NHK ni Youkoso!

Outstanding thing. Some times it was amusing to watch, sometimes it was painfully.

"Welcome to the NHK" is a kind of collection. Collection of troubles and problems we can meet in our life. It doesn't perceive as anime. It doesn't perceive as something fictitious. It is life. Hateful everyday life gets emotional colors and draws a wide reaction with slowly walking real life on the our side of screen.

In "NHK" everyday events are not shown grotesque and mockingly as in parodies and not weightly depressed as in psychological thrillers but somehow chaotically and ... tragicomicly — you want to weep, smile, think ironically and philosophize simultaneously. Every joke provokes not a roar of laughter but the sad smile as you recognize yourself and your troubles in "fictional" heroes.

Even if you have a job, relatives, interests, it doesn't change anything. You aren't able to get rid of solitude if you feel your purposelessness and pettiness. If you laugh, you laughter is insincere. If you cry, you wail. Problem of self-concept and fear of the life is urgent for many people, but the feeling of hopelessness and despair appears only when there is nobody to support you. You've got tired from struggle along on your's own not at once but gradually. It happens little by little but it does. There are no N.H.K., there is no god, there are only nonchalance, loneliness and despair. You think that people around get everything easier and live merrily and sociable but you simply can not see the same as you as they also are dissociated from the world. It is impossible to meet for such humans but only they can understand each other. It is very hard and cruel. In "NHK" it is shown somehow exaggeratedly but the inner life is described entirely faithful. Psychology is described as much as possible faithfully, all the reasons are named correctly, emphases are placed where they needed.

Art and sound do for this work and don't have any serious shortcomings. All the aspects of this anime are high qualitative.

Such masterpiece anime must be a conspiracy... Conspiracy against what?

Welcome to the N.H.K. is the story of a 22-year-old hikikomori/NEET named Satou Tatsuhiro.

More than half of you are probably wondering what a hikikomori is; So that explanation should probably come now before getting into the review of the series. The dictionary definition of hikikomori is "a state or condition of acute social withdrawal". The number of people living the hikikomori or NEET (Not pursuing Employment, Education or Training) lifestyle are increasing everyday worldwide but they are predominantly concentrated in Japan among the adolescent male population. The hikikomori are basically shut-ins. They feel uncomfortable in presence of other people. They don’t leave their rooms/houses unless ... they absolutely have to and make just enough money through various means (parents, relatives, jobs that can be done from home, and rarely part-time jobs outside the house) to survive and continue their hikikomori lifestyles.

The main character of the story, Satou Tatsuhiro, is a college dropout. He is a complete conspiracy nut who believes a giant organization encompassing the whole planet called the N.H.K. (Nihon Hikikomori Kyoukai / Japan Hikikomori Association/Society) is working around the clock to ruin his life and make sure he stays a shut-in forever through any means necessary. The origin of his obsession with conspiracies seems to be an upperclassman named Kashiwa Hitomi with whom he spent a lot of time with in high school. Satou realizes that he can’t continue living as a NEET forever and wants to escape the lifestyle and overcome the conspiracies of the NHK but he is too afraid and doesn’t know how to go about it. However, everything changes when one day he meets a girl named Nakahara Misaki who claims that she will save him from his hikikomori lifestyle if he agrees to sign a contract with her and become the subject of her “project”.

The story is about a very serious subject matter but it is still full of humorous moments. The creators of the anime realize that the best way to convert such a serious subject matter into an enjoyable anime that will not only entertain the viewers but also educate them is through humor. That being said, the anime is also full serious and sometimes very sad occurrences. If you happen to be an emotional person, be prepared to shed a few tears or at least feel downright horrible watching some of the episodes of this series. The story progresses at a fair pace with a good mixture of serious episodes and some not too serious ones.

The characters are well designed and although I have never actually met a hikikomori, I would guess that the personalities and lifestyle are fairly depicted. For me, the most notable character in the series is the female lead Nakahara Misaki. She remains a mystery for almost the entire series and refuses to reveal any personal details about herself to Satou. Even when asked directly, she makes up obvious lies in order to avoid divulging anything personal. Her actions leave the viewer wondering and guessing and although that becomes somewhat annoying at times it contributes to the story coming together quite well in the end.

As for the other characters –

Satou is your “typical” conspiracy nut shut-in (or what you would imagine one would act and feel like). While his hikikomori lifestyle doesn’t seem to be as severe as some other people’s, it is bad enough to keep him from functioning as a part of society and most of his ventures to the outside world seem to end with him becoming completely scared and freaked out.

Satou’s only male friend Yamazaki Kaoru is your typical anime/hentai/game otaku. He is obsessed with all sorts of things the most notable of which happens to be echii games. He is very passionate about his obsessions and becomes easily enraged by the smallest things especially if they have any relevance to his obsessions. Needless to say, he is an amusing character to watch.

Satou’s upperclassman (senpai) Kashiwa Hitomi is a complete conspiracy nut like Satou. She seems depressed most of the time and even sees being happy as a sign that she is playing into the conspiracies. She is a supporting character in the series, but plays an important role in the development of the story.

The voice acting is nothing spectacular but the voices fit the characters well. The same can be said about the music. There is no ground-breaking piece of music in the series. There is however a somewhat catchy anime song that is played throughout pretty much the entire series. Do be careful not to get it stuck in your head.

The art and animations are at best average. You won’t find any great-looking characters and the animation can be sort of clumsy at times. I can best compare the art to ‘Great Teacher Onizuka’. However, it looks slightly better and animations are done at a higher quality. That being said, the art style does fit the series quite well. I can’t imagine the story represented with any different kind of art style.

ATTENTION: The next paragraph talks about the ending. While I will not include any specifics about what happens at the end of the series, I will talk about the style and quality of the ending. If you feel this might spoil things for you, skip over the next paragraph.

The story ends. That sounds like a weird statement, but most of you know that in many Anime series that doesn’t happen and it’s always a letdown when this occurs. So rejoice; this one actually concludes. It is the ending you will likely suspect part of the way through watching the series with a few twists and turns before it gets there.

In conclusion, Welcome to the NHK is a well-written and well-told story about a serious subject matter. It has a good pace and just enough of both humor and sadness. I enjoyed the series very much and if it is a type of anime you normally enjoy, I am sure you will love this series as well.

Are you new to anime? Or are you a veteran? Well, with "NHK ni Youkoso!" it doesn't matter! This is one of those anime that you can easily get through, want more, think about it's message and wonder how such a masterpiece isn't more popular. Not only does this anime entertain it's audience with a wonderful story, a variety of characters, great sound affects and great music, but it also teaches the viewer about the difficulties of social anxiety and psychological disorders. There are only a handful of anime out there that handle such delicate subjects and shower them in ... brilliant dark comedy. Anyway, before getting too worked up in my intro, let me start my review.

Story (10/10)

Unique, complex, entertaining, slow paced and utterly brilliant. The story of this anime is so beautifully constructed, executed and structured that it took me a while before realizing how amazing it really was. The synopsis is already provided so I won't be summarizing anything here. In fact, I'd recommend reading the synopsis before continuing to read the rest of this review. The story telling in this anime is such a roller coaster of emotions that it's honestly pretty exhausting sometimes. Most scenes had me in the brink of tears from either laughing too hard or watching something painfully realistic and relatable. It starts off with a lot more comedy in the beginning, but the further you go, the more bittersweet moments you find. The romance is also pretty realistic in the sense that you'll NEVER see the main couple be LOVEY DOVEY. I think some people might dislike this anime a lot because it doesn't necessarily rely on the suspension of disbelief like other anime. True, there are a lot of weird/funny hallucinations the main character sees and hears, but almost all of the situations throughout the anime are believable. Anyway, this isn't the only anime to tackle on the whole "society is a bitch" idea, but it's one of the few to actually do it in such an efficient, painful, smart, and entertaining way. Honestly, I could go on and on about the story, but I think you guys get my point by now.

Art (9/10)

Before judging the artwork of this anime, keep in mind that it was released in 2006, almost a whole decade ago. Although it's not the prettiest artwork or the most innovative, but I do think the artwork fits the genre and story perfectly well. With that being said, there'll definitely be moments when you'll be thinking "wow this anime is a lot more beautiful than I thought". Just like the themes, the artwork has this extremely grungy, old school, somber feel to it. It also reminds me a lot of Cowboy Bebop for some reason. Which obviously makes this anime that much more awesome. All kidding aside though, there is also a good variety of artwork throughout the anime. You'll notice a difference of quality in scenes depending on the setting. Scenes where Tatsuhiro is at the beach, the park, or in the city are a lot more visually pleasing than when he's at home. Facial expressions on every character are also unique and interesting. Overall, the artwork perfectly suits the anime.

Sound (10/10)

The opening and ending songs of this anime are really good. Not my personal favorites, but easily in my top 20. That aside, the quality of the voice acting in this anime is ridiculously high. Each voice actor feels like they're perfectly suited for their role. The sound effects during hallucinations are great and most of the time extremely hilarious. My personal favorite by far is our main character, but that's only because he gets the most screen time(duh). Music during scenes are perfectly intertwined with the situations in the anime. With music you sometimes forget it's there. However, if you've watched anime for a while you can't help, but notice what a big role it plays in most scenes. There's a wide range of music that vary from playful to extremely sad and depressing. It's pretty stunning.

Character (10/10)

This is probably the strongest aspect of this anime. Each character has a purpose. Every character grows, fails, learns, and maximizes their potential as a solid character. There is no such thing as a "weak character" in this anime. It's actually unbelievable how well written, well developed and well exposed every character is and how that justifies their existence. Not a single character feels extraneous or even annoying. It almost feels like every character has tragic hero qualities.

Enjoyment (10/10)

I LOOOOVVVVVVVVEEEEEE THIS ANIME!!!! It's definitely on the same level as Toradora, Lovely Complex, Kimi ni Todoke, Clannad/Clannad: After story, Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai, etc. It's worth watching, re-watching, purchasing, and remembering. It was painful to watch, it was hilarious, it was bittersweet and underrated.

Overall (10/10)

Notes: I did write this review a few weeks after watching it, but my feelings and perspectives towards it have not changed. I loved it and would recommend it to anyone looking for something unique and highly interesting. I'm not going to lie, you have to be a little mature to get some references and relate to it fully.

First, let me say that I saw this entire show in a period of 3 days. So, that in itself says something about how enjoyable it was. If I wasn't having a good time watching it, then I wouldn't have bothered doing 12 episodes in one day. :)

The story is pretty well done. It basically traverses through Satou's rough life as a hikikomori and his various means to combat it. There are a few episodes that I had issues with, as they were quite "okay...this is really cheesy". But, overall, the episodes went well with the life of someone who is afraid to go outside ... or be in large crowds.

