: Comedy, Romance, Slice of Life
Source: NetGalley
Add to Goodreads

GAMES OVER ROMANCE
Narumi Momose has had it rough: Every boyfriend she’s had dumped her once they found out she was an otaku, so she’s gone to great lengths to hide it. When a chance meeting at her new job with childhood friend, fellow otaku, and now coworker Hirotaka Nifuji almost gets her secret outed at work, she comes up with a plan to make sure he never speaks up. But he comes up with a counter-proposal: Why doesn’t she just date him instead? In love, there are no save points.

Are you obsessed with aspects of popular culture (video games, anime, manga, etc.) to the point you are socially awkward? Congrats, you are an otaku. How does this affect your love life?

Wotakoi main point is to show how love is hard for otaku, especially considering they feel misunderstood or, better yet, not understood by the rest of society at all. Chances to find your soulmate would increase exponentially if you’d date another otaku, don’t you think? And if the right one is very close to you, then you should definitely give love a shot. This is an extra-long book that includes two Japanese volumes—YES!—and while I like the concept a lot and I think the artwork is well executed, I had some issues with the layout. In my opinion, the panels were confusing and following the sequences/making actual sense of them was tricky . . . However, this improved a bit in the second volume, where the bonus scenes were quite funny, and I developed some sort of fascination for Koyanagi and Kabakura—they are truly something else! I wish I could say the same about the main couple, but I’m afraid I’m not much into it because I couldn’t see the chemistry, since there’s not a proper relationship development.

Overall, I liked it and I particularly loved how Fujita framed things in terms of video-games, and the references to various manga and anime, some of which are impossible to not know—at least by name—even for those not particularly into them. Guess what? Now I wanna watch the anime!

---