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Japanese Name: �?�よ�?��?��??
Release: 07/2006
Episodes: 24
Genre: Comedy, Psychological, Slice of Life
OP: “Puzzle” by ROUND TABLE featuring Nino
ED: “Odoru Akachan Ningen” by Kenji Otsuki and Fumihiko Kitsutaka

Impressions:

Quite a strange yet enjoyable first episode. I would say it’s definitely a worthwhile show to watch. The quality is quite high and I like the character design, although Misaki isn’t as cute as some make her out to be. That doesn’t really matter though. The colours are nice and natural, giving the show a realistic feel, although Satou’s constant hallucinations do put me off a bit. A show shouldn’t combine to two opposite styles – the very real hikikomori problem and the very fake dancing stuffed animals, even if it is all in his head. The music is below average for me: the OP is dull and does not depict the theme of the show at all, and the ED just sounds messed up. However, the music doesn’t deter me that much, so overall I still like the series a lot.

Summary:

Tetsuhiro Satou is a ‘hikkimori’ sufferer. Hikikomori means social withdrawal, and can also refer to the people who suffer from it. ‘NHK’ stands for ‘Nippon Hosou Kyoukai’, which means ‘Japan Broadcasting Corporation’. It is a real television station in Japan. ‘NHK’ can also refer to ‘Nihon Hikikomori Kyoukai’, or ‘Japan Social Withdrawal Association’. ‘NHK ni Youkoso’ means ‘Welcome to the NHK’.

Tetsuhiro Satou finds himself in the middle of a conspiracy where he is being shot at by men, tanks and even bombers, as a soft melody is playing in the background. Satou takes a hit but miraculously survives. He somehow ends up on a snowy terrain, where he is surrounded by a vast expanse of sea and ice. Behind him stands a girl holding an umbrella which shields her eyes. Satou doesn’t notice her as he is transfixed on a giant shadow monster. He charges at the towering beast with a grenade in the form of a stuffed animal. With the girl watching, Satou plunges himself into the ocean as the grenade explodes, creating hundreds of stuffed animals. The scenes are very strange and don’t make much sense, but that’s how they’re supposed to be as they all originate from the mind of one messed up man.

Satou wakes up in a small, crammed apartment, with magazines, clothes and junk all over the place. Next door, some bishoujo anime theme music is playing – loud enough for Satou to hear. From hearing the phrase ‘purupuru’ repeatedly from the song, he begins to imagine strange things. He wonders what kind of a name ‘ purupuru ‘ is, which makes him imagine a girl who is ‘purupuru’, made of purple jelly, which leads to the thought of a girl made of pudding. The imaginary pudding girls multiply, ignoring Satou’s commands for them to shut up. Overcoming this hallucination, Satou resolves to go next door and tell his neighbours to keep the noise down. However, the thought of going outside and interacting with other people makes him reluctant. He decides to do it after some thought, but hears someone supposedly talking about him. This causes Satou to have a flashback. In his college days, he had been detested by everyone, which is what made him quit college.

Satou is lying on his bed, enduring the continuous music from next door. He suddenly starts to hallucinate again, thinking he is in some conspiracy. He thinks back to when he was still in high school. His senpai had told him about a conspiracy, but as 99% of all conspiracies are false, he doesn’t believe her. Later when he tries to impress her by saving a person getting bashed, he ends up bleeding on the ground. Satou thinks about his current life and whether it’s all a conspiracy or not. His imaginary, talking, electric appliances tell him that it had been a plot by the NHK to shut people in their rooms by showing Anime. He concludes that karate masters who isolate themselves for years are able to shatter rocks with their bare hands, which means he should be able to break a beer bottle at least. Satou ends up cutting his hand and strewing glass everywhere. The doorbell rings and, thinking the electricity company has sent someone to collect the bill, opens the front door. Standing outside is the same umbrella-carrying girl from his dream. A middle-aged woman appears from behind the door and offers Satou a magazine about ‘NEET’s, or ‘Not currently engaged in Employment, Education or Training’. This leads him to believe that everyone knows he is a NEET. He slams the door shut, retreating back into his isolation. He then hears the woman call the girl ‘Misaki’. He peeks back outside and sees her staring at him. She smiles at the sight of him then leaves.

The encounter with the woman prompts him to get a job. Satou cleans himself up and makes his way to a manga store. He is about to ask for a job, but sees Misaki there behind the counter. Instead of asking about a job, he begins to talk about motorcycles, before leaving. He accidentally drops his job application but doesn’t notice. Misaki finds it later.

Back at home, Satou is pissed at himself for doing such a stupid thing. He reasons out strangling himself to death as he would pass out before dying. The thought of suicide fades and he begins fantasising about Misaki as a nun. After he wakes up, the doorbell rings. He concludes that the electricity company can’t possible come at that hour, so opening the door wouldn’t change his life. The person outside begins knocking outside. Satou looks through the view hole and sees Misaki staring back at him, before running off. He checks the mail slot and finds his job application with a positive reply, saying he has been selected for her ‘project’, and to go the park at 9pm.

Satou believes it’s a ploy to get him to join a religious meeting. As he keeps thinking about it, he convinces himself that he was going to go the park anyway. He goes but has to wait a while, and thinks it’s a prank. Misaki shows up just as he is about to leave and asks why Satou had run away earlier. She knows he’s a hikikomori sufferer and says she knows how to cure him. She claims she has come to save him.

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