Hello everyone, and welcome back to the 2nd cour of Welcome to the NHK. This week we finish up this whole “suicide cult” think, learn a bit more about Misaki, and Sato doesn’t get the girl. Sound like a sad time? Well it is, but it’s also a pretty good time. Lets dive in and talk about why.
First up is episode 13, “Welcome to Heaven!”. This picks up right where we left off on the beach and has all the same good stuff I loved about last week. The dark humor, the plot progression, the characterization, it was all great. I will admit that, going into this episode, I was a bit worried. Would NHK be able to pull off this suicide plotline? Would it be respectful or would it fall a part at the very end? How was everything going to get resolved? As it turns, NHK ended up going the rather vanilla route of everyone surviving. But it did so in a way that felt very human, very earned, for all of the characters involved. It wasn’t just a last minute switcheroo, rather it was something built up from the very start of the arc. What do I mean? Lets talk details after the break.
I want to first look at the overarching structure of the episode, and how it used humor as a capstone. At the start, both for the episode and the arc, Sato was the only character who wanted to live. He went into this situation wanting to be reborn, to improve himself, while everyone else wanted to die. However by the midpoint it is another character, the unnamed med student, who is the first to back out, rather than Sato. At this point, Sato is more accepting of their goal than they originally were. Showing that over the course of the last two episodes, they have affected each other, effectively switching sides. All of this ending with Sato being the only one who actually wants to kill himself. It’s darkly hilarious while still constituting growth, change, for all the parties involved. I loved it.
As for the people and their stories, I think NHK did a decent job here. The message was all about thinking of others. Of those you care about. Sure you’re life sucks right now, and you may think that there’s no way for it to get better. That it’s over. But you can’t forget about those that care for you. Your parents, your friends, your loved ones. Maybe you’re on the outs now, or that perhaps they won’t actually care. But can you really be sure? If you’re wrong, they will mourn you. Can you inflict that kind of grief and pain on the people you care about? Like I said at the top, it’s a vanilla route of resolution for the story, but it’s one that I think works well for NHK. Especially when you consider how disconnected Sato is from everyone around him, really highlighting his own issues.
On top of that, I also just liked learning why everyone wanted to die. Some of them were really silly, like Yuu, who stole money form his parents and being afraid of the reprisal. Yet at the same time, Yuu is a kid, and even the smallest thing can feel like the whole world at that age. Meanwhile the others have being expelled from med school, or their wife and son leave them. When something that is such a large part of your identity disappears, it can be… difficult, for lack of a better word. Out of all of these though I would have to say that Minegishi’s was my favorite. Part of that is him simply being the most well realized of the trio, but it also felt to me like the most heart breaking.
But what about Hitomi, the one I didn’t mention above? She follows the same path, though is our finale for the episode. Her whole thing about not feeling loved, of having no connections outside of Sato, was sad but didn’t hit me as hard as Minegishi’s did. I will say though that her boyfriend, Jougasaki’s, proposal to convince her did work. It was a level of commitment I wasn’t expecting from him. Most of all, I loved how it absolutely crushed Sato. This whole thing began because he thought he could be reborn with Hitomi. That he wouldn’t miss his chance this time, that they could be an item! And it just got dashed against the rocks. The last straw before he decided that maybe he should kill himself. This is part of what I mean in regards to the structure. Everyone else being saved directly lead to Sato’s undoing.
Speaking of Sato, lets talk about him and Misaki. I’m going to be honest, I still don’t trust her. Between this and episode 14, I’m getting some major Yandere vibes. Maybe this is just NHK setting up a red herring, what with all the clues and hints that she’s to perfect. But I can’t shake the feeling that she is not going to be a healthy influence on Sato. And you need only listen to her plea for him not to jump for evidence of that! “Stay alive because you’re a bigger piece of shit than me”? Seriously? She wants Sato to live because she needs the knowledge that there are worse people than her out there? I mean, I kind of get it? She clearly has her own issues, and if Sato can be redeemed so can she, but come on. That’s not a healthy relationship for Sato.
This brings me to episode 14, “Welcome to Reality!”. The episode that almost single handedly soured me on this entire arc. Is that an extreme reaction? Probably. But I really, really, hated the onsen washroom guy. I get why he exists, it’s another perspective on how their deaths affect other people. However where episode 13 tried to do it via love and affection, the grief of those close to you, episode 14 tries to shame them into not killing themselves. It’s just kicking them while they are down, saying “Think of how much this would inconvenience everyone who doesn’t even know you”. It felt insulting. This isn’t making them want to live, it’s just taking away their autonomy by saying think of society first. It’s a very Japanese way of looking at it sure, but one I absolutely hate. This is easily the worst I’ve felt about NHK yet.
That aside however, this episode was mostly an epilogue of sorts. A way for us to see the aftereffects of what happened, of closing out all the stories involved. And that part at least, I really liked! It gave a sense of closure to the arc that I wasn’t expecting. I thought we were just going to jump right into the next one, maybe skip on over to Comiket and use Yamazaki’s video game sales as a closing punchline. Instead we get a heartfelt meeting with each and every one of the side characters families. Med student’s Doctor dad, telling him not to worry about the clinic? Check. Yuu and his parents admonishing them for getting a child involved in all of this? Check. Minegishi getting to see his kid and being told they want to try again?! Check. All of that was something even the old man couldn’t ruin.
Speaking of the next arc however, it’s MMO time! Our little friend Yuu, the child from the suicide pact, gave Sato a free trial of an MMO so that he could have some fun and maybe make some money. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting this. Of all the places NHK could have gone, I was not prepared for an MMO junkie computer nerd. It makes total sense though. This is but another avenue for anti-social behavior, with people ignoring the outside world. MMO’s aren’t unhealthy themselves, I play Final Fantasy 14 personally, as they have a lot of social interaction within them. But just like in real life, you ignore all of that and just play it on your own. And I suspect this is what Sato is going to do in his quest to become a gold seller. Whatever happens though, I’m excited for this next arc.
All in all I think these were another two good episodes of NHK. Aside from the old man in episode 14 almost completely turning me on the message of the arc, I think it handled the suicide stuff really well. Not in a unique way or anything, but in what I would call and ultimately satisfying way. And the knowledge that NHK is capable of handling a sensitive subject such as that so cleanly does a lot for my confidence leading into the second half. Every episode that passes I am more and more sure that this is going to end up being something special for me. On the same level as Tatami Galaxy, coming in at just the right time in my life. I don’t think I would enjoy or connect with it near as much had I watched it even just 5 years ago.
So yeah, NHK is good shit. Let’s hope it stays that way.
Yep, NHK is the real good stuff. Truly glad you are seeing the value of one of my favorites.
As for the old man, I do get where you are coming from and I certainly don’t think the dude was trying any compassion but I do kinda look at it in the way that he pointed out that despite them thinking their lives where done, their deaths would have ended up effecting people they didn’t even know. I guess the objectivist prepective that even if you think that your life is inherently meaningless, your absence can end up affeting people you didn’t even know about.
Plus it is an old man so of course his feelings are rooted in outdated sterotypical japanese thinking.