I'm warning you now, those who are deciding to watch NHK ni Youkouso. You WILL get depressed watching this. I never checked the genres or read reviews anything before watching it, so at first I just assumed it as a fulfilling slice of life comedy with blooming romance, character development and stuff like that.
...It's not. Well, I guess it's a liiiittle bit like that, but at its heart this anime just shows the various miserable lives of the main characters. Unlike other feel-good anime where good things happen, this anime will give you failure after failure. Give you loneliness. Give you suicidal characters.
It doesn't have a very impactful and fulfilling ending. Which will make you depressed even more, after having to endure all these misery for twenty-four episodes.
I guess it's somewhat my fault that I didn't bother to check a lot about the anime before watching it. I just saw it as a recommendation for those who liked Steins;Gate (which I loved). Though I guess there is a lot of drama in S;G too, but at least THAT anime had great romance and a fulfilling and great ending.
Though I guess, it's good at what it does. This anime is all about life, and all the terrible things in it. If you spend a lot of time being alone in your room wasting your life in anime and games, you will relate to this anime. If you had a project that you wasted a hell of a lot of time on and it ends up in failure, you will relate to this anime. If you've had experiences that made you really depressed and even want to commit suicide, you will relate to this anime.
Don't expect this anime to be feelgood and fulfilling. It's funny and charming at times, but that's little compared to the main goal of showing the harsh realities of life. Of a lot of people. This anime has no dramatic and impactful ending; it's just normal and lifelike.
The animation is mostly good, but sometimes subpar and lazy. But the OP and EDs are great, and the soundtrack is really good. It really shows the emotion, it makes you feel more lonely in lonely scenes, more depressed in depressing scenes... Uggggghhh The OP is a lie this is not a heartwarming and charming slice of life comedy romance.
Character... They are kinda complex and well-written. You'll really feel immersed, curious, connected with the characters. Well, the characters have miserable lives unfortunately, but NHK is unlike other anime with shallow characters. They're well-written.
Sigh. Unfortunately, this anime is just not my thing. Seems like the reason I carried on watching despite being depressed about all the misery after misery and failure after failure is for the belief that it will get better. That it will have a great, feel-good, charming, fulfilling and impactful ending that I will enjoy. Unfortunately, it's still depressingly lifelike until the end. I can see how people like how lifelike this anime is, so if you want to watch an anime about the miseries of reality then watch this. I don't want to make it sound bad because it isn't, it's actually a greatly written anime, but it's just not my cup of tea.
My gripe, aside from the fact that this whole anime is depressing, is that the main female character almost never changes her clothes. This isn't a school anime, but all I'm seeing is her black and yellow clothes over and over again. I don't know why that makes me angry when I enjoyed stuff like Attack on Titan or Nisekoi. But seriously. For an anime that tries to be lifelike, it's not very normal to have the same outfit everyday for the whole year (except winter).
