Review - Welcome to the NHK - 1st Conspiracy
Reviewed by Richard Brownell on 9.25.2007.
Score: 9/10
Many anime fall into the comedy category in some way. They may be pure comedy, romantic comedy, some other genre like mecha with comedy elements. The Japanese love their slapstick so there are even comic reliefs in some serious shows. But a common theme among most of them is that while they may evoke some chuckles, there aren't many out there that truly make you laugh out loud. Shows like Golden Boy have this quality. And Welcome to the NHK is the first new one to hold this ability that I've seen in a while.
Based on a manga of the same name, Welcome to the NHK tells the story of a recluse named Sato. He's referred to as a Hikikomori, which I think best translates into hermit...who lives in an apartment. The government refers to him as a NEET (Not currently engaged in Employment, Education, or Training). Basically, he's a 22-year old college dropout who spends most of his time sleeping in his apartment. He never goes outside and converses with nobody. How he is able to do this and still have money is not wholly explained, but it also doesn't really matter.
The story of Welcome to the NHK is a bit hard to explain. I've heard the manga's story is really all over the place. Hilarious, but lacking in a true overarching storyline that brings the whole thing together. The anime is not wholly different, but after the first volume it does seem that there will be at least some solid arcs of story with one theme that comes back all the time: Sato's NEET lifestyle is coming to an end thanks to a girl he meets named Misaki.
She comes to his apartment with a missionary who is trying to find NEETs and have them learn to be normal members of society. Sato freaks out and tells them he's normal...in a very non-normal kind of way of course. But this minor incident gives enough courage to look for some kind of part time job. After three years of being a recluse, maybe it's time to actually do something. He just so happens to apply to a job at Misaki's place of employment, freaks out again (this is a common theme in this show) and runs home.
Which is where the overarching story comes in. Misaki has a project of some sort. It's rather secretive but she wants Sato to be a part of it. She says it's his last chance to fix his NEET lifestyle. The back of the volume 1 box asks "Is she really an angel of mercy? Or a devilish agent of the NHK?" It's an odd question because there doesn't seem to be anything in volume 1 hinting that she is devilish. And the NHK doesn't play that big a part in it either. The NHK is a TV organization that Sato has a conspiracy theory about. They play tantalizing programs that convert normal people into NEETs like him for some evil purpose. Sato commonly has these crazy visions about conspiracies that are pretty bizarre and sometimes humorous, but the truly awesome part of the show comes after meeting Misaki for the 2nd or 3rd time.
To get out of joining her project, he has to come up with an excuse. The reason he's always in his apartment is because he is working, right. So what job might require work like that? Software developer, or even better, game developer. And Sato just happens to be living next to an otaku who also happens to be majoring in game development. There's only one course of action from here.
They must make a game, but they only have a month to do it. What kind of games have low enough production values to be made in a month? Apparently, hentai games, but they will make the best hentai game ever made, one to turn the industry on its heels. It's really rather epic and downright hilarious. The training that Sato must go through to be able to write a hentai game is just spectacular. I found myself audibly laughing every 30 seconds or so. I tried to explain the show to my wife, but perhaps this is just the type of show that women don't understand.
Everything about the hentai game arc on this disc is golden, from Sato installing the best hentai games to research them to his misunderstanding of how to play them to his research trip to Akihabara, a district in Tokyo filled with electronics shops, arcades, and plenty of stores that otaku drool over.
GONZO did the production of Welcome to the NHK and, as per their usual, the animation quality is pretty high. The backgrounds look great and characters are animated fluidly most of the time. With a show that largely takes place in an apartment, a lot of detail was thankfully put into it. The one gripe is that sometimes fairly normal and non-animated scenes will have some glaring flaws like fingers and hands being drawn poorly, and not for a stylistic reason. Other than that, it looks great.
Welcome to the NHK has some great moments of comedy in it and not much downtime to split things up. The first episode is weak compared to the second through fourth that increase in humor with each episode. With its subject matter being almost entirely adult, it's not a show kids should watch, though it's undoubtedly one they would enjoy. For me, I plan on picking up the next volume as soon as it comes out.
Dub Quality
Comedy really has to be done right and ADV has pulled together some of their best voices to put Welcome to the NHK together. None of the voices were bad, but the ones that matter the most to this volume anyway are the three leads: Sato, Misaki, and Yamazaki, voiced by Chris Patton, Greg Ayres, and Stephanie Wittels respectively. Chris Patton and Stephanie Wittels both don't have a huge amount of anime under the belt but do a great job doing their roles. Greg Ayres has been in nearly every anime known to man and plays the perfect super-otaku in this one.
