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I don't mean this to insult, but either ask anybody who's ever found herself in that part of her life (pretty much a loner that doesn't know how to talk to people), or look at yourself if you identify with her. The reason her manga got really popular is because she was a relatable character for all her flaws, as there's plenty of people that have found themselves in Tomoko's shoes.

Anyway, the most obvious thing you must have gathered by now is that 95% of Tomoko's dialogue is introspective, while the 5% that remains is hampered by her social inexperience which can make her come off as creepy. Given her lack of contact, she has far too much time to think by herself, but without someone to actually bounce her ideas off to, few of these thoughts are actually well-rounded or accurate, and thus some actions are seen as creepy since she doesn't know either what freaks people out.

And similarly, the excess of time to think, when she is not doing much, is sometimes used to daydream either in fantastic worlds where she is awesome, or her too-common episodes where her mind retreats to sexual scenarios, which may have contributed to her becoming a pervert. Without many people to bounce off to, especially after she and her brother distanced themselves as they grew, Tomoko is a person that's had to entertain herself in any way possible (thoughts, videogames, daydreaming, sexual daydreaming, etc), and because of it she may have a rather low empathy towards others.

Because of this, a trait that can come up is that she's a little possessive of the people she gets to consider close friends, and the spin-off manga of her years with Yuu and Kotomi shows this. She's afraid of losing or disappointing the people she has that are still close to her, and because of it she tries to keep them somehow.

Similarly, think of social abilities as a muscle that needs to be maintained just as much as your body. In Tomoko's case, it's a muscle that never got exercise after a too long, and she didn't realize how bad it was until the time the story begins. It could be argued that precisely that is the source of much of her misfortune, the fact she is so nervous in any attempts at social interaction that she doesn't really know what to say or do.

Another thing you will notice in Tomoko is that she often gets insulting thoughts about others, many times to hypocritical degrees. I'd say this is because of a very low self-esteem she has, which she tries to dampen by mentally demeaning others with the excuse that she is better off than them, or trying to see the world in the way she thinks they should be. From either vengeance against others for the most mundane of reasons, to "Don't read if you're a bitch!"

That being said, things that lift her self-esteem put her in a really good mood, and possibly make her a little more empathetic. The drawing she gets from that fat guy, even if it was a generic face, made her think she was beautiful, and it remained the bright spot of her day in the anime.

And even if it's not simply an action to make her feel better, getting to share an emotion with someone has helped her: In one time, when she is studying, she finds someone watching an anime on his laptop, and they silently watch it together. Although Tomoko mentally berates him, when they finish the series, she seems to miss him as that was the bond he formed with her (and even notes the anime is boring without someone to watch it with). Similarly, in her second year, she gets to talk to someone without becoming a nervous wreck, which by itself is a sign of progress.

All in all, Tomoko is a person that has suffered a lot from a lack of social contact, and because of it many things have become lost to her, at many times having to go by videogames and visual novels. She knows she is socially inept, but the theme of her story is that she doesn't want to remain in that spot, which is why she keeps trying.

... Wow. Sorry for the TL;DR, anon. I still hope this gets to help.

Fuck. Ignore this. I thought this was on character advice. I realize now how was I able to write so much. It'd still delete this if I could.

To answer your question, I think it depends where you'd want the character and what how would you want her to develop as a character. I think either Luceti or Holly Heights for things similar to canon (although Luceti has a more eclectic setting, but that may change as the plot mod dropped).

...You do realize they were asking for game recs, not advice on how to play the character, right?

I know you've already realized this was the wrong thread, but thank you for the advice anyway! The part regarding the little things that lift her day was actually very helpful, since I had a feeling I was being too negative with her recently anyway (in musebox only, I mean). I'll look into the games you recced too!

Well as long as this is an impromptu advice thread anyway, I'll just chip in to say that I think these pages are incredibly illustrative of her problem:

http://imgur.com/oMKJC2l
http://i.imgur.com/yTv7ebw.jpg

If she would just stop mugging for the camera, she would be fine. But she can't stop mugging for the camera. She is obsessed with how she appears to an outside observer, and just can't relax unless she's totally alone. Every public action she takes is planned out obsessively for maximum positive social impact; but because her understanding of social situations is sketchy at best and because the things this process leads her to say and to are forced rather than natural, it makes everything a million times worse.

(´･ω･`)

Re: Tomoko Kuroki | Watamote

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