I’m finally starting to get back to watching NHK and the rest of my neglected backlog and I think I’m going to do more of my episode entries in batches. For example, this post covers the four episodes of the “off meeting” mini-arc and is a little long because of it and my temporary inability to paraphrase my notes. Individual episode posts are tiresome especially with screenshots and this series in particular seems appropriate to be broken down into collective segments.

Ep 11 (Welcome to the Conspiracy!):
Satou and Yamazaki haven’t finished making their galge in time for Summer Comiket because of Satou’s hideously slow scenario writing. Instead, they create a trial version to sell and demonstrate that they have made some progress toward their final goal of a completed game.

Hitomi gets depressed after her boyfriend Jougasaki tells her he can’t make their planned summer vacation trip so she RSVP’s for an offline meeting due to depart the next day. She stops by Satou’s place to drink the night away and Satou decides to console her in order to rectify his past emotional failings. He attempts to do this through joining her on her trip but he has no clue why she’s actually going there.

It was nice to hear Hitomi talking in such a cheerful tone. Misaki was still down after Satou walked out on their last session. She shows her true passion for him by running and yelling his name as he and Hitomi drove away but to no avail as she trips, falls, and cries on the ground.

Ep 12 (Welcome to the Offline Meeting!):
Satou meets the rest of the “off meeting” group and initially becomes put off by their callous and overall sad demeanor. However, he is so inspired when he arrives at the island by both the beauty of the island and Hitomi’s company that he resolves to make a change in his behavior. He attempts to talk to the others but doesn’t do so well. After remembering how he failed to help the class rep put together the class festival, Satou starts to collect firewood to make a bonfire on the beach. One by one, the other men help him pull out a big log out of the sand. It is only after the island owner makes a comment about how they should enjoy the last days of the lives that Satou finally realizes why Hitomi came here.

Meanwhile, Jougasaki gets the rest of the day off from work and tries to call Hitomi’s cell phone. Unfortunately she had intentionally dropped it overboard a couple hours prior while riding the boat to the deserted island. He thinks something is suspscious when she’s not in her apartment so he goes on her computer and discovers her involvement in the online thread. He then goes to Satou’s apartment where he meets concerned acquaintances Yamazaki and Misaki.

Even though Jougasaki was introduced only last episode, I’m starting to feel for him and the situation he’s been put in by Hitomi’s actions. He had told Hitomi that he’d make up for the cancelled vacation and it seems that he truly loves her because he’s worried about her safety. Satou’s innocent enthusiasm was a strange contrast to the others’ lack of it to the point of being funny but his (unconscious) inability to put two and two together still comes off to me as a slight character flaw.

Ep 13 (Welcome to Heaven!):
Jougasaki drives Yamazaki, Misaki, and himself to the harbor in order to stop Saito and Hitomi form killing themselves. Yamazaki thinks that the signs were there and asks Misaki about his behavior but she doesn’t respond because she’s afraid for Satou’s life. Before they get on a boat and race over to the island, Misaki admits to Yamazaki she “found the one” in Satou.

On the island, Satou volunteers to pour the remaining boat fuel on the bonfire but then wonders what he’s doing. The group talks for a bit around the fire but then it is put out and the long walk begins up the mountainside toward a cliff that lies above the rocky ocean shore. Just before they jump off together the medical student, Hidehito, stops because he can’t get his mother’s face out of his head. The kid, Yuu, also gets cold feet as he admits he only stole money from his parents’ wallet to get out of trouble with mobsters.

Hitomi is still determined to jump but is stopped by Jougasaki’s marriage proposal from the bullhorn below them. Upon hearing her acceptance, Satou really wants to jump and the ex-suicide people try to hold him back. Misaki hops on the loudspeaker and tells him in a strangely loving fashion that he is a worse piece of human garbage than she is and that she needs to help him. Yamazaki tells him that a dramatic death does not befit them and both Satou and Misaki are heard crying loudly at the end.

