STORY
Satou hasn't been outside of his home for years and lives of his mothers money. He meets a girl named Misaki who wants to help him get out of his shell through counseling, which Satou eventually takes part in.
The real fun starts once Satou meets his neighbor Yamazaki, who's an complete otaku and becomes Satou's friend. The interaction between the two becomes the basis of great comedy, as two socially awkward persons reflect on life and try to become a succesful person.
The balance of comedy and drama is very well done. The comedy never comes in the way of the drama and the drama is reflected trough comedy in a way we can grasp the reality. Comedy helps us to deal with though issues, and Welcome to the NHK does this job very well.
ART
I personally like the artstyle. The art fits the settings i.e. psychological (comedic) outbursts feature crazy stuff like explosions and talking furniture. Satou's home mostly feels depressing and dark while the center of tokyo makes you feel paranoid (like our main character) with dark colors and large amounts of 'anonymous looking' people walking in a fast pace. In a sense of tension the animation is well done. The disign more of a taste-issue
SOUND
Not much too say about the music. It's good and it's mostly used on relevant parts of the series.
CHARACTERS
The show features three main characters. Satou (protagonist), Yamazaki (neighbor/friend/otaku) and Misaki (girl/sort of love interest). Because of that there is lot of room for character development. You'll follow Satou, who tries to deal with social anxiety and who is also a very funny character. He is very naieve and gets himself cought up in stupid situations because of that. i.e. he gets thrown into a multilevel marketing system though he knew upfront it was a scam. In a way he reminds me of Randy from South park, who's very easy to get ethousiastic about 'the new thing' and doesn't even notice he's totally wrapped up into it.
The mysterious Misaki is a lesser interesting person, mainly because you won't get to know much about her most of the series. She has serious mental issues aswell but you won't get to know much about it until later on the series. I won't spoil it.
Yamazaki, Satou's neighbor, is a complete otaku with his room full of anime figurines, posters and eroge. He is, just like Satou a social outcast, except he goes to school and dreams of being a gamedesigner. Yamazaki becomes friends with Satou and the two toghether is always a guarantee for hilarious comedy. A lot of otaku-related humor i.e. the two of them creating a anti-women allience, only for Yamazaki to leave as soon as a girl asks him for a date.
ENJOYMENT
The show features one of the greatest comedy I've seen, but almost had me in tears in the dramatic parts. A series that makes you feel very sad at one point and makes you laugh your ass of at other points is a good thing. Also pretty addicting. Watched the first 10 episodes in one run.
OVERALL
I was about to give this show a 9, but downgraded it to an 8 because of the last few episodes feel very rushed and are overdramatic. The show features social issues that are present in every culture, set in Tokyo. I think a lot of you can relate to them, wether you've ever suffered depression or not. Definately recommend 'Welcome to the NHK.
