Welcome to N.H.K (NHKにようこそ)
Published by Kadokawa Shoten
Serialized in Shounen Ace
Translated by Tokyopop

A new year’s about to start so let’s talk about a manga about starting things anew. This is a story about changes. A rude banter from a classmate has turned a man into an anti-social NEET. A girl who has not coped with change convinces herself she can change another. Contrary to popular belief, Welcome to N.H.K is not a story about otakus and the otaku experience. It is a look into the darker side of our humanity, a depressing loneliness only brought about by a conspiracy that doesn’t bring to people together but tears them apart. A painful yet beautiful romantic tale about two people who are trying their best to defeat this great conspiracy. Welcome to NHK.

Nippon Hikkikomori Kyoukai

The world, according to Satou (that’s the hero of this tale), is ran by a great conspiracy. You see, Satou is a Hikkikomori — an extreme anti-social NEET who survives only through his parent’s monthly support. He doesn’t go out of his room nor does he have friends to communicate to. He believes that NHK is the reason his life is a mess. NHK shows all of these lovely anime that shows an ideal perfect world and ideal lovely “Moe~” women. However, as people grow up reality is far from Card Captor Sakura or Nadia. It is cruel, heartless, and lonely. Afraid to deal with harsh reality, he locks himself up in a room and stays in his depression.

Sure, Satou’s hikkikomori road is not entirely the most interesting storyline. Although, the otaku beginnings were quite amusing. In fact, I know most people actually started reading it for that reason. Somehow, a part of our otaku self can relate to Satou’s 30GB porn downloads (admit it!). Yeah, some parts of his story is something we can all relate to and poking some fun at our otaku tendencies can be a bit humorous. However, NHK loses this light-hearted otaku comedy when he gets deeper into his depression and turns into a more painful tale of facing reality. His painful tale of being an upstanding citizen is painful. All the more when he tries to trust in people again, especially in Misaki.

Love will tear us apart.
At first, I really thought this was just an otaku tale. However, as things get more painful for Satou, you realize that in the end this was a tale about love. The story starts to focus on unmasking Satou of his cynicism and making him trust in the people around him, especially Misaki who turned out to be no different than he was.

As you flip through more pages, their love story becomes agonizing. Partly because by this time, you are fully aware of the extent of Satou’s psychological sickness. When you think he could finally get out of his hikkikomori tale, he just crawls back into his blanket. It even gets annoying to a point that you just wish he’d die already and get it over with. However, I think, Takimoto-sensei intended to do this in order to show Satou’s difficulty in getting his life. Yes, Satou (even Misaki) is not like us who just needs a beer and some righteous chit chat to get his life back. He is worse than that. And perhaps, sensei also wanted to stress how bad it really is for hikkikomoris. This annoying ordeal could be their reality. It’s painful and depressing to watch how they go to their lows and how they struggle to get their life back just so they could be a better person for the other. I can perfectly understand if you decide to drop the manga altogether and throw it to the wall. I did that myself but, I’m a masochist so despite how much I hated it, in the end, I still read it faithfully. I even watched the anime which, to an extent, was a lot better than how the manga was running.

Well, the manga was finished after the anime so the anime gave a great preview of what the ending was like. In fact, the insanity and agony of the manga was watered down in the anime which was a little more pleasant. Slightly trippy, not as overdramatic, but less depressing. That’s partially why I even bothered recommending it last year. :3 Nonetheless, the manga also came to its end this year and it was, just like the anime, a very fitting end to this lonely tale. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing altogether. In a way, it’s trying to present hope for the hikkikomori. On the other end, it could also mean that it’s no different to what NHK has established. It is just an ideal setting. I’d like to think it’s the earlier. There are ways to get out of a deep depression. The path may not be as wild as Satou’s but I’m sure that meeting someone, perhaps if you get lucky, a lovely angel like Misaki would definitely take you out of the dark. If you can read beyond the insanity and depression, I’m sure you’ll see the beautiful romance set in N.H.K.

Every year, I do a little list of the fun things I’ve read and seen during the year. And in the spirit of doing lists, I thought I’d make a list of all the things that made my hobby go further down the drain this year. These are anime and mangas I’ve read throughout the year which have made an impact in my life and will definitely be my ruin for the next few years until their series finish. lol. So, let’s look how this dear otaku’s life went down the drain this year. ;A; Drat.

Let’s start this the way the year started.

