Hello everyone, and welcome back to another 2 episodes of Welcome to the NHK! This week Sato manages to surprise me, Hitomi makes a small return and Misaki finally gets an episode all about her. Was it all good, another pair of winners? Yes! Was it positive progress for Sato? Not really. Lets jump in and talk about that.
It’s absolutely amazing to me how easily NHK can make me go from being proud of Sato to disgusted by him, to pitying him. All while keeping him an interesting, engaging and all around good character. And that’s because Sato is disgusting, he is pitiful, and he is still a good person who is trying to be better. Seriously, just last week I was praising him for going outside! For expressing himself and taking care of his friend rather than tear him down! Yet not one episode later Sato is wrapping himself up in another grand lie. It’s like he can’t help himself. He has these expectations for himself, ones that he assumes everyone else has for him to, and hates that he isn’t reaching them. So he feels like he has to lie or else people won’t care for him anymore. It’s sad. Yet I still like him.
To get a better look at what I’m talking about, lets take a look at episode 7, “Welcome to the Moratorium!”. After such a successful day in episode 6, I had a lot of ideas where Sato would go next. Can we go outside more? Maybe an arcade, or vocational school? Will our hijinks move beyond the apartment block? Instead he did something I never expected: he regressed. And he regressed hard. Not just as a shut in, but by lying to Yamazaki and Misaki about having a cold, skipping lessons and work, bumming food off Yamazaki. It was, perhaps, the lowest we have seen Sato yet. A new nadir so to speak, depending on how you look at the school girl incident. And after his mother called? It made me wonder if NHK was going to have a happy ending at all.
Speaking of the mother though, she exists! Family members are real! I expected to go this entire show without them even being mentioned, at the very least especially not shown. And while she doesn’t appear in person until episode 8, it still surprised me. Does this mean we might actually meet Yamazaki’s family? Or Misaki’s? Both have been mentioned at least once I think. And will their appearance lead to similar shenanigans as Sato’s, as he once again tells a massive lie to try and get out of trouble? I don’t know but I think their existence opens a lot of doors for NHK. Often in anime adults don’t truly exist. They are mentioned, they are around on the periphery, but they rarely ever effect the main plot. So I’m really glad to see Sato’s appearing in show centered about Hikikomori and lacking a place in the world.
Speaking of Sato’s lie, as stupid of him as it was, it did lead to some really funny moments. The whole thing with him and Yamazaki setting up a company, from the name to the logo to the song, was a great short skit. I think NHK did a great job visualizing it in a simple but effective manner to. Whether it be the speech bubble with the full name, the amusing business cards or Sato’s impassioned singing, it was a good time. Tack on Misaki in the background trying to help Sato with his lie and you have an effect 5 minutes or so of content. Just let Yamazaki and Sato bounce back and forth, shooting each other down or explain how stupid stuff is for this grand lie, and you have plenty of jokes. That said there was one thing that bothered, though not in a bad way.
What is it you might ask? Misaki. Now yes, I did just say I found her part in the skit amusing, but bear with me: I’m starting to wonder if Misaki is even real. Don’t leave yet! Just look at the show. Who else besides Sato has really interacted with her, or even acknowledged her presence? Yamazaki didn’t seem to, at least not until he caught them in episode 8, though his mother certainly. And look at all the information she knows about Sato, despite him never sharing it! She’s like a stalker. A perfect little dream waifu stalker for the Hikikomori Otaku shut-in. Maybe I’m just being paranoid here but like… Could she be a hallucination? Is there some meta-joke that I’m missing? There’s so much evidence that she’s real, its the intuitive option. But I just can’t shake the feeling that something is… off about her.
Let me know what you think, if I’m just having a moment of insane theory crafting or not, in the comments below. Whatever the case I do like her. I’m just very paranoid right now.
Finally I want to talk about a topic from last week, Hitomi. She only appeared for a moment this episode true, though by god she was hot during it (I’m sorry), but it was a moment that told us a lot about her. Simply put, I think she’s a prostitute. That she’s selling her body as her job to make ends meet, reinforcing my belief that either she’s going to be a bad influence on Sato or Sato will be one on her. I still think she has the healthiest relationship with him, for now at least. He’s very comfortable around her. But that comfort might end up being their undoing. Whatever the case though her situation is clearly a lot worse than we were lead to believe by her introduction in episode 5.
Moving on, we come to episode 8, “Welcome to Chinatown!”. The big event of this episode is that we meet the previously mentioned “mother figure”. And looking back, this was actually kind of a weird one for me. Early on I felt rather annoyed by her, she seemed relatively judgmental of Sato. Looking down on him, assuming he was lying, etc. It set me up to not like her. However as the episode went on she became less about putting Sato down and more about recognizing who he truly is, and just being concerned for him. She wasn’t judging him for the lie, we see that in how she went along with it and pushed him and Misaki onto a date. Instead she just wanted to make sure he was alright. And seeing that he had people like Misaki around him seemed to assure her of that.
Speaking of Misaki, lets talk about the elephant in the room of this episode: Their relationship. I cannot tell how serious this is. Like, will NHK actually let this happen? Or is it setting Sato up to be cat fished or disappointed in the second half? Because Misaki seems into it! She’s the one that volunteered for the job, went on 2 dates, lead Sato around and basically initiated the kiss. Had Yamazaki not interrupted, she 100% would have done it. And after they were interrupted, she looked far more flustered and aware of what they were doing than Sato did. And because of this I can only ask… Why? Why, if its actually true, is Misaki into Sato? This Hikikomori? Is it going to be some “You saved me before the story started thing”? I’m really curious.
Of course part of why I’m curious is that I’m not even sure, if it happen, that I will like it. Just stop, take a step back, and think about it for a moment. Misaki remains this almost idealistic girlfriend figure, appearing out of nowhere to help Sato, who suddenly started dating him. If NHK goes through with this, it seems very… tropey, at least for a show that so far has been all about breaking down and taking shots at the Otaku and Hikikomori lifestyle. Now to be clear here, could it work? Could NHK pull this off in a satisfying way? Yeah, it could. I imagine NHK could definitely build this up as we go and make it satisfying, we are only 8 episodes in after all. I’m just expressing some early apprehension about how little this romance seems to actually fit NHK, and Sato as a character.
That said, other than those two I things I think this was a pretty straightforward episode. Most of the time was dedicated to showing the mom around which, while nice with some comedy, doesn’t lend itself to much discussion. I will say though that there were some really nice shots. I especially liked the harbor wide shot with Misaki and Sato that I have above. It’s low detail on the characters yes, but something about the movement and wind just felt so… poignant. Like we were witnessing a small, yet pivotal, moment in their relationship. Combine that with stuff like the sunset date spot, or the flashback to Sato breaking something as a child, and you have another very visually memorable episode.
So yeah, all in all I would call this another successful week. I’m a little concerned about some of the story threads NHK has introduced, but only in the sense that I don’t know where they are going. I think that if NHK plays them right, both Hitomi and Misaki can be very impactful, very meaningful characters in the story. I just don’t want them reduced to pithy love interests or tragic heroines who exist only for Sato to save. I don’t think that will happen, but it’s important to set expectations early. As for the post itself, sorry if this isn’t as well written or checked as some of the other ones. I’m currently writing this from a hotel in Austin between conference events and let me tell you, they are just as boring as you would expect.
That said, I’ll see you all next week! Maybe even this weekend if you are following my Danseur and SpyXFamily coverage. One of this is wrapping up so I need to start prepping that review to. Not to mention the new season. Damnit, this is a lot of work.
