NHK ni Youkoso! Episode 24 Discussion

skapuppet said:
Welcome to the NHK will forever hold a special place in my heart. IMO this show is a pure masterpiece. Now though, when I look at most of the forum discussion of the ending, I'm like, "WTF??? What's wrong with these people!". Obviously, you guys watched this entire series and you did not grasp the true essence of this show. People complaining and critisizing and crap about how this was a poor ending because of stuff like "They didn't kiss!" and "it just ended". HELLO AND WAKE UP LIFE'S NOT ALWAYS RAINBOWS AND BUTTERFLY KISSES (like what one user said before). If you haven't noticed this series is presented in a realistic manner. That's one of the reasons why I love it. This show is like LIFE. Sometimes growth is a gradual process, Satou even said so himself he is gradually getting by and just because Satou and Misaki didnt have a hot kiss scene in the end, doesn't mean they are not together in the end, because it is pretty damn obvious they are together in the end, and they'll just slowly take their relationship forward one step at a time. But I guess most people need to see a kiss in order to realize they are together. Im one of those guys who strongly believes a good story is not a good story unless it has a good ending. Everything else can be good, but if doesn't end just as well or better, then it completely ruins it. And Welcome to the NHK, definitely had a damn good ending.

Vurtox said:
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 series.
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 and in the last few episodes (espeically on new years eve) behaved like a total prick. At the end they didn't go anywhere with the two and it seemed like we got stuck with the your typical frustrating anime situation where the status quo remains and anything even slightly romantic would cause death from nosebleed.
Very dissatisfying.

DarkBlue said:


Exacly, why are almost all animé endings like this!? It's so frustrating! It's not like the creators will die from drawing a little more happieness! Or maybe the storywriters are like Satou and think it's to embarassing to write about things like them kissing or something.

When I watch animé I do it because I want to escape the depressing reallity, so make more happier endings damn it!!!

Otherwise this series was great! :P

kobato512 said:
i love the anime, i love Misaki.. but..

WHERE'S THE GODDAMN KISS???

Novaeangliae said:
It seems that a lot of people didn't understand the ending or were unsatisfied with it, and among those that fell in love with this series, I have to say there is much more than just what is presented.

A few thoughts before I give my interpretation:

the Promonotory scene is shown in both the first and last episode, while this may not bode significance initially, it hints at an ending that wraps to the beginning (sort of like Memento).

Sato is seen running towards the ridge in both these scenes, towards the... Whatever you will, at the beginning I'd call it the conspiracy giant, and at the end it's a God (more portrayed towards Misaki), the significance I saw in this one was the parallel, after spending 20 minutes x 24 episodes in, one would think that the protagonist would learn something (I hope so...)

One thing that struck me was (I believe in episode 23) for new years when Sato meets Hitomi and a very sensual scene involving them at a hotel occurs, Quite possibly almost happened even though it was only in his head, I'm not 100% sure obviously but based on the actions Hitomi took (wrapping her arms around him) and being under the influence, it might just have happened if Sato didn't see it coming (and therefore preventing it by rejecting Hitomi's coming onto him like he usually does)

Forgive me for jumping around like this, I've just finished the anime and finding it hit so close to home, it leaves me breathless on the beauty of the approach taken.

My interpretation of the ending: Misaki and Sato confront on the promonotory, to which Sato tries to utter whatever he can to try to save Misaki, which falls on deaf ears knowing that he doesn't mean it. I take this stance because it's obvious how he shifts stances from her uncle to saying he loves her (which is quite frankly desperation, but who can blame someone like him?), Misaki fully well knows that she's worthless to the world and in the end, she was looking for someone to justify her existence. We saw how things went down when she made a secondary contract, basically showing him her feelings. Anyways, Sato saves her from the edge, to which he begins to fall into his conspiracy rant, and is where things get particularly interesting.

