Follow TV Tropes

Following

YMMV / Komi Can't Communicate

Go To

  • Adorkable:
    • Komi in spades. How can her cuteness be described when she goes into her well-known face-mode; her face goes almost blank except for her two big simple round eyes with large black dots in them. Gains twitching cat ears when pumped for something. Is naturally curious about anything. Blushes when her relationship with Tadano is brought up. Appears graceful on the outside but her nature is a little silly sometimes.
    • Manbagi. While not having a communication disorder like Komi does, she's every bit as awkward as her when it comes to social dynamics and even her crush on Tadano.
    • Tadano. He's viewed as the most ordinary of his classmates in either year —even being told he's 'so normal' by everyone in Class 1-1 when justifying getting Komi one big present between them— but he absolutely has his cute moments when it comes to Komi; chief among them is his reaction to Onemine's photo of Komi from the cat cafe, where he essentially planks on the floor realising he should have gone with the girls, but wanted to give Komi space to interact with Kaede and Onemine.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation: Najimi gets this a lot from the fandom.
    • Is Najimi simply an clueless, yet self-centered prick who only really thinks of themselves, or are they purposely giving Komi difficult tasks to try and improve her terrible social skills and gradually make her more comfortable in social situations?
    • The latter is supported by them apologizing for sending Komi to the coffee shop with so complicated an order. It's then undercut by them doing the same thing again when giving Komi a similarly complicated sandwich order for Sabowey. Both times ending with Komi breaking down crying.
    • Najimi's actions throughout the series arguably reveals them to be Jerk with a Heart of Gold, forcing friends and classmates into situations they might not initially agree to, but almost always end up with everyone having fun in the end, from organizing a Christmas party in a single day so Komi could have a birthday party, rallying their expanded friend group beyond everyone Komi knew to scour the city for an 8 year old who ran away, or organizing a Mixer for Komi and other girls who have trouble communicating for one reason or another, to name a few. It's only when Najimi's gambling addiction and their desire to make money to feed into that addiction does Najimi ever do anything that isn't good for their friends.
  • Americans Hate Tingle: Yamai isn't exactly the most popular character among the Japanese fandom but she was still well-liked enough to be ranked 15th in the popularity poll in a cast of over 100 characters, meanwhile the English-speaking fandom is not fond of Yamai at all because of her extreme, perverted Yandere tendencies towards Komi, seeing them more as annoying rather than amusing. The fact her first major appearance is being Easily Forgiven after kidnapping and threatening Tadano, how she remains unnecessarily hostile to him, and initially being the most recurring character after Najimi, don't help. Fortunately, her appearances eventually became less and less frequent as of Chapter 130's classroom shift.
  • Base-Breaking Character:
    • Manbagi Rumiko gets introduced into the story over 100 chapters in and her introduction slowly leads to a tone shift of focusing on the emerging love triangle between Komi, Tadano and herself. In many ways, Manbagi is the Breakout Character of the series, being warmly received by fans, effectively becoming the third main character of the series and her "pairing" with Tadano being fairly popular. On the other end, you'll find detractors who feel that Manbagi is the Spotlight-Stealing Squad whose introduction caused the series to be bogged down too much by the romance partly due to the preconception that her romantic subplot is doomed to not succeed.
    • Tadano Hitomi is either one of the funniest characters in the series or a Karma Houdini who gets away with constantly invading Shosuke's personal space and slinging unprompted insults at her older brother.
    • Kawai was divisive since day one. While some fans find her character arc frustrating as she instigates a love triangle right off the heels of Year 2's Komi/Tadano/Manbagi triangle and is obsessed with Tadano, a handful of fans find her a much more threatening love rival for Komi and appreciate that she's one of the very few people who isn't charmed or won over by Komi's personality on the spot. The base around her broke even further when she decides she wants both Tadano and Komi after getting to know the latter better, with some liking the pseudo threesome dynamic and some disliking how it happened and how they felt that dynamic fit Manbagi better.
    • Wakai is either a welcome addition and a perfectly good possible partner for Manbagi, who is also a likeable guy in his own right, or a boring carbon copy of Tadano that only exists to throw Manbagi a bone and shares no chemistry with her otherwise.
