The willingness to handle even undesirable elements of one’s culture in a humorous-yet-serious way is something that has been ever-present in the media. Social problems, along with the periodic political concern, can unexpectedly be the focal discussion point of episodes of popular shows, with some more popular ones becoming the focus of whole series. The Japanese hikikomori issue, in addition to the standard social anxiety and tips of schizophrenia that being a hikikomori requires, has become the property of a fairly recent franchise consisting of an anime, comic, and novel series understood just as “Welcome to the NHK.”
Being a social shut-in, he is also often seen to show another Japanese sub-culture-turned-problem: that of being a compulsive anime otaku. For the unfamiliar, the Japanese see the otaku sub-culture as a possible social issue, generally because many of these people have a slightly compromised grip on truth, preferring to focus their time, effort, and attention on different types of entertainment. The sub-culture shows indications that are translated as social anxiety, though they sometimes appear to have somewhat regular social interactions on the uncommon occasions where large numbers of otaku collect.
This conspiracy, understood as the Nihon Hikikomori Kyokai (the Japanese Hikikomori Association), is the source of the “NHK” in the title, rather than the real-life Japanese tv network NHK. It is significant that while Sato initially believes the female lead, Misaki Nakahara, to be one of these agents, he never actually takes the time to detail what the NHK hopes to attain by turning the entire male population of Japan into socially-inept shut-ins.
Together with a variety of other characters, a few of which seem to be agents of other socially-challenged Japanese sub-cultures, Misaki and Sato come together in the most uncommon ways. Part of the interaction between the two leads comes from Misaki’s contract with Sato, which specifies that once every night, she is to lecture him on how to conquer his social stress and anxiety and become a normal, working member of society again. Naturally, to offer home entertainment worth, not everything goes as prepared, with Sato experiencing everything from anxiety attack due to being outdoors his home, to having Misaki pretend to be his sweetheart to fool his going to mom.
Aside from the aforementioned subcultures, the program likewise quickly touches upon other aspects of Japanese culture. This includes the flourishing independent gaming circuit, the “Internet suicide pacts” issue, and other Japanese social traits. It needs to be noted that, in spite of the title of the program, the network NHK never in fact aired “Welcome to the NHK.” Hence, unlike the novels, the program does not clearly link the NHK conspiracy to the NHK television network.
The Japanese hikikomori issue, along with the standard social stress and anxiety and hints of schizophrenia that being a hikikomori involves, has actually ended up being the premise of a relatively current franchise consisting of an anime, comic, and novel series understood merely as “Welcome to the NHK.”
This conspiracy, understood as the Nihon Hikikomori Kyokai (the Japanese Hikikomori Association), is the source of the “NHK” in the title, rather than the real-life Japanese television network NHK. It is notable that while Sato initially thinks the female lead, Misaki Nakahara, to be one of these representatives, he never really takes the time to detail what the NHK hopes to achieve by turning the whole male population of Japan into socially-inept shut-ins.
Thus, unlike the books, the program does not clearly link the NHK conspiracy to the NHK tv network. 축구중계