Sato's words, if anything, were filled with hope, saying things about how the bad things happening to her are because of the people around her, he eventually shifts his stance to saying the NHK are behind it, and then the NHK could even be god to her. Now, I'm going out on a limb here, but I believe the reason he chooses to fall into his deranged fantasy against the "God" that appears, and attempts suicide for Misaki is because he was proving to her that he was worse than her (in terms of being useless, garbage, etc.) and throwing himself off to protect her was all he could do to keep her from another suicide attempt.

He realizes his heroic efforts lead to nowhere when he finds himself on the "construction", and both characters fall into a breakdown (sounds familiar? It's happened on Episode 13), and if nothing else, we see how fragile both characters have become. With some assistance, Misaki drags Sato back inland, and expresses her hearts content. At this point, I'll say that while their relationship is mostly platonic, both practically love one another at this point (at least that's what I like to think, after seeing them rest in Misaki's old house, which also holds significance in that she reveals her childhood to him, which hasn't been disclosed to him directly EVER by her except by ambiguous imaging when she describes her home town.)

The last contract, if anything, gives us our happy ending and part of the moral ending. They rely on one another to survive, which may seem contrived, but in a sense, has a deeper sense. EVERYONE requires this, whether it is the richest man on Earth, or the farmer, both are involved with a symbiotic relationship in some way. The contract exists to ensure that when the hard times do come around again, that the other person will always be there. To which, I think it is easy to argue why I know hard times will come again. Hitomi's last few words to Sato were practically speaking it. We really don't know if she was happy or not on New Years (More than likely not seeing how drunk she got, but it can also be argued that she was now married and now her life had more meaning than pre "off-ending".

The last words spoken: Welcome to the NHK. Do we really ever figure out what the NHK is? Of course not, because it's contrived from the protagonist's head. Sato's means of justifying his flaws and odd situations were the NHK conspiracy. That's why at the end, he told Misaki she could blame her unfortunate events to the NHK, or God if she wants to. The whole ordeal of this anime revolved around "how to get back up when you fall down". The pyramid scheme provided a pretty good depiction of that, along with Yamazaki's moving away and Sato's parents funding him less and less over time. It's quite funny, seeing how we can attribute Sato's life being saved by Misaki throughout the whole series, and at the very end, Misaki is saved in one fell swoop by Sato. If anything, his character made bounds of progression from his original hopeless state. NHK is nothing more than his way of dealing with life, what changed was his reactions when he blamed the NHK. In the beginning, there was no need to do anything, his lifestyle was supported by his parents, by the end he was dealing with the problems.

Like I said before, this anime has hit home for me. I've sat on my computer playing countless hours of games, seeing friends come and go, it almost chills me to the bone. Watching Sato interact with others was believable, sometimes I screamed at the computer, telling him how stupid he is, only to be reminded of his hikikomori state. In order to enjoy this anime, I feel that placing yourself in Sato's shoes (along with Misaki's) will lead you to enjoy and understand the anime much better. There is simply too much to explain, but the ending really did play itself out quite nicely.

Welcome to the NHK. Or in other words, life is what you make of it.

Novaeangliae said:
Welcome to the NHK. Or in other words, life is what you make of it.

nantuko said:
Honestly, no idea why this is so popular.
So much open strings, wasted opportunities and kinda overly satirical to an extent that it felt hilarously stupid at times. Awful end as well.
Although it had some decent moments to keep me going but that's it.
4/10.

Baku219 said:
It really annoys me how people don't like the ending because it wasn't all happy and they didn't kiss or anything. To be honest, I think that type of ending would be completely out of place in the story and that it would go against the whole dark with a little hope tone.

Vurtox said:
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 series.
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 and in the last few episodes (espeically on new years eve) behaved like a total prick. At the end they didn't go anywhere with the two and it seemed like we got stuck with the your typical frustrating anime situation where the status quo remains and anything even slightly romantic would cause death from nosebleed.
Very dissatisfying.

Vurtox said:
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 series.
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 and in the last few episodes (espeically on new years eve) behaved like a total prick. At the end they didn't go anywhere with the two and it seemed like we got stuck with the your typical frustrating anime situation where the status quo remains and anything even slightly romantic would cause death from nosebleed.
Very dissatisfying.