109 - Welcome to the NHK vol. 2

Will gets Steven to read one of his fave mangas, a story that revolves around the lives of several young adults all living in or around the city of Tokyo. Many different lifestyles are shown but most of the time the story focuses on the concept of being a hikikomori (a reclusive individual who withdraws from society) and chooses to surround themselves in the comfort of all that is anime and otaku. Most of the characters experience intense feelings of depression and loneliness. You better believe this one is for adults only. Skip synopsis @ 3:47

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108: Welcome to the NHK vol. 1

Chapters 1 to 5

Story by Tatsuhiko Takimoto

Art by Kenji Oiwa

Tatsuhiro Sato is a 22-year-old university drop out and hikikomori who believes in conspiracy theories and has been a social shut-in for 2 years. When a religious woman with a leaflet knocks on his door accompanied by a Mysterious young girl called Misaki Nakahara.

Sato eventually goes for a job interview where he bumps into Misaki again and eventually Misaki choses Sato to help her with a personal social project for the purpose to stop him from being a hikikomori social shut in, she does this by having regular meetings and counselling sessions with Sato. Sato’s neighbour is annoyingly playing anime music, Sato has enough and breaks into his neighbour’s apartment to berate him only to find out to his surprise his neighbour is an old college acquaintance Kaoru Yamazaki who is now an otaku.

During a project meeting and counselling session Sato lies to Misaki that he is a game programmer, to keep up with the lie he seeks the help of Kaoru and so they decide to make an erotic “Ero” dating simulator style videogame as Kaoru mentors him in the ways of otaku degeneracy. During his game research Sato goes shopping and an old high school friend named Hitomi Kashiwa spots him, they briefly have a conversation about drugs, social anxiety and being Hikikomori. Hitomi wishes to Sato again as she says farewell to him for now.

Kaoru gives Sato some illegal and dangerous research to the point Kaoru becomes addicted to porn and is digressing into a pervert by taking pictures of cute school girls. Misaki comes out of nowhere and this snaps Sato out of it.

Sato then gets a phone call from his mom, he lies to her about his job and a girlfriend, thus Sato seeks the help of Misaki and they decide to play the role of a couple, this gives them a chance to get to know each other.

References:

· Hikikomori

Is the Japanese word for post-graduates who become socially reclusive shut-ins, like NEET (not employed, in education or training) or Hermits, the widespread growth of such people has become a worldwide phenomenon but has been for the most part well documented in Japan. It is possibly a response, albeit one in the form of a silent protest, to the stress and pressures of youth entering a society that lacks employment security or is extremely competitive when it comes to the workplace.

· Moe and Lolita culture

Has a large presence throughout ‘Welcome to the NHK’. Although the etymology behind the word “moe” is a slang word from the 90’s that defines the aesthetic of a lot of Heisei era anime, to the point that it is often referred to by non-Japanese as “anime style” The idea behind it is to make characters as adorable and cute as aesthetically possible, so to appeal to emotions of love, care and sometimes to illicit a sort of parasocial relationship or paraphillia. This often results in characters or people looking younger than their supposed age and all anime itself to be mistaken for being aimed at and consumed by children. Basically a moe character is a young woman, “adorably cute, just a bit sexually appealing, and self-conscious but not yet cynical”. With maid-cafés being a prime example and manifestation of this. A genre of (or extension of this aesthetic) is the controversial Lolicon which depicts budding romances between children, even being sexual in nature. The consumption of such media being psychologically harmful is debatable and certainly illegal in parts of the world.

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Gravure Models (Idols)

Not to be confused with the word “Rotogravure”, these are swimsuit and underwear models, basically magazine glamour idols, softcore pornography. Regardless of what Will says, Gravure idols are not in any form sexualized children, although the sentiment around idolising schoolgirls and pornographic content about schoolgirls is a great concern within Japan, which l...