Forum - View topicREVIEW: Welcome to the NHK DVD 4
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daedelus
 Posts: 743 Location: Texas City, TX (ajd: 6/11/05) |
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Oh boy! If only a girl would make a plea to me like Misaki did to Sato!
That was both funny and sad at the very same time. I'm still optimistic about this show. I don't think it has peaked just yet. Oh, and Sato's daydream of the future in ep 16 was priceless. 
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bluegreen
Posts: 29 |
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Yeah, this is about the time where I felt the show jumped the shark as well. Once the show hits the spoiler[pyramid scheme] story arc, it was just down hill.
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Randall Miyashiro
 Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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I really hate people like Sato and have a hard time feeling sorry for this 22 year old who is supported by his parents and plays video games while drinking beer all day. I can understand his neighbor's frustrations since I hate it when people miss deadlines and make false promises, especially since Sato is unemployed and has plenty of free time. There are many of us who don't have the luxury of being supported by our parents as adults and have to find jobs. Like many here, I have had my share of low paying back breaking jobs. Self pitting slobs like Sato really annoy me.
Sorry but there is no "supreme sympathy" from me as I find him merely unpleasant. |
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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I thought he said his parents cut him off back in the beginning of the story.
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DerekTheRed
 Posts: 3544 Location: ::Points to hand:: |
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No. spoiler[I think that happens near the end.]
But are we really supposed to feel sorry for him? I get the impression that we are supposed to be laughing at his inability to function in society. (Spoilered because this deals with volume 5/6) spoiler[ The only person I think we should feel sorry for is Misaki, when we learn about her past. And perhaps Yamazaki when we see him FAIL with that VA girl and, to a lesser extent, when he has to move back home. ] |
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subordub
Posts: 2 |
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You don't have sympathy for him. But i view him in a much different way. He has a serious mental health problem. hikkomoris basically means having agoraphobia, unable to leave the house. He is truly terrified of leaving the house and the people outside. He wants to go outside, he wants to find happiness and become a normal person but he can't. I think most normal people are unable to understand the severity and how incredibly awful it is to have agoraphobia. Yes the majority of it your supposed to laugh at the story. But when i was reading the novel, the author said that it was somewhat like his life story, because he was a hikkomori. So some of it is to help understand the thoughts of hikkomori and gain a better understanding of the disability. The anime is different from the novel though, its more humor based. |
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kadian1364
 Posts: 60 Location: Indiana |
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NHK is such a provocative show. It's comedic because of the ridiculous scenarios and imbecilic decisions our protagonist Sato makes, but it's quite saddening because we're watching someone during the darkest hours of his life. Although Sato's a somewhat exaggerated case, there are people with these social and behavioral problems.
Once someone is in that condition, it's monstrously difficult to "get well". It might be immediately apparent to you or me what Sato needs to do to change his life, and we can dismiss him as a dumb person and bad decision maker, but people like him are just lost in life. Sato's character desperately need outside help, and the social infrastructure isn't there for him to get aid, thus the downward spiral. Anyway, my original purpose was to say, these DVD covers are astoundingly embarrassing! They give everyone the wrong kind of idea. 
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Sethimothy
 Posts: 121 |
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I rather enjoyed this show. I couldn't identify with the main character, but I could certainly feel him, I could certainly see where he was and where he was going.
I think this particular DVD does have an important plot point to it, and it is interesting to see how it picks up from it. Pretty solid review, actually. |
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Randall Miyashiro
Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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At the risk of sounding callous I still don't see how his agoraphobia should affect him on not working on the video game project. He could easily have written the plot and characters for this game without leaving his apartment or communicating with others, yet he decides to not work on it and wastes all his time downloading porn instead. Being afraid of meeting people is no excuse to let his small apartment degrade into a pig sty. His constant habit of lying to his parents, neighbors and friends also really annoys me. I rarely leave my room when I'm not at work and also hate crowds and I know a couple of other people who are borderline agoraphobic which make me even sympathize less for Sato since these people I know are very honorable, hard working, clean people. I don't see agoraphobia as a good excuse for Sato's dishonorable characteristics.
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Moomintroll
 Posts: 1600 Location: Nottingham (UK) |
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A hikikomori is not the same thing as an agoraphobic - there's an element of agoraphobia to it but it's much more than just that. Anxiety, self-loathing, social awkwardness and depression are the root of the condition - agoraphobia is just a symptom of that, not the cause. See the wikipedia entry for an overview. Also, I think you'd see things in a slightly different perspective if you read the novel. The manga waters things down and, from what I can tell from reviews and comments (I haven't seen it yet), the anime distorts and waters things down still further. I don't think the idea was for Satou to be an object of pity - he and Misaki are more like case studies of damaged minds and emblamatic of the damaged society that produced them and countless others like them. I can't promise you'll enjoy the novel (though I certainly did) but I think it will certainly enable you to put Satou and his condition in context. |
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Msag
 Posts: 50 |
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Um, hey I know this review and its talkback is old now, but there's something I don't understand about this part of the review and I'm hoping someone can clarify it for me.
I'm on episode 17 as of yet so maybe I haven't seen the devastating effects her confession had on his psyche (although I loved the suicide party arc, totally hilarious). Ok, so I guess spoiler[her confession that she only needed him because he was an even more worthless human being than she] does expose her own level of sanity, but the harsh impact of it on him?... in the very next episode, he starts off by spoiler[raising his hand at her and saying something like he was more scared], but then afterwards he meets up with her and its kinda like he's not holding it against her. I actually got the impression that the reason he seemed so depressed was that a) he couldn't believe spoiler[he was driven to the brink of suicide when that wasn't his intention at the outset], and then having resolved to do so he couldn't, b) his sought-after "second chance" with Hitomi was a spoiler[complete joke ending with her leaving with her perfect boyfriend], and then c) that he didn't have a "life" (and people, considering spoiler[Yamazaki and Mizaki don't accompany him back to the hotel]) to return to like the others. Of course, I could be wrong so I'm hoping someone could explain this to me. P.S.: This is a kick-ass anime, despite its uncomfortable first arc! P.P.S.: Sorry for the long post ^^; |
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