  • Broken Base:
    • Almost everybody in the fandom wanted Komi & Tadano to be together, but now the problem comes from Komi's quest of making new friends — whether it should continue, or just stop in order to develop the pre-existing relationship with the cast & have more Komi & Tadano moments.
    • Chapter 130 resets the slate, with the start of the second school year. Almost all the previously established female characters, except for Najimi(?), are no longer in Komi's class. This caused a split over whether this is sticking to heart of the original premise and those who wanted there to keep the established ensemble.
    • This comes to a boiling point with Chapter 188, where we are introduced to most of the classmates of Komi & Tadano at once. Part of the fanbase did like them for being less manic about their devotion towards Komi and accepting Tadano, but some found them to be gimmicky regarding their Punny Names (through no fault of their own since before the summer vacation only Manbagi and to a lesser extent Ase are fully introduced to us).
    • On a similar note, Manbagi's increased importance in the series to the point of the main romance now forming into a Love Triangle has got the fanbase conflicted. While Manbagi herself is a very popular character, the presence of the Love Triangle has now caused debate if it was an unnecessary addition and the aforementioned complaint if the romance aspect is overshadowing the original plot of Komi making friends.
    • Another example comes from the nature of the manga. For one part, there's the fans who are in the story for the romance (which is markedly important, but constitutes a small portion of the manga); on the other part, there's the fans that are in for the slice-of-life and fluffy moments (which constitute the vast majority of the manga). Since the manga is predominantly the latter, there's no particular rush for the romance aspect, which doesn't sit well with fans of the former.
    • And then there's the Art Evolution. Tomohito Oda's art overtime became increasingly stylized accentuating larger eyes and rounder faces for the characters compared to the more realistic proportions of the original character models. The debate of which art style was superior erupted after the anime's debut where it used the later character designs for the earlier content.
    • There is a certain sector of the fandom that believes that they should have abandoned the initial premise of "getting 100 friends", since this has caused a big problem of "quality versus quantity", to the point that many of the supposed friends are just extras, with whom Komi can hardly interact, so they think that Komi, instead of increasing her numbers, should focus on the friends she already has, plus there is the fact that Komi seems to be able to accept any type of person (including psychopaths as Yamai), in order to increase her numbers.
  • Catharsis Factor: Any time Komi chooses Tadano over Yamai can be rather satisfying, as the latter often can't do anything to get back at him because she's aware that it'll get on Komi's bad side.
  • Crossover Ship: Despite the Fandom Rivalry (or perhaps, precisely because of it) there's a decent amount of fanart shipping either Komi-san or Tadano with Tomoko Kuroki. With Komi, thanks to both being very different kinds of Shrinking Violets and with Tadano, given he will help her make friends quicker. Althought, is commonly agreed that Tomoko would hate Komi at first before becoming friendlier with her.
  • Diagnosed by the Audience: Komi is explicitly stated to have a "communication disorder" that makes it difficult for her to interact with her peers — however, the disorder is never specified beyond this description, since in Japan the term "communication disorder" can refer to anything from being neurodivergent to simply having No Social Skills. Despite this, a considerable number of fans interpret her as being autistic and/or having social anxiety disorder thanks to her preference for nonverbal communication, her difficulties with following the mood of conversations, and her tendency to experience borderline panic attacks when faced with certain types of social interaction.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • Onemine's this thanks to her introductory chapter, as she's one of the first aside from Komi and Najimi (relatively in the latter's case) to treat Tadano well, and decides to support Komi & Tadano. An official popularity poll also had her edge out the considerably popular Manbagi for third place, right behind Tadano and Komi themselves, and that was even after her appearances in the manga were lessened due to the change in classes.
      • As the poll indicated, Nakanaka is also quite popular for a character that - like Onemine - drops out of focus a bit after the first year; while often compared to Yamai in temperament at times, it helps that she isn't particularly aggressive toward Tadano and is friendly enough overall despite her Chuuni tendencies, has a distinct and appealing design, and... Well, she's not Yamai, whose placement in opposition to Nakanaka across a number of chapters automatically makes the latter more sympathetic.