Animation is top notch. Absolutely no qualms with anything in this department.

The music was probably the best part about this show. Great opening and decent ending. The background music and "main theme" were awesome too. I'm pretty sure I'll end up grabbing the soundtrack for this series. Very catchy tunes.

The characters...were well explained I think. There were a lot of gaps in my opinion though as quite a few things are left out in the open throughout the show. We don't learn much of anything in detail about the cast either. We learn plenty about Satou and such, but I think they could have done better with "reasons" and stuff like that.

2nd thing I loved about this show was the comedy. Freakin' hilarious scenes everywhere. Satou and Yamakazi are great together and will have you rolling on the floor laughing countless times. The jokes are original and none of that lame crap that "younger audience" anime titles might throw at you.

Overall, very good series. The ending was well done too (though it left me wanting a bit). Pick this up, you'll have fun with it.

I was expecting a dark Satoshi Kon style satire on hikikomorism; the dehabilitating affects of media as represented by the NHK broadcasting company and post millennium conspiracy theories, but instead this anime merely uses hikkomorism as a backdrop for melodramatic relationship angst and blues.

There's no satire, no NHK broadcasting company, and no conspiracy. Why this show is even titled the way it is, I don’t know. The main character only mentions the NHK a handful of times and only in passing, there's no actual focus on the broadcasting company itself. The name is just an abbreviation of the main character's conspiracy theory ... spouted here and there.

There's no deep exploration of hikkomorism, as this anime would fool people into believing it does; the condition is just the Big Quirk (tm) of the character, who suffers more from being a NEET than hikikomori. In fact he spends more time outside than inside his room during the 24 episodes. Shame on the writer also for having the recovery process kick-started by a cute girl coming out of nowhere and helping the loser protagonist no matter how pathetic he is. Anime screenwriting is just masturbation.

Other drawbacks of this show are innumerable amount of contrived coincidences, and plot lines wrapped up so quickly and neatly they might as well have CGI'd a freakin' bow onto them. The main character is written like such an oaf, he is by far the dumbest person on the planet, and probably one of the dumbest in the history of anime too. And it's purely for comedy; but it’s not funny at all, just tiresome to watch his stupidity move him from one plot point to another.

I gave this show a personal non-review score of 7 which means it entertained me, and ultimately it does avoid climaxing into a generic cliche; having the grace to show how life is just too great for some of us to handle in the end. So contrary to what I've written so far this isn’t a 'bad' anime at all. It just falls short in so many ways and could have been something different.

This story could have been special; it could have been an actual compelling look at a real illness plaguing Japan and could have made the protagonist beat it without the help of a girl, and then this anime could have been an encouragement to actual hikikomoris watching it. I don’t know how well the anime followed the source novel, but regardless the writing is at fault, which is ironic considering the main protagonist is also a lousy writer. We can expect too much from anime sometimes, and must be sadly reminded that there are only a handful of writers, directors, and producers in the industry who don’t follow convention and trends, and stand firm to deliver creative and challenging work.

As unique a backdrop as this anime has, it is neither creative or challenging.

Welcome to the world of mental disorders, in which everything looks colorful yet mundane. It is a world that lets affected people transcend the borders of the ordinary by allowing them to impose their very own interpretation of the world upon the circumstances that surround them. This way, people learn to cope with their sometimes unpromising situations by making use of their powerful minds alone.

Those who have a profound knowledge on the functioning of the human psyche including the process of dissonance reduction probably understand the importance of the NHK to exist. Ultimately, that what constitutes the NHK and other conspiracies (in the case of ... Satou and Kashiwa) as well as god (in the case of Misaki) is nothing else than the need to externalize the guilt people feel when confronted with their misery, and to consequently appease their minds in order to keep going.

Basically this is one possible interpretation of the message that NHK ni Youkoso! tries to convey. Despite its comedic appearance, this show deals with one of the most significant topics on social behavior in Japan that even consistently gains in popularity among western societies, and delivers nothing else than mind-blowingly deep engagement with the psyche of four very different characters and the extent of their mutual influence on an emotional and cognitive level.

NHK ni Youkoso! is the only anime I know that manages to get a good grasp of how it is really like to suffer solitude and the inability to escape this mental condition by the means of one's own actions. However dramatic this subject may be, it is the more fascinating how entertaining and easy the method is that NHK ni Youkoso! uses to not let the viewer fall into despair himself, but to rather encourage him to reflect on his own lifestyle by simultaneously enjoying the sometimes hilarious happenings in the lives of the main characters. This series tries to demonstrate that there is always a way out of social isolation and self-pity, and that it is not rocket science to develop one's very own coping strategies.

But, as many other great series, NHK ni Youkoso! is not perfect, not even in storytelling, which shows especially in rough transitions between various minor arcs trying to thematize very different issues socially inept people have to deal with. This leads to a somewhat staccato-styled storytelling, with its story broken up into several pieces and being not fluent enough to be considered a realistic tale. A very inconsistent implementation of romantic elements adds to this and makes me question the characters' attitudes. As a result, the story feels very different before and after episode 9. A sudden change in atmosphere is something that, in fact, often works for anime like these, given the sheer unpredictability in the behavior of mentally unstable characters. In NHK ni Youkoso!, however, this led to my disappointment.

The reason why I couldn't rate this show as high as the story would have deserved it lies within the technical dimension. Although the soundtrack is distinct and fits very well to the not-so-much-desperate, but rather ironically enjoyable atmosphere that underlies the show, the visual arts, especially the key animations, were done really sloppily. If you have watched Ping Pong The Animation, you know that there are obvious ways of selling sloppy arts as a kind of new style. This doesn't work out for NHK ni Youkoso! however, since the drawings are inconsistent in general. Characters are drawn very sharp and detailed at one time only to be dissolving in the background at another. This is something I regard as bad quality, unfortunately.

Overall, NHK ni Youkoso! is a fascinating work that is not only interesting to those who suffer the same fate as any character in this show, but also to people who are just interested in the functioning of the human psyche. This series depicts the strangely easy way people cope with their mental and personality disorders in an immensely entertaining, sometimes absolutely hilarious, but also emotionally involving manner. It makes you reflect on your lifestyle and potentially delivers answers to questions you didn't know you've had before.

Rating: 8.33/10
(A quantified evaluation can be found on my page.)

Here it is, people. This is no hyperbole. NHK is the worst anime of all time. It is one of the worst pieces of media you can conjure. A reality show about the Kardashians must be better than this. Pathetic YouTube parodies are better than this. In order to make something worse than this, you’ll need to let Ian Watkins brag about his pedophilia in the Lostprophets album that was never made.

There is no correlation between artistic quality and morality, as Lostprophets have displayed. Yet, you have to wonder what kind of awful person would subject the world to this. Worse, what kind of person ... would make an anime whose purpose is to make fun of anime watchers? Imagine if your ordinary school bully made an anime. There is so much wrong that I want to rant about it, shoot up heroin and watch Texhnolyze. That one was also bad, but it looks like a better version of Digimon Tamers over this, and Digimon Tamers is already brilliant.

I’m not sure where to start with this mess, so let’s get with the art style. Art style is important. If not, you wouldn’t use a visual medium. Why, then, are the artists so unimaginative? Something makes me worry it’s on purpose, like those East Coast rappers who are so afraid of sounding ‘not real’ their beats barely have a drum. Everyone in this series is black haired and has no distinct facial features.

This may sound realistic, only it isn’t. People in real life actually look distinct. Even if you eschew wacky hairdos, your characters must not look like they came out of the assembly line. There are no odd touches to the hairstyle, different body structures, or an arrangement of facial features that stick out. In fact, the artists are so unimaginative that they can’t come up with a basic sexy design. Our main characters work on an eroge, and the design they come up with can barely touch the most obscure visual novels. Even when they could use anything in the artist’s arsenal – twintails split into 4, floating hair, purple lips – they still end up with a dull design. It’s worse than visual novels that have ‘same face, different hair syndrome’ because at least Da Capo’s girls have pretty hair.

Everyone in this show is also fit and quite hot, despite being hikkies. Satou spent days in his room doing nothing (literally nothing, he’s not aware of the existence of porn). He doesn’t cook for himself and drinks a lot of beer. If you expected an overweight dude who looks like George Martin, you’re bound for disappointment. Satou looks more like Brad Pitt in his Fight Club era with a shirt on and a less aggressive stare. If these guys opted for anything realistic, we would’ve seen the consequences of isolation on Satou’s body. Instead, he looks like a side-character from Free!.

As for the story itself, don’t expect any understanding of what pushes people to be hikkies. Don’t expect a deep, dynamic psychology that reacts to the environment and is an active agent in the story. Any comparisons to WataMote are null, since this is the complete opposite. Tomoko struggled. She was lonely but she had to act and do things. We saw her failures, saw her difficulty and it made it so dark. What Tomoko goes through is our every social awkwardness, only every day.

Satou doesn’t really have to struggle. In fact, he’s not much of a character at all. He has no desires, no life outside the story. He exists so others could pop at his door and force him to get help. It’s not much of a struggle if all you do is react to situations. Sure, it’s not enough to just be offered sex. You also have to go through the dilemma whether to say yes or no to that.

These are two different struggles. One man struggles with getting something, the other is being offered something and needs to accept it or reject it. The creators aren’t aware of the difference. They don’t know how to let a character drive a story, so they offer external conflicts he has to solve. The dilemma of whether to choose yes or no is hardly there, because the anime relies on events and not characters. If Satou chooses ‘no’, nothing actually happens. He doesn’t have a personality to move on from that ‘no’.

Satou, as a character, isn’t an exaggeration. He’s inconsistent. Despite spending years locked in his room, he doesn’t know anything about video games or internet porn or, well, anything. Keep in mind Satou isn’t an Unabomber-style hermit. Hikkies tend to have a hobby that keeps them in the house. Satou should’ve done something during all this time, should’ve gained some knowledge even if it’s only about non-canonical Star Wars planets. He’s completely ignorant of culture that it’s most likely he spent the entire time staring at a wall.

That’s not impossible, but shouldn’t such a person be affected with a major disorder? Shouldn’t that disorder affect every aspect of their life? Socially, Satou is perfectly fine. Whereas Tomoko struggles every second, Satou is relatively confident. The only time social weakness rears its head is when the creators need him to scream for comic effect. Oh look, a hikkie yelled bullshit and emberassed himself! That’s some high-class humor!

The anime isn’t really about the pains of being a shut-in. The conflict is solved in a few minutes around episode 23 – no psychology, no development. Suddenly there’s a problem, so Satou walks out and he’s no longer a hikkie. Rather, it’s about the joys of conformity, how the world is a beautiful, welcoming place and you all should stop watching perverted anime and get in line. That’s ironic, coming from a country where people ‘conformed’ and let the military run the Rape of Nanking and Unit 731.

