Reviews

Released in 2006. Welcome to the NHK is social commentary at its most disquieting and illuminating. It is a show that skillfully avoids moralization and clumsy allegory and instead makes a dramatically satisfying and personal story out of a widespread but largely unacknowledged occurrence. In spite of the occasional comic moment it is, for the most part, also an uncompromising piece whose unvarnished realism can sometimes make it difficult to watch. But if one can put this reservation aside, I think that anybody who enjoys biting critiques and fascinating character studies will find it to be a worthwhile view.The show’s greatest strength lies in its characters, whose various quirks make the story all the more affecting. Satou himself is quite likeable, for underneath an outward shell of cynicism and skepticism, he’s a complex person: good-hearted but also somewhat obsessive, socially inept to the point where little occurrences have driven him into his current state but still salvageable as a person, and, thankfully, devoid of arrogance. He’s the rare anime character whose failings are truly what make him relatable. Like Satou, the other characters are frustrating and yet strangely likeable, and it soon emerges that nearly all of them have demons and blame their suffering on what is, ultimately, paranoia masquerading as an outside agent, whether they name it the NHK, an evil God, or anything else. Misaki, the mysterious “savior” endlessly fascinating, and the show was quite skilled at changing my opinion of her back and forth. I loved her at times, despised her at others, was often irritated by the lack of answers surrounding her, and sometimes even felt sorry for her, but she never lost my interest. The show is, in the end, as much about her as it is about Satou, and their troubled and complicated relationship turns out to be the most effective piece of drama in the show. The character design, on the other hand, is unremarkable, with Yoshitoshi ABe’s drawing of Misaki proving to be the sole exception, and although the show usually looked fine to me, there was the occasional episode in which the never-impressive animation utterly fell apart and people’s faces began to look runny and shapeless. Indeed, there are whole episodes in which the background becomes alarmingly muddled, and while it’s not a gaping problem, it is a nuisance that distracts from the story. The musical score, conversely, is almost impeccable. Consisting of melancholic guitar, piano, and harmonica pieces and complemented by quirky but understated soft-rock insert songs, it perfectly underlies the show’s atmosphere. The world seen in Welcome to the NHK is one whose noxious fumes seep out the instant one opens the door, and much of what we see is quite disturbing. The show dwells on the high level of sexualization in the world of hikkomori and otaku, and while the nudity serves to move a psychological study along rather than exploit or arouse, the amount present can sometimes be overwhelming. The show contains virtually no graphic content, but it directly grapples with suicide, drug abuse, and poverty, and the degree to which it depicts its characters’ internal suffering can make it difficult to watch. People repeatedly behave self-destructively. Indeed, in spite of being labelled as a dark “comedy”, the show really only attempts to tickle our funny bones in the first few episodes, after which the light tone largely disappears with only the occasional bit of comic relief. I was laughing so hard in those episodes that I expected the ride to be very different from the one it turned out to be, and I sometimes wonder whether the commentary may have been best done complemented with the same sort of utter hilarity I got from the earliest stages. Admittedly, it’s difficult to make a social critique and include “entertainment” without distracting from or undermining the original purpose, and I think that the heavy-handed approach ultimately worked well for the series. Nonetheless, this is not light entertainment in any sense, and it is best taken in small doses. It’s hardly a criticism to say that it makes better sociological commentary than entertainment. With that and my few other minor quibbles out of the way, I will say that Welcome to the NHK is a must-see for anyone interested in learning about the darker sides of Japanese society, as well as the dark side of anime fandom. It’s enlightening and yet also depressing and disturbing at times. So this is what I would call a very long review for me anyway. So I would say if you are of age then go watch this show it’s very good.