Welcome to the N.H.K.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Welcome to the N.H.K. | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| N・H・Kにようこそ! (N.H.K. ni Yōkoso!) |
|
| Genre | Comedy, Drama, Romance, Slice of life |
| Light novel | |
| Authored by | Tatsuhiko Takimoto |
| Artist | Yoshitoshi ABe |
| Publisher |  Kadokawa Shoten Kadokawa Media Tokyopop[1] |
| Publish date | January 28, 2002 |
| No. of volumes | 1 (2 editions) |
| Manga | |
| Authored by | Tatsuhiko Takimoto (story) Kendi Oiwa (art) |
| Publisher | Kadokawa Shoten  Kadokawa Media  Tokyopop IVREA |
| Serialized in | Shōnen Ace |
| Original run | June 24, 2004 – |
| No. of volumes | 6+ (34+ chapters) |
| TV anime | |
| Directed by | Yūsuke Yamamoto |
| Studio | GONZO |
| Network | Various Japanese Broadcast Networks |
| Original run | July 9, 2006 – December 17, 2006 |
| No. of episodes | 24 |
Welcome to the N.H.K. (N・H・Kにようこそ！ NHK ni Yōkoso!?) is a Japanese series written by Japanese novelist Tatsuhiko Takimoto and illustrated by Yoshitoshi Abe centering around a 21 year old hikikomori who gets aid from a strange girl who seems to know a lot about him, despite never meeting him before. A common theme throughout the story deals with the hardships of life and how people must deal with them in their own way.
Welcome to the N.H.K. first began as a single light novel, published by Kadokawa Shoten which was released in Japan on January 28, 2002. Later, the story was adapted into a manga series written by the same person, though the art this time was done by Kendi Oiwa. The manga started serialization on June 24, 2004 in the manga magazine Shōnen Ace, also originally published by Kadokawa Shoten. The manga is still ongoing, with six complete volumes already released. An anime was also created which aired in Japan between July 9, 2006 and December 17, 2006, containing 24 episodes.
In real-world Japan, NHK refers to the TV channel and broadcasting corporation Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai, but within the series, NHK also stands for Nippon Hikikomori Kyokai which means "The Japanese Hikikomori Association", a reference to the protagonist's claim of a subversive conspiracy led by NHK (the broadcasting corporation) to create NHK (the hikikomori group). While it mainly deals with the reclusive phenomenon of hikikomori, the plot also explores many other Japanese subcultures — for example: otaku, lolicon, and internet suicide.
In North America, the manga is licensed by Tokyopop, and the first volume was released on October 10, 2006. It is one of the first manga published by Tokyopop to be rated M, for an 18 or older audience (Happy Mania, Battle Royale, Yubisaki Milk Tea among others, have also earned this rating from Tokyopop). Tokyopop has also announced plans to release the light novel.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Welcome to the N.H.K. revolves around the lives of several young-adults all living in or around the city of Tokyo. Many different lifestyles are shown though most of the time the story focuses on the concepts of being a hikikomori, anime otaku, and having most of the characters experience intense feelings of depression and loneliness.
The main protagonist is Tatsuhiro Satō, a university dropout entering his fourth year of unemployment. He leads a reclusive life as a hikikomori, ultimately coming to the bizarre conclusion that this happened due to some sort of conspiracy. One day just when his life seems entirely unchanging, he meets Misaki Nakahara, a mysterious girl who claims to be able to cure Tatsuhiro of his hikikomori ways. She presents him with a contract basically outlining that once a day they would meet in the evening in a local park where Misaki would lecture to Tatsuhiro in an effort to rid him of his lifestyle. During these outings, many subjects are discussed, though they almost always pertain in some way to psychology or psychoanalysis. One of their first meetings in fact deals with interpreting Tatsuhiro's recent dreams.
Both Tatsuhiro and Misaki, however, have a tendency of over-doing things, such as hiding the truth, especially from each other and themselves. Despite Misaki's offer and pressing attempts at salvation, it is Tatsuhiro's neighbor and high school friend, Kaoru Yamazaki, whom Tatsuhiro often turns to in moments of need and support. Also, despite his own idiosyncrasies, Yamazaki is one of the more stable characters in the story.
[edit] Characters
- The story's protagonist, at 21 years old, he has entered his third year of being a hikikomori and is a NEET. One to have psychotic thoughts, he believes that his unemployment and dropout are the works of NHK's conspiracy. He lives in his rented apartment, but depends on his parents for money. Under the influence of his neighbor, Kaoru Yamazaki, he has become a lolicon otaku, and helps Yamazaki on the script of their adult game. Later he leaves the apartment he moves in to live with his parents again, when his parents realized that he has more psychological problems than expected. However, problems seem to always appear wherever he may go.
- Misaki Nakahara (中原 岬 Nakahara Misaki)?, (Seiyū - Yui Makino)
- A mysterious girl who claims to be a volunteer of a charity "project" to help hikikomori individuals like Tatsuhiro. She has the tendency to lie, such as hiding the fact that she dropped out of high school, but she does not do so to mean any harm. She will tell Tatsuhiro whatever it will take to make him pay attention to her. She seems to have a deep attachment to Tatsuhiro as of current story-state. She gives two indicators of her past, the first being her confession that she needs Satō because he is worse than her, and the second is that on occasions when Tatsuhiro raises his fist as if to strike her and she flinches in response as if she had been beaten before.
