complich8’s journal

Started watching NHK Ni Youkoso like … 2 days ago. Finished it just now.

First of all, this is an excellent series. It’s got a cute romantic touch, it’s got action, it’s got inaction, it’s got a great ambling guitar melody, it’s got excellent character design and well-applied art styles.

But what really makes this series a big bag of win is the story itself. So here’s the story. Satou is a hikkikomori (basically an unemployed, drop-out shut-in, considered to be something of an epidemic in Japan these days, and also considered to be one of the lowest and most disgusting forms of social scum around). Very self-conscious of this fact, Satou has basically been hiding in his room for the last 3 or so years. One day, he answers a knock at his door, to find out that it’s an older lady handing out pamphlets and proselytizing, and a young girl who seems to take an interest in him.

Frustrated with his situation in life, Satou resolves to get a job, and ventures forth into the world, where the first place he walks into that’s hiring happens to be the same place that the girl, Misaki, works. Through an interesting series of events, she ends up counseling him to abandon his hikkikomori ways and become a functional person in the real world… and so begins the story.

The actual plot is … well … it doesn’t cover a lot of ground. But the portrayals… the way we get inside Satou’s head in particular…

Well, I guess one way to describe its impact on me is as area-of-effect artillery fire. There’s a lot of things in it … a lot of the things going on in Satou’s head, for example, that hit a bit close to home, to my own mindset. The anxious moments, the near-insurmountable hesitation to reach out, the paralyzing fear of the unfamiliar. As someone who is at least a little socially dysfunctional, I could identify with Satou quite a bit.

Anyway, the story progresses through a sometimes-charming, sometimes-dark series of events, which it would be spoiling to detail. But it’s definitely, definitely worth a watch, and comes with my highest recommendation. If you’re even remotely into drama, romance, or psychology, or dancing furniture and you want a story that shows realistic, attainable progress from people walking a very close-to-reality knife-edge over the gulf of despair, and on more than one occasion falling off of that edge… this show is for you.

So go. Download it. Watch it. If you’re into dubs, buy the ADVFilms R1’s when they start coming out in October. It’s one of those series that’s definitely worth it.

By the way, ending 1 is worth its weight in gold, and is the absolute best ending sequence of any anime ever, EVER.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 22nd, 2007 at 3:41 am and is filed under anime/tv. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.