Video Backlog: “Welcome to the N.H.K.”

Publisher: ADV Films, Funimation (USA)
Format: Region 1 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English dub and English Subtitles
Length: 24 episodes x 24 minutes
Production Date: 2006
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Story Outline: Tatsuhiro Sato, a 22 year old university drop out who has become a recluse and hardly has any contact with the outside world. It’s a phenomena that Japanese society has termed hikikomori (shut ins). For four long years he pretty much stays in his apartment with his lifestyle paid for by an allowance by his parents. Sato develops a theory that his life has been reduced to its current pathetic state by an organisation called the N.H.K., Nihon Hikikomori Kyokai (Japanese Shut-in Association), who have conspired to turn young men into recluses unable to function in society and do so via anime and other otaku goods. One day a middle aged women spruiking for a religious group appears at the door accompanied a young woman whom he immediately takes an interest in. While he successfully manages to get rid of the pair of them, Sato meets the young woman, Misaki Nakahara, again after attempting to apply for a job. She makes Sato an offer to cure from his hikikomori ways. However this is easier said than done. Sato denies the fact he is a hikikomori and has lied so much to Misaki that he is in the process of creating a doujin game with his anime otaku neighbour. Naturally things don’t go to plan with the game and Sato ends up wallowing in his paranoid delusions about conspiracies and hallucinations of his electrical appliances advising him what to do. Misaki’s life line may be his only way out.

Mini Review: Due to the similarity of the shows, I’ve put as much space as possible between this show and “Genshiken 2”. This was a good idea I think, as while the shows deal with similar ideas and themes, they couldn’t be more different. It was odd that during the last decade we had so many anime shows dedicated to various aspects of fandom. The majority like “Cosplay Complex” and “Comic Party” celebrate otaku culture and are rather light hearted in nature. “N.H.K.” is the complete opposite of the vast majority of these shows.

What really struck me immediately with the first couple of episodes of this show is how practically every character is rather unlikable. The only one who seems rather normal and well adjusted is Misaki, though early on the impression given is that she is a God botherer, but I’m not going to hold that against her. As the story progresses in the first half of the show, the clear message seems to be that despite Sato being portrayed as a loser a lot of the cast have their own problems which seem just as worse. His upperclassman from high school, Hitomi, relies on a cocktail of prescription drugs to function normally. Sato’s neighbour, Yamazaki, is highly strung young man who is treated as a freak by his college classmates and also has a superiority complex. There’s a lot of psychological concepts touched upon here. First and foremost is the hikikomori, which seems a purely Japanese condition as it doesn’t fit into anything in western diagnostic psychological manuals. Stuff like asperger’s syndrome or other autism related conditions aren’t compatible. It’s more in the realm of obsessive compulsive disorder and anxiety, but even then it’s not a comfortable fit. Sato also has delusions and hallucinations of talking appliances as well as a persecution complex in the form of his obsessions with conspiracies. Depression and suicide is also touched upon. Seriously, it’s almost exclusively a cast of broken characters in this show.

The first half of the show ends up on an emotional high. I actually came to like a lot of the characters at this point. It did feel it was going to teeter over the edge of sentimentality and sap at this point, though it manages to avoid this. Certainly all way through the series it treads a very fine line. It’s really dark and unforgiving. I wondered at times if I really wanted to watch these characters struggle. The overall feeling I got was the characters are very, very sad people. They seem to make little progress most of the time and it gives the impression they are continually stuck in a rut. While the show is pretty dark at times there is a lot of humour in the show, though some of it is pretty dark. However there was enough humour there for me to at least take the edge off the darkness.

After the emotional high of the climax of the first half of the show, I did feel really let down when little had changed for Sato at this point. It was like so much had advanced in terms of plot, then by the next episode it just retreats back to where it was a few episodes prior. This happens a couple times in the show. I suppose this is in line with how a person with a diagnosis of being a hikikomori would react, but it is a little frustrating in terms of the way the story is told. I’ve read a review or two of the show where the reviewers didn’t think much of the ending. For me, I accepted it and understood it. Without trying to give the ending away, I think because of the fragile state of two certain characters, it probably couldn’t end any other way. In fact I quite liked the ending and the enjoyed it’s realistic take, despite some of the strange elements in the show. Much has been made of some of the dodgy animation in this show. There are some cuts that have really, really awful off model animation, but these are few and far in between. Mostly the animation is good. The natural hair colour of the characters and colour palette added to the realism I thought.

I bought this show when ADV was having it’s issues with Sojitz and managed to get the box plus the first five volumes. Latter when Funimation got the series, they eventually relented and pressed up limited copies of the sixth and final volume of the show, otherwise I would have had to buy the entire second half of the show. Thank god Funimation did the right thing for those collecting single discs. ADV’s covers are, um how do I put this, “tarty” to say the least. ADV has this history of ramping up the “sex factor” in their promotion and public face of their titles, though I think the Japanese company is more to blame. These covers don’t really fit in with the content of the show (the above image is one side of ADV’s box for the series). Other than that, the adaptation is very good. Some liner notes on hikikomori and the real life NHK (Japan’s public broadcaster) wouldn’t have gone astray. To sum up, this show gave me a strange feeling between cringing, sadness and feeling pity for the characters a lot of the time. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way before watching any anime. So weird. Yet the show was really intriguing. The show is really a hard watch in many ways and not very rewarding as such, yet it’s enjoyable at the same time. Yes, I know that’s a weird way to sum up my feelings on the series, but that’s how I felt. Not a show to watch if you’re feeling depressed though. 7.5 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: 23 months (it's much easier this way than listing the number of discs).