Watari-kun’s ***** is About to Collapse – Episode 1

Content Warning: Fan service, “Comedic” Sexual Assault

What’s it about? Teenager Watari Naoto has had his fair share of life’s difficulties, ranging from his parent’s death to living with his aunt in a completely different home. Dedicated to his sister, he makes his way through life doing what he can and leaning on the structure of mundanity. That is, until his childhood frenemy comes storming back into his life, bringing chaos with her.

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I’m not new to stress: in fact, up until rather recently, I was doing a constant backbend to keep from fully collapsing under the weight of a life filled with day-to-day stressors that eventually lead to a sharp decay in my health. Safe to say that stress, and the ensuing anxiety it brings, are familiar to me.

But that’s not why I chose this title. 

To be honest, I thought Watari-kun’s ***** is About to Collapse would be….a bit more of a lewd title, which is why I wanted to poke at it and examine it. But the word in my mind is a letter too long: will I be proven to have little grasp over asterisks and words, or will my worst anime dreams come to light?

Only one way to find out!

Episode 1 begins in the past with Naoto and a mysterious, fair-haired girl. Who she is isn’t immediately apparent until Naoto runs face first into her , but before that, we get a bit of insight into Naoto and his life.

Naoto is, by all means, a normal teen who’s most remarkable trait is how fiercely he cares for his fourth-grade sister. His classmates think he has a wicked sister complex, but in truth, his protective nature stems from the death of his parents and having to live with an aunt that’s more of a mystery than an actual guardian. Passed from relative to relative and parentified at a young age, Naoto has taken on the role of brother and caretaker, leaving him isolated from most of his classmates.

Life is, for the most part, quite mundane in a way that feels comforting in the wake of grief and pain. Then Tachibana Satsuki comes crashing in and the plot completely shifts.

This show is fascinating to me because I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be a slice-of-life romantic comedy, but I fail to find the introduction of Satsuki and the almost horroresque nature she brings to the show funny at all. She feels intensely like a bully here to beat the shit out of Naoto more than a former friend. Even frenemies isn’t right here: she feels full on like an F.O.E. from Etrian Odyssey. She’s straight up stalking him through most of the premiere, and feels more like she could be in a Higurashi-lite anime than here.

Also: why did the opening feel the need to feature Naoto and the two love interests nude? Like… what purpose was there? It’s just weird in an anime that already feels so off kilter to me.

On top of that, there’s just so much dissonance between Satsuki’s intentions and her actions. She basically sexually assaults Naoto to the point I full-on GRIMACED and kind of just wanted to astral project out of my body. Nothing in this episode felt good to me, and while I know there’s definitely fans of this series…I’m not sure there’s a world where I’d be one.

More and more, rom-coms are having to remix the formula, adding their own twist to make a title stand out. In the book industry, we see this with romantic fantasy (dubbed romantasy) all the time: little tweaks and twists and additions of dragons or mermaids or shadow daddies to make a book series feel fresh. Here, the twist is an almost malevolent young girl who is playing at being manic pixie dream girl without any of the fictional reasons that hypothetically make that appealing. Instead, in what feels like an unexpected parody, she’s everything about that trope that would be incredibly off-putting when pulled out of a fictional setting.

It is because of that collection of reasons that my brain is collapsing. I genuinely can’t imagine having to watch episode two, even if it’s the hottest shit known to man, because I’m just not down with this plot nor Satsuki’s behavior at all. It’s discomforting, it’s disgusting, and  while this series probably can claim the same “It’s gets better, I promise! It really does!” that we’re so quick to throw around in the community, I’m gonna get real: I don’t want to be uncomfortable just to see a show potentially stop including comedic sexual harassment as a part of its humor. I did that with Dan Da Dan, and while yeah, it does grow past that, I think it would be a stronger series if it maybe didn’t put Momo in so many sexually uncomfortable situations that mirror the types of assault that already exist IRL. In 2025, I’m not doing that anymore. 

I am always genuinely glad when a series exists for its fans. As a fan of so many different things that have gotten reboots and second seasons or even cherished single cours, I understand the passion that comes with liking a favorite thing. I’m also not above problematic phases: someone at my job said Danganronpa yesterday and it activated me like I was a sleeper agent waiting to opine why Junko is fantastic despite her being a horrific human being. 

Here, I’m drawing a line for myself: glad for others, but glad to move on from this premiere. I think that’s okay. 

(But also…I still don’t know what the heck those six asterisks are for? What’s going to collapse?!)