Komi can’t communicate? I’d say he did pretty well at communicating Hillary Clinton’s cavalier (and illegal) actions towards keeping classified state emails on her private server during the 2016 election! Oh wait - that was James Comey, the former FBI director. This Komi is a shy high school student…
The first book of Tomohito Oda’s series Komi Can’t Communicate wasn’t bad. I’m sure most naturally shy and socially awkward people will easily relate to Komi’s struggle to have the confidence to speak and reach out to others, but, more than that, it’s a sweet story of two outsiders - Komi and Tadano, a loner boy - finding friendship together.
Komi wants to make 100 friends because she doesn’t have any - everyone just assumes that she’s too cool and above-it-all, so no-one ever approaches her and she’s completely isolated. Worse, her shyness is so crippling that she can’t speak to make any friends. Enter Tadano, her first friend (and obvious love interest), who makes it his mission to help her achieve her goal.
It’s not the most riveting read as it has minimal plot - Komi goes to get coffee for Najimi (unusually, a teenage trans character) to get used to speaking to strangers in public, they play games in between classes - and is mostly about lonely kids slowly learning to socialise, which has limited possibilities.
But there were some heartwarming scenes like Komi and Tadano “speaking” for the first time, writing on the blackboard after class, and then speaking for real over the phone when Komi accidentally calls him. In a sense, the title is wrong - Komi can communicate really well in the right medium: writing or over the phone; she just can’t speak to anyone face-to-face.
Maybe Oda’s commenting on the prevalence of phones in today’s society where more people feel comfortable to text each other than call or meet in person - we live online now and have forgotten how to communicate normally - or maybe not. Either way I look forward to seeing whether Komi’s trouble speaking is explored further in future volumes.
And I will be back for more because I did like Komi Can’t Communicate, Volume 1 more than not - it’s an original and charming high school manga.
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