Reviews

I don't know what to say when talking about NHK. I really enjoyed it in the end, I found myself to love the characters -though admittedly their personalities are pretty frustrating most of the time. At first, I wasn't fond of the premise, following a hikikomori around as they constantly make promises of redemption that are never kept was kinda grading...but the psychological spins that would unravel made up for some of that. I think the main thing for that kept this from being something more special than it was, is the fact that you have quite a dark premise with some quite realistic themes following characters with low-key personality disorders and schizophrenic tendencies, you would think that by its final pages they would come off with something a bit more fundamentally impactful. In the end, it felt as if Tatsuhiko Takimoto's black-comedy-esc take on a psychological romance ended at a bit of a lul.

The main issues with the story for me were how some chapters seemed to plod along and in some instances felt like we were going in a bit of a circle with the characters. If that was tightened up and replaced with some more concrete character decisions, instead of the consistently wish-washy ones that we actually got, it would have elevated the story and felt like more of a progressive tale. Instead, it feels as though the characters haven't really moved very far from their starting point, I guess the one thing that can be said as a positive in that front is that it seems Satou and Nakahara have come to terms with their issues and have accepted them, finding solidarity together.

Outside of this grievance, I found NHK hilarious at times, super captivating at others and even though he annoyed me a lot, I was always routing for Tatsuhiro to change and loved the bonds created with Mizaki and Kaoru, even though they can come across as rather hollow at times.