    • Katai, as he's the first male student to get a focus chapter on him after Najimi (and even then Najimi is... well, Najimi), having an enjoyable variant of the delinquent archetype, and his chapters are more focused on his relationship with Tadano instead of Komi.
    • Omojiri Miwa, the new homeroom teacher introduced in chapter 158. She quickly struck a cord with a lot of older readers due to her comical and relatable struggles with her Work/Life balance. There was much rejoicing with the reveal that she becomes Komi and Tadano's official homeroom teacher in their third year.
    • Takarazuka, the Bishoujo character introduced in Chapter 211 for being a supportive person towards Komi and supporting her relationship with Tadano. But the larger reason that she's liked is because she indirectly gets Komi to break the status quo on the romance plot line in a huge way.
      • Similarly to Takarazuka, the rest of Class 2-1 as a whole counts as well. Despite their lack of major involvement in the story, their unique personalities and being genuinely good friends to Komi and Tadano, earned them the approval of many readers.
    • Kishi Himeko, the knight girl who often appears alongside Yamai and Onigashima, took 17th place out of 100 characters in the official popularity poll, despite being little more than a faceless background character. While this popularity mainly stems from her design, she also won over fans with her response to Yamai pestering Komi for a goodbye kiss at the end of the first year.
  • Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Placing the manga near Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out!, Teasing Master Takagi-san and Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro when discussing trends in Romantic Comedy genre on social media is a quick way to summon a lot of fans who would explain the fundamental differences between them, starting with Komi not being The Tease.
  • Fandom Rivalry: With No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!, both are manga series about a Shrinking Violet trying to gain friends. One is a lighthearted Slice of Life with Romantic Comedy elements focused on a larger cast, the other is a brutal Cringe Comedy focused on the more embarrassing consequences of living like that. Given the different approach both works take, fans of the two series tend to debate which approach is better. With Watamote fans finding Komi-san too unrealistic and Komi-san fans finding Watamote too cruel. It doesn't help that Komi-san is a mainstream hit and one of the more popular animes of The New '20s while Watamote is a modestly popular Cult Classic.
  • Fan Nickname:
    • Najimi is "Hideyoshi" on account of their Ambiguous Gender.
    • Tadano has several of them:
      • "Chadano", referring to the Chad meme. This video explains the absolute alpha male Chadano is for his kindness, his apathy towards Komi's extreme popularity in favor of genuinely befriending her and ultimately his defiance of Rom Com standbys of being Oblivious to Love by declaring his love for Komi in no uncertain terms.
      • Until Chapter 250, Tadano was popularly referred to as "Trapdano" whenever he dressed in drag. The chapter established the more convoluted "Tadano-kun-chan" as a substitute.
      • After Hitomi described him as "as interesting as a block of tofu", the Japanese side of the fandom adopted "Tofu" as a mocking nickname for him, typically used when he's acting especially Oblivious to Love.
    • Komi's mother Shuuko is often called "Komilf", for obvious reasons. Thanks to the Anime adaptation, she also got the nickname "KikuKomi" thanks to her Japanese voice actress.
    • "YamOoi" became a low-key one for Yamai Ren, primarily because she looked similar to the said shipgirl, and the fact that they both are Yandere Psycho Lesbians.
  • Friendly Fandoms:
    • There's a certain amount of overlap between the Komi fandom and the Nagatoro fandom. Both series were released within months of each other, both feature a stunning black-haired girl with a cat motif falling for a nerdy, regular guy. Also, both female leads are actually really shy; Nagatoro handles it by being a tease, and Komi... well, Komi doesn't handle it.
    • Some fans of the 2010s light novel series The Pet Girl of Sakurasou were attracted to this series due to the similarities between its plots, both of them being about a Nice Guy befriending a beautiful girl with zero social skills and improving her life thanks to a quirky secondary cast (and due to the hope that Komi will have a more satisfying ending than Sakurasou).
    • Fans of Hitoribocchi no OO Seikatsu and Bocchi the Rock! also get along well, with both having simiarly socially awkward leads.
