Fifteen-year-old otaku Tomoko Kuroki believed that she would become popular when entering high school due to her experience with otome games and dating simulators.

Written by two people under the pseudonym Nico Tanigawa, WataMote began serialization on Square Enix's Gangan Online service on August 4, 2011.

[13] The manga gained popularity overseas after fan translations of the series were posted on the English-speaking imageboard 4chan, the Western equivalent of Japan's Futaba Channel.

), known as TomoMote (トモモテ) for short, ran in Square Enix's Gangan Joker magazine between January 22, 2013 and July 22, 2015,[16] and was collected into one volume released on August 22, 2015.

[17] A novel anthology written by Nico Tanigawa, Masaki Tsuji, Yugo Aosaki, Sako Aizawa and Van Madoy was released on November 15, 2019.

[76] The main ending theme, featured in all but four episodes, is "Dō Kangaetemo Watashi wa Warukunai" (どう考えても私は悪くない, "No Matter How I Look At It, It's Not My Fault") by Izumi Kitta.

[76] The ending themes for episodes two and five are "Musō Renka" (夢想恋歌, Dream Love Song) and "Yoru no Tobari yo Sayōnara" (夜のとばりよ さようなら, Farewell, Veil of Darkness) respectively, both performed by Velvet.Kodhy.

[78] The ending theme for episode six is "Natsu Matsuri" (夏祭り, Summer Festival) by Utsu-P & Toka Minatsuki, featuring vocals by Hatsune Miku (a cover of the original 1990 hit song by Jitterin' Jinn).

He criticized the show's main source of humor—the protagonist's social anxiety disorder—as being demeaning to the mentally ill, and he rebuked those who watched it for enjoying the suffering of someone else in order to feel better about themselves.

and Komi Can't Communicate, anime which also feature protagonists with social anxiety, may in part owe their popularity to WataMote paving the way for them.