One major plot deference from the manga is how the group planned to off themselves. Originally it was via carbon monoxide poisoning but I think the change to cliffjumping was essential to the anime writers’ intention to further the relationship between Misaki and Satou. The setting also provided more dramatic effect than sitting around in a steamhouse.

This episode featured a new opening and ending set although the former is not a big change as it is a sonic tweaking of the original. “Puzzle -extra hot mix-” adds a pipe organ and drops a saxophone but still has the same vocals and lyrics. The ending “Modokashii Sekai no Ue de” is softer and better than the old ending IMO but still so-so as a song.

Ep 14 (Welcome to Reality!):
Everyone is on the beach recovering from the drama on the cliff and Misaki tries to approach Satou. He scares her by only raising his fist in annoyance and seems to evoke bad memories of violence from her past. After they return to the mainland, Jougasaki offers the attempted people rooms and onsen privileges to help them relax. While the guys are sitting in the hot tub, the pool cleaner comes in and tells them they were fools to attempt suicide, including that he was one of them himself.

Some of the families come to the hotel to meet their missing sons. Hidehito gets slapped by his crying mother while Yuu’s father gets angry at the organizer before Yuu puts the blame on himself. Yuu later gives Satou a month-long trial code for Ultimate Fantasy, a MMORPG similar to FF XI. Satou asks where his companions went and it turns out Yamazaki quickly went back for the last day of Natsucomi and failed to sell many trial copies of their game. Misaki on the other hand simply went home but Satou expresses his disinterest in her. Satou gets a lift to the train station by the organizer and who should happen to meet him in the parking lot but the organizer’s young son Makoto!

Back at his apartment, Satou drinks with a complaining Yamazaki but soon gets bored and runs off to attend Misaki’s counselling session. Misaki cites a “breach of contract” because he missed the past two days but concedes that she had been keeping her house’s location a secret. Therefore, the fine of 1 million yen is temporarily offset. Satou gets called by his mother when he comes back and is told something he doesn’t want to hear her tell him.

This was a decompressing episode that resolved the off meeting mess and set the stage for Satou’s upcoming game addiction. The mini-arc as a whole lent a look into Misaki’s true feelings for Satou and her motivations for setting up the hikikomori project. Although her kind feelings are not entirely returned by Satou, she feels the situation is becoming better between them and holds hope for the future. The writers also presented the subject of suicide in a way that showed some people’s motivations and involved appropriate comedy via Satou’s role as the “straight man”.

Ep 9 (Welcome to the Summer Days!):

It is the beginning of summer vacation for students at Yamazaki’s school and Yamazaki announces, while drunk at a party, that his game will be finished by Comiket. Since they only have a month to finish it, Satou starts working on a laptop in Yamazaki’s room. He is writing the scenario based on his drawings. He starts seeing Misaki’s head when typing out dialogue and inadverently replaces the actual heroine’s name, Rei, with hers. He gets frustrated, hits his head on a ladder and even threatens to destroy the laptop before Yamazaki calms him down.

Yamazaki recalls a bad experience with a previous love giving a fake excuse for not watching fireworks with him. That rejection led him to be cynical about all women in general and sparks an impassionate speech to Satou. In the middle of it, Yamazaki’s girlfriend calls him and tells him her audition was cancelled so she actually IS available to watch the fireworks together. He then displays a complete one-eighty in terms of mood. Satou goes to his room and just lays there until Misaki throws pebbles at his window. They decide to go watch the fireworks together and have a good time despite a couple nervous moments. It seems Yamazaki had a good experience too.

Ep 10 (Welcome to the Dark Side!):

Satou has a fantasy about marrying Misaki. During it, he sees all his relatives and acquiantances on one side of the aisle and mysterious no-faced people on the other side. This sparks the thought that there is an imbalance of knowledge in their relationship: he doesn’t know anything about her yet she knows a lot about him. So in order to find out, Satou decides to follow Misaki around for a day and Yamazaki joins him.

