That’s Pretty Cool

If you look at the bottom right corner of the manga, in this picture, you can see that it says “海外の2ちゃん的な掲示板で大人気!!”. Which translates to “On a foreign 2chan-like board, this manga has become extremely popular!!” And the ‘foreign 2chan-like board’ in question is indeed our home 4chan.

When I originally typeset chapter 2 on a whim, on /a/, all those months ago I never thought something like this would happen. And you know what? That’s pretty damn cool. Of course this definitely would not be possible without all you guys out there reading it, and subsequently buying it, regardless of if you’re from /a/ or not, be proud of yourselves.

(Image from Akiba Blog.)

Update #1: Holy crap, you guys managed to get it to #1 on CDJapan books!

Update #2: WOW. Over the course of the night it reached #1 overall on CDJapan!

36 thoughts on “That’s Pretty Cool”

  1. My best friend, unfortunately a Redditor, brought up Watamote in conversation awhile back as part of a joke. He said that in one thread, someone claimed that a single person from 4chan had saved the series by buying out all the volumes of the manga. The “punchline” to the joke was that 4chan users were so socially awkward that it was only obvious that they would end up identifying with a main character like Tomoko.

    I’d heard the name of the series before, so I decided to start the anime and quickly fell in love with it. I also decided to check and see how accurate that joke was, not believing that anyone on 4chan could make a difference when it came to Japanese publishing. I was astounded to learn the truth of the matter, and where the joke meant to disparage those anons who supported Watamote, I found the story very sweet and inspiring. On a related note, I always enjoy stories about positive moments of cultural exchange between Japanese and Western markets.

    I have been reading Watamote for the past three weeks, and it has been like viewing a historical archive, each chapter beginning and ending with a WWW bumper and often some encouraging words about the previous volumes sales along with information about the anime when it was announced and started airing.

    Though I more or less shit on my friend’s joke when I told him that I too heavily identified with Tomoko, I don’t feel bad about it. A lot of people are really turned off of the series because it’s too “cringey” but I feel a sense of camaraderie with Tomoko and all the other anons who identify with her as well. I’m also very happy that /a/ (and /v/ too in their “special” way) may have kept Watamote alive.

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  2. Nice to see that this is making it’s way around the internet too (http://kotaku.com/5880409/4chan-used-to-promote-a-japanese-manga-well-sorta).

    I have to say it’s really cool to see something like this gaining the popularity it is. I actually heard about the manga through the link above and now I’m making sure to pass it around to all of my friends as well.

    I’ve got nothing but respect for the author, and I hope that she’ll continue to produce more of this fantastic series. A big thank you to World Three for providing the translation as well. Let’s hope this series will continue to skyrocket in popularity.

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  3. We would be a really bad target audience for anything. The moment we feel condescended to with the barest hint of culture insertion we tend to lash out. I remember threads mad about GG subbing a “[noun] get” in, which was ridiculous because (a) “Get!” wasn’t ours, and (b) It was accurate subbing, you could hear it spoken.

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    • There was no domestic sales. If it wasn’t for 4chan her series was going to flop. It was the first real hit she had and she thanks 4chan for buying it because until now she hasn’t really experienced royalties.

      Reserve your opinions until you are aware of what you’re talking about.

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  4. I’m happy this mange is getting the attention it deserves, if it’s popular enough they might consider making a adaptation out of it.
    Truly impressive /a/, truly impressive.

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  5. >make cdjapan account to order this
    >fumble and spill dinner all over keyboard
    >spaghetti under the keys, tomato sauce all over monitor
    >try to clean up mess but i don’t have tools so i cant take off the keys
    >just leaving it and going to bed
    >next day, laptop won’t start up. heard a funny crackle from the powerbar
    >typing this on library computer as i prepare to commit sudoku

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  6. One of the authors twitter posts got translated:

    “I’ll collectively thank all of you. As for the weird images(the uncensored dicks) that were sent, since I’m not a voice actress, I really don’t care, so it’s ok. Please don’t worry about it.”

    Seems like she’s talking about the penises that /v/ (and /a/?) sent to her on twitter, she seems like a total bro.

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  7. Don’t forget about /v/, they’re the ones who dubbed her “spaghetti-tan” in reference to GameStop greentext stories. They had a mega thread full of people buying the manga and because of the shipping costs some people were buying two copies since it only raised the price from $15 to $20.

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