NHK 05 - Ah! My Purin

First off, before anything else, the art is back to its original ghewdness. Lets hope it stays that way….albeit im pretty sure it wont seeing as how Gonzo always goes up and down with their animation/art in their shows, were just now getting back on the up, only an episode or two till another down im guessing.

So the episode starts off with another flashback of Satou and Hitomi (they reveal her name in the show a little later on in the episode) in the club room, having their usual boring conversation. Anyway, she’s going to graduate and this is the last time they will be together in the club room after 2 years, so Hitomi locks the door and takes off her jacket/tie and they cut back to present after she thanks him for keeping her company all that time. After meeting her at the Smokers Place in the last episode they made their way to a cafe or something, and Satou ends up explaining he’s a Hikikomori. Hitomi also has some problems i guess, seeing as how she’s got like 8 different things of drugs from 3 different hospitals for all sorts of things. Anyway, Yamazaki calls him up and yells at him for not being where they were gonna meet up. Hitomi and Satou exchange numbers, and she asks Satou if they can meet up again. But, he’s a Hikikomori, so no is pretty much a given. He ends up asking her the same thing though, and she gives him the same response of him being a Hikikomori.

Back at the apartment Yamazaki decides the main girl in their galge needs freckels and declares that they can finish their game in time if they work hard in the 10 days that are left. Satou starts freaking out in his head and then realizes he wants to stop being a Hikikomori and heads back to his room, he ends up signing the contract Misaki gave him. He heads to the park and waits for Misaki, who appears a little later and asks him what he’s doing there. After giving a long line of crap he gives up and tells her she is right about him. She tells him that counseling will start tomorrow, and if he doesnt come theres a 1 million yen fine. Anyway, he goes back to his place and looks at all his new stuff he bought in Akiba and then checks his phone. Theres like 324324 calls from Yamazaki, and Satou decides to apologize to him about it. But, Yamazaki ends up hitting the wall real hard and yelling loud enough that Satou ends up hearing the conversation, apparently its his family or something telling him to come home and take care of the farm, but he refuses. Anyway, he goes to the park for his counseling of the day from Misaki.

He gets there and she rambles about crap and ends up pulling out a book about analyzing dreams by Freud. For some reason, she assumes Satou doenst know anything about it, so he gives her a crap ass dream that symbolizes something really dirty to mess with her and she quickly changes subjects. He keeps bothering her about it and telling her to tell him what the dream meant, but she ends up getting pissed off and leaving. That night while in his room, he remembers what Misaki had said a while back. That, if he was always in his room actually working towards a goal, then he wouldnt be a Hikikomori. So, he writes the games scenario and characters and stuff and takes it to Yamazaki the next day. He explains what happened, and Yamazaki gets pissed, but then Satou tells him he wont quit the project either and Yamazaki gets all ubar happy. Anyway, he ends up crushing a Purin figure of Yamazaki’s and they both freak out, and the episode is over.

Next Episode - Welcome to the Classroom!

Im glad to see the art back on track again, and from the “next episode preview” it should be like that next time too. I dunno if the game is important for much longer, but I hope they atleast show a little of what they end up with at some point. Anyway, Hitomi is adorable but Misaki is waaaaay cuter. Even though i hear she’s really head-fucked, she’s just too adorable to worry about that.

NHK ni Youkoso 04 - or - UGLY ni Youkoso

Welcome to the New World! And remember, I review over the whole episode in most of the entry, but i have most of my personal comments at the very end. So blargh.

First things first - the animation quality was so terrible this episode, i only took 5 screenshots, some of it was so bad it was actually SCARY, i mean look at Satou’s hands in that big one. And suprisingly, those are some of the ‘better’ looking scenes in this episode. Actually, im pretty sure the ugly drawing i did on the bottom looks better then most of this episode - in fact, im positive it is. I tried to make the drawing look as bad, but i dont know if thats possible unless you work for Gonzo. And i dunno how its possible, but it looks like 5 times worse when its in motion, protect your eyes while watching this episode, or just focus so much on teh subs that you cant see anything else.

