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Aion

Aion

Time-Traveller
Since getting up this morning, I've watched 1-5 together and I just now finished watching 6-14. It's been such a long time since I've been able to watch 9 consecutive episodes, and it's been even longer since I've rated a series 10/10 (based on 1-14, it's a 10/10). Although I'm going to have to wait until I finish the series, I think NHK might just push its way into my top 5...I'm not quite sure which title it'll replace, though - I like my top 5 too much to be able to remove one easily.

My Brief Plot Summary said:
NHK delves deep into the mind of a reclusive 22 year old called Satou, starting by showing a bizarre dream sequence where the word 'conspiracy' gets thrown around a lot. Then, even more bizarrely, another dream like sequence occurs where his household appliances speak to him, voicing the negative thoughts that lurk in the back of his mind. These dreams/visualizations are far from unusual in NHK - they're used to show the world from the colourful viewpoint of Satou, and they do a bloody good job of doing so if I do say so myself.

Satou believes there's some sort of conspiracy against him; a conspiracy designed to make him into a recluse. He picked this up from his weird, overly-medicated high school sempai, taking her views as his own once his life started to really go down south. Whenever something bad happens he blames those conspiring against him in the shadows, and whenever anything good happens he wonders if it's too good to be true. At the start of the story, he's got to the stage where he only goes out to fetch food, sleeping 16 hours a day, and he has no friends to turn to.

Thankfully for him, however, things start turning around after a 17-18 year old girl called Misaki takes an interest in him, deciding to turn him into her project. She outlines a plan of action, gets him to sign it and sees him for counselling sessions every evening. Of course, it's totally unbelievable that an attractive 17-18 year old would decide to help a 22 year old loser, but there's more to her than meets the eye...
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The characters are easily the best thing about NHK. Satou gets the most attention, obviously, but his old high school sempai, who constantly expresses her belief that everything going wrong is the result of a conspiracy, gets shown in numerous flashbacks and also plays an important role in the story. Yamazaki, the otaku of the series, has suffered from bullying and rejection, and he gets shown a lot due to him being the first friend of the reclusive lead (from the start of the story,that is). And, finally, the mysterious Misaki, who attempts to lift Satou from the darkness he's found himself in, has clearly had a bad things happen to her in the past, which ultimately lead her to want to help Satou. All of them are likeable, all of them are interesting and, most importantly, all of them have depth.

You might be thinking after reading all of the above that NHK is depressing, but that's not the case - it actually has more in the way of comedy than tears. With Satou having an otaku as his best friend, the comedy flows as Satou enters the world of erotic games, hentai/doujins and general anime madness. Even a suicide part of the story is amusing (in a dark sense) as, unwittingly, Satou ends up in a situation he didn't plan to find himself in and is almost pushed over the edge (verbally) by the person who is supposed to be stopping him. It's the sort of show where, at times, the serious parts are highly amusing.

But, having said that, there's one thing NHK has managed to do that very few stories ever accomplish: get an emotional reaction out of me. I'm unsure exactly why such a simple thing made me teary-eyed but Satou not expressing his feelings for Kawisa, allowing her to drive off, made me want to cry. I thought Satou was going to put right the wrongs of his past by confessing to Kawisa, but all he ended up doing was going on a suicide trip and not saying a word. Ever since the early flashback sequences I've wanted to see the two get together in the end, so to see their relationship end without even a discussion about their feelings made me very frustrated. So close yet so far - that pretty much sums up their relationship.

Anyway, that's that for now as I'm a bit tired. If you're wondering why the above is a bit long, I'm going to use some of the post in my future review. :p
 
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I'm reading (slowly) the manga at the moment; Only at volume 1, though. The anime is quite high in my "plan to watch" list so I'll hopefully get around to it soon. I've been told by various people that the novel is great, too.
 
I read the entire Nhk Manga that is 8 volumes long and I also read the light novel welcome to the NHK that the animeand manga was originally based on and it was amazing. At first the NHK looks like a strange anime with lots of hentai in it but once you watch / read it you released that it is an incredible series. The characters are great and from reading the manga I feel as if the anime misses a lot of important plots that are in the manga also important to know is that the manga ending is different then the anime. Also Setou goes thought many more problems in the manga and when reading it at the end of every volume I was asking myself ‘how can his life possibly get worse’ then opn reading the next volume he gets even lower. After watching the series I researched on the Hikkomori condition and it was very interesting, admittedly I kind of feel like setou sometimes and well the series is amazing. I’d rate it in my top 5. Also it is a very funny series, I love it when he does the karate chop on the bottle in episode 1.
 
