I wish there were more anime like Welcome To The NHK. Much Slice Of Life is intent on giving off an "it's all alright"-vibe throughout, which is good television in the same way cotton candy is a good meal. NHK critisizes, sympathizes and makes fun of people that don't know what to do with their lives. You'd expect to find these characters on the internet, rather than in your anime. It addresses a lot of things I think many people will relate to, whether it's being a nerd who can't get a girlfriend, believing your life isn't going to go anywhere, or feeling the reason you hardly go outside is because an evil television network is conspiring against you.
I didn't go through this anime quickly, though. You're not given many reasons to sympathize with the characters, I was quite far in before I grew to care about any of them and the Satou-Misaki relationship left me cold throughout most of the show's run. Luckily there is a lot more to the show than drama: It's criticism and messages are strong and when it's funny, it's hilarious. The humour is pitch black but still light enough to make your day. Settings don't get more mundane than they are in this show, but Satou's imagination is kind enough to supply talking fridges and moe-pudding. It doesn't use chibis (thank the lord) but uses the faces it has for expressions and the dialogue gets positively hammy when it needs to, especially in the dub. Seriously, this dub is awesome. It's only real flaw is that no one realized we sometimes need to read on screen text. I would also like to mention the first season has the best ending theme ever, both in lyrics and music, and I hope to one day discover what conspiracy decided the next season needed it replaced with sugar.
By the end of the show I did care for the characters and it's finale worked very well. The show hiccups sometimes, but in the end it is definitely worth a watch if you like realism and dark humour. People say it's grim, which it is, but there really is plenty of hope. The show's suicide success rate is very low!
The anime
(Read the page for a synopsis.)
I wish there were more anime like Welcome To The NHK. Much Slice Of Life is intent on giving off an "it's all alright"-vibe throughout, which is good television in the same way cotton candy is a good meal. NHK critisizes, sympathizes and makes fun of people that don't know what to do with their lives. You'd expect to find these characters on the internet, rather than in your anime. It addresses a lot of things I think many people will relate to, whether it's being a nerd who can't get a girlfriend, believing your life isn't going to go anywhere, or feeling the reason you hardly go outside is because an evil television network is conspiring against you.
I didn't go through this anime quickly, though. You're not given many reasons to sympathize with the characters, I was quite far in before I grew to care about any of them and the Satou-Misaki relationship left me cold throughout most of the show's run. Luckily there is a lot more to the show than drama: It's criticism and messages are strong and when it's funny, it's hilarious. The humour is pitch black but still light enough to make your day. Settings don't get more mundane than they are in this show, but Satou's imagination is kind enough to supply talking fridges and moe-pudding. It doesn't use chibis (thank the lord) but uses the faces it has for expressions and the dialogue gets positively hammy when it needs to, especially in the dub. Seriously, this dub is awesome. It's only real flaw is that no one realized we sometimes need to read on screen text. I would also like to mention the first season has the best ending theme ever, both in lyrics and music, and I hope to one day discover what conspiracy decided the next season needed it replaced with sugar.
By the end of the show I did care for the characters and it's finale worked very well. The show hiccups sometimes, but in the end it is definitely worth a watch if you like realism and dark humour. People say it's grim, which it is, but there really is plenty of hope. The show's suicide success rate is very low!