They stake out the manga cafe she works at and walk a distance behind her up a hill to her “mansion”. They get to the top, look down on the city and realize that she could clearly see the park and Satou’s apartment from there. Before going to that night’s counseling, Satou has a vision that Misaki is a part of the conspiracy and actually plans to keep him a hikikomori forever. So that night he tells her he’s quitting the sessions and that he never wants to see her again.

—————

Satou’s struggles with Misaki provided some good humor as well as emotional drama. Capitalizing on Yamazaki’s drunkness was also a nice touch especially with Satou tucking his head into bed but not the rest of his body. The urban stalking profiling had its moments like hiding behind streetpoles although the “let’s get popsicles” part was a little strange. It was a semi-bombshell when they found the house and who wouldn’t be disheartened if you found out someone had been watching you and then approached you? Satou will probably still have thoughts about Misaki but will unfortunately continue distracting himself to avoid confronting the problem.

There was another moment of Misaki making an animal sound and this one made a little more sense (communicating with an actual cat) but it was still looked weird.

Satou says he’s under the weather with a “summer flu” but, in actuality, is simply afraid to go outside after the incident at the game creators’ school. He gets a call from his mother Shizue; she is going be in town in three days for a class reunion and figures she might as well check up on him. In his nervousness, he fibs that he is working at a game development firm and that he has a girlfriend. Satou then relates the situation to Misaki who volunteers to be his girlfriend for a day. They go on a first date the next day to prepare to face Shizue. Also, Yamazaki makes business cards for their recently formed company.

The day his mother is to arrive, Satou starts trying to clean his apartment by moving stuff onto the porch. Misaki comes by to help and helps him throw bags of garbage onto the loft. Shizue is tired from her plane ride and not being picked up by her son so she’d rather have lunch than look at his messy flat. They go out to a pretty good restaurant and his mother starts asking questions about marriage. While Satou is thinking up a plan in the bathroom, Shizue tells Misaki about his history of bad lying and lets her know she knows it’s a sham. Shizue leaves for her reunion after lunch and the “couple” walks around until Misaki finally leads the duo to a date spot. Satou is surprised by this and his underestimation of her bust but decides to seize the opportunity. Unfortunately, Yamazaki calls his cell to yell at him since he’s being waiting for Shizue to call and consequently hasn’t left his apartment to go to a convenience store. The moment’s ruined but Misaki still thinks about the lost kiss while lying in bed.

The relationship between Misaki and Satou really starts to develop in these two episodes. Sure, both are nervous but Misaki is being more forthright in the little things, like linking arms and tugging his shirtsleeves. They even have a “accidental positioning” moment and almost kiss before being interrupted. I think this whole effort by Misaki as counselor has had a slight hidden motive of spending more time with him. The secret notes in her notebook were the first hint of this. There’s bound to be more romantic but awkward moments in the next episode, #09 “Welcome to the Summer Days!”, with Misaki in a yukata at a festival…with fireworks.

I might have said this before but I think that Satou comes off as dumber in the anime than in the manga. I mean, ignoring Misaki three times when she’s right next to him and instead considering Yamazaki cross-dress. That kind of imagination shouldn’t happen in a man who has been looking at babe magazines as “reference material” for his galge characters.

Also, there was possibly a little ground being laid for the “off meeting” when Satou tried to call Hitomi. She said she already had plans, more specifically an “appointment with some acquiantances”. Hmm…maybe that’ll take place a couple episodes down the line. Or it could just be something completely unrelated, like a night out with friends, I don’t know.

Overall, the humor was pretty good between the two episodes especially the first steps of starting a company, one of the better uses of the purple “hikki” characters IMO. What I’m going to call “Misaki’s Sneaky Sleeve Grabbing Technique” was one of the cuter parts along with her barking back at her stuffed animal at the end of episode 8. It looks like the series is improving from its slightly shaky start and is moving more into romantic comedy territory than just staying a dark hikikomori comedy.