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Seen the whole anime and had this discussion on AUKN at least twice so I'll just cut it short this time. I love this series and it's personally one of my favourites as it really hit home for me. It did a good job of switching between laugh out loud whacky and depressing moments. It's worth checking out for those who haven't seen it yet and want a slice of life anime/manga. Probably in my top ten, personally.
 
I'm on the same page as everyone else here - love it, both the anime and Manga.

I like how it starts off being really funny, but gradually gets fairly dark and disturbing towards the end. I honestly can't say there's anything like it. I hesitate to say it has a true to life feel, but the characters are all so believably pitiful - it's hard not to get sucked into these lives.
 
The novel is brilliant. As Aion said above of the anime (and it's good to hear it apparently made the transition so well) it's sad and the characters lead pretty miserable existances, but it manages to be hilarious at the same time.
A good example is the part where Satou has Yamazaki take pictures of him taking pictures of school girls in an attempt to cure them of their lolicon fetish.

After what people have said I'm really looking forward to watching this now. :)
 
It seems I might have jumped the gun a little - the series has dropped in quality since the Kawisa arc ended. The MMORPG story was rather boring and the scam arc was even less interesting. Compared to the previous episodes, 15-18 aren't in the same class. It's too bad if the series is going to be disappointing until the end...

What's really bugged me about these episodes is the feeling that they're nothing more than fillers designed to extend the story. None of the 4 episodes have added anything to the main characters or shown signs of Satou improving. For some reason, Misaki's character still hasn't been explained, which is annoying when it should've been after the Kawisa arc.

Edit: Also, I just watched EP19 and it has the worst animation of a fairly recent series I've ever seen. Horrible.

I can't believe I've gone from rating the series 10/10 after 14 to rating it 8-9/10 after 15-19. :/
 
Aion said:
Edit: Also, I just watched EP19 and it has the worst animation of a fairly recent series I've ever seen. Horrible.

I can't believe I've gone from rating the series 10/10 after 14 to rating it 8-9/10 after 15-19. :/
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Yeah the animation for that ep is pretty dire, all the same; I'd argue the story and direction remain consistently good despite this. Also the MMORPG arc was great I thought - the final reveal regarding Mia is simultaneously funny and horrific.

Anyhow, I'd be surprised if you find the ending to be let down. Rest assured the ending is of a high quality in terms of story and animation quality.
 
The character involved in the scam arc (forget her name) was no more than a filler character really. She appeared very briefly in one of Satou's school flashbacks, reappeared for the scamming and then disappeared from the story. Her character, like the 3 episode story she featured in, served no purpose other than raising the episode count. And the end of the scam story was rather silly, with the younger brother of (insert pointless scam arc character name here) randomly recovering from a level of reclusion higher than that of Satou after hunger made him go get food was daft. The series would've been more enjoyable if the story had got on with what was important; the main characters.

The previous MMORPG story was better, although that 2 episode story wasn't needed. I liked disturbing vision of what a 50 year old Satou would look like if he went down the RMT road, and the trick Yamazaki played on Satou was an excellent way of teaching him the harsh reality of internet interactions. In essence, you just need to remember one thing when playing a MMORPG: The tail of a cat in a MMORPG ain't a tail.

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Anyway, I finished the series just now. I'm happy to say that the series turned around after EP19, with the focus once again being on the development of the main cast (Yamazaki this time) as Satou and Yamazaki continued working on their game.

The only thing that disappointed me was the last episode, where Satou charged off a cliff like a retarded retard. And, even more bothersome, the series ended in the most inconclusive way possible. With NHK the journey was always more important than the destination but, from start to finish, Satou and Misaki advanced very little. I'm hoping the manga/novel ending is better.

I've put in a £4 order for the novel. I'm also planning on getting the manga, and I'll also get the anime itself on DVD if the pound ever regains some strength against the dollar (£1 = $1.5 :/).
 
Aion said:
The only thing that disappointed me was the last episode, where Satou charged off a cliff like a retarded retard. And, even more bothersome, the series ended in the most inconclusive way possible. With NHK the journey was always more important than the destination but, from start to finish, Satou and Misaki advanced very little. I'm hoping the manga/novel ending is better.
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You really thought so? He got a job - perhaps not all his problems solved - but certainly one of the larger ones. The ending seemed conclusive enough without being idealistic - and the whole running off a cliff thing was approrpriately bizzare considering Satou's personality. 'Retarded' as it is Satou was hardly a sensible person to begin with.
 
