 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | ADV FILMS | | | ▪ | ASPECT RATIO: | | 16:9 ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN | | | ▪ | AUDIO: | | ENGLISH AND JAPANESE DD 2.0 | | | ▪ | RUNNING TIME: | | 100 MIN | | | ▪ | RATING: | | PG 13 | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 05/06/2008 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 05/14//2008 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | SCOTT CAMPBELL |
Welcome to the NHK is a welcome addition to the small, but increasing number of anime series that directly deal with anime fandom itself. One of the best recent examples would be Genshiken, a very enjoyable anime all about a University anime club and the adventures that the members have throughout the school year and beyond. Welcome to the NHK is a slightly darker look at a different angle of fandom, and perhaps even how to turn that dark side around and make it into something amazing! If you liked Genshiken, Welcome to the NHK is the next level! It’s certainly very funny, but often in a more mature way than other anime of similar subject matter. Continuing on where volume three left off, volume four brings us to the deserted island were Sato’s suicide party is getting ready to end their lives together over their various grievances. In a way, Sato is finding more and more of himself on his inside through all these strange experiences, and he is becoming a stronger person, but it isn’t going to do him any good if he is dead. So, Sato went on a romantic “getaway” with his Senpai, but ends up with a group of suicidal men and a boy who plan to die together on the deserted island that we find ourselves on in this portion of the series. Sato gets caught up in the plan and thinks he might be ready to end his life as well as he gets dramatic again about his situation. Yamazaki and Misaki go after him in a rental boat because they want to find him and save him from himself yet again. The suicide party is about to jump off a cliff into the ocean below, but they suddenly have second thoughts and argue about the validity of their decision to kill themselves. They all decide not to die as they have more to live for and should go about doing that rather than being weak and calling it quits. Sato is suddenly enraged that everyone has so much to supposedly live for and he doesn’t, so then he becomes the most enthusiastically suicidal one of all of them and attempts to jump off the cliff by himself. The group stops him and changes his mind also, and they all go home safely. It’s all very poignant, but pretty funny in a dark kind of way at the same time. After that crazy little situation dissolves, Sato decides to go online and join the ranks of an online role playing game that he figures he might be able to make some money at. He wants to make money in the real world by selling items and equipment from this online world to other players. Apparently some people actually manage this in real life and many players are willing to spend real world money to save themselves the trouble of finding these items themselves – it’s really quite interesting to learn about. Sato is not very good at it though, and it takes him quite some time to master the game and get going with it. With some help from Yamazaki and Misaki he gets better at it,, but before he can start to think about how to make any money, he befriends a cat girl character named Mia in the online game and thinks that he has fallen in love with her. The game actually ends up making him even more of a shut-in and Misaki has to try to help him snap out of it before all her counseling and work go to waste – she tries in a number of ways to help him gain control of himself again and come back to reality. Video games – especially online ones – can certainly do this to people as they become obsessed with non-reality and the fun of it. Despite all the fun of the game, it eventually blows up in his face so to speak, and Sato realizes that he should finish creating his own game instead of playing games, because it’s the people who make the games that end up making the money off of those who play them. It’s really quite a funny volume of the series – it was very enjoyable to watch! It’s really great to see the animation staying totally up to par with what we’ve seen already from the series – and it’s getting better in some respects too. The backgrounds, including everything from the scenery to the general mess on people’s shelves and in their rooms, are certainly getting more detailed and interesting to look at. This becomes especially true when the setting of the story ventures outside more, rather than always in the dank, dark rooms that these two social misfits call home. The animation as always is so colorful and bright – it’s such a high point of goodness for this series. The physical comedy is also completely worth mentioning again – it’s just great, and there were some especially funny moments in this volume. A favorite was whenever Mia would come online and Sato would melt into a pathetic oddity and profess his love for this online cat girl that he didn’t even know – too funny. Welcome to the NHK is a crazy mix of a lot of things, but it all boils down to being a show about confused young adults trying to make their way in a world that doesn’t fully accept them, while they change their minds over and over again about a variety of angst-ridden subjects. It’s as mentally arresting as it is hilarious!
EXTRAS:
Clean Closing, Clean Opening, DVD Credits, ADV Previews.
IN SUMMARY:
Welcome to the NHK honestly gets better and better with each volume, and the concept just grows instead of getting old. The characters have become more complex and interesting from all that we have learnt about them – their struggles and joys really drive this series.
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