[Categories: Anime Reviews]
Welcome to the NHK episode 3: Welcome to the bishoujo!
Poor old Satou plunges deeper into the isolated world of the hikikomori as Yamazaki’s attempt at help backfires. Is he already beyond salvation…?
In a similar way to Beavis and Butthead this series makes no secret of poking fun at the stereotypes of its target audience: like the two couch potatoes who stood for the worst of the MTV generation, Welcome to the NHK paints a painfully funny but undeniably seedy picture of the strange little subculture. As he tries to get to grips with the idea of the bishoujo dating sim, it comes as no surprise that his limited experience with real-life females puts him at a disadvantage; it wouldn’t be so bad if he didn’t get so carried away in the act of ‘research’…
At times I was laughing out loud while at others I couldn’t help but cringe. My own experience of these games is nil (you’ll have to trust me on that point! :p) so some of the references went over my head but the overall impression was a tragically funny one. This ep would have fallen into the trap of being one gag stretched to the limit, had there not been occasional moments of remorse and despair on the part of our hapless ‘hero’.
The main event in this ep is still the excruciatingly embarrassing series of events that occur as Satou falls prey to the lure of the ‘galges’ (dating sims to you and me) but my own interest was more in the periodic flashbacks, the social commentary themes and what part Misaki has to play. Was it really her in Satou’s dream at the beginning of ep 1? What’s her ‘project’ really in aid of? Why is she so intent on helping him anyway?
I’m hoping that the series addresses these issues and continues to push forward with the story after this episode, rather than getting bogged down with parodies and cheap gags feauring cd-roms and boxes of tissues; it has the potential to be funny AND hard-hitting at the same time. Still, the music and animation are both great - reading around, it appears that Yoshitoshi ABe was involved with the artwork at the earliest (i.e. light novel cover art) stage, which confirmed a nagging suspicion of mine while I watched the episodes so far.
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