Welcome To The NHK

I've been told I should read the novel first, but that thing's at least 60 dollars on Ebay and Amazon, so nuts to that, for now.

Should I read the manga or watch the anime?

Huh, the old thread got axed.

I read the manga. It was... interesting? But without having seen more than ten minutes of the anime, I would guess that it's better, honestly.

I like all three formats. IMO the manga is the best, but the anime has an absolutely amazing soundtrack. The novel was okay, but I feel both the manga and anime are superior.

I've only seen the anime, but the comment about the soundtrack is true. It's awesome. And from what I hear the other two do some things with the characters that take them from "broken but sympathetic" to "I want nothing to do with these guys."

I've avoided this series for fear that it'd hit to close to home.

Who the hell told you to read the novel first? I love NHK and I've never read it.

I say watch the anime. Occasionally it can be Off-Model, but it has a much better ending than the manga. The manga goes up to the point where the novel is supposed to end, then manages to change that ending at the last moment to draw out the series, making it twice as long as it is. Everything after that is original, and while occasionally entertaining in an insane sort of way, much inferior in quality. The new ending in the manga was extremely unsatisfying, at least for me. The anime just ends it where it's supposed to end and it's way better.

Also what CDRW said. The new stuff in the manga basically takes the characters and makes them pretty despicable, especially Misaki. I mean, they were already sort of horrible already, but in an identifiable way so I still rooted for them to overcome their problems. In the manga I just kind of found them distasteful.

edited 30th Nov '10 5:38:12 PM by Sporkaganza

I like Manga!Misaki much better than Anime!Misaki.

Needless to say, I disagree with Spork on the matter of the manga.

edited 30th Nov '10 5:54:15 PM by Galeros

Well, I disagree with you too.

Except about the soundtrack of the anime. It's pretty damn awesome. Also it has one of the best ending themes for an anime pretty much ever. (The first one, I mean. The second one I never liked as much, though it's appropriate for the more serious second half of the show.)

The manga is by no means awful, though - I mean, overall I thought it was bad, but there are some great parts. I'd daresay that some of the bits of the anime were done better in the manga. And even in the second half which I find inferior, there are some pretty great moments too (such as Satou's overdramatic, possibly drug-fueled realization in a hot springs, or the simply too outrageous to believe "pleasure overload" sequence).

edited 30th Nov '10 6:07:09 PM by Sporkaganza

Well, I disagree with you too.

Then we are at an impasse it seems.

Want some cheese?

 ^*

edited 30th Nov '10 6:06:10 PM by Galeros

Nah, it's OK. Sorry if I came across as confrontational.

Also I totally added a bunch of stuff to my post. so read it :3

The soundtrack IS amazing.

But, more on topic, I don't think it matters where you start. I found both the anime and the manga to be about equal, although the manga was a little less rough, in terms of the ending.

edited 30th Nov '10 6:09:46 PM by Miijhal

I like the manga mostly because of the extra content. Satou's stay at home is probably one of my favorite parts of the manga.

edited 30th Nov '10 6:09:46 PM by Galeros

What do you mean by "rough", Miijhal? Like, not well put-together, or brutal, or some other meaning?

Whoops, misread the post on the statement that was previously here.

Anyway, one of my top three anime series, for sure. I tried to get the novel from Borders, but that failed miserably, and I sure as hell am not going to spend hundreds of dollars for a copy. I'm content with waiting for an opportunity to present itself.

I don't remember much of the soundtrack save for the opening and the second ending, but those are just lovely (I disagree completely with Spork on the matter of the first ending's quality). The last time I cried was when listening to the piano version of the second ending. One of the less recent times that I cried was while watching episode 13. So yeah, this anime had a definite impact on me. Ironically, I watched the series during a vacation while shut in at home, so clearly its true message was lost on me.

In summary, it's easily my favorite satire of all time, and probably one of the only ones that I actually like, period.

edited 30th Nov '10 7:14:11 PM by Everest

I think it was English Ivy who told me to read the novel first. But the one time I went to Borders, I wasn't sure if what I was about to buy was the novel or manga.

^^As in 'the events flow better'. The manga did a lot more with the whole 'pyramid scam' arc, rather than promptly finishing it up and then pretending it never happened, like in the anime. There was also more of an actual end.

edited 30th Nov '10 7:11:10 PM by Miijhal

Whoops. I misread your comment so that it said more rough.

edited 30th Nov '10 7:14:41 PM by Everest

^^I don't think they pretended the pyramid scheme never happened in the anime. I can't remember how it went in the manga, but in the anime it still took them a million freaking years to get out of the pyramid scheme. I thought the progression there seemed pretty natural and the ending felt like it flowed well.