  • Growing the Beard: It is widely agreed that starting from Onemine's introduction, the subsequent side characters have started moving away from idolizing Komi to actually seeing her as a friend.
  • Ho Yay: Possibly the reason why the mangaka is hesitant to write in male characters despite it being a co-ed school:
    • For starters, Tadano & Katai. For being a character that was initially introduced rather late in (Chapter 76), his focus chapters and his later chapters in attempting to bond with Tadano would actually make him a legitimate love rival for Komi if Katai were a girl. His first interaction with Tadano after getting a love interest in Katou is being the first person to give Tadano a friend chocolate during Valentine's before Komi could; and during the second year sports festival, all of Tadano's love interests have time dedicated to how they see him (Komi's POV and Manbagi's POV) ...including Katai. Then in the second year school play, he almost word for word copies Komi's confession towards Tadano (admittedly, to maintain consistency with the first showing).
    • Chapter 110 in a nutshell, where all the boys (including Tadano) end up slack-jawed at Katai's muscular figure, Naruse straight up asks him to strip and pose with him because of his "beautiful body", and the rest of the boys are very eager to join in.
      • In a later scene, there's a closeup of Katai and Naruse grunting and panting suggestively. Pull back to reveal they're just really focused on flexing for picture poses.
    • In Chapter 145, Hitohito gets to spend time with Shousuke in the hot springs, gets caught falling by him, and has an awkward silent conversation with him. By the end of the night, Hitohito is bewitched, calling Shousuke "hot".
    • The class smile competition has a surprise upset by Komitani, whose innocent, boyish smile earned him a near perfect score. One of the male judges on the panel, Son, commented that "something new awakened inside of [him]".
    • Onemine and Otori. For starters, they know each other very well and are on a First-Name Basis with each other. At the end of the first culture festival, they can be seen dancing together. There are also many times they can be seen holding hands and are even thought to be a couple in one chapter, though Onemine has to show her schoolmates what would happen if she let go of Otori.
    • When the class gets together for a Christmas party they play the King's Game and Tadano is forced to give Shinobino a kiss. They agree to make it on the cheek, but Shinobino still starts blushing after.
  • Memetic Badass:
    • Due to Tadano's Magnetic Hero tendencies and his respectful treatment of Komi, fans have lauded him as the pinnacle of masculinity despite him being meant to be ridiculously average, as evidenced by his Fan Nickname of Chadano.
    • Kometani's frequent fourth-wall breaking and seeming omniscience and omnipresence has led to fans jokingly referring to him as actually being God in disguise.
  • Memetic Molester: Yamai's troubling obsession with Komi, coupled with her willingness to kidnap Tadano, has led many fans to (jokingly or not) depict her as a potential rapist of the former. The "big beefy hot dog" scene only added fuel to the fire.
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • Komi-san's face. Explanation
    • Tadano-kun has awakened a new fetish. Explanation
    • "Just get married already." Explanation
    • Tadano Bowl. Explanation
    • Trapdano. Explanation
      • Tadano-kun-chan. Explanation
    • Komi anime when? Explanation
      • The joke is finally dead! Explanation
    • Chadano. Explanation
    • Komi-san is a Communist. Explanation
    • "Bang." Explanation
  • Moe:
    • Komi herself is this. Her in-universe beauty aside, her depiction as a mouthless chibi with large round eyes makes her look utterly adorable.
    • Himiko Agari is another example of this, along with being one source of fanservice.
  • Never Live It Down: Yamai's introduction having her kidnapping and threatening to kill Tadano, all so that she can have Komi to herself, left a bad taste in a lot of Western readers' and viewer's mouths (it did not help that, unlike later exploits of hers which at least can seem comedic, this one was played mostly straight and for drama). While she's never stooped to this level of insanity again, the fact that she continued to be hostile towards Tadano and creepy towards Komi hasn't won her any fans. It was only much later in the series that she started growing beyond her yandere-shtick, but many chapters make it pretty clear that she hasn't actually changed much, with other characters being what is moderating her behavior more than Yamai herself.