P.S. I really appreciate how the series is airing episodes that take place during the summer during the summer and not sometime in late winter, like other series have. It helps me relate to the subject matter if I too can open a window and hear crickets chirping outside at night.

In “Welcome to the Classroom!”, Satou has a slight nervous breakdown but manages to make some progress in his hikikomori recovery program. Misaki gives him some bad advice but everything works out in the end. Also, Yamazaki doesn’t get angry this episode…well, at least not his real-life self.

Satou has problems writing what he calls “embarassing” dialogue in his scenario and then realizes he’s late for his counseling appointment. Misaki tells him not to be late again and begins his second lesson, Conversation Techniques. She posits that nervousness and the fear of being insulted causes hikikomori to fail at everyday talking situations and advises Satou to think of someone else as more inferior when talking with them. He immediately thinks “wait, has she been doing that to me the whole time?” and she responds with a shake of her head.

Satou tries to rouse an analysis of his crazy “snake-sword” dream out of her but she hits back with the “you don’t have a girlfriend, do you?” line. He tries to use his moment with Hitomi as a defense but then Misaki says Yamazaki has a girlfriend, a voice acting student named Nanako. Upon hearing that Yamazaki has a girlfriend, Satou decides to ask him directly to find out if it’s true. However, his self-projections of possible answers delays him enough to get hit in the head by Yamazaki opening his door. He is leaving to go to the and after he leaves, Satou plots to follow him the next day to his game designer school.

While wondering what room Yamazaki is in, Satou gets invited by a scenario teacher to sit in for a trial class since he’s not an actual student. Satou actually writes a creative game proposal but he gets nervous when the instructor chuckles over his shoulder. He thinks that he’s talking down to him when he was actually admiring his creation so he yells at the sensei and runs out of the classroom to sit and hold his head in the stairwell. Nanako’s voice stirs him from his sulking and prompts him to follow it to a lounge where she’s talking with Yamazaki.

When he eavesdrops on their conversation, he starts to feel that Yamazaki betrayed him in some non-existent “pledge” against three-dimensional/real-life women. But then as Nanako leaves and chats with her friends, he takes comfort in finding out she only sees him as a friend and her friends describe him as a kimi-ota (“creepy otaku”), a half-hikki who’s into lolicon. Back at Yamazaki’s place, they kick back with a couple of beers. Then Satou relates the day to Misaki who was proud of him for taking such a brave step in his path to recovery.

This episode had funny moments but I’m starting to have less faith in Satou’s mental state. We found out that he had been expelled from university and that seemed to be the tipping point for his fall into the sociomental disorder that is hikikimori. Getting back into a classroom was a good albeit unintentional first rehabilition exercise. However, Misaki’s method should have been to view someone you are conversing with as an equal so as to avoid being too aggressive and talking down to them.

Notes:

• The katakana on the side of Mita House is different as the left half of the “ha” is missing. *gasp* Maybe somebody stole it…
• I didn’t notice this the first time but Satou has an alarm clock that tells him, “Onii-chan, you’re going to be late!”
• Look, Yamazaki has a white DS Lite!
• Some of the songs I had said were original songs in my OST review actually played in this episode. I was wrong. I guess I should have watched this ep (and stayed somewhat current) BEFORE writing the review.

Best line:

It seems that Victor, the same company that produced Haruhi CDs, is also putting out the NHK ni Youkoso music and this time, there is an official soundtrack. The band Pearl Kyoudai (Pearl Brothers) composed the music for the series and it was interesting to hear the BGM with lyrics. I think what the band did was record the songs normally and then created off vocal versions for use in the show. There were also some nice original songs on the album including “Dark Side ni Tsuitekite”, a song which could have made a better ending song than “Akachan Ningen” IMO. Numbers after the jump.

