You ever get that feeling that there's something you're supposed to watch, but you don't know what it is? Some vague idea, some faint silhouette, some distant notion or sense of what this thing is -- but you've never seen it and never heard of it and don't even know its name? For me, that show was Welcome to the NHK -- and I had been searching for this show for years.
This is a show that has no right to be as good as it is. It has no right to make me relate to characters who themselves are incapable of relation to other
...
people. It has no right to forge a compelling plot where no plot exists at all. It has no right to bend me over in laughter one moment and punch me in the gut the very next when I'm most vulnerable. It has no right to penetrate so deeply and so profoundly into my mind, my life, and my experiences and force me to confront myself and my fears and all the things in life from which I've run away. But it does, and it pulls it off magnificently. I've never seen anything quite like it, and part of me hopes I never see anything quite like it again so that I never forget the feeling I had when I first finished it.
Story: 8/10
As I mentioned, there's barely a plot to speak of. The show gravitates around Tatsuhiro Sato -- a NEET, social recluse, and hikikimori -- and a good portion of the show transpires either within the confines of his room or the confines of his mind. One day, he meets a pretty young teenage girl, Misaki Nakahara, who coaxes him out of his room and ropes him into daily counseling sessions in the nearby park to cure him of his condition as a hikikimori. Along the way, he reunites with a couple of old friends, and the show follows the misadventures of Sato and his band of equally messed up compatriots as they get mixed up in summer festivals, comic conventions, pornography, MMORPG's, pyramid schemes, and various bouts of suicidal tendencies.
In a way, I feel bad giving this an 8/10 in terms of story because the term "story" has a connotation of referring to the strength of plot -- and this show, while it lacks a strong narrative thrust to its plot like Death Note or Steins Gate, doesn't really need a plot. Like life itself, it follows a series of loosely related vignettes with common themes and anxieties, and none of them are ever fully resolved. And that's okay. Life itself often lacks closure unless we ourselves supply said closure. In that sense, the show stays true to life, and thus its story becomes one of its greatest virtues -- even if it's not successful in terms of how one would typically define narrative success.
Art -- 8/10
I also feel weird giving the art an 8/10. The art style and color palate are typically quite down-to-earth, which, while lacking in visual exuberance, ultimately reinforces the grounded nature of the show. I say "typically" because the show shows countless flashes of imaginative direction and dizzying imagery, particularly in Sato's hallucinations and schizophrenic episodes where everything becomes unhinged and we see an unfettered visual rendering of his psychological traumas and neuroses. And for the most part, the art, when not rendering giant sea snakes or talking refrigerators in Sato's visions, is really quite good and well-drawn. But then, for some reason, some episodes are just loaded with QUALITY out the wazoo -- and these moments stand out more against the typically polished animation of the show. Maybe there were some budgetary or production issues -- I don't know. Again, though, for the most part, the show looks good -- and there are times when it's visually powerful. But that's not the show's greatest strength.
Characters --10/10
This is where the show solidifies itself as a masterpiece in my mind. It proves once and for all that great characters don't have to be likable -- because for the most part, the characters on the show are objectively *difficult* to like. There is, of course, Sato, whose laziness, negligence, reclusion, and social awkwardness all compound to create a character that most of us would turn away from on principle were we to meet them in the real world. There's Misaki, who initially appears as a normal, benign girl but is soon revealed to be just as messed up as Sato -- if not more so -- and she's quite manipulative on top of that. There's Sato's old Senpai, Hitomi, an absolute bombshell whose belief in conspiracies tainted Sato's worldview in the first place and whose constant ennui and self-medicating indicate a deeply troubled, deeply unhappy person. And, of course, Yamazaki -- Sato's former classmate whose penchant for hentai and moe make him a natural target for repulsion and resentment. And yet, I loved them. Every single one. Even when they did dumb things or they failed or they manipulated Sato (which happens a lot -- everyone manipulates Sato on multiple occasions), I still loved them. I saw myself. I saw all my problems personified and realized. My sadness, my doubts, my sexual anxieties, my paranoia, my belief that anyone who displays even an ounce of kindness towards me is secretly plotting to hurt me -- I saw it all. They're horrible people with good hearts who have been hurt so much in life that they don't always realize what they're doing. They are the heart and soul of this show, and the journey they undertake was a joy and privilege to bear witness to. And the end of that journey stopped at a place that at once left me feeling immensely satisfied and begging for more -- at a point of transition in the lives of both the audience and the characters. As though saying, "Life is filled with pain, yes, but your past does not necessarily have to define your future. Where you go from here is entirely up to you. Make the most of it."
Also, the soundtrack and voicework are killer. There's a moment at the end of an episode about halfway through the season (I won't say which one for fear of spoilers) where Sato's voice actor tore my heart of my chest and left me in silence for about half an hour. And Hittori Bocchi is a damn beautiful track.
May 18, 2015
NHK ni Youkoso!
(Anime)
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You ever get that feeling that there's something you're supposed to watch, but you don't know what it is? Some vague idea, some faint silhouette, some distant notion or sense of what this thing is -- but you've never seen it and never heard of it and don't even know its name? For me, that show was Welcome to the NHK -- and I had been searching for this show for years.
This is a show that has no right to be as good as it is. It has no right to make me relate to characters who themselves are incapable of relation to other ... 
Aug 27, 2014
Death Note
(Anime)
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When the Devil rebelled against God, he was cast out of Heaven and made to suffer in Hell. When Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they, too, were cast out of paradise and exiled into a life that ultimately culminates with death. Though ostensibly dissimilar, the sins of man and the Devil are, in fact, the same: they desired to put themselves on the level of God, and for that they were punished.
In many ways, this is the basis of the Faustian archetype. A man desires to become God only to find himself destroyed by the story's ... 
Aug 22, 2014
Koukaku Kidoutai
(Anime)
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It's basically "Blade Runner" in Japan, but considering how "Blade Runner" is both the greatest film Ridley Scott ever made and a perennial classic of science-fiction and dystopia, that's not necessarily a bad thing. For one, the sound and visual cues draw heavily from "Blade Runner" and the art direction is practically a re-skin. That being said, it looks and sounds gorgeous, and much like its inspiration, "Ghost in the Shell" is an enormously absorbing, hauntingly atmospheric experience.
The similarities between "Blade Runner" and "Ghost in the Shell" are not merely aesthetic, though; both works make humanity their primary focus -- specifically the question of what ... |