- Kaoru Yamazaki (山崎 薫 Yamazaki Kaoru)?, (Seiyū - Daisuke Sakaguchi)
- Tatsuhiro's former kouhai (Junior) in high school, who is an otaku. Tatsuhiro once stood up for him when he was still in middle school being beat up by some bullies, since then, he respected him greatly and decided to join the literature club with him when he went into high school. He is currently Tatsuhiro's neighbor and a college student aspiring to be a game creator. He made Tatsuhiro join his dōjin soft eroge project, and was also responsible for turning Tatsuhiro into an otaku. His family owns a sizable farm in Hokkaidō. Later, he is forced to return to the farm due to his fathers sickness; at that point, realising he has no hope of continuing any aspect of his life in Tokyo, he drives away his crush, Nanako. In the end of the story, he is living happily at his his parents farm and also currently dating a girl whom he hopes to marry in the future.
- Hitomi Kashiwa (柏 瞳 Kashiwa Hitomi)?, (Seiyū - Sanae Kobayashi)
- Tatsuhiro's senpai in high school, now a public servant. Due to stress, Hitomi develops a dependence on drugs. She attempts a suicide through an internet suicide pact called the Offline Meeting Notice (an Offline Meeting is a slightly slang term for a meeting of people who have met on the internet, not really having much to do as a pun for "shutting one's life off like a computer"). However, she changes her mind after her boyfriend proposes to her. She gets married and has a healthy kid. Hitomi met Tatsuhiro when she persuaded him to join the Literature Club, though most of the time they only ever played card games. She has always been fascinated by the concept of conspiracy theories and is one of the reasons Tatsuhiro suspects the conspiracy against himself by the N.H.K.
- Megumi Kobayashi (小林 恵 Kobayashi Megumi)?, (Seiyū - Risa Hayamizu)
- Tatsuhiro's classmate in high school, was the class representative back then. They meet frequently in manga, but none of them realizes the existence of each other until later. After her father died, she had to work in order to support herself and her brother, who is also a hikikomori, though ended up entangled in a shady pyramid scheme. During school, she had a very uptight personality which Tatsuhiro commented about himself to her face. After high school, she retains much of this personality, though has also become somewhat manipulative in order to survive.
[edit] Other plot elements
[edit] N.H.K.
The Nihon Hikikomori Kyokai (N.H.K.) (日本引き篭り協会?) of Satō's imagination is supposedly a sinister conspiracy which aims to turn people into hikikomori and NEETs. No clear reason why they would do this is offered, although Satō considers the potential of an "army" of displaced individuals. The majority of the N.H.K.'s work is done through the media, via broadcasting anime and other material that is likely to turn the viewer into an otaku. Throughout the series, many shots of advertising hoardings or movie posters incidentally displayed in other locations bear N.H.K. references.
Satō on occasion also believes that the N.H.K. takes a more active role via the use of agents, although of course these agents only appear in dream sequences or flashbacks. Three types of N.H.K. agents are seen: the first are classic Men in Black who appear to have the ability to disguise themselves as anyone else they wish. They occupy key roles in a target's life, ensuring that they fail to develop. The second are cute, or more precisely moé girls who directly break the hearts of targets or who, via celebrity status, induce targets to have impossible or unrealistic expectations of relationships, destroying their ability to develop them in the real world. Satō never considers how, or even if, the N.H.K. would target women, however. Satō at one point fears that Misaki may be an agent of this type. The final type of agents are bizarre, Goblin-like creatures who are grey all over but for a letter (usually "N", "H" or "K") written in yellow on their belly. These creatures appear to be the masterminds of the entire N.H.K. conspiracy, but more likely than not they are Satō's mental image of the spreading mindset or circumstances he associates with the N.H.K.
The real-life television company NHK (Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai), which is the source of the acronym that is parodied by the series, really does provide a support website for real-life hikikomori[2]. It is not known if the existence of this website was related to the use of their acronym as a parody related to hikikomori. In the manga, a concrete link between the television company NHK and Satō's Nihon Hikikomori Kyokai is implied; in the anime, although the conspiracy is still named NHK, no such correspondence is drawn and it appears that the NHK does not even exist as a television company in the anime's version of Japan. (In the anime, Misaki has never heard of the acronym when Satō says it to her.) This may have been due to the fact that the anime was broadcast on TV on channels operated by other Japanese broadcasting companies, thus implying that it related to the real TV company could have been interpreted as slander against a competitor.
