Welcome to the N.H.K is a really unique anime in the fact that it tries more to tell an otaku how your life really is, instead of trying to give otakus what they wanna see. And is that a bad thing? No way, José! This anime wants to tell you to fix your life straight and not to be a NEET and/or otaku for your entire life, because it brings you nothing but sadness in the long run.
Animation: NHK never really impressed me with its animation style, but the character designs and the main character's dreams were very nicely done and put together. Even though it never really impressed me, I can't disclose the fact that it had really solid body movements on the characters. However, in some episodes (very few, maybe 2-3) you could clearly see that the animation style was completely different. Think of it sorta like K-On!'s style of animation, you know, like fast, blury and waterish kind of movements. And even though I don't hate that art style, I did think that it felt sorta out-of-place in a show like this.
Sound: It was a long time since I last watched this anime, so I can't really remember much of the soundtrack (which is of course NOT a good thing, since OST's are something that should stick with you 'till the end). But as for the openings and endings, they will stick with me for life. The opening was preformed by Round Table featuring Nino and is called Puzzle and is still to this date one of my favourite intros ever. I just love the trumpet in the song! And then it disappears in the second opening preformed by the same band and the name of the song is the same, only with the added sentence (Extra Hot Mix)... Extra hot... Yeah right... Removing the trumpet and replacing it with a generic guitar tune was one of the biggest mistakes they ever did in this anime sound wise. The first ending was preformed by Kitsutaka Fumihiko and Ootsuki Kenji and is called Odoru Akachan Ningen. What can I say? Just listen to it! How can you not love it?! The second ending was sung by Makino Yui (who voiced Misaki in the show, might I add) and is called Modokashii Sekai no Ue de, and saddly, it was not in any way memorable... But hey! Atleast we still have Mysterious Purupuru Pururin!! As for the voice acting, solid performance all the way through by everyone.
Story: Alright, the story is about Satou Tatsuhiro who is a hikikomori who later reunites with his high school junior Yamazaki Kaoru, and the two decides to make an eroge! Now, it may sound like a boring ass story, but it later evolves into something much different, for better or worse... Satou's life starts to change after he meets Nakahara Misaki and, as with Yamazaki, reunites with his high school senior Kashiwa Hitomi. Both whom will change is life forever. But as far as the story development goes, I thought it was one of the best story in any anime in this department. Untill that fateful episode 14. This is where the story took a massive turn, and in my opinion, I got disappointed... HARD! It did however get better by the end.
Character: NHK did not have that huge of a cast, and mostly contained a bunch of side-characters. But the actual main characters were some of the best! How can you not love Misaki with her cuteness and her relationship with Satou, how can you not love Yamazaki with his nerdyness, and how the hell can you not love Satou for just being Satou?! All of them were really entertaining in their own special way which made this anime more enjoying than what it would have been, if these characters weren't in it. Oh, and don't forget Pururin!
Enjoyment: This is definitely the kind of anime that will entertain you because it gives you so much. It gives you comedy, drama, romance, thrills and much, much more. And even though some parts of the show were really boring (hint: mmorpg) it did not fail to deliver when it was being serious.
This isn't really the kind of anime that I think I will rewatch that soon in the future, but it did have something to it that makes you wanna watch it again. For me, I would definitely say that the main reason to rewatch this anime is because of the characters. But if I do, I might actually go with the manga instead, probably because it features a different ending and a bunch of other elements that did not appear in the anime, same goes with the novel.
All in all, Welcome to the N.H.K is a really good anime that everyone who watches a ton of anime should watch. It should give you a bigger insight of your own life and what you do, aswell as how it affects those around you. So NHK is an anime, even though it has its fair share of flaws, that I would definitely recommend to anyone and everyone!
