Waifu Wednesday: Shouko Komi (Komi Can’t Communicate)
Often, people can struggle with problems that no one else can see. Such is the case for Shouko Komi, who appears to the world to have it all. She’s beautiful, smart, and well-liked by everyone who meets her. However, she lives with a particularly severe communication disorder which causes her to be unable to speak to almost anyone in person. This means that, as the title of the series would imply, Komi can’t communicate.
However, as Pete explained before, that doesn’t mean that Shouko Komi doesn’t want to connect with her classmates. Instead, it means that she simply needs a bit of extra help.
Who is Shouko Komi?
When Komi Can’t Communicate first starts, we’re just as blown away by Komi’s beauty as everyone else around her. She’s tall, with striking features and piercing eyes. When she brushes past fellow student Tadano, it is assumed that she simply feels he is beneath her. He is just as plain as she is beautiful, after all. No one would expect her to give him a second glance.
Shouko Komi spends the first morning of the new school year being essentially fawned over by the rest of the class, who are vying for her attention in increasingly dramatic ways. However, she never speaks to another soul. It isn’t until the lunch break that Tadano realises that this isn’t because she wants to distance herself from her classmates. Instead, it is the opposite; she desperately wants to make friends but feels unable to.
Why we love her
Komi Can’t Communicate focuses on the journey that Tadano and Shouko Komi go on as she tries to fulfil her goal of making 100 friends. This would be a lofty ambition for anyone, but Komi’s social anxiety and communication difficulties make this particularly difficult. And that is kind of the point of the show. Komi needs extra support to realise her dreams, but that doesn’t mean that they are impossible. She just requires a bit of extra help. She doesn’t look like she should be so debilitatingly shy, but that only makes others overlook her behaviour and focus on her looks.
This show is one of the most wholesome anime you’ll ever see simply because it allows Shouko Komi to struggle and then overcome those difficulties to make friends with the other students in her class. She isn’t depicted as a sad case or freak and she doesn’t give up on her goals when they prove more difficult for her than most people. It is genuinely heart-warming to watch and is the reason Komi Can’t Communicate has enjoyed such high praise for its first two seasons.
Why you’ll love her
Just because you don’t have a natural talent for something isn’t a reason to give up on it. Sure, your progress might not be as quick as other people’s but that doesn’t mean you should get discouraged. Shouko Komi celebrates even the small victories in her journey to communicate with the students around her, which is great advice for anyone struggling with their goals. Those small victories add up quicker than you think.
Shouko Komi is a great depiction of someone with severe communication difficulties, both because we see the way it impacts her life and because we see the positive change that comes from finding the right support. She is one of the most fun and endearing characters in anime and we love her for it.
If you haven’t seen Komi Can’t Communicate yet, you can catch the first two seasons on Netflix right now. The anime does a pretty good job of translating some of the unique written gags of the manga, making it a great way to experience this touching story.
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