[Categories: Anime Reviews]
Welcome to the NHK episode 1: Welcome to the Project!
I thought there would be nothing this season that interested me. Then two things happened: Bokura Ga Ita was posted online (expect a review for ep 1 this week) and then I stumbled upon NHK. Overjoyed that, for a change, it wasn’t a show loaded with loli, moe and fan service I breathed a sigh of relief. Then thought, “what the hell?!”
Y’see, Welcome to the NHK looks like the product of a Paranoia Agent all-night viewing marathon after smoking too much grass. I’d love to know whose twisted imagination this came from - even though the central theme is very much a Japanese phenomenon it conveys the plight of the central character with mind-bending effectiveness.
Satou Tatsuhiro is a real anti-hero: a member of the ‘NEETs’ (Not in Education, Employment or Training), he is a recluse: a prisoner in his own home (and his own mind!). He’s convinced that the reason for his deadbeat lifestyle is that of huge conspiracies created by a shadowy organisation known as the NHK. Cue scary dreams, talking household appliances and a weird blue creature. No, really.
I don’t know a great deal about the concept of the hikikomori, apart from the fact that it is a serious social issue in Japan these days. In Satou’s case, it was brought on by what appears to be some form of paranoid schitzophrenia that has made him afraid to go outside - in flashbacks he appeared to be perfectly normal when he was younger, if a little unlucky. The bizarre, nightmarish visuals that convey his situation are both inventive and unnerving: Gonzo have once again delivered the goods in that dpartment. After all, how often do you see photorealistic fag smoke and talking refrigerators in animation?
The possible key to Satou’s salvation is Misaki Hakahara: until the next ep we won’t find out much about her, apart from the fact that she encourages Satou to make his first tentative steps back into the real world. She claims to know about his situation, which is a little creepy (could it just be Satou’s delusions…?) but offers him a glimmer of hope. Right now there is not only Satou’s background but her ‘Project’ to consider so series will no doubt prove to be a very interesting one indeed.
It’s hard to pin down how Welcome to the NHK will pan out but it certainly makes an impression! The social commentary side of things might not have quite as much resonance in our own society but the predicament of this show’s hapless ‘hero’ is pretty obvious and it manages through the music and outrageous visuals to be something I’ll be following in future. I might have just filled the Haruhi-sized hole in my viewing schedule…
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