The determination to handle even undesirable aspects of one’s culture in a humorous-yet-serious way is something that has actually been ever-present in the media. Social concerns, along with the periodic political problem, can all of a sudden be the focal discussion point of episodes of popular programs, with some more popular ones ending up being the focus of entire series. The Japanese hikikomori problem, along with the basic social stress and anxiety and tips of schizophrenia that being a hikikomori involves, has actually become the property of a fairly current franchise including an anime, comic, and unique series understood just as “Welcome to the NHK.”
The program concentrates on the lives, trials, and tribulations of Sato Tatsuhiro, who is basically a hikikomori. This means he shows extreme moments of social stress and anxiety, going so far as to prevent his parents (whom he’s coping with) as much as he can. Besides being a social shut-in, he is also often seen to display another Japanese sub-culture-turned-problem: that of being an obsessive anime otaku. For the unfamiliar, the Japanese see the otaku sub-culture as a potential social problem, generally since the majority of these people have actually a slightly compromised grip on reality, choosing to focus their time, effort, and attention on numerous types of entertainment. 누누티비 Generally, the obsessive nature targets a single media form, such as music or anime, and focuses specifically on that. The sub-culture exhibits indications that are interpreted as social anxiety, though they in some cases appear to have somewhat regular social interactions on the rare occasions where large numbers of otaku gather.
This conspiracy, understood as the Nihon Hikikomori Kyokai (the Japanese Hikikomori Association), is the source of the “NHK” in the title, rather than the real-life Japanese tv network NHK. It is notable that while Sato at first believes the female lead, Misaki Nakahara, to be one of these representatives, he never really takes the time to detail what the NHK hopes to achieve by turning the whole male population of Japan into socially-inept shut-ins.
Together with a variety of other characters, a few of which appear to be agents of other socially-challenged Japanese sub-cultures, Misaki and Sato come together in the most uncommon ways. Part of the interaction in between the two leads stems from Misaki’s agreement with Sato, which mentions that as soon as every evening, she is to lecture him on how to overcome his social anxiety and end up being a regular, working member of society again. Naturally, to provide home entertainment worth, not whatever goes as planned, with Sato experiencing everything from panic attacks due to being outdoors his house, to having Misaki pretend to be his girlfriend to trick his visiting mom.
Aside from the previously mentioned subcultures, the show also briefly touches upon other elements of Japanese culture. This consists of the growing independent gaming circuit, the “Internet suicide pacts” issue, and other Japanese social traits. It needs to be noted that, in spite of the title of the show, the network NHK never ever actually aired “Welcome to the NHK.” Thus, unlike the books, the program does not explicitly link the NHK conspiracy to the NHK television network.
The Japanese hikikomori problem, along with the basic social stress and anxiety and tips of schizophrenia that being a hikikomori involves, has become the premise of a relatively recent franchise consisting of an anime, comic, and unique series understood just as “Welcome to the NHK.”
This conspiracy, understood as the Nihon Hikikomori Kyokai (the Japanese Hikikomori Association), is the source of the “NHK” in the title, rather than the real-life Japanese television network NHK. It is noteworthy that while Sato initially thinks the female lead, Misaki Nakahara, to be one of these agents, he never ever in fact takes the time to information what the NHK hopes to accomplish by turning the entire male population of Japan into socially-inept shut-ins.
Therefore, unlike the books, the program does not clearly link the NHK conspiracy to the NHK tv network.