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The ending was one of the main problems I had with the anime. I read the novel beforehand, so I knew an ending like that was coming, but with the novel, the comedy isn't as straight-forward and it's more of a hikikomori study, with some black humour. It felt perfect and absolute in the novel, but because of the much less-hearted tone and extra arcs in the anime it made it feel like the ending was something comparable to Evangelion's.

I think I've said it before, but if the animation and music were handled by Madhouse; We'd be staring at a masterpiece.
 
Typed up a lengthy review on MAL: http://myanimelist.net/showreview.php?id=9119

It was a bit daft to do so when there are 17 other reviews of the series, most of them being detailed. In future I'll put my review efforts into series with slightly less competition...


From what I've read, it seems like the MMORPG story was shorter in the manga and the recovery of the EP19 recluse was handled better. If that's the case, I should be able to enjoy the manga more. The anime story just didn't flow that well (in my opinion) with episode 15-19 in it.

Switching back to the ending, I'm unable to see the point of the NHK part of the final episode. It was good up until that and, for me, that sequence ruined it. Seeing that followed up with an ending where both the futures and relationship of the main two was left open made me a bit disappointed.

Satou may have got himself a job but it isn't a the sort where he's going to interact with people and make lots of friends. It gets him out the house, which is a good thing for someone so depressed and reclusive, but I can't see how it's going to help take his life forward. If he ended the series in a relationship with someone he planned to build a future with it'd be acceptable as he wouldn't really need friends then, but just ending with him in work didn't tell us a lot. His situation is actually worse than it was earlier in the series since he no longer has Yamazaki to interact with on a daily basis and no goal to work towards.
 
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Read Vol. 2-6 of the NHK manga over the last few days.

I don't like the manga as much as the anime, and I think I also prefer the novel. Strangely, the manga is less faithful to the novel than the anime, with needless changes having been made.

The most bothersome deviation is Satou still being a virgin in the manga. At first the manga seemed to be following the source, with Satou telling Misaki he'd been with a girl at school, but it later deviated when Satou said he was still a virgin. Satou and Kashiwa never having done anything in the manga makes their 'relationship' even more frustrating than it was in the other versions, and it also makes Satou even more pathetic.

The other stupid alteration is Misaki's background. For some silly reason, her mother never died and her father never treated her badly in the manga: she's just a kid with an inferiority complex that can't stand being around people who she views as better than her. She wasn't the most likeable character in the universe when she had good reasons for being so messed up, so her acting how she does just because she doesn't fit in makes her even more difficult to like.

There are also other changes I don't like, such as Nanako chasing after Yamazaki after he suggested she liked rape, going as far as stripping naked in his room to convince him that 3-D love is the to go. Then, later, after chasing him to say goodbye, her character randomly changed and she became a lesbian, revealing to Yamazaki that she never liked him in the first place! I may be bias here but I prefer the original version where they never spoke again after Yamazaki's tentacle rape comment.

And, as if to rub salt in the wounds, Satou and Yamazaki never say goodbye to each other in the manga - Satou sees Yamazaki leaving fro a distance and never says anything. Unless there's a scene later added, their friendship had no closure.

Another deviation that springs to mind isn't really a deviation at all: the characters involved weren't even included in the novel. It's just that, while I wasn't impressed with the side-story or characters involved in the anime, the different direction the manga version of the story goes in makes it worse. In the anime version, the brother of one of Satou's school acquaintances recovers fully from his severe problems just because of hunger. That was pretty bad, but the manga takes it further, with the character recovering AND suddenly getting into a relationship with Misaki. Seeing the manga version makes me much more fond of Gonzo's efforts.

I have similar feelings about another manga and anime only story: the suicide meeting. The anime combined two similar parts of the manga together, allowing the story to move much faster and making the events much more dramatic. The anime also added some nice scenes after the suicide section was done with, closing off the story with some nice exchanges between the characters involved. In short, it was much better in the anime than in the manga.

My final moan is a simple one: in comparison to both the novel and anime, the manga drags its feet far too much, often leaving me feeling like the story was going in circles. Satou likes masturbation, Misaki struggles at school, everyone has problems...did so many chapters really need to be spent on repeating that? I started to grow tired after awhile.

...I do moan too much sometimes. Although I still think the manga is quite good, it's kind of a let down to find myself feeling that, instead of spending £30 (plus another £10 on the remaining volumes) on the manga, I should've invested in the R1 anime box sets instead. I suppose that's always the risk of buying before trying, though... At least the manga has lovely art.
 
