Wotakoi: Love Is Hard for Otaku
ヲタクに恋は難しい
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Adult otaku couples at the office — romance without pretending to be someone else.
Narumi Momose, twenty-six, has changed jobs because the colleague she dated for a year dumped her when he learned she was a fujoshi, a devoted fan of boys' love manga. At her new office she means to pass as an ordinary young woman, and there she runs into Hirotaka Nifuji, a friend since childhood: handsome, capable, expressionless and a gamer to the bone, the one man she has never had to hide anything from. Over drinks he asks her out, offering to help her through hard game levels as a perk. She accepts.
Being a couple turns out to be harder than being friends. Narumi avoids Hirotaka at work because she does not know how to act; their colleagues Hanako Koyanagi, a well-known cosplayer of male characters, and her long-time boyfriend Taro Kabakura, their gruff boss and a quieter otaku, try to help and end up quarrelling themselves. Over drinks Hanako admits her fear that Kabakura stays with her only because two otaku find each other easy. Hirotaka worries in turn that nothing has changed since he and Narumi started dating; on a day at an amusement park they ban otaku talk, then drop the rule and relax. Narumi gives him a pair of earrings, and they hold each other.
Hirotaka's cheerful younger brother Naoya, hopeless at games, befriends Kou Sakuragi, a painfully shy gamer from his university whom he takes for a boy. The eleven episodes end on a holiday: Narumi finds Hirotaka collapsed after gaming without food or sleep and cooks for him, Kabakura agrees to read one of Hanako's boys' love manga and enjoys it, and Narumi drags Hirotaka out on a date that ends at her place, watching her favourite voice actor on television.
Three short sequels followed. In one, Hanako tells how she and Kabakura met as rival volleyball captains in high school. In another, Naoya discovers that Kou is a woman; she stays away from university in embarrassment until he reaches her through an online game, and the two grow closer. The last, released in 2021 with the manga's final volume, sends the office on a hot-spring trip, and ends with Narumi asking Hirotaka whether he would like to come on a trip she is planning next.
Starring
Arisa Dateas Narumi Momose
A twenty-six-year-old office worker and fujoshi who hides her hobbies at work after they cost her a relationship.
Narumi Momose’s story
Narumi has changed jobs to start again as an ordinary young woman, and runs into Hirotaka, the gamer who has known her secret since they were children. Over drinks he asks her out, and she says yes. Not knowing how a couple should behave, she avoids him at work until he tells her he is not dating her just because another otaku is convenient. He helps at her stall at a comics fair. When he worries that nothing has changed between them, they spend a day at an amusement park with otaku talk banned, then drop the rule, and she gives him a pair of earrings. She cooks for him when she finds him collapsed after gaming through the holidays. In the last sequel she asks him to come on a trip she is planning.
Kent Itoas Hirotaka Nifuji
Narumi's childhood friend, a capable, deadpan salaryman and hardcore gamer who has loved her for years.
Hirotaka Nifuji’s story
Hirotaka has loved Narumi since she dragged him around as a child, and has stayed shut up in his games ever since: capable at work, expressionless, indifferent to the women who notice his looks. When she joins his office he keeps her secret and asks her out, offering help with hard levels as a perk. He tells her he is not dating her for convenience, and kisses her the night she finds the card games they played in middle school. Worried that he is nothing like a regular boyfriend, he asks her on an ordinary date; they ban otaku talk, then drop the rule, and she gives him earrings. On the office trip in the last sequel he gets on with colleagues while wanting time alone with her, and she asks him along on her next trip.
Miyuki Sawashiroas Hanako Koyanagi
Narumi's senior colleague, a famous cosplayer of male characters who quarrels constantly with her boyfriend, Kabakura.
Tomokazu Sugitaas Taro Kabakura
The team's gruff, conscientious boss, a lighter otaku who keeps his tastes to himself and has been with Hanako since high school.
Yuki Kajias Naoya Nifuji
Hirotaka's sociable younger brother, a university student with no otaku interests who is terrible at games.
Aoi Yukias Kou Sakuragi
A painfully shy student and skilled gamer whom Naoya befriends, assuming she is a boy.
Why it matters
Wotakoi is a comedy, eight parts gag to two parts romance by its author's own reckoning, but its premise touches something real: adults who have learned to hide what they love, at work and in love, because being found out once cost them a relationship. Narumi's last boyfriend left her over her hobby; Hanako fears she is loved only for convenience. The series offers a gentler model, in which two people keep their separate passions and make room for each other's, and in which being known matters more than being impressive. The manga ranked first in the 2016 edition of the guidebook Kono Manga ga Sugoi, and its publisher says its strongest following is among women in their twenties. What it leaves open, lightly, is how much of oneself a person must show before a relationship can be called honest.