Anime Boston

I saw this on the video schedule and I have to say, if you haven't seen it, you should check it out. It's really cute and a little bit sad.

Reviving this a little!

So, with this past year, I can finally make a comparison:

If you liked WATAMOTE, but wished for it to be more sombre, less "intense," and with less anger-based anxiety, PRINCESS JELLYFISH IS FOR YOU.

Seriously, though. Watamote is harsh and has the protagonist alone and hateful. Princess Jellyfish is surrounded by people who care about her, but they ALL have terrible social anxiety and reinforce it in each other. It's less of a comedy of errors and more of a "finding one's strength" story.

Both are GREAT takes at what it means to be afraid of socialization, and what it means to have rock bottom self esteem, and they are two sides of the same coin. I'd recommend both, even if Watamote hit a little too close to home for me at times. One looks at social anxiety through a harsher, more pessimistic lens, and the other looks at it through the idea of Japanese Otaku (not in the American sense, the original definition, where someone is obsessed with trains, another is obsessed with The Three Kingdoms, and another with old men) trying to function in a society that...well, won't slow down for them. Watamote has stylization going for it, especially the "glass box" motif going on, but Princess Jellyfish is much more "feel good" and very much like "She's still struggling with her anxiety, but she's coping and working at it, and...maybe I can too."

Oh, and did I mention? Both have awesome openings.