Dark Side ni Youkoso! [VICL-62040]

1. Ashita wa Tabun Overture (0:33) – not rated
2. Ikasuze! Positive Thinking (3:16) – 3.5/5
3. Sekai wa Boku wo Naguri ni Kuru (3:13) – 3.5/5
4. Kimi ni Kuzure e ho e (3:11) – 4/5
5. Kyou wa Yuuhi Yarou (1:47) – 3.5/5
6. Natsu no Nichi ni Youkoso! (3:58) – 4/5
7. Jumbo Camera ni Donto Koi! (0:29) – not rated
8. Ashita wa Tabun Daijoubu (2:46) – 4.5/5
9. Shuraba ni Youkoso! (4:48) – 5/5
10. Mushiburo to Nou to Tanin (2:04) – 3/5
11. Dark Side ni Tsuitekite (4:08) – 4.5/5
12. Youkoso! Hitori Bocchi (5:24) – 5/5
13. Inbou wa Yoake ni Warau (3:12) – 3/5
14. Yoru wa Fuwari Kaze wa Hirari (3:14) – 4.5/5
15. Daijoubu Call (1:01) – not rated

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Favorites: #9, #11, #12, #14

Misaki’s song “Dark Side ni Tsuitekite” sounds a little like a love song from the early 1960’s (at least it does to me), while “Shuraba ni Youkoso!” brings to mind a lounge band singing blues in some bar. “Ashita wa Tabun Daijoubu” is in three forms: a 30-second preview version “overture”, the full-length song with harmonica and peppy piano playing, and a ringtone [in-line text ad] version which pleasantly surprised me. Finally, “Yoru wa Fuwari” fits with those long and lazy summer days.

However, not everything on this album was great. “Inbou wa Yoake” had good piano playing but didn’t seem that cohesive with the instruments and “inbou character” laughter. “Sekai wa Boku” had rocking guitars but just felt average.

One more thing: after looking at the lyrics for “Youkoso! Hitori Bocchi” (heard in episode 1), the chorus goes “nuck nuck nuck” then “luck luck luck” in the background. It was the off vocal that was fooling me into thinking it was only “luck luck luck”.

It has been 4 years and 4 months since the last time Satou and Hitomi talked to each other. Satou finds out that she is currently gets prescriptions from three hospitals. He admits to her that he is a hikikomori and that he was shopping for anime goods in Ahikabara. They reminsice and wonder what could have been if they had actually dated back in high school. Before Hitomi leaves, she gives him her cell number.

After Yamazaki yells at him for abandoning him, Satou realizes they can’t possibly finish the game in ten days. He decides to continue making the visual novel after his first lesson because he was inspired by Misaki and because he just wants to accomplish something for once in his life. He shows Yamazaki he means it by completing the scenario at the end.

Satou finally decides to sign the hikkimori rehabilitation contract and gives it to Misaki. He also concedes that he was lying about being succcesful. The next night, she starts the counseling by trying to analyze Satou’s dreams using Freudian psychology. Offended that she thinks he doesn’t know about Freud, he responds with a mesh of all the subconscious assertive male power symbols you can think of. Misaki tries to move on to Jung after getting red in the face but Satou persists with a smirk in wanting to know his dream analysis. She stands up frustrated and walks off.

This episode was better than the last one for the funny “lecture” between Satou and Misaki (the “happyaku man” pun still worked!) and for the fancy restaurant scene with Hitomi. I won’t to “ship” them together (Satou x Hitomi) because that’s not my style. But I will say that their relationship is the only romantic thread of the series and it’s a good one. That club room scene was hawt and the table scene had so many good lines, too. I’ll have to put some at the end of the post.

Yamazaki’s angry argument with his parents over him “taking over the farm” gave his character some slight backstory. One thing that disturbed me this episode, which is a carryover from the last one, is Satou’s newfound love of figures. I don’t collect figures so maybe I am failing to understand something but seeing a guy gets red-cheeked peering under a figurine’s skirt just creeps me out. No offense to all the collectors out there because I do advocate responsible plastic girl purchasing. (It helps the otaku economy!)

