I'm still not sure what to make of this one. It tries to be cute and uplifting and sometimes succeeds, but there seems to be an underlying negativity to it.
It doesn't feel to me like Ujioka is just awkward and insecure and taking chances will bring him rewards and bring him out of his shell. It feels like the world really does dump on him, and sometimes he manages to avoid the worst of it and things don't turn out quite as bad as they were looking like they were going to. It like the payoff isn't watching a character go from something that looks sort of negative to something positive, but from something that looks godawful to something that's hopefully not entirely negative.
Or maybe it's just me....