Oh, wait, you only picked the scam as an example. You mean all the extra stuff? I thought it seemed like they were just... I don't know, rambling on for no good reason. You know that episode of The Simpsons where at the end of the show, they look for An Aesop and conclude it was "just a bunch of stuff that happened"? I don't necessarily look for a moral in my stories, but that's what the second half of the manga felt to me - no real reason for anything, just a lot of stuff that happened.

edited 30th Nov '10 7:25:52 PM by Sporkaganza

By that, I mean, once the arc was over, it was completely forgotten about. It had no real influence on the story at all, especially since it ended in a horribly animated filler episode.

edited 30th Nov '10 7:37:53 PM by Miijhal

I don't think it was a filler episode; I think it had a lot of thematic relevance.

I have to admit though that the animation in that episode is pretty shit. Goddammit, GONZO.

edited 30th Nov '10 7:39:22 PM by Sporkaganza

I love this show. I thought it blended the comedy and drama scenes almost perfectly. Which most things can't do.

I haven't read the novel yet, though.

edited 3rd Feb '11 5:01:03 PM by SilentColossus

I agree. I would almost think this show was perfect except for the GONZO animation quality. It pretty much ruined the episode with them doing the cooling-off in that one lady's house and finding out about his brother. It was supposed to be serious, but most of the animation in that episode was just gloriously shitty.

Yeah, the animation tended to be horrible.

I saw the anime first and then I read the novel. I haven't read the manga and I don't have any plans to either. As for why, I'll get to that in a moment.

The anime and novel were both pretty good. I have a hard time choosing one over the other, becuase they have different strengths and weaknesses. The weaknesses of the anime is actually part of it's strength too. It takes much more time to watch it then it does to read the novel. Welcome to the NHK is a short novel (as in it can be read in less than 2 hours), which means that it is far more focused than the anime. This is in many ways a good thing, because we generally avoid the sillyness of the not-so-good parts of the anime. However, you don't feel quite as connected to the characters as you do in the anime, because it is so short.

It also focuses more on Satou (however seeing his thoughts arguably makes him less sympathetic) whether as the anime focuses more on the relationships between the characters. They are also important in the book of course, but it feels like the focus is a little different. Now the anime obviously has a lot of material that is not in the book and most of this material is derived from the manga, from what I've been told. While I liked the whole suicide group island thing, I really did not like what came after it. The MMOPRG addiction and the pyramid scheme episodes were just annoying to watch and brought absolutely nothing new to the table in terms of themes. They also brought the story's momentum to a grinding halt after the emotional island episodes. Now, they probably needed something in between the island thing and Misaki's request for the "mutal contract", but this was just annoying as all hell. And none of it was in the novel. So yeah, almost all the things I did not like in the anime were derived from the manga. However, to be fair I did like the expansion of the material which was derived directly from the book, which I presume was also based on the manga.

Also, I really like the ending of the novel and since the anime basically had the same ending, I liked that one too by extension. The fact that the manga goes on after this does not bode well for it at all, it seems like an artificial lengthening of the story and from what I've read it doesn't sound like they pulled it off. So yeah, the anime takes the basic story from the novel, adds some of the manga material in between with varying succes, some of it expanding upon the characters and making the whole thing feel more emotional, other things really hurting the anime overall. In fact the MMORPG and pyramid scheme episodes really weighted down what was otherwise a great anime.

Another thing most people will probably realise when reading the novel, is that it's a little darker. Such as; Satou looks at actual child pornography at some point, not just lolicon hentai, he takes quite a few drugs etc. Come to think of it, that last one, might explain quite a lot of things in the anime too.

edited 16th Feb '11 2:13:55 AM by Mathias

I've watched the first 6 episodes of the anime (thus far) and really enjoy it. It contains a lot of Fridge Horror when you realize how much you have in common with one or many of the show's characters (I'm mostly Yamazaki, but replace "pornography" with "overly cute crap". I'm not gonna lie and say I'm proud of it.)

Also - and I know this is Completely Missing The Point - those dancing "agents of NHK" (the purple alien things) are fricking adorable.

ababa ababa ababa ababa odoru akachan ningen~

EDIT: Wait, the novel has an English translation?! Seriously?! I need to get that asap...

edited 4th Feb '11 7:11:06 AM by Pirka