Finally, there were flashbacks to a moment (“You’re a hikikomori, aren’t you, Satou-kun?”) earlier in the episode…TWICE! Argh! DAMN YOU, GONZO!

—————
Favorite lines from the restaurant scene included:

• “I’d be better off if I were a freeter.” ~ Satou

• “If we had built a healthy relationship, then perhaps Satou-kun wouldn’t have become a hikikomori.” ~ Hitomi

• “If you go to a convenicence store, food, drinks, cosmetics, even cell phones are sold. But they don’t sell relationships there.” ~ Hitomi

Another good line from a different scene was:
“You’re not a hikikomori if you’re striving to accomplish something.” ~ Satou
—————

NEXT EPISODE: #06 Welcome to the Classroom!
Finally, Satou goes back to school.

Satou is having trouble devising characters for the galge scenario so he asks Yamazaki what the main types are. He profiles the childhood friend, the maid, and the robot as well as their respective characteristics. When after two days and all that inspiration Satou still hasn’t devised anything substantive, he claims he needs a model to base his characters’ stories on. Yamazaki decides to blackmail him into going to Akihabara using the threat of calling the cops on Satou stealing food from him as an impetus.

Satou is awestruck, perhaps too much, when he starts walking around Akihabara. The first place they visit is a maid cafe, what Yamazaki calls “the pride of Japan’s culture”. Sure, you keep telling yourself that. They then go to a doujinshi shop and a figure shop after that. After their exhibition of otaku consumerism (cf. Like Water), they finally sit down and start discussing the main character for their galge. Satou comes up with an amalgamation of the genre’s cliches that only a university dropout would assemble while Yamazaki tries to sketch his description.

She looks like a charity case. No, I mean, you can’t help but feel sorry for her. Wait, um…*sigh* I give up.

Satou becomes angry and gets the duo kicked out of the cafe they’re in. Yamazaki yells at him for his actions, to which Satou replies “I was waiting for your riposte.” … Riposte is what Oyasumi translated tsukkomi as when subtitling this episode. *cough* Anyway, Yamazaki realizes he left his stuff in the cafe so he runs back to try and retrieve it. While he does that Satou hangs out in a smokers’ lounge, the appropriately named “smokers’ place”. Hitomi walks by the window and is surprised to see him there after 2-3 years of no communication between each other.

The pace of this episode was sluggish but still had moments of mirth such as Yamazaki letting his anger loose on his pillows while recalling girls who shunted him in the past. There was yet another Hitomi, aka Depressed Conspiracy Girl, moment in the club room which made me happy. She’s my favorite character on the show because she has a persuasive voice and asks thought-provoking but slightly melancholy questions. Now that I think of it, both female leads act somewhat maturely (although Misaki may have too much naivete…) while both the male characters act as kidults.

The next episode, “Welcome to Counselling!”, will have more Hitomi (YAY!) and Misaki gets down to business and begins giving Satou “the hikkimori recovery lecture”. Hitomi will most likely reminisce with Satou and he gets nervous talking about his “social disorder”. I’m looking forward to that conversation.

The series is starting to show its slowness in these second and third episodes. The fantasy sequences are providing most of the action (there was a nice fisherman’s metaphor…), although next episode should be somewhat more interesting with Satou’s first visit to a maid cafe. I wish it would speed up a little bit in terms of plot. *sigh* I guess this anxiety comes with reading the manga before watching the anime, but still. Just a LITTLE faster, please?

The second episode, “Welcome to the Creator”, was slow to develop as most of it consisted of conversations in the park and Satou reminscing with his kohai from high school, Yamazaki. Instead of signing Misaki’s contract and admitting he needs help, Satou claims he is a game creator and tells her he’ll show him one of his games next month. Both the realization that he has no idea how to make a game and the annoying “pupupurin” music still coming through the wall lead him to bust down his neighbor’s door and find Yamazaki there. He agrees to make a game with Satou and tells him the most feasible type that could be made in a month’s time is a galge.

