NHK ni Youkoso!

Welcome to the NHK appears to be a character study of the hikikomori lifestyle being experienced through Tatsuhiro Satou. Here we have a guy who is afraid of the outside world and using the explanation of 'conspiracies' from his sempai in high school to try finding an excuse for his problems. Then, his encounter with the mysterious girl Misaki sets off a chain reaction of events where he encounters several folks he met from his high school days whom he thinks can save him from his troubles. But to Satou's dismay, these people have their own issues as well that are explored.

NHK also centers around the pains of reality and the escapism some of us could go through to escape reality. The painful thing about reality is that there are times where things don't always go your way or some opportunities one could go for are not as good as one would seem. While many of us just learn to cope with such hardships, there are some who find reality unbearable and will do what they can to escape it, whether by going into their own world or even suicide. NHK is effective in the fact that it explores the mental conditions of Satou, his past acquaintances, and Misaki as they feel their lives are tearing apart and thinking that they know what must be done to better their lives.

The series is both depressing and humorous, so much so that while the actions of the characters or Satou's hallucinations may seem hilarious at some points, you can get a feeling of guilt realizing that these characters are setting themselves up to living a tough life. This delicate balance was handled decently for NHK.

Despite how well the characters and plot are, NHK does have it's issues. There were points where I felt the otaku fandom of anime and video games seen through Satou and his otaku kohei, Yamizaki, were overdone and could have been better handled. Also, there were points in the series where the animation looked inconsistent. At some points, the character designs did not look as detailed and polished as they were in previous scenes or episodes. Then later on, the animation style would revert back to how it was from before.

Despite these flaws, Welcome to the NHK makes for an intriguing watch as it explores a side to Japanese society that has been overlooked by recent anime titles.

I wasn’t going to watch this series. Honest. The premise seemed too goofy and depressing. But there was a lot a buzz on the net about it, people who were excited about it without saying why, and I got curious.

And that’s pretty much what the show is like: Goofy and depressing, both at the same time. The lyrics of Elanor Rigby kept popping into my head when I thought of how to describe what it was about.

All the lonely people, where do they all come from?
All the lonely people, where do they all belong?

But that doesn’t quite say it right, either, because it’s also a hopeful show, and a humorous one. Not "funny," really, but it’s about living on the darker side of Japanese society, and the show takes good advantage of the fact that all kinds of life, even that kind, has its humorous aspects.

The "hero" of the series is Saito Tetsuhiro, a college dropout and hikikomori for three years. (See the BBC link below for background on the syndrome.) Secluded in his apartment, wallowing in his hopelessness and indulging in blaming his condition on conspiracies, he answers a knock on his door to find a matronly woman and young girl distributing flyers on the dangers of hikikomori in the neighborhood. He frightens them away, but later the girl, Misaki Nakahara, returns and announces that she is making Saito her "grand project" and proposes to cure him of his condition.

The process is less a cure than the start of a chain reaction, as Saito’s life spins out of its isolated orbit and collides with others’, primarily those of people from his past: His high school class president, the girl from the school literary club, the underclassman he rescued from bullies. Each time our worthless hero stumbles into their lives, he thinks they can help save him, only to find out that their lives didn’t turn out much better than his. But in the process he somehow manages to help them just by trying to help himself.

I’m not sure what the series all adds up to exactly. Maybe it’s about how the clean, efficient, productive Japanese life has left behind these shady sub-cultures that can trap people. Maybe it’s about how simple human contact can show you how to free yourself from those traps. Maybe it’s about facing your inner demons and, if not vanquishing them, at least learning how to keep them locked up in the closet long enough to get on with your life. In any case, it’s an offbeat, thought-provoking, and entertaining series that I enjoyed watching a great deal. Strong rent rating.

The first fansub episode is available on this very strange, surreal and paranoid series under the title of Welcome to the NHK. It is a commentary (or perhaps a parody) on the lifestyle of a small group of Japanese society.

Here are a few important terms defined.....

Hikikomori or NEETs or Shut-ins – a term for those alienated and detached Japanese youth, but they are also associated with a potential for homicidal and violent behavior. (More info at - http://en.wikipedia.­org/wiki/Hikikomori

NHK – Japan's primary public TV broadcasting company (and rumored to be at the center of many conspiracies – NOT).

For more information as to the manga series - see the very interesting summary at - http://en.wikipedia.­org/wiki/Welcome_to_­the_NHK!.