The ‘highlight’, if you can call it that, is the anime’s treatment of suicide. The idea life may not be worth living crosses the mind of the creators for no more than 5 seconds. Except for a brief moment, the creators go hammer about how irrational it is. The people in question have their reasons, but it’s pushed aside using ‘irrationality. At the end of the arc, some dude goes hammer about how their suicide will harm others and so they should stop. What an original argument. All of the philosophy behind is being shattered to pieces the size of the atom. Too bad the logic that fuels it can also be used to coerce people into rape, but better shut up before the thought police come.

Darkness does exist in this anime, but it’s either skimmed over or played for laughs. Misaki’s and Yamazaki’s darker sides exist, but Misaki’s is barely allowed to surface. By the time it does, it reaches its expiration date and Misaki is the redemption. Her dark side never truly hurts Satou. The monologue that supposedly exposes her is to exaggerated, too comical to be a true confession. Like any other piece of darkness, it’s more funny and has zero insight.

Black comedy shouldn’t just have unpleasant topics. It should illuminate them. If you’re going to laugh about sensitive subjects, you need to do more than be funny. So WataMote put us in Tomoko’s shoes, dissecting her failures into little details, showing the absurdity and the pain. Even Borderlands takes violence seriously. Some of it is commentary on how lightly we take violence. By shocking us with how casually the characters treat violence, it gives us a mirror.

Yamazaki is a lonely dude who’s inept with women. You don’t see his failures, or the pain of rejection. You see him spit monologues about how awesome 2D girls are. It’s quirky, funny and makes you feel good about yourself that you’re not such a loser. Satou’s inner monologues aren’t unhinged enough to show a mental instability, but also not coherent enough to show deep thought behind them. It’s funny that he ‘hallucinates’ weird, Doby-like things. Perhaps the voice actor is to blame. Satou reacts mostly by screaming, but that’s once in a while. In general, he functions well enough.

When they fail, it’s always because they were too weird. The world is mostly benevolent, with the occasional schemer here and there. A few scenes comment on the isolation of the modern world, but it’s always implied the characters brought themselves to this eternal isolation. It’s such an optimistic view, a ‘pull yourself by the bootstraps’ crap people tell others because they think luck doesn’t exist. Characters rarely deal with failure that’s caused not necessarily because they’re to blame, but because that’s how the world works. Things just sometimes don’t work.

Based on Satou’s situation, he could’ve easily grabbed to Misaki and use her to increase her social skills. As a later character displays, in this world you can do anything if you only try. Said character starves from shutting himself in, so he crawls out and immediately finds a job. What a friendly world that is, where people walk to your door and offer to develop your social skills and where you can apply for any random job and be accepted.

is a ridiculously optimistic anime that refuses to acknowledge the world isn’t a happy happy joy joy place. Characters who feel bad are mocked or written as irrational morons. As we know, everyday other people walk to others’ doors and offer help. What? It didn’t happen to you? That’s odd. Perhaps this anime isn’t so realistic. Perhaps what makes something truly unrealistic is not things that cannot happen. Rather, it’s when the meaning underneath the symbols – in this case, the optimism – is completely detached from reality.

0.5 out of 5. I don’t come up with a unique phrase for this crap

I can honestly say that I've never been so happy to be done with a series. This show is barely watchable, and it all stems from the main character.

The Worst Person In The Entire World
At first, I thought I'd really enjoy the show. The first 6-8 episodes or so have a unique feel with some decent comedy and interesting characters, but then it takes a turn that it never recovers from. The main character, Sato, is a twenty-something-year-old version of your boiler plate Shinji character, but it doesn't seem that way at first. Don't be fooled; once he starts exhibiting the cliche weak, hesitant, self-centered, ... clueless characteristics we find in way too many anime, you will loathe him for the remainder of the show.

Sato is not a NEET; he's not an hikikomori; he's not otaku; he's just an awful person. Clearly the author believes he's an hikikomori since they need to say that on average 4 times an episode, but throughout the show you will see him constantly switch in and out of being perfectly fine in society and completely scared. You could argue that the switch coincides with how is life is going, but the polarity between the two states is jarring and completely unconvincing. Additionally, even though he's supposed to be a shut-in of 4 years, he has no hobbies that would indicate he's done anything except stare at a wall for that time. He's not otaku, he doesn't play online games, and he isn't even aware that you can search for porn on the Internet.

What makes the show completely unbearable to watch is how entirely self-centered he is. Unlike him, all of the supporting characters have had real hard-ships (some much harder than others). While he remains completely inward-focused, he never asks his friends about their problems or tries to understand what they are going through. This is a man who even raises his fist multiple times to the one person who is 100% unconditionally supportive and caring to him; even when she's in complete tears, he says nothing to her. Instead, he goes home to contemplate how he is affected by what she was saying. Not even a thought about her or what kind of pain she was going through.

The Saving Angel
Aside from the main character, the supporting characters are actually quite interesting. Most prominently, Misaki, is a beautiful person who by far has been through the worst of it. In all honesty, this show could've been terrific if she was the main character. If it weren't because I wanted to see how her story unfolded, there is no way I could've made it all the way to the end.

Story
Characters aside, the story had a few problems as well. The biggest problem is that the series takes a few random deviations (kind of like mini-arcs) that are incredibly far outside the realm of the main plot. Including an in-world MMO subplot that lasts a few episodes. They were too distracting, not to mention boring. There were also some major consistency issues as it pertains to the passage of time and the balance of money. You could say these are small details, but the passage of time was to the degree that at one moment the implication was that a month had passed and then just a few minutes later that only a few days had passed.

The story is also way too long; it could've and should've ended at episode 13. It even has a great climactic feel to it, but for some reason another 11 episodes of misery await.

Art
I love the way the characters are drawn in this series. The art is without a doubt the best aspect of the show. The only thing that was bizarre is that Misaki was the only character that wore the same t-shirt and skirt throughout the entire show. Every other character had different outfits, but even though she actually had a job, she apparently had no wardrobe. There's one part of the show that could imply this was intentional, but I'll avoid a potential spoiler by dismissing it.

Comedy
The beginning of the show has some funny parts; after that, there's less than a handful of parts to get a chuckle out of. You can see where they were trying to be funny, but it falls flat.

Execution
The visuals and environment are quite nice, and the music is enjoyable too. The voice acting is really well done, and the subs (watched on funimation) were also good. In terms of execution, the show was done quite well.

Final Thought
I wouldn't recommend this to anybody who doesn't want to be on the verge of tossing a perfectly good screen out the window. The amount of frustration that comes from watching Sato continuously portray the type of person who does nothing but completely absorb himself in his own misery had me throwing double-birds at my screen over and over again. Do not start this show because you will probably get sucked into something that seems pretty good until around episode 7.

Every now and then you come across those shows that just strike you with a sort of emotional response you rarely get elsewhere. It's not a directly tragic response, it's more a gentle, melancholy feeling - a poignant way of portraying reality for what it is - not a happy optimistic place, not a place where you're guaranteed a bright future, but a harsh place that some people find so hard to deal with they shut themselves away from it instead.

The main character of NHK!, Satou Tatsuhiro, is one such person. What the Japanese call a hikikomori (from wikipedia: "h. is a Japanese term to ... refer to the phenomenon of reclusive adolescents or young adults who withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement."). He dropped out from college, has no job, and he spends his days locked up in his apartment living off his parents' allowance, only going out at night to buy food and goods from a local convenience store. On top of this, he has a firm belief that everything is a conspiracy, right down to why he is a hikikomori (he believes that an organization known as the Japan Hikikomori Organziation, or the Nihon Hikikomori Kyokai (the titular NHK) exists and has the one and only goal to produce more hikikomori).

Then one day he meets a girl, who happens to know quite a lot about him. A variety of circumstances eventually leads to him being a part of a 'project' this girl has devised; one aimed at curing the hikikomori condition. Now, the "troubled boy meets girl and everything slowly improves, interspersed with some drama" story line isn't exactly what you would associate with something good or brilliant right off the bat, but the means by which NHK! handles it is anything but mediocre.

Chiefly, for me, this reason lay in its thematics, the way it handled the various issues it crosses. While it mainly deals with the issues of a shut-in lifestyle, it touches upon many other issues: Dealing with an unfulfilling life, ambitions that never came true, how to face life and its ramifications, wanting to end one's life - and many more in that line, all of which can be cooked down to one simple thing: Reality kind of sucks. It's a harsh, often unforgiving place where you don't get anything on a silver platter. Happiness and success are both goals that lie far away, in high-reaching places, and it's hard to get there. NHK! manages to portray this poignant realization of reality with evocative storytelling and brilliant charaters.

Dealing with such heavy themes, of course, can become quite a lot if that is the sole focus of the series. Thankfully its makers had the sense and wits to insert comedic relief, and at very appropriate moments, even. It manages to retain a slightly light-hearted tone without ruining the concept or derivating from the thematics, and that is a very big accomplishment in and of itself. Not only that, but the comedy is consistently of high quality. There's no reliance on stupid fan service, moe antics or predictable escapades from stupid characters who's only there to serve as comedic relief.

Indeed, every character you see in NHK! has a very well-placed purpose within the plot, they are of high quality and are enjoyable to watch. Satou is a well-balanced character; he's a college dropout and a hikikomori, but he is not a stupid idiot who hangs around for comedic relief nor is he shallow. The scenes where he reflects on his time in high school with his senpai, Hitomi Kashiwa (who also believes everything is a conspiracy), are very nostalgic in their nature and points to a character who knows that his life is askew, who knows that he's on a bad road, who wants to turn, but it's hard. Life is unforgiving and once you're off track it is not easy to get back.

The rest of the cast are just as good as characters; the good-hearted yet mysterious Misaki who wants to help Satou recover from his hikikomori ways, his galge-obsessed neighbor Yamazaki, his old high school senpai who's obsessed with conspiracies, and then some - all of them play a very important part in Satou's story, but never once are you left with the feeling that they are not good characters in their own right. Watching them go through the miseries of their existences, reacting to and developing from all that; it is very, very evocative.

Every one of these characters has a grim story to tell, something that bogs them down and makes their lives hard. But never, even once, do their troubles, their drama, feel forced or unnatural. It is all extremely poignant, it feels right and it is handled very skillfully, as we progress through themes such as abuse, family troubles, reality escape, failed ambitions, obsessive thoughts, depression, self-loathing, loneliness and even suicide; all handled with immaculate care and presented quite brilliantly.