The episode starts off with Satou trying to create the scenario for the galge he’s making with Yamazaki, its basically the story of the show thru his eyes. An ordinary girl tries to save the main character from being a Hikikomori and turns out to be a goddess. He figures its stupid and goes to Yamazaki for a break and ends up talking about how amazing the galge creators must be to be able to make so many good heroines. After a short speech by Yamazaki, he explains to Satou the archtypes of Galge heroines.

1. The Childhood Friend 2. The Maid 3. The Robot

After some thought, he realizes that the ‘ideal heroine’ described by Yamazaki earlier is exactly the situation he is in with Misaki. It cuts to Misaki in her house, so we get to see a little of her room and stuff blah blah. And then it cuts again to Satou’s flashback of talking with the older girl in the club he was in, that it had shown part of in the past episode. Then he wakes up again and tells Yamazaki he still has nothing written and that if he had a model it would be a lot easier. This is what triggers Yamazaki to take him to Akibahara, the ’sacred land’. When they get there, Satou is entranced by a giant poster of a Chiyo-chan-looking loli in a swimsuit thats on the side of an entire building. After a short while, Yamazaki pulls him into a maid-cafe, with a maid that looks suprisingly like President Jinguuji from Gokujou Seitokai…or maybe its just me. Actually, the maids would have looked great had the animation not been terrible the entire episode and made them look like ugly blobs with eyes.

After that they go for the rounds in Akiba and Yamazaki takes Satou to one of many Doujin shops, and just like with galge’s this is Satou’s first experience with Doujinshi. After a walk around the shop and looking at various plamo’s and the like, he runs into a giant fullsize 1/1 scale figure of some girl. Anyway, he ends up buying a normal sized (the more usual to see size ones) Misao from one of the galge’s he enjoyed the most, in about the same fashion i bought my 1/6 Arisa Glennorth figure. See it, want it, bought it, last one in stock! And then Yamazaki teaches Satou the rule of thumb for any anime fan in any place with such amounts of greatness (Akibahara, anime conventions, etc) which is “The moment you see it, you must grab it!” Anyway ill try to cut this down real fast, he throws every idea he can think of together while in another cosplay cafe and Yamazaki draws it…but its not how Satou wanted it to look so he tears it up and kicks over the table. Yamazaki forgot something at the cafe so Satou waits in the “SMOKERS PLACE” (Wtf) and after sitting around taking in teh area and thinking about his life and whatnot, someone knocks on the window. Its the girl from his memories that he went to school with, and then the episode ends.

Next Episode - Welcome to Counseling!

This episode definately seemed like a “lets not worry about how it looks” one for the art team, seeing as how 90% of the animation looked terrible. And i dont just mean kind of bad looking, i mean some of the shit they have in this episode is some of the worst animation ive seen in years. Thanks Gonzo. And if anyone wants to say “it was on purpose because of this or that”, your wrong. Although i did like how they have posters in a few places of shows they are making now or are already from them, it amused me even though its always done like that.
In all seriousness, this episode is one of the worst things ive seen in years. Not only was the art some of the most horrible crap ive seen, the actual motion looked like some 12 year old tried to put two pictures in ‘animation maker’ and make an avatar that just goes from one pose to another with all the crappy jerking and unsmooth animation. This shit was BAD, and the episode would have been so great had they not ruined it. If they keep this animation up, im seriously thinking about just quitting watching this show. So hopefully 5 doenst look as retarded as hell as this one. Afterall, anime is short for ANIMATION, and so watching a show that looks this terrible (if it stays like this) kind of removes the Anime from Japanese Anime, and makes this just….Horribly ugly Drawings by some Japanese people that have been put shittily to motion. And im not gonna watch something like that.

NHK ni Youkoso 03

Welcome to Bishoujo!

I was pretty excited about this episode, merely because of the main topic being ‘galge’ or ero/bishoujo-games. Im a big fan of them (usually the ones like Satou had where even during an entire playthru several times you wont see anything dirty, or you’ll get hentai like crazy) and so after watching the next episode