Gintama. Anime season kicked in for me when Gintama started. I’ve read Gintama before but I never managed last out with the puns since I can’t understand most of them. But they were funny nonetheless, especially with all the lunatics abound. Gintama’s ragtag yorozuya crew, their odd jobs, failed logic, and hilarious drama sketches kept me going for a lot of weeks since the anime started this spring. Gintama was my first serialized ‘raw’ experience. lol. What I mean by ‘raw’ experience is because no one is subbing it, I had to watch it week by week raw. Which is good since I’ve managed to let go of my dependence on subs. Aaaah~ Gintama. Thank you for reviving my love ofr Jump animes. <3 <3 Even if you guys had filler episodes, it’s okay, since your entire series is like a filler episode anyway. lol.

Ouran Koukou Host Club. Baby your my love!! So cute. I squeed in cuteness every Tuesday since I had to catch both Gintama and Ouran. XDD And this series was a fitting animation for the lovely Ouran tale. <3 <3 Although the ending is a bit different, in the end, it’s still about the squeeing and the fangirling and the MOE moments.The anime was also has a sawayaka (refreshing) appeal compared to the manga. I’ve read the manga before but stopped because Hatori Bisco’s art just gives me headaches. Seriously, her paneling and details explode in the pages. Albeit funny, I thought that this is not for me. ><;; I’ll leave that to those who painstakingly read them every month. I have to give her credit to her story. She’s got a great story in her hands, and I hope this series keeps up its insane humor!

NHK ni Yokoso. ???????????????????????????????????????????(????????????)???????????????????????????????????? !!!!!!??????Here’s NHK. One of my most favorite otaku mangas being translated into anime by… gonzo. If this weren’t one of my more favorite mangas this year, I really wouldn’t bother. Gonzo’s rendition of NHK destroyed the high energy that the manga had. The anime became more laidback than it were obsessive. But later on, I realized that they did this to stress the hikkikomori lifestyle of Satou – how painfully slow and solitary these days go. I must give dibs to Pearl Kyoudai for making great songs as BG for the series. That at least brought more life to the series. On the animation end, well… what do you expect. It was made by gonzo.

Mushishi. Ahhh. Mushishi. I have no qualms about this series. It’s well animated and the story is held together by the mystique of Ginko and his invisible friends. This could have outrightly won as the best thing I’ve laid my eyes on this year, but no… not even Ginko’s mushishi world could sway me to what was coming next. It was great, nonetheless. Great animation. Great story telling. Great premise. Great anime.

Nodame Cantabile (drama). mukyaaaaa!! (????????????) I can watch this series over and over again and be grateful for the great casting call on this great great manga. The story takes a slightly different turn in the drama, with the actors trying to push the characters further. I would say, they all played the “what if” card. “What if Chiaki managed to show his emotions?” could have been something that Tamaki Hiroshi thought of when he tried to put on a Chiaki mask. At first it felt weird, but in the end, it turned out quite great. Of course, we can’t forget Ueno Juri who was simply Nodame. She breathed Nodame’s character that she made it her own. The end result between these two talents (along with other set of loony actors) made a great drama adaptation of my favorite josei manga. <3 <3 Hard critic as I am with series that are personal to me, I think this is one of the better manga to drama adaptations out there. So catch it!!

Other series that caught my eye this year was Death Note. I would have chosen Death Note if I didn’t like the manga’s outcome so much. But the animation to this manga is, without a doubt, superior! But I just really hate the ending. I suck. ><;; OTL. The next one is Black Lagoon, which I really really love but I didn’t love it enough to check it out. Black Lagoon’s thrilled has died out with all the intense action animes I’ve seen in my life. We’ve seen chicks gun it out before. What else is new? I have yet to wait how Katekyo Hitman Reborn fleshes out as well. It looks promising. I enjoyed the manga a lot hopefully, it doesn’t fall the same fate as its bigger brothers, Bleach and Naruto. Boooo… Pumpkin Scissors is also a promising series. I hope these series pull it off next year.

Now that we got into speaking about next year, it’s great to look on things to look forward to next year! Well, there’s the Nodame Anime coming out to start the year so that’s something to look forward to. I’m not really the type to hunt for Japanese anime since I prefer reading mangas over them. But this year, quite a lot of what I love in manga came out on the TV so it can’t be helped.

I hope next year’s a great year for animation and manga!! Let’s hope for better year people!!

(*^???^)/??????:*:??????HAPPY NEW YEAR???:*:?????????(^???^*)