The series' soundtrack is absolutely impeccable; it does the job that a soundtrack is supposed to do perfectly; bringing life to the emotions of the series. The melancholy, the loneliness, the fun and comedy; NHK! has the right songs for the right places, and also features a drove of insert songs, something rarely seen in anime - and generally very effectual, as is indeed the case with this series. I also greatly enjoyed the series' opening and ending themes; Modokashii Sekai no Ue de by Yui Makino has written itself onto my absolute top list of anime themes.

The animation quality is overall solid but it does not quite live up to the standard of the rest of the series. It does have a rich colour palette and its background work is generally solid, but at times the character designs feel rather askew which does detract a little bit.

All in all though, this is the best show I have watched in a very, very long time. The quality of its story, characters and its thematics was fantastic, and the lasting sensation of melancholy the series brought forth in me is something I have not experienced in other fiction to date. Well done!

There exists something rare in this medium. In fact, its so rare, that only a handful of titles have managed to do this and still make the anime work. This trait is called realistic chemistry of characters. In a fictional work, it's virtually impossible to create relations so genuine, that it is almost frightening to experience when you do so. You are aware that what you're witnessing is made-up, but can't help comparing the characters' life to yours, as well as the struggles they encounter.
This is where Welcome to the NHK shines, and they don't hold back in making you feel like you are part ... of the story; while being unable to help those who are suffering. It's a terrible feeling, and if you're weak-hearted, I do not suggest you to watch this show: it's simply too powerful.

Story: 8

The setting of NHK is rather straight-forward: a guy lives in his room, away from society, and we get to see how he deals with new-found dilemmas; or, that's what they expect us to believe. In fact, it's nothing about that at all. The story develops into being much more about world conspiracies, proving how fake the world is, as well as the human condition when dealing with rejection and denial. We are brought into this world where everything seems to be against our protagonists, including their own families.
You can comprehend the story in two ways:
1. Mostly Comedic
2. Mostly Depressing

1. Many people believe that the humor that NHK holds is the bread-and-butter of the show, and thus cannot be taken too seriously. Like this, when the show is seen to be getting more serious, they treat this change of heart as dramatization. The problem with this way of thinking, is that it highly undermines the show itself. NHK has many comedic moments, which may or may not be understood as dark-comedy, or simply comic-relief. These people tend to state NHK as being over-dramatic and thus overrated.

2. The other group of people, including myself, see the basis of comedy as a minor genre of the show. However, this group sees the comedy as being dark, so it adds to the depressing overtone, instead of taking it away. Like this, I do not believe that NHK is dramatized at all, instead it's flavor being added. People more accustomed to anime are more likely to belong in this group, thus the show is recommendable to both newcomers as well as veterans of the anime community.

Getting that out of the way, as stated in the introduction, NHK places emphasis on world-conspiracies. They structured this very well, combining the male protagonists backstory with this train of thought. It deals with human psychology in ways very unique to anime, without including paragraphs of monologue which can be very irritating if done wrong or in excess. Everything betrays Satou, which is very depressing to watch. It's like watching a train that is heading towards a person, you know what's going to happen, and you feel powerless against it. While watching the show this feeling was so mutual, that I had to take breaks just to ease the pain.
The story is not perfect however. While being very realistic and innovative ,the ending was bittersweet. And not the kind of bittersweet of which you can walk away and say "Well, at least it was satisfying". They could have explored further into the relations of the characters, but what we got as what we got: a cliffhanger.
There were also many arcs in the story which felt very out-of-place and were slightly unnecessary in my opinion. In addition to this, the pacing was questionable at times, there were moments were I felt it was going too slow and fast respectively. But for the most time, the pacing was on-point.

Characters: 9

A series cannot be made depressing without a great cast of likable characters. The way this works, is that the more likable a character is, the more painful it becomes when you watch them meet an obstacle. As stated at the introduction, the chemistry of the characters was so well done that I felt like I was eating a steak made of ice (bad jokes are bad). But seriously though, I couldn't believe my eyes; it was as if I was witnessing the lives of real humans, where every struggle and dilemma have a reasonable impact to the characters, as well as the audience. You felt so condensed with the characters that it was like you knew them for many years. So as a result you really don't want to see them get hurt.
I will now evaluate the characters individually:

1. Satou

He's your main male lead, and straight from the bat he's likable and highly relatable. He's the story's main focus, and we watch him deal with his everyday struggles as a hikikomori. ***SPOILERS***We witness him being rejected by him parents, almost commit suicide, become addicted to visual novels and RPG's, and living alone without any friends, suffering from day to day.***END OF SPOILER*** It's as if the viewer is Sato himself and you are experiencing his life through his eyes. How did they do this, you ask? I have no idea, but he is one of the best written characters I have ever witnessed.

2.Misaki

She is the main female lead who, at the start, seems to be your everyday one-dimensional character. It's only until later in the story where we find out her backstory and thus we are able to dive deep into the psychology of her characterization. This is purposely done so that the emphasis is given to Satou instead, thus we can empathize with him first. The same technique was used with Misaki as her backstory was uncovering, and her presence became more necessary. Without including any spoilers, she makes the anime that much more depressing than it already was.

Of course, when I stated the chemistry being golden, it's between these two characters and the romance that follows. It's not your typical love-interest. The characters develop thoroughly throughout the length of the show, and this is done through struggles and leaps. *MINOR SPOILERS*Misaki tries to help Satou into getting out of the zone he finds himself to be in, while returning him back to society as an everyday functional human being.*END OF SPOILERS* Their meeting was purely coincidental, but the anime portrays this coincidence as fate, rather than chance.

The side characters are few and far between, but most of them play a large role in the story. I will not talk about these characters individually, because they introduce themselves later in the story, but what I can tell you is that, for the most part, they are not trouped. They have they own struggles and developments, and do not exist as a means of comic relief, for the most part.
However, there are a few side characters that are more useless than not, and can be quite irritating to watch. A key example is Kobayashi Megumi who was not pleasurable to listen to and had no real purpose for existing.

Art & Animation: 5

Sadly this is were NHK falls, and boy does it fall. For the most part, NHK's art is on-par with the anime at the time, and was relatively fluid, although lacking detail. BUT, there were episodes were the quality decreases so much ,its ridiculous. We have no detail here, literally stick-men. Gladly these episodes were a minority; but the consistency is inexcusable.

Sound: 8

THOSE TRUMPETS. THOSE GLORIOUS TRUMPETS. The opening of NHK was wonderful and highly nostalgic. It fits the tone of the anime second to none, and I am glad they did not change it (although the trumpets were removed for some odd reason). The first ending song was unique and intelligent, showing off the dark humor, as well as the psychological aspect of the show very well. The second ending was fantastic, as it was sang by the same artist who performed the opening, and thus had a similar vibe to it.
The voice acting was excellent: exactly what you would expect when watching an anime in Japanese, but I cannot say the same for the English dub, since I have not watched it.
The OST sadly did not stand out to me as much as everything else. There were a few songs that were fantastic, but these were played too many times throughout the length of the show, which is a shame, because you tend to notice these things when watching NHK.

Enjoyment: 8

I loved this show, but because it was so depressing to watch, I did not want to see what would happen next due to the pain of experiencing something so genuinely saddening. The huge lack of budget in terms of animation/art as well as overused OST's decreased the value of enjoyment as well, but these are nitpicks. The ending was not complete to my liking, but was still a fantastic closure nevertheless.

Overall: 8

A fantastic show that is highly nostalgic. I would only recommend this to those who can handle watching 'tragedies'. If by ANY MEANS you have a weak heart when watching depressing shows, PLEASE skip this one, unless you're watching just for comedic purposes. Otherwise, simply enjoy the brilliance that is NHK, which in my opinion, is one of the best non-monologue-inducing psychological titles anime has to offer.

Thank you for reading my review! RedInfinity out.

NHK ni Youkoso is an anime based off a novel and manga of the same name by Tatsuhiko Takimoto. It is a story about a hikikomori and NEET (Not currently engaged in Employment, Education or Training) named Tatsuhiro Satō who struggles with who he is and just getting through daily life.

Story: The main plot is about Sato receiving special training from a girl named Misaki Nakahara on how to break free from his hikikomori ways. Overall there is quite a depressing tone and it convey's realistic internal conflicts and struggles that the characters face. From start to finish it never seemed to stray from its ... purpose, which was among other things, to paint a picture of the hikikomori lifestyle.

Animation: Although the animation is generally good, there are a few cases during the series (entire episodes) where the quality of animation really goes down. Other then that it is good and consistent.

Sound: I very much like the music, the opening and endings are very enjoyable and background music is very fitting and keeps up with the overall depressing tone of the series. None of the voice acting really stands out, it is well done and the voices match the characters rather nicely.

Character: The characters all seem very realistic. They all have problems that they have to deal with and many of them are not above selfish desires. Many of the characters take advantage of Sato's trusting, even naive nature, which often leaves Sato in predicaments. I believe that keeping the characters in this anime realistic is important for it to deliver its message, and it does so very well.

Enjoyment: I enjoyed watching this anime from start to finish, it is quite unique and it was interesting to see if and how Sato could overcome the problems he faced. Fans of the drama and slice of life genre's should really check this out I think, although there is some comedy it isn't a primary genre.

Welcome to the NHK is a Seinen, Psychological, Comedy, Drama about a guy who has become a hikikomori (someone who has shut themselves away from society) and is living his life believing in conspiracies. Then his life is suddenly turned around when some girl decides to cure him of his hikikomori ways.

This series starts of confusingly enough and it seems to flows at a very slow pace as it introduces the main characters and the overall plot of the series. However from the start it is pretty difficult to understand exactly what this is all about, because it doesn't do things in a way most ... anime series does. It's only until a couple episodes into the show that you can truly understand the nature of this anime and that is of the various psychological and social issues each character is faced with. What makes it so interesting are the different psychological disorders that are shown and the way they are realistically expressed by the characters like Tatsuhiro Satou being a "hikikomori" and Misaki who's trying cure him but she is obviously messed up in the head as well. With all the serious issues in this anime, it's quite refreshing to see all the hilarious antics they get into, whilst still retaining a sense of realism.

The animation for this anime suits it perfectly with a great deal of detail put into the backgrounds and environment. Although the characters do appear to look a bit off quite frequently but this can easily be over looked due to the nature of this show. The music also helps a lot, with plenty of weird melodies to go with the baffling moments and the catchy opening themes.

