coldspaghetti

Welcome to the NHK. The bizarrely charming expressionist anime that deals with heavy topics like anxiety, depression, and reclusiveness through the colorful lens of satire. Welcome to the NHK has been referred to as one of the go to psychological anime for newcomers to anime and I see why. Many topics being extremely relatable, realistic, and harshly universal for many people, this anime is something people can latch onto from their own experiences. Despite the distressing topics Welcome to the NHK isn’t a sad or disheartening anime. It's actually the opposite. Filled with a bright color scheme, cartoonish hallucinations, a plethora of comedic scenes, and a seriously catchy upbeat soundtrack this show presents these serious topics in a silly way without failing to address the consequences of being a social recluse. This captivating contrast is what makes Welcome to the NHK so enjoyable. Our main character is Tatsuhiro Sato, a severe social hermit or as known in Japan, one of the many members of the strange phenomenon called Hikikomorism. Sato complacent in his solitude from the outside world of four years believes that an evil conspirator organization the NHK (Japanese Hikikomori Association) is out to brainwash youth into having sequestered like tendencies. Yes that has to be it. Obviously that’s what happened to him right? This is all until the unstable Sato meets the angelic Misaki Nakahara, the hero that has come to his rescue. The special one who is willing to push him out of his shell with her own dubious project especially for Hikkomoris like himself. We follow Sato in this wonderful slice of life dramedy in his internal struggle of denying, learning to accept, and trying to overcome his social recluse ways as well as his destructive delusions. We watch Sato as he slowly opens up to society from his fateful interactions with his new, and old friends to once and for all get out of his hikikomori state. Welcome to the NHK is extremely enjoyable, each episode focusing on Sato’s silly struggles, amusing sessions with Misaki, his romantic conflicts, and embarrassing adventures. Most of the time involving otaku culture and hilarious perverted one-liners or over the top overthinking. Within these entertaining adventures we slowly see Sato’s wonderful character development. This anime takes its time in building up and fleshing out his character throughout the show unlike many other anime where the development is cut short or crammed. This slow but steady pace pays off big time from the incredible presentation of the authentic and harsh reality of what an unstable person like Sato behaves like. We constantly see Sato self sabotage in an attempt to protect himself after finally opening up. These self-destructive tendencies found in our main character are exceptionally realistic and sadly relatable. Just when you think he is getting better, he relapses in a futile attempt to protect his feelings. All this furthermore establishes his character as an unstable person who has trust issues with himself and others. Not to mention his terrible decision skills resulting in more pain for himself. Blindly rushing into the bad because it's all he ever was comfortable with while rejecting the good because it's something foreign. Or being dragged into dangerous situations because he couldn’t speak up for himself because of his weighty anxiety that continues to immobilize him socially. To add on he uses games and his hallucinations as a crippling form of escapism. Not being able to face the crude reality of certain actions that he has done or others that have done things to him, he isolates himself to not think about it. Even though these actions are sometimes shown in a silly way Sato still feels genuine and realistic because of his desperate back and forth struggle to get out of his deeply rooted flaws. This is something everyone has experienced and one way or another has gone through making his challenges something that is universal, the topics that revolve around his struggles are also seriously common making his internal conflict tangible for the audience. To add on to this Sato is carefully crafted with extreme life like-ness and multidimensionality which is why his personality, thoughts, and reactions feel so genuine. He makes mistakes, he does the same things over again, he has bad coping mechanisms, etc. etc., this is why he feels so relatable. Sato's actions are not sugar coated or twisted into some surreal frankenstein social commentary. This is why I love Welcome to the NHK. This show is approachable, it's not super confusing or riddled with constant intricate symbolism like other out there psychological anime. While I love psychological anime like that, Welcome to the NHK has a simplistic artsy charm to it that makes it what it is. The feelings and actions that are shown in this show are universally understandable and raw. While most of the time the tone of this anime is lighthearted it never fails to give the audience serious moments scattered throughout the show. The balance between the comedy, drama, serious moments, and sad moments is nothing less then flawless. We see this amazing balance as Sato trudges along further in the show. We see his mindset and the people around him influence him on an extensive level, we see his highs and lows intricately fleshed out. We dive deep into Sato’s consciousness and his emotions. A lot of times it feels like I can almost feel the things he is experiencing because of how well the presentation is when it comes to the polished characters, wonderful soundtrack, relatable themes, and great visuals. And yes I did say soundtrack. Loaded with an amazing scores to compliment the story, Welcome to the NHK's soundtrack is sadly overlooked despite how well it enhances the tone. Each scene is filled with the emotionally charged strums of guitars, lazy tunes from harmonicas, game show like symphonies, and upbeat anime songs. Complimenting each episode it's in flucuating from funny to heartfelt. To add on to this we have zany abstract visuals filled with bright colors and crazy characters, ranging from a tiny dancing purple human to talking refrigerators to represent Sato’s thoughts. This makes it all the more visually interesting and avant garde. We also see an insider on some side characters' thoughts and emotions too. This gives leeway for more dimension to the other parts of the cast who were once thought to be static. Every character that comes in contact with Sato is a great lesson learned whether it had a good impact or a bad one. Everyone in this anime has their own problematic faults and selfish motives to things they do. Just as in reality no character in here is a hundred percent good. They feel legitimate in the way they act, they all feel human with their imperfections. Even with their flaws each character is extremely charming and leaves an impression on you. When certain characters leave which they sadly will, you will feel an absence. And that's what is so wonderful about Welcome to the NHK. We see the suffering, happiness, relapse, and the impact of each character that passes in front of us through Sato’s interactions with them. Even though this is achieved many times through cliche and predictable plot conveniences it doesn’t completely destroy the worth of the characters. They are complex and relatable in so many ways and always managed to leave a lasting impact on me. Not to mention the great themes that come with these characters like overcoming your fears, acceptance of your flaws, the dangers of escapism, what people do in acts of desperation, the cons with being a social recluse, etc. These all intertwine with the marvelous social commentary on hikikomorism and human folly making way for one of the most interesting, enjoyable approaches to extreme introversion I have seen in a while. Welcome to the NHK made me feel so much emotion within the span of the 24 episodes and covered a lot. I don’t regret watching this at all, its amazing and a must watch if you’re new to the psychological genre. This anime is wonderful