  • One True Threesome: Komi X Tadano X Manbagi has become really popular after Komi and Manbagi revealed to each other their crushes on Tadano. Since then the two have become much closer and anytime they have a moment with Tadano, they will run to the other to share what happened then try to help set things up so the other one can get a moment as well.
  • Romantic Plot Tumor: The series began as a refreshing slice of life comedy, showing the progress of a painfully shy girl to make hundred friends. 250+ chapters later, the premise is derailed in favor of a love triangle which shows no inclination towards resolution. Komi's progress is forgotten, Manbagi doesn't offer anything outside her interactions with Komi and Tadano, the side characters don't really do much. For someone whose speciality is reading the room, Tadano is unusually dense despite several hints glaring at his face. Whenever there is any indication of progress, the status quo is quickly restored. The plot becomes frustrating to read due to lack of progression.note  The love triangle is finally resolved in the second year valentine, when Tadano is finally made aware of the situation and he properly confesses to Komi. The two agree to date one other. While the chapters were well written, many fans complain that the sub plot was unnecessarily dragged when the outcome was predictable.
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat: After a relative stable first year for Komi & Tadano (with the biggest obstacle between them being their own insecurities), the second year introduces us to Manbagi, who ends up having a crush on Tadano. Wouldn't be an issue if Manbagi wasn't likable in her own right. Of course, before Manbagi, we have Katai as the competitor in the first year...again for Tadano.
  • Shipping Bed Death: As a consequence of the Romantic Plot Tumor, there was an increasingly growing number of readers who lost their patience with wanting Tadano to end with either Komi or Manbagi. This came to a head in Chapter 300 where Tadano accepts Manbagi's Love Confession only for her to talk him out of it and make him realize he really likes Komi. This caused an eruption on two fronts, those frustrated that a storyline with an inevitable conclusion got dragged out for too long, and those upset that Komi is the "victor" even though Manbagi was the actual proactive of the two.
  • Superlative Dubbing: So far it's generally agreed that Komi as a whole was very competently dubbed. Funnily enough, Yamai of all people seems to have gotten a voice (across multiple languages) that more than hits the mark.
  • Take That, Scrappy!:
    • In Chapter 270, Yamai hosts and wins a Numabros tournament, that was rigged by her, with the winner receiving a slap by Komi, befitting Yamai's masochism. Though she did receive a soft one from Komi, she also receives another PAINFUL one from Najimi. Considering how much Yamai is hated by the fanbase (at least in the Anglosphere) and how often she gets away with her perverted tendencies, one can actually hear the cheering of fans when Najimi decides to give her just deserts.
    • Likewise, in Chapter 292, Ichou discovers a microphone from Yamai in Komi's room and starts simulating noises to make it look like she's having sex with Komi. Cut to Yamai at the other side looking horrified.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Chapter 288 hints at the possibility of a relationship between Komitani and Manbagi starting to form, but this is never addressed again after this chapter. Komitani remains Out of Focus after this, besides his usual 4th-wall-breaking comments, while Manbagi gets a different love interest in the form of Wakai.
  • Tough Act to Follow: It would take a lot for somebody to be as memorable as Najimi, but the reception of Agari Himiko was so lackluster that despite being one of Komi's first friends, Yamai quickly replaced her spot in Komi's group and her scenes got gradually lessened. Ironically, Yamai was even less well-received.
  • Unpopular Popular Character: Tadano Hitohito gets the Chew Toy treatment in-universe, being resented by his classmates for befriending Komi so easily despite being a Ridiculously Average Guy. Despite this he doesn't have trouble getting along with classmates when they're not vying for her attention and he is accepted as her Translator Buddy. The reaction in the fandom has been the reverse, to the point where characters who are more outwardly antagonistic towards him, such as Yamai, get viewed as The Scrappy.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
    • All three main parties (Tadano, Manbagi, and Komi) for their 2nd year Valentine's Day. Tadano initially accepting Manbagi's confession, then reassessing his feelings and rejecting her before catching up to Komi, came off less as him being appreciative of both girls but clearly choosing one and more like he would be fine with anybody, as his low self esteem played a part in his initial reaction. Manbagi's confession attempts ultimately acquiesce to Komi, including this one, made some readers unsympathetic to her final heartbreak scene, while Komi being unaware of most of these developments while forgoing giving Tadano chocolate in class all school day made some readers think her insensitive to both her best friend and her crush's feelings.