Overall Welcome to the NHK is really an anime of its own, with nothing to compare it against. This anime is able to realistically show many different problems that the Japanese society is facing with and in the process make you laugh whilst keeping you intrigued throughout. Yet due to the unfamiliarity of this anime, not all anime fans will be able to get into it. So if you want to find out what it means to be a hikikomori, then check this out.
^_^

Welcome to the NHK has become my go-to when I want to recommend someone a series (mostly to a male audience I would say, though.) It's got a truly great mix of laughs, cringes, tears, light romance, stress, and all manner of feels. The series ultimately sums up all of the ways a modern man could be truly pathetic, and presents it in a way that makes us all contemplate, laugh at, and root for ourselves.

The series follows Satou Tatsuhiro, an active shut-in of four years, a raging narcissist (despite knowing how pathetic he truly is), and a borderline schizophrenic conspiracy theorist. It shows Satou's ... daily struggle to maintain his status as a NEET, while the world around him keeps trying to pull him outside.

NHK moves in several chronological story loops, which each span 3 or 4 episodes. Some are purely comedic, some comment strongly on social issues, some are dark and depressed (although still very funny in their own terrible way.) The story progresses as Satou places himself into situation after situation that depict very real issues today, but are also just the most outrageously frustrating places to be.

Ultimately, I went into the series blind, and it smashed its way directly into my top 5, with perhaps my favorite anime protagonist ever. I've shown it to tons of friends, who all fall instantly in love with it. If you're on the fence... Dive right in!

Welcome to the NHK (NHK ni Youkouso), first broadcast in 2006, is a fantastic series that mockingly celebrates deviant cultures versus their “normal” counterparts in modern Japan. This bizarre celebration is presented through a narrative focusing primarily on the protagonist Sato Tatsuhiro, those around him, and the struggles they face—at the center of which is Sato’s concerning status of hikkikomori.

A hikkikomori is different from an otaku, a term you’re probably familiar with; the former is a person who refuses to work or spend much time outside the safety of their abode due to their inability to cope with society and pressure, consequently becoming more ... and more confined to their quarters and less connected with the world. Their abundance is becoming a real problem, and not just in Japan—in England, such individuals are called NEET’s (Neither Employed, Educated, or Trained).

For Sato, overcoming this status (which he blames on a conspiring organization known, oddly enough, as the NHK) is conducted by those around him: his endeavoring savior Misaki, his otaku neighbor Yamazaki, his enigmatic senpai Hitomi, and various others. These characters are incredibly dynamic, changing as Sato himself changes; you laugh with them, cry with them, and really get to ‘know’ them, an aspect many shows’ characters lack. This cast of Welcome to the NHK is truly what makes the show fantastic, along with its plot, a witty, darkly-comedic satire on aspects of Japan’s quirky culture and a touching, ‘slice-of-life’ chronicle of Sato’s struggle.

In the animation department, Gonzo gives us nothing special. The animation is nothing out-of-the-ordinary or anything avant-garde, background characters are simplified as usual, and there aren’t many high-octane action scenes which would require anything intense or careful. However, due to the nature of the show, such normalcy is acceptable.

The sound is another fantastic element of the show, though. The soundtrack (which I strongly suggest you give a listen) is a superb mix of minimal bluesy acoustic stuff, grungy J-rock, creepy minimalism, and progressive J-pop. All four opening and ending themes are great, my personal favorite being the second ending theme, "Modokashii Sekai no Ue de" by Yui Makino. The voice actors, for the most part, are spot on. Sato’s voice actor, Koizumi Yutaka, does a particularly fantastic job, which for me was reminiscent of Sugita Tomokazu, Kyon’s seiyuu in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

All in all, Welcome to the NHK is a solid anime definitely worth watching. It is certainly one of 2006’s best non-seinen titles, and a fantastic show to kick back with after a long day.

NHK ni Youkoso! or Welcome to the NHK! is something truly special that the medium of animation has offered us. From the fascinating and unique concept to the absorbing and seemingly very real characters, NHK ni Youkoso! has a power to engage and indulge the audience into something that is extremely relatable to oneself.

The story is focused around a seemingly normal guy named Sato Tatsuhiro; Who's a college dropout and relies on the pocket money given by his parents for a living. However this is just a prerequisite of what actually lies within Sato and that the show tries to explore into and convey ... to us -- That is the concept of being a "Hikikomori" (A person who tends to refrain from making contact, both verbally and socially to anyone). This is the basic premise of the show as we're treated to a 22-year old NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training) who's been this way since about 4 years now and is starting to believe that everything happening around him and the also the state he's currently in is the result of a shady and secret organization named "Nihon Hikikomori Kyokai (NHK)" or "Japan's Hikikomori Withdrawal Association". Things, however, seem to take a different route as Sato soon meets a 17-year old girl named Misaki, who claims that she's gonna rescue Sato by making him participate in a project in order to make him live a normal life again. This project takes on a primary theme in the show and thus making "Welcome to the NHK!" a suitable title for this show. What lies ahead is the black-comedy drama which is extremely touching and at times hilarious and ludicrous as Sato and Misaki commence an escapade from this world of social anxiety for Sato, along with a few other friends. Themes of lack of self-confidence, appeasing oneself in a solitary world and various conspiracies stirred out behind the back of people are frequent in this show.

Sato Tatsuhiro is the central character of the show who has an illness of being a hikikomori and with whom the whole show is centered around. There is not a proper skill or an attribute that Sato possesses other than being a lazy college dropout with nothing to do. However this does not make him either one-dimensional or typical, but on the contrary it makes it difficult to properly explain his characteristic. You have to guess it yourself, or rather put yourself in his place and relate. And that is something I was able to greatly do, as each an every inch of his character development in the show is closely relatable. This also makes him an interesting main character in a show, someone that you don't quite see that often in an anime. Misaki is another central figure in the show but not a whole lot is revealed about her until the latter part of the show. So much so that it isn't even made clear that why is she performing the project? And why is it Sato that has been chosen for her project? And also, what is the profit for Misaki by doing this project? All we know is that Sato meets her by chance, gets known of the project by Misaki and unexpectedly agrees to it. This doesn't make the viewer retaliate or question against it immediately though as the show tends to the keep the viewer engrossed in it.

Two other characters play a very important role in the show, Yamazaki Kaoru and Kashiwa Hitomi. Yamazaki was once a junior of Sato when he was in school, and later in the show Sato actually discovers that the irritating otaku freak next door is actually Yamazaki himself.
Yamazaki is also an important person for Sato, as he's the only guy he hangs out with all day and talks with. He is depicted as a huge anime fan, and almost 24x7 songs of "Pururin" and other stuff keeps on playing in his room fulled with stuff related to anime. As the show progresses Yamazaki convinces Sato for his help in creating a game, which would help both of them if it sells and thus it also acts as a secondary plot in the show. Kashiwa Hitomi is another female side character in the show and probably the oldest and first friend of Sato. Sato usually calls her "Senpai" or as senior and she's the head of the literature club which included Sato in their school days. Kashiwa is quite a depressed character, as she believes that everything bad that happens around her is a conspiracy. She's actually the one who may have a influence on why Sato believes that there's a secret organization trying to push him away from society. It's not entirely doubtful that Sato might have had a crush on her since his school days, which isn't the same for the opposite though. Sato seems to have a respect to Kashiwa as he only calls her as Senpai and not her name.

Now this is heading to the spoiler territory a little, so you're warned:
About halfway through the show, Kashiwa gets very depressed as she gets a trip planned together with her boyfriend gets abruptly cancelled as he gets called for work, and as a result she takes part in the "Off" meeting on the internet, which is a group of lonely and depressed people planning to take their life away in a far away island soon after meeting up. Sato, completely ignorant of the whole scenario agrees to come along with Kashiwa to the meeting. It all ends quite depressingly but also a lot of hilarity ensues and in the end it teaches us all a lesson. Spoilers end here.

There's another female character and an old classmate of Sato who makes a cameo after halfway through the series, Kobayashi Megumi. Class rep of Sato back in his school days, the little life story of Megumi plays a primary role in the latter part of the show. She becomes an orphan after the death of his father and has to feed herself and her brother all on her own. She gets caught in a shady scheme by some manufacturing company and tries to drag Sato in it too. Sato, of course, gets dragged in it easily and finds himself in a pinch where he has to sell all the merchandise at any cost to earn money. It all comes at a sad end where Sato, accompanied by Misaki and Yamazaki go back to Megumi to cancel the deal and this is where he learns that her brother is also an hikikomori shut-in, albeit in a much more extreme condition that in what Sato is in currently. It has a depressing ending to it but an important life lesson can be learned from it.

Coming to the sound section, the audience is greeted by a beautiful opening song "Puzzle" by ROUND TABLE feat. Nino. I won't go in to too much details of it but it's a lovely OP which sets the stage for the show. The first ending is a wacky one with insane lyrics and vocals. Very much different than the second ED sung by the voice actor of Misaki herself, and has a lively tone to it. The OP stays the same throughout the show but there's just a slight version edit of it to make it as the second OP theme. The voice acting in the show was satisfying. Sato's voice acting matches his characteristics perfectly and so did Misaki's. I checked out the voice actor of Sato in this site and it turns out that he's only done a handful of shows which was pretty surprising to me. Moving on to the art aspect of NHK. This is the first show from Studio Gonzo that I watched and the art style is pretty goofy at times but it's not bad at all and I got used to it pretty soon. NHK isn't the most aesthetically pleasing shows and the visuals have a minimalistic art style which in fact helps to the premise of the show.

I loved NHK because it uses a real-life phenomenon and a delicate matter such as social anxiety. All the character in the series fared extremely well and it was as if I was in their mind knowing exactly how they felt and this is especially true for Sato. This series also teaches us a lesson that being a "hikikomori" is not actually a disease or disorder, but a luxury in itself. The way Sato used to live his life off the money from his parents, and the brilliant ending of Megumi and his brother's story. No matter how bad the hikikomori condition of a person is, but if he/she's pushed to the limit there's no other way to work hard. That's the only way you could truly stand on your own two legs. Welcome to the NHK! needs to be watched to be believed. Rarely did I thought that an anime out of all other mediums would get this close to my heart by the time I bid it farewell.

Overview:

Welcome to the NHK is one of the most beloved and critically praised anime NOT named Neon Genesis Evangelion. It actually shares quite a bit with Evangelion both for better and for worse as I will explain in my review. Both are series that can be described as essential viewing, thought provoking, meritorious, but also quite frustrating to watch at times.

Story and characters:

contains some Spoilers!!!

The main character is Sato, who lives alone in an apartment that his parents pay for. He is unemployed and has no drive to try find a job or interact with the outside world at all. He represents the Japanese ... cultural phenomenon of Hikikomori that you have probably seen referenced in other anime. There are also many people in their twenties in the US that are unemployed and live with their parents, but that isn't quite the same as Japan's hikikomori. American "Millennials" living at home still tend to socialize, drive, and have friends that they often visit. Hikikomori tend to combine their unemployment and dependency with an extreme social phobia and agoraphobia. Part of this is likely due to the feeling of deep shame and fear of being judged that their American counterparts largely lack. Americans will simply dismiss unemployment as the result of a bad jobs market, but to Japanese it is a complete disgrace to both the individual and their families.