[edit] Puru Puru Pururin
Puru Puru Pururin (プルプルプルリン?) is a fictitious magical girl anime which Kaoru Yamazaki is a fan of, featured only in the anime version. It is never explicitly stated, but strongly suggested, that Satō believes this series to be controlled by the N.H.K.; in fact, it is after seeing an episode of the series which inspires him to think up the N.H.K. as a concept. The series has a real web-site, which further suggests this.[3] For example, although it appears to be a children's style of series, the schedule on the website suggests that it is shown almost daily in the small hours of the morning, when children would not be awake, but hikikomori frequently are. Although the website lists the names of several real-world broadcast channels which supposedly carry the show, none of them are operated by the real-world N.H.K., again suggesting that in the Anime's version of Japan, the N.H.K. is not a broadcasting company and is a conspiracy spanning all media. The listed broadcast times and channels are in fact the times at which the "Welcome to the N.H.K." anime aired.
Only brief excerpts of Puru Puru Pururin are ever seen, and it is not possible to guess what powers the main character, Pururin, would have. The word suffix -rin normally indicates an object or person defined by a particular thing it does, such as Kururin, a thing that spins around, from Kuru, Japanese psychopoeia for rotation, but it is not clear what Puru could refer to, although Satō suggests several interpretations when he first hears of the series. It appears that Pururin is a good, heroic character and is assisted by a number of animated household objects, including a vacuum cleaner upon which she flies; her trademark is to randomly append the word Purin to the end of sentences, similarly to the title character in Di Gi Charat. Purin is also a pun on the word Furin (不倫), which means Adultery or Immorality.
[edit] Media
The series first began as a light novel which was later adapted into a manga and also an anime.
[edit] Light novel
The light novel was first published on January 28, 2002, with the cover drawn by Yoshitoshi ABe of Serial Experiments Lain fame. A second edition was published in 2005.
According to the author Tatsuhiko Takimoto, the idea of the story came one night as a result of a writer's block. He phoned Yūya Satō, a friend of his who is also a novelist, and said: "Tomorrow there is a conference in Kadokawa Shoten, but I can't think of a story, please think of something." And with that, the two stayed in a family restaurant at midnight until they came up with Welcome to the N.H.K..[citation needed]
[edit] Manga
The manga series is by Japanese mangaka Kendi Oiwa. It was first serialized in Shonen Ace on June 24, 2004. The manga version diverges from the original version later in the story.
In November 2005, the limited edition of the fourth volume was published with a Misaki figurine, causing sales of the manga to skyrocket, and was once ranked third on amazon.co.jp in terms of sales. The limited edition of the sixth volume, planned to be released in November 2006, will include the hard copy of the bishōjo game from the manga, True World ~Shinjitsu no Sekai~. The game will be authored by Tatsuhiko Takimoto, the characters designed by Kendi Oiwa, and produced by CIRCUS (famous for D.C. ~Da Capo~).
The manga version is considerably successful, with over 1,200,000 copies sold as of May 2006.[citation needed]
[edit] Anime
An anime adaptation first aired in Japan between July 9, 2006 and December 17, 2006, with a total of 24 episodes.
[edit] Episodes
[edit] Production staff
- Original Author：Tatsuhiko Takimoto
- Director：Yusuke Yamamoto
- Series Coordinator：Satoru Nishizono
- Character Design：Takahiko Yoshida
- Music：Masao Fukuda
- Anime Production：GONZO
[edit] Theme songs
- First opening theme
- "Puzzle" (パズル Pazuru?)
- Lyrics: Rieko Ito
- Composer: Kitagawa Katsutoshi
- Vocals: ROUND TABLE featuring Nino
- Second opening theme
- "Puzzle -extra hot mix-" (パズル－ｅｘｔｒａ ｈｏｔ ｍｉｘ－?)
- Lyrics: Rieko Ito
- Composer: Kitagawa Katsutoshi
- Vocals: ROUND TABLE featuring Nino
- First ending theme
- "Odoru Akachan Ningen" (踊る赤ちゃん人間? lit. Dancing Baby Humans)
- Lyrics: Kenji Otsuki
- Composer: Fumihiko Kitsutaka
- Vocals: Kenji Otsuki and Fumihiko Kitsutaka
- Episodes: 1-12
- Second ending theme
- "Modokashii sekai no ue de" (もどかしい世界の上で? lit. On Top of a Frustrating World)
- Lyrics: Yugo Sasakura
- Composer: Yugo Sasakura
- Arrangement: Masanori Shimada
- Vocals: Yui Makino
- Episodes: 13-24
[edit] References
- ^ Tokyopop New York ComicCon 2007 (HTML). Anime News Network. Retrieved on 2007-02-24.
- ^ NHK support website for hikikomori. Retrieved on 2006-12-27.
- ^ Kadokawa Shoten's website on Puru Puru Pururin. Retrieved on 2006-12-27.
- The July 6, 2006 version of this article uses translated material from the equivalent Japanese, French, and Chinese-language Wikipedia articles, retrieved on the same day.
[edit] External links
- (Japanese) Tatsuhiko Takemoto's official website
- (Japanese) Official anime website
- (Japanese) Official Pururin website
- (Japanese) Yugo Sasakura's official website
- (Japanese) Makino Yui's official website
- A comparison between the anime/manga adaptation and the original narrative of the novel
- TokyoPop's English Introduction
- NHK ni Youkoso! at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