    • Hitohito's little sister Hitomi—just like her brother, she's attempting to help a Komi (Shouko's little brother Shousuke) with social issues. Unlike her brother, however, it's not because Shousuke asked her to help like Shouko did—it's because she thinks he's not being social enough and needs to break out of his shell, even though he doesn't feel the same way. As a result, she comes across as pushy and disrespectful toward his boundaries, given that he neither asked for her help nor is shown to need it. And that's not even getting into her frequent insults toward her brother, implying his friends are way out of his league whenever she sees them around each other. It only gets worse in later chapters that show she forcibly leaked Shousuke's email address and phone number to the entire school despite the fact that he didn't even give her it in the first place.
    • Wakai in Chapter 443. While it's a bit insensitive of Manbabi to leave Wakai in the dark for some time even after she's decided she'll turn him down (fearing telling him too soon could damage his sports performance), the fact that Wakai ends up confessing again, but this time, publicly in front of a whole crowd that includes his close friends doesn't endear him much to some viewers, given he could be seen as peer pressuring her into accepting his confession after she already told him she needed time to think about it.
  • Values Dissonance: A western viewer might look at the series' very premise and wonder why a person with Komi's crippling social issues isn't instantly making her friends, family and teachers suggest the idea that she should get some necessary therapy (or rather, why she isn't being dragged by everybody to the therapist's office, given the level of the trouble we're talking about here). However, from a Japanese perspective, in a country where the whole topic of mental health is terribly stigmatized and it's very difficult to get help for it, the fact that Tadano and their friends are helping Komi overcome her issues at all is already nothing short of a miracle.
  • The Woobie:
    • Nakanaka hides her loneliness with bluster, but when she briefly drops the act and quietly asks herself why no one wants to partner with her in gym class, it's absolutely heartbreaking. Fortunately, this is right before Komi offers to partner with her, leading to the two becoming friends.
    • Natsukido Rei's parents travel around the world for their job a lot, causing her to not be able to form meaningful friendships; this led her to adopt a mature, distant façade to avoid the pain of leaving her friends behind as a result. Thankfully, her time with Komi eventually led her to open up.
    • Manbagi Rumiko. At the start of her second year she became a loner partly because her excessive makeup resulted in people avoiding her and partly because none of her friends from her first year were in the same class, causing her to stress up to the point of throwing up. Fortunately, Komi was able to calm her down and console her, and they became friends in the process.
  • Woolseyism: The Latin American Spanish dub, big time:
    • In general, the dubs for Komi Can't Communicate make it so the written text is read by another character (Komi's notebook) or a narrator. However, in the Latin American dub (which leans quite a bit towards Mexican expressions, by the way) the narrator adds additional spice and comedy to the story with her narration and her delivery of it.
    • Since the original Japanese version depends much on the puns regarding the character's names, the Latin American dub, as traditionally done in media involving school students on Latin American media, had all the characters addressed on First-Name Basis, but the translation make very quirky and funny puns with their names anyways, through not to Gag Dub levels. As an example, there's Tadano's name, Hitohito, when the even narrator lampshades how funny his name sounds, especially for Spanish-speaking ears:
    Narrator: Y nuestro querido Hitohito se hizo el loquitonote 
    • The dub adds some profanity not even implied in the original Japanese version, like Tadano using the Mexican equivalent of "What the fuck?", when the original Japanese version, he just says "Uh?" instead. Also, when Tadano described his "analyzing the room" skill, one of his classmates insulted him by saying that he "can't analyze shit", when in the original version, the same classmate said that Tadano cannot analyze anything. Also, when Tadano tried to apologize to Komi after he saw her saying "meow", while in the original version he said "What the hell did I just say?!", in the Latin American dub, this is translated as "Now I really fucked things up".note  And all these examples are just from episode 1.


Top