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I don't have the appetite for an Aion-esque diatribe, but I finished the manga yesterday and wasn't very impressed with the final few volumes.

Aion said:
Satou likes masturbation, Misaki struggles at school, everyone has problems...did so many chapters really need to be spent on repeating that? I started to grow tired after awhile.
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And this is the primary reason. My overriding impression after reading 8 volumes of NHK is that nothing ever seemed to change - at least not until the very end, when Satou took the dramatic step of --gasp-- getting a part-time job. "Circular" is just how I'd describe the story. I'm also left wondering what the message of NHK actually is, or even if there is one. As a straight comedy it works well, but there are several scenes in which the characters have moments of clarity, speaking with insight about their condition and place in the world, as if they understand what it is that binds them to their misery and are prepared to break free - and then they simply revert to however they were before, only on an even more comically disturbing level. I'm fine with the story not going anywhere because the hilarious antics were so entertaining; but there was always this hint of something more, and nothing substantial ever materialized.

Misaki was another issue. Initially I viewed her a bit weird, slightly kooky, but as the manga progressed she became increasingly crazy and schizophrenic, an utterly hateful character, and I could never work out exactly why. Reading Aion's comments about her background that was, for some reason, excised from this version goes some way to explaining her erratic behavour, but that's something with which the manga itself should have done a more convincing job.
 
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All versions of NHK suffer from open endings that resolve nothing. I disliked the anime ending because all that changed was Satou getting a job. There was no progression in his relationship with Misaki (she was going to focus on education, leaving him behind) and Yamazaki had left him - really, he ended the series more lonley than he was at the start. I don't see how him getting out and working part-time is much of an improvement over him going out to get his food...

I wasn't overly impressed with the 'dramatic' segment of the ending, either. Trying to prevent someone comitting suicide by attempting to kill yourself isn't the best idea ever.

I don't think there is a message. It's a story of a recluse from the viewpoint of recluse - it's insightful, it's funny but it doesn't give any solutions to the problem. I'm sure if the author could offer a solution he wouldn't be the same as the main character in his story...

Like with changing Satou into a virgin, I'm at a loss as to why Misaki's background was changed. I'm not sure how the manga ends, but in the other versions Satou has to rush to the point Misaki's mother killed herself at in order to stop Misaki doing the same thing. I really do not understand why the story went down the same path at first and then had Misaki say she lied about her parents - it did nothing outside of making Misaki hate worthy. I could understand her needing someone inferior who depended on her after she'd been told by her father all her that she was worthless trash and, in her mind at least, only caused unhappiness to those around her, but it's hard to accept she'd go that far just because she couldn't fit in with others.

I recommend you pick up the novel for £4. It doesn't include most of the manga story: the suicide, scam, MMORPG, parent and many of the one-shot chapters never appeared in the original version of the story at all, so it didn't feel like it dragged on forever with no progress. The story focused more on what Satou was thinking and on the drug induced insanity he and Yamazaki shared as they became more and more depressed. It'll still leave with you with the same incomplete feeling, but I'm sure the more serious tone that resulted from the lack of images and random comedy will allow you to enjoy the story more.
 
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You know, I don't mind so much that the ending was inconclusive; an ending where everything was neatly wrapped up may not have been appropriate for a story of this nature. But it could have happened three volumes earlier, which would at least have saved me some time and money. I kept waiting for something to happen, for these characters to show some signs of progress, but it never happened. I just liked them less and less and by the end no longer cared about them at all. My well of sympathy had run dry.

That's not to say that I derived no enjoyment from NHK. Initially I loved the juxtaposition of visual comedy and genuinely serious issues. It's just that it wore perilously thin, like a £1.99 t-shirt from a stall at the local market, somewhere around the 5th volume.

I just read through the postscript of the final manga volume and the author claims that his message was "how a person's will can change them". So about as vague as it gets. I'll read the novel and see how I get along with that.
 
devilrules666 said:
it's such a shame that adv couldn't bring it over here. i have heard good things about the magna and i was looking forward to the anime
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I've been wondering when we are going to see this here :(
 
chaos said:
devilrules666 said:
it's such a shame that adv couldn't bring it over here. i have heard good things about the magna and i was looking forward to the anime
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I've been wondering when we are going to see this here :(
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I have no idea when we might see it here, but two half season sets are coming out in the US at the end of the month (just after Christmas for some reason). Also I think rightsuf and up1 and maybe a few others are actually getting volume 6 for those like me that collected them all singly (will order 5 at the same time as my original order was cancelled).
 
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