Episode three, “Welcome to the Bishoujo”, continues where the previous one left off with Yamazaki explaining what galge are and lending Satou some. He intially has problems getting the intended endings so Yamazaki advises him twice through late-night phone calls. It’s about time that Satou started working on the scenario after a week of galge gaming (mouthful!) and so Yamazaki gives him some “reference material” to inspire him. I don’t entirely buy Satou being so sheltered at age 22 that viewing erotic pictures blows his mind but apparently that rush from his neighbor’s CDs spurred him to download 120 gigs of “sexy pictures” in one week’s time. He looks himself in the mirror, laments his newfound identity as a lolicon, and asks Yamazaki to photograph him taking pictures of schoolgirls. When the bell rings though, Yamazaki chickens out and Misaki asks him what he’s doing.

Satou and Yamazaki have switched roles since high school and Yamazaki is now trying to drudge him from NEET-ness. Unfortunately, Satou doesn’t seem to be good at anything besides lying his ass off and taking things to extremes. Misaki is acting naive but I think she’s just playing along with Satou and letting him make his own mistakes, knowing eventually he will admit his need for counseling.

Episode three had many computer shots and we can tell from the reboot of Satou’s computer that the anime takes place in 2002, same as the manga. However, the amount of storage he filled with lewd pictures seems to have quadrupled from 30 GB in the manga to 120 GB in the anime.

There was a flashback to Satou and Hitomi’s times in the Literature Club room, another scene to establish her depression in preparation from the “off meeting” at least 3-4 episodes down the road. I actually like her more than I do Misaki because she’s more mature than the hikikomori recovery project leader and also because she shows more of her emotions. Now that I think about it, Misaki’s reaction face reminds me a lot of how Osaka looks when she’s spacing out.

Favorite lines:

After reading the first two volumes of the manga in preparation, and liking what I had read, I looked forward to “NHK ni Youkuso!” (Welcome to the NHK!) to entertain me with bits of dark humor. Bits such as Satou analyzing the difficulty in choking oneself and the annoying “purupururin” music from next door satisfied my hunger and I’m willing to partake of it more times in the future.

The talking appliances got a chuckle from me because it depicted Satou as being a sort of drug trip (the drug being anime, of course). I don’t particularly care for the blue pixie monkeys, though. Unfortunately they’re in the closing credits, which I will most likely skip over just to avoid seeing them despite the ending song having headbanging twinges. In contrast, the opening is a nice, slick blend of CG and handdrawn animation that ties into the song title “Puzzle”.

On the subject of cinematics, there was a “handheld camera” shot in the ending animation. I’m getting really tired seeing this technique in anime. Other instances that come to mind include Bleach’s third closing (“Happy People”) and FMA’s fourth opening (“Rewrite”). Why do I dislike it? Because it seems like the cameraman is a stalker. I watch visual works to experience good cinematography and framing, not a home movie. It probably costs even for the animators to emulate shaky camerawork than to just make an ending composed of pan-ups and pan-downs; I would prefer the latter. At least the CG hover to the door worked, even though it was slightly noticable.

I usually notice the music when I watch a show and I liked how the two insert songs complemented the action. The first had an acoustic guitar, slow drums, and a piano and matched Satou’s decision to move forward and seek employment. The second, which featured a harmonica and a slow strumming guitar, made more clear that Satou had the “failed to turn in a job application” blues. I hope they continue to have good scene-setting BGM on the level of Honey and Clover.

Finally, although it is a comedy, it also deals with a serious social problem. Perhaps this show will spur actual “hikkis” or their relatives to seek help and serve not only as entertainment but also as a means toward a better Japanese society. BTW, the NHK has a hikikomori support website based on its series of special reports in 2003.