Sato's life changes when he meets an unusual girl named Misaki, who becomes obsessed with curing Sato of his condition. She forces him to meet with her in the park, where she reads passages from Freud and Jung. Misaki forces Sato into signing a contract and taking up her "therapy program". However, she doesn't know that he is going to be an unusually difficult case. In addition to being a hikikomori, Sato is also a paranoid schizophrenic that suffers from delusions of persecution. He believes in a shadowy organization called the NHK, that is obsessed with trying to keep him a hikikomori. In order to convince Misaki that he has his life together, Sato teams up with his otaku neighbor Kaoru to try create an "eroge" or erotic video game. Sato briefly tries attending a video game design college alongside Kaoru, but he has another episode of paranoia and can't bring himself to return.

Another sub-plot is started when Sato ends up meeting his old high school crush, Hitomi. Sato was in his school's literature club with Hitomi, where they were literally the only members. I apologize for that terrible pun! They even celebrated their upcoming graduation by having sex on the teacher's desk one school day afternoon because NO ONE in that school ever went near the literature club apparently. Hitomi has become a successful government employee since graduation, but is frustrated because she often runs into office bureaucracy that stops her from implementing any of the reforms she wishes to make. Hitomi also seems to suffer from clinical depression, for which she takes many pills off label. Despite the fact that Sato looks rather disheveled and has become a complete failure... and despite the fact that she has a very successful boyfriend, Hitomi still flirts with Sato and seems to still have feelings for him. This predictably leads to a love triangle and unpredictably leads to Sato accidentally joining a suicide cult with Hitomi. However, since this is a comedy drama, they are prevented from killing themselves and Sato continues in his struggles. As the series goes on, we also learn about Misaki's background, Kaoru's background, and see the development of the relation between Sato and Misaki.

Art and Music:

The music isn't amazing in my opinion, but certainly isn't bad either. The art is overall excellent and combines great character models with impressive backgrounds including Sato's many schizophrenic hallucinations. This is a top dollar production, so you would expect it to look phenomenal and for the most part it does.

Issues:

1.

The first real issue I had with this series is that it is advertised as a drama/comedy. However, the comedy tends to fall flat FAR more often than not. Take for example the sub-plot about making an eroge. This sounds funny on paper and maybe it was funnier in the original novel, but it didn't get a lot of laughs from me in the anime adaptation. I'm aware that NHK was always intended to be a drama first and a comedy second, but when the likes of "Lost in Translation" and "Sideways" are SO much funnier than your comedy, why even bother having a comedy element at all?

2.

I applaud NHK for tackling the uncomfortable issue of hikikomori with the grace and dignity that it did, without just harshly dismissing them as losers and basement dwellers. However, I think it tried to tackle too many issues at once. Why must Sato in addition to being a hikikomori ALSO be a schizophrenic, Kaoru a Lolicon, and Misaki suffer from borderline personality disorder? Why must EVERY character in the entire series attempt suicide at least once?! Apparently the anime actually toned down the characters from the original novel in order to make them more believable and focus primarily on the hikikomori issue, instead of every mental issue known to mankind. However, if that is the case then why leave in all the mental issues?! Sato's schizophrenia and alcoholism that were very serious issues in the original novel are basically reduced to a joke in the anime! Many other anime are guilty of this crime of shoehorning in extra issues, like Elfen Lied and its random pedophilia abuse sub-plot, but even Elfen Lied didn't leave it in only to reduce it to a fucking joke! That really left a bad taste in my mouth, which is a shame because NHK can be brilliant at other moments.

3.

The last major issue with NHK is pacing and struggling to adapt what worked in the novel into a TV series. During the story about the suicide cult, we spend at least 3 LONG, hard to watch episodes in which we already know that Sato and Hitomi aren't going to kill themselves halfway through a dramedy. Does the series reward us for trudging through those 1.5 hours? Does Sato have a moment of character growth and stop the suicide pact? Nope. Some random guy that we didn't see before and never see again ends up stopping it. Hitomi is then saved by her boyfriend who arrives just in the nick of time and our hero tries to kill himself because Hitomi is going to go back to her boyfriend. I understand that Sato is a protagonist with serious issues and isn't supposed to always be likeable, but rather a flawed individual struggling to overcome the obstacles in his life. However, that long and draining arc only to be rewarded with one of the most selfish and loathsome character moments was frustrating beyond belief! This was all done to show character growth and increase the drama when Sato stops yet ANOTHER character from committing suicide. However, that doesn't occur for another 13 episodes or roughly 6 fucking hours, when I was so frustrated with Sato that it wasn't as moving as it should have been. You generally can't in a TV or film adaptation spend hours and hours making the audience dislike a character and then give him a faceturn in the last second and expect everyone to instantly love him and start cheering. That's terrible pacing! NHK is a series that often seems to drag its heels and can be VERY slow and exasperating. A novel can afford to be slower, dryer, and more philosophical because the reader controls the rate of reading. If I am stressed and in a foul mood, I don't have to read 100 pages of the slower parts of the novel. If I have the flu and I reach the part in War and Peace where Natasha is trying on dresses for 10 pages, I can put the book down and read later. A show comes in 30 minute chunks and people want to watch a show in as few sittings as possible. This is a 10 hour anime that probably only needed to be 4 hours long to tell the actually relevant, important story and had 5 hours about as fun as getting your toenails torn off. If I wasn't a completionist, I would have dropped this series like a bad habit halfway through.

Overall:

If you manage to grind it out and watch the entire series, the result is pretty good. This is still THE anime that did the best job of tackling the hikikomori issue and has some powerful episodes like episode 14. I can easily see why this series has recieved the praise that it has and I would say that it DOES deserve that praise overall. However, I wish that more people would address some of the issues the series has and give more of a warning that this is NOT light, enjoyable viewing. Even if you love this series, it is a disservice to future viewers to just praise it and give no warnings about how difficult to watch it often is. I went in expecting The Producers and I got Schindler's List. Those are both good movies, but if you walk into an emotionally draining and difficult to watch film with no warning, it feels like getting punched in the face! While I would recommend this anime, I don't do so lightly. This is a series to watch if you have plenty of time and are looking for deep reflection, not a watch with friends and drink beer kind of show.

I have to admit that I have put off watching this anime for quite some time, despite having heard many good things about it. A series about an anti-social, unemployed otaku who apparently isn't in the best psychological state to boot? How interesting could an anime like this possibly be? But with nothing to do on a rainy Monday, I finally decided to give Welcome to the NHK! a chance to gain my approval. It did much more than that. It also managed to win over my heart with its loveable characters and my brain with the numerous philosophical questions it poses. I couldn't stop ... thinking about it for the next couple of days. I even had a dream about it - an amazing feat - considering not even my guilty pleasure, Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, managed to accomplish that. As great as this series is, I must warn you ahead of time that it arguably isn't suitable for all age groups. And I'm not just talking about the occasional gratuitous fanservice or frequent sexual references and jokes. Frankly speaking, Welcome to the NHK! is a depressing anime. It will undoubtedly cause you to have cynical thoughts, and for those of you who already have a pessimistic outlook on life, it will probably make you even more cynical. Therefore, I would only be able to recommend this series to a mature audience, namely people who are over 18 and are currently enrolled in university/college or who have already joined the workforce. I am not saying that someone younger than 18 would not enjoy the series to the same degree that I did. I just feel like the series is more geared towards an older audience because it tackles numerous issues that often plague us young adults.

Now that all the 'do not watch the anime if you are depressed' warnings are out of the way, it's time to get down to the details of why Welcome to the NHK! has managed to crawl its way up to #2 in my favourite animes list.

This will probably be the longest section of the review, for a good reason. Welcome to the NHK! is truly a story-driven anime. And by story, I don't necessarily mean plot, because its method of story-telling is not conventional by any means. Realistically speaking, Welcome to the NHK! doesn't have many elements that would normally make you want to watch an anime. It doesn't have flashy fight sequences, bubbly romantic scenes, or any of the melodrama that seems to be omnipresent in most of the popular slice-of-life animes. So what IS it about? Simply put, it's a story about life without any Hollywood-inspired drama. And it manages to depict the struggles of the protagonist, as well as those of numerous side characters, to find their footing in the most realistic manner possible. Put dramatic masterpieces like Clannad: After Story aside for the sake of truly enjoying this series.

The story follows Satou Tatsuhiro, a dysfunctional college drop out, as he, sometimes humourously, battles numerous social problems one after the other. He sleeps his days away, indulges in alcohol, smoking, and junk food, and has not left his apartment for three years. Faced with constant paranoia that a secret organization, the N.H.K., is conspiring against him to make his life as miserable as possible, Satou desperately searches for a way to escape his hikkomori ways. One day, a mysterious girl named Misaki Nakahara shows up, and offers to help him change his life, on the condition that he signs a contract to participate in a 'project' that she is conducting. What follows is a roller coaster ride of ups and downs and twists and turns as Satou struggles to find a purpose in his seemingly meaningless life.

What makes Welcome to the NHK! such a successful series is that it manages to tell a story on two completely different levels. I think most people watch the series expecting a unique blend of romance, comedy, and drama. If you are one of these people, you won't be disappointed, because Welcome to the NHK! delivers. I honestly can't say how many times I couldn't stop myself from laughing out loud during the series, and while the humour is occasionally bizarre and sometimes even borderline black comedy, it is thoroughly delightful to watch. On the other side of the spectrum, we have the drama. As I have already discussed, the drama is extremely realistic and never forced for the sake of inciting an emotional response. Admittedly, there are numerous scenes in the anime that are genuinely painful to watch, not because of the addition of uplifting music or moving dialogue, but rather because they are so believable that you could easily imagine yourself in a similar situation. As a result, these scenes truly touched my heart and allowed me to empathize, and not sympathize, with the characters. Hopefully, they will have a similar effect on those of you who choose to watch the anime. Finally, we have the budding romance between Satou and Misaki. Although the least important and least used of the three main story elements, it is a welcome addition to the plot that certainly enhances the enjoyability of the series. I'm not going to lie; I honestly think that the romantic scenes in Welcome to the NHK! were done far better than those in some romance-centered animes. Like the drama, it is genuine but never exaggerated, heart-warming but never, for the lack of a better word, cheesy. As much as I hate to admit it for the sake of my manliness, I wish that the series had focused more on the romantic relationship between Satou and Misaki because my heart went all doki-doki whenever I saw them together. There, I said it.

