Wooderon’s Favourite Anime of 2021 – #6: Komi Can’t Communicate

You see Netflix, you can do this right. I mean, it took you several weeks to put these out compared to when they came out originally. But hey, you’re getting better at least. At some point you might actually figure out what your audience wants.

You might notice that I’m doing this one a bit later this year. Well, part of the reason for that is the damn way anime season run. The past couple of years I wrote one of these lists, I ended up feeling weird about putting shows on from the Autumn season when they were only half over.

So this time, I decided to at least wait for that last Autumn season to be finally over so I had a better sense of my feelings on those shows. That, plus I ended up really packing my schedule full at the back end of the year and decided to watch a lot of shows right at the end.

This is number 6:

#6: Komi Can’t Communicate

Originally aired 21st October 2021 to 6th January 2022 | 12 Episodes | Based on the manga by Tomohito Oda | Comedy, Slice of Life, Romance

This was a super sweet little anime. One about social anxiety, a subject I know about all too well. Although I can’t say even I suffer from it to anywhere near the comedic degree Komi-San does in this cute little slice of life.

So this series is about Komi; the beautiful, refined queen of the school. A status she seems blissfully unaware she holds. Komi suffers from extreme social anxiety, to the point she can’t ever speak aloud without a huge amount of effort. It’s something that makes her sad, desperately wanting friends but unable to get any, a vicious circle.

In the first episode, she is seated next to Tadano; an incredibly average and unremarkable boy with one key skill; the uncanny ability to read the room. Through this skill he figures out Komi and breaks through her nervousness to learn who she really is. The first episode that end with them conversing using the blackboard is fantastic.

Building to a really effective and emotional breakthrough for the characters while not forgetting to be a bit goofy. Over the course of the series, Tadano helps Komi with her goal to make 100 friends, slowly introducing her to more and more of their schools, quite frankly, utterly insane student body. Including the lecherous and obsessive Yamai, the edgelord gamer Nakanaka and the masochist Agari as well as countless more.

Not to forget Osana; the best character in the series who stops anything from ever becoming too heavy. Once the series gets going, Osana is the genesis behind almost all of the situations the group find themselves in, for better and for worse. Sometimes they’re the one actually organising things an forcing the characters to actually hang out, other times they’re pushing Komi into uncomfortable situations.

In part to try and make Komi grow in confidence and as a person, but also mostly to amuse themselves. Pretty much all of the best comedy in the series centres around Osana for me, them being the butt of the joke in many cases as their extreme confidence and manipulating come back to bite them in the backside.

All playing the focus to the very sweet and slow burn romance between Tadano and Komi, who both slowly also grow as people and gain the confidence to participate in the greater school events with their class and friends.

I liked this show a whole lot. It was very sweet and had a pretty good production value for a slice of life like this, the characters looked great and it’s no wonder it’s getting a second series, which was announced at the end of the final episode. There are so, so, so many anime like this one, but Komi can’t Communicate is a very good one. One of the best in 2021 as far as I’m concerned.

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