But Welcome to the NHK! has even more to offer. Setting all the drama, comedy, and romance aside, you're left with a realistic and insightful depiction of the numerous social problems that exist in Japanese culture. It is difficult to discuss these problems in detail without some unintentional spoilers, so I will simply say that the story examines some of Japan's most dysfunctional sub-cultures, including, evidently, hikkomoris, but also otakus, MMORPG fanatics, and even suicide cults. Satou finds himself entangled with the endeavours of all of these groups and, through having to deal with the consequences of his actions, gains invaluable insight on the direction he should be heading in his life. Since Satou becomes involved in all of these social circles, the audience is, consequently, presented with an up close and personal portrayal of seemingly distant concepts, hopefully providing some degree of understanding and justification.

So far, I have only been praising the series. However, I do have some small complaints, one of which is that the comedy sometimes feels out of place. Don't get me wrong; I love how the series succeeded in portraying such serious issues in a humourous light. But too many times did I find myself with a sinking feeling in my chest, on the verge of crying, only to be interrupted by an absurd but hilarious comment by Satou or one of his epically funny faces. I think the most inappropriate of these comedic moments occurred during the climax in the final episode. I expected to see a touching and emotional scene coupled with dramatic music and hopefully, some romantic action, but I instead received an absurd sequence where Satou, once again, rambles on about how the sinister N.H.K is the root of all evil in the world and eventually does something equally absurd. Ugh, way to get me all worked up for nothing.

Another issue I have with the anime lies with the unfolding of the plot itself. The story is divided into several arcs that, while seemingly unrelated, all contribute to the building of Satou's character and eventually lead to a 'resolution' at the end of the series. However, I felt as if the story occasionally lacked a sense of direction. The problem with having a mix of light-hearted and funny episodes to contrast the dramatic and heart-wrenching episodes is that, at times, you become unsure of what exactly the anime is trying to accomplish. This isn't much of a complaint, as I honestly think the pacing of the story was excellent. Perhaps my critical side is just forcing itself out.

To sum it all up, Welcome to the NHK! has something to offer to everyone. For serious anime watchers, it provides insightful commentary on issues not normally tackled in mainstream media, and for the more light-hearted anime watcher, its nice blend of romance, comedy, and drama makes for a delightfully enjoyable ride all the way through.

In contrast to the story, the animation is, at best, average. There isn't anything unique about the character or environment design that is worth mentioning. While I did particularly enjoy the sequences that featured Satou's dreams and delusions (seeing Misaki with various sharp objects as arms was probably one of my favourite moments of the series), there really aren't many opportunities to showcase any innovative animation because of the nature of the series. There are some occasional animation mishaps, but they aren't noticeable enough to affect the overall enjoyability, especially if you consider that the technical elements of the series were clearly not where the studio devoted most of its attention and effort. In addition, this is my first series by this particular animation studio, so it wouldn't be fair for me to compare the animation in Welcome to the NHK! to that of other Gonzo animes.

I must say that I was thoroughly impressed with the seiyuu performances, especially considering the fact that the seiyuus of the two central characters (Satou and Misaki) are not at all high-profile and have had little experience with voice acting. Look them up on here if you don't believe me. They, in addition with the rest of the cast, put on an impressive performance that is almost never lacking in emotion or vigour.

As for the soundtrack of the series, there is not much to say. None of the insert songs really caught my eye (or in this case, ear), but all of them did help establish an appropriate mood that corresponded to the atmosphere of the scenes. I didn't even find the supposedly addictive "Purupuru Pururin" theme song very catchy, but I suppose everyone has different musical tastes.

Unfortunately, the version of the series I watched had all the opening and ending sequences omitted, and I am far too lazy to go out of my way to watch and critique them. Why go into such meaningless details when the story itself is so superb?

For a series that lasts a lengthy 24 episodes, Welcome to the NHK! doesn't really present us with a diverse collection of characters. There were very few side characters as well, something that may seem unsual to some anime watchers. While series with numerous main characters have been proven to work under the right circumstances (Fate/Zero and Baccano! are great examples), Welcome to the NHK!'s modest cast allows for a greater degree of depth that ultimately leads to the creation of three-dimensional, true-to-life characters with relatable sentiments and motivations.

The first character who I will discuss in detail is Satou Tatsuhiro, the protagonist of the story. Satou fits the description of a hikkomori perfectly. He is anti-social to the extent that he rarely leaves his apartment because he feels uncomfortable around other people. Even in his high school days, the only person with whom he interacts on a regular basis is his senpai. He is shown to have a cynical but apathetic outlook on life and people in general, and his inability to adapt and change himself is ultimately what causes him to venture further and further down the path of social alienation. When he finally does realize that he needs to do something about his life, he is unable to accept it emotionally, which leads him to indulge in various other anti-social activities, forming the basis for most of the story. Satou also finds it impossible to relate to anybody else in the world besides his senpai, as demonstrated by the delusional sequences where he ventures outside, only to be ridiculed by the people (and even animals) on the streets. The 'beauty' of Satou's character is that the mannerisms he exhibits are not at all unfamilar to us young adults growing up in the twenty-first century. It goes without saying that some of us will be able to see a bit of ourselves in Satou. Forgive me if I am making unjustified assumptions, but I guarantee that all of us have, at some point during our lives, wondered about our true purpose in this vast universe. I am sure we have all gone through a stage during which we hated the world because we believed no one understood us. Satou's thoughts and actions may be, for the most part, portrayed in an exaggerated fashion, but his character, along with his struggles, shed some light on the problems we face in our everyday lives, as much as we may be unwilling to admit it.

While Satou is clearly the star of the show with his adorably quirky character and mannerisms, another character manages to steal the spotlight from him on numerous occasions. Her name is Misaki Nakahara, and she is a mysterious girl who seems to know more about Satou than he would be comfortable sharing with anybody other than his senpai. Yet she maintains an enigmatic personality throughout the series and doesn't tell him anything about her own past. She claims to be able to help Satou escape from his social isolation, and her idealistic nature is something that sets her apart from most of the characters in the series. The two begin a valuable relationship, and it becomes clear that she develops romantic feelings for him over time. She even goes so far as to personally take care of him and make meals for him when his parents cut off his allowance. Morever, the only thing she expects from him is recognition. On the surface, she seems like every guy's perfect girl - a girl with truly pure intentions who probably does not exist in the real world. If she were truly as perfect as she seems, I honestly wouldn't be able to like her as much as I do. Thankfully, she isn't perfect at all. Forgive me for spoiling the story a bit, but the reason why she was intially willing to help Satou is that she pities him. It would be an understatement to say that she's had a rough past, and it pleases her to know that there's someone who is worse off than her. As altruistic as she appears, she is truly selfish in nature because she offers him a helping hand for the sake of making herself feel better.

I must also say that I quite enjoyed Kaoru Yamazaki's character as well. Like Satou, he is also rather socially isolated, and he indulges himself with anime and eroge games. But while his extremely obsessive and perverted nature, if exhibited in an indivual in the real world, is enough to make anyone cringe in disgust, he is ultimately a respectable character with realistic aspirations who, unfotunately, falls victim to the many distractions present in today's society.

Upon finishing the series, it is easy to see that Welcome to the NHK! boasts some of the most well-developed, realistic, and memorable characters in the history of anime, adding to the overall value of an already remarkable and original series.

I want to thank all of you who actually took the time to read through this review. If you still aren't convinced that watching Welcome the the NHK! would be an efficient way to spend 8 hours of your life, I honestly have nothing more to say. Welcome to the NHK! is an absolute MUST-watch for any college-aged anime fan. You NEED to watch it in order to understand the sheer potential of this form of media. Who knows? It might even end up changing your life.

I think the best way to conclude this review is to discuss the ending of the anime. I have heard many complaints about how the series didn't have the cliché "happily ever after" ending. As much as I would have enjoyed a happy ending, it simply does not fit with the message that the writers were trying to convey. There are rarely any happy endings in reality, because life is a constant struggle. In each stage of our lives, we are faced with challenge after challenge, and it is only those who have the strength to carry on that are ultimately able to find their happy endings.

"A really huge, strong snake appeared. It dove into the ocean, and I stuck a thick sword into an apple. Also, I blasted away all around me with a black, shining, amazing gun." — Tatsuhiro Satou

It sure took me a while to get that "deep" dialogue by Satou if you know what I mean. *wink* * wink*

NHK ni Youkoso! or Welcome to the NHK! is a psychological anime presented in a humorous way. It's definitely one of the most unique and depressing anime I've watched thus far and I found myself laughing out loud every time our main protagonist, Satou, makes a fool out of ... himself but that laughter can very quickly change to depression, and at times I ask myself "Is this suppose to be funny or depressing?". With all the tragedy, drama and comedy this show has to offer, it's a definite roller coaster of emotions. It's not perfect (well what is?), but NHK definitely deserves a spot on my top five favorite anime of all time.

Just in case you don't know...

Hikikomori - (literally "pulling inward, being confined", i.e., "acute social withdrawal") a Japanese term to refer to the phenomenon of reclusive adolescents or adults who withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement. [Wikipedia]

NEET - Not in Education, Employment, or Training.

NHK - (Nippon Hoso Kyokai or Japan Broadcasting Corporation) is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. [Wikipedia]

*STORY: 9/10
While the main plot revolves around Satou trying to get rid of his hikikomori lifestyle, most of the episodes are about Satou getting caught in series of unfortunate (but funny) events. NHK is divided into several arcs dealing with real growing social problems in the world and somehow Satou always finds himself caught up in this weird situations. From extreme online gaming addiction to getting involved in a scam, Satou will get himself in all sorts of trouble just to be saved in time by his friends Misaki and Yamazaki (sometimes).

NHK is pretty dark and gloomy in general. The mood of the show is heavy and depressing but it also delivers effective humor for comic relief that really helps balance things out.

Romance is only a subplot in the show but it does play a major role in the progression of the story, especially towards the ending. However, I found the romance a little disappointing because I was expecting a more conclusive ending with a solid romantic resolution. In the end I found myself staring at the screen expecting more when the credits started rolling. But even though the love between our main couple was left open-ended, it's not necessarily a total let down. There is still some satisfaction to be had on this one.

The pacing of the show is slow in general (sometimes excruciatingly slow) but overall concept of the show is quite unique and well executed.

*CHARACTERS: 9/10
There are only four relevant characters in NHK and all four of them have some serious mental issues. Let start off with our not-so-normal main protagonist Tatsuhiro Satou, a 22-year-old delusional bitch living the life of a hikikomori. Satou thinks that the broadcasting station NHK is plotting a conspiracy by making people addicted anime. Best character 10/10. The second most important character and also Satou's love interest is Nakahara Misaki, a high school student who's "helping" Satou with his hikikomori problem by involving Satou in her "big project". Also there's Yamazaki Kaoru, a super-otaku and probably the sanest of the bunch. He is Satou's junior in high school and later in the anime his best friend. And lastly, we have Kashiwa Hitomi who's just background character but she plays an important role in the story, actually we wouldn't even have a story in the first place without her. Hitomi is Satou's senior and friend in high school who is also a delusional bitch. She has a deep fascination for conspiracy theories which is basically what lead to her into becoming a delusional bitch and was kind enough to involve Satou in it.

Characters is definitely the strongest point of the NHK. We have well-rounded and easily relatable characters. They are society's misfits, not really sure what's the significance of their life but that is where character development kicks in and we start to see them grow into amazing characters although sometimes I like to strangle Satou for making the dumbest descisions.

*ART: 7/10
While the art overall is pretty decent, there are some noticeable flaws. There are times when the characters are drawn kind of weird and slightly looking different. I don't know the reason for this, maybe they are low on budget or something, but it can really get on my nerves sometimes. And I think Satou looked a little too old for a 22-year-old. I understand that Satou isn't really living a very healthy lifestyle but I think they overdid it a little. But if you're not really that particular in anime art quality I don't think you would even care about these stuffs or even notice them so it's not really that much big of a problem.

*SOUND: 8/10
I loved all the OP and ED they used in the anime. The opening theme "Puzzle" is a very catchy song by Round Table feat. Nino. They are amazing as always. The ending themes were also great. The first ED "Odoru Akachan Ningen" is rock song with an intentional out-of-tune sound that really goes well with the crazy psychological aspect of NHK and the second ED "Modokashii Sekai no Ue De" which is more of a sad song which I also like.

Also there is one particular song in this anime that I just have to mention. It's the "Purupurupururin" song which is sang by a fictional idol in NHK. This song is played a lot of times in the series and Satou even made it his ringtone (I'm confused why though because Yamazaki is the fan not Satou). This song is extremely annoying in the beginning but after hearing it several times I actually found it to be very catchy. I even downloaded it and made it my alarm tone, but after using it as my alarm tone for a week, it became really annoying again. Lol

*OVERALL/ENJOYMENT: 10/10
Overall, Welcome to the NHK! is highly enjoyable and as you can see, I gave this anime a perfect 10. That just proves how much I enjoyed watching this anime, but since we all have our own personal preferences there is no guarantee you'll enjoy NHK as much as I did. I don't really recommend this to kids since NHK does contain adult themes and some nudity (heck, if you're a growing boy why not?) but other than that I think everyone should give this a try. Even if you're not into psychological anime (like me) you might still enjoy this because Welcome to the NHK, while it has it's shortcomings, is a masterpiece in it's own way.

Welcome to the NHK was an interesting experience for me, I didn't know what to expect from the show while diving into it, so it's not like I set my expectation high but I was still really disappointed by it, for a number of reasons that I will explain in this review.

The Story. It's about a NEET & Hiki named Satou and his crazy depressing life with several other characters. It was more or less a social commentary about a serious issue in modern society with a black comedy tone. The story was incoherent, at times it was about Satou and his problems and how ... he wants to deal with them and help himself but it shifts that focus through out the story, making it feel like Satou's problems are just delayed. It focuses on the wrong characters and dedicate arcs for them which don't contribute a lot to the overall plot progression or to Satou's character. One of the arcs is really just terrible and it just contradicts any kind of logic the show has. I'm talking about the arc that focused on Megumi and her brother, that was simply just stupid. It showed how bad her situation with her brother is in and how Hikikomoris affect their family life and not just their own, it also introduced online gaming addiction and how it can worsen the life of a NEET but all of that doesn't matter if he, the brother just miraculously recovers from his severe social anxiety thanks to hunger, HUNGER?! that was so unrealistic in so many levels. We have Satou who by far have it better than Megumi's brother but still can't get his life together. I felt like that betrayed the message of the show and how hard it is to recover from being a NEET and a Hikikomori.

They also censored/removed Satou's usage of drugs which explains why he had those hallucinations. He didn't have them because he was so mentally unstable or obsessed with conspiracies like the anime portrayed. It was him just using some drugs, no one gets that mentally unstable from just being a NEET and a Hikikmori. The story ended on an open ending which I didn't like at all, having a conclusive ending would have been much better. It would have showed that going through all this, meant something.

The Characters. They are flawed human beings and this is what story was trying to show, that made them feel real but in certain situations they felt like the complete opposite of real. Example of this would be Satou and his relationship with Misaki and his Senpai, especially Senpai. Satou is supposed to be a pathetic, spineless and an unstable human being but I still find the way he acted in the Suicide Island arc to be highly unrealistic and stupid. He didn't want to die but still went along with it and tried to convince himself that it was okay if he died and he would at least die with his precious Senpai. The anime left a detail that could have helped explain his relationship with Senpai and that was the fact that he lost his virginity to her, I feel like that would have made the fact that he just followed her around and didn't get mad at her for anything, much more believable.

The relationships of the characters didn't get properly developed, Misaki who is supposed to be a main character get sidetracked to focus on other stuff, her relationship with Satou felt really under-developed and iffy. I would have loved to seem them further exploring the psychologically coherent and smart approach of two psychically wounded people healing each other through social interaction and an affectionate relationship. However, they completely dropped the idea somewhere in the middle of the story. Instead we got to see other crazy people and their problems while Misaki turned slowly into a side character. Satou who was head over heels suddenly treated her indifferent, the way he treated her through the story was inconsistent. At the end they didn't go anywhere.

The art & animation: The art was decent, the animation however was for the most part bad and inconsistent due to low budget probably.

Enjoyment. Did I enjoy this show?! it's hard to tell, on one hand I did like the comedy on the other hand I didn't like the execution of the story and characters. And I can't really relate to the main character like some people do since I'm not a NEET or a Hikikmmori.

Overall I would recommend to watch this if you feel like watching something that showcase a real issue on modern society and how scary it is but I really wouldn't recommend watching this if you are looking for a psychological anime with great characters or a well developed bitter-sweet love story

The word “otaku” used to be extremely derogatory, but in recent years, the word has become a lot less negative with many people (the users of Myanimelist for example) coming to identify themselves as otaku. However, this is still a major problem in Japan. We have the idea that it’s pretty normal for someone in Japan to obsess about anime and manga. However over there, “otaku” is used to describe someone that’s weird, unskilled, lacks the competence to be in a healthy relationship and/or can’t secure a stable job.

This is what Welcome to the NHK is about, the story of such an otaku’s ... life in Japan. This is my review.

Contains Minor Spoilers

Story
The story Welcome to the NHK is about 22 year-old, Satou Tatsuhiro, an otaku/NEET/hikimori. He’s unemployed, sleeps for 16 hours a day and goes grocery shopping at night with money his parents send him. He has the idea that that everyone and everything is against him and it’s supposedly all part of some convoluted conspiracy theory. He reluctantly joins a program which will help him get over his paranoia and in the process, better his way of living. Welcome to the NHK is part drama, part romance, part black comedy, part psychological thriller, part satire and part slice of life. It shows us the life of an otaku in a realistic way, but it’s able to combine drama and comedy with everyday life. For instance, it explored unemployment in a way where it could make us laugh and think at the same time. Unemployment is a very serious issue all over the world, but I just couldn’t help but laugh at how it was shown in Welcome to the NHK. However it also shows the consequences of unemployment and how it can affect the individual. If it’s from psychological thriller to drama to comedy and back to drama again, the executions of the tonal shifts is smooth and doesn’t come off as awkward because even though Welcome to the NHK falls under so many genres, it manages to have a certain direction of knowing where it wants to go. If it’s serious, it’s serious and if it’s funny, it’s funny. This works because Welcome to the NHK is never all over the place tonally.

Art
Welcome to the NHK has a distinct look. The characters aren’t that refined. Sometimes their noses disappear and their designs aren’t greatly detailed. There’s not really a lot to say, other than that’s it really simplistic and plain. The background characters sometimes appear as faceless. It sounds awful but you get used to it by the first episode. It has a certain charm, because it isn’t the type of animation you’d often see and the show manages to make it work.

Sound
You can’t go wrong with the English dub. I haven’t seen the subbed version but the English voice actors all did a wonderful job. Chris Patton and Greg Ayres are extremely talented voice actors who seem to embody the roles of Satou and Yamazaki, respectively. Both of them seem to have chemistry with their respective characters when interacting with one another and just really fit their animated counter parts. While Stephanie Wittels isn’t as well known as the former two, she did a wonderful job as Misaki, coming off as sweet, confident and manages to be cute without putting on a grating voice. Welcome to the NHK has a wonderful opening. Puzzle is just so catchy and upbeat. The remix used as the second opening gets rid of the trumpet which is kind of disappointing because something that small drastically changes ones opinion of the song, which makes you wonder why the show didn’t just use the first opening all the way through. The first ED sounds like a high energy nonsensical rant that’s just not that enjoyable to listen to. The second ED, was actually really nice. Slow and soft, it was just a wonderful track that closed an episode off nicely.

Characters
Satou is otaku personified. He’s obsessive, unsocial, unemployed etc. What makes him such a great character is that he has more flaws than perfections. He makes a lot of mistakes. He is someone that thinks isolation is capable of physically strengthening an individual and so decides to break a beer bottle with his hand because of his ridiculous reasoning. He connects dots that’s not there and comes up with conspiracy theories that are laughable. But he tries to better himself. He knows that he can change his lifestyle. He takes control to fix his mistakes and that’s why you love him so much. He’s funny, really weird and goofy, but he doesn’t want to be an otaku. Misaki and Yamazaki are two of the three leads and they were fun to watch. Their interactions with Satou were hysterical. Misaki’s meetings with Satou and the antics of Satou and Yamazaki was just really enjoyable. These were characters that grow on you over time because you feel like they’re just young ordinary people living their lives who also had their own personal problems and hassles to worry about. Like the story, they were down to earth. Everyone else in the story had a part to play. No one ever just showed up to fill up space. They were part of a story, and everyone seemed to have a direct or indirect influence of Satou’s life.

Enjoyment
Welcome to the NHK is very perculiar. Watching it, I noticed, I have never ever seen something like this before. Because of this it took a few episodes for me to fully enjoy it. It was funny, but laughing at the expense of Satou made me feel bad, because it gave me a glimpse of what an otaku’s life is like. It showed me the the daily lives of these individuals, how their psyche works, how they think and how they struggle. You can actually see yourself in Satou because of his flawed nature. All the characters weren’t just moving cardboards and the story was weirdly entertaining. Welcome to the NHK is smart and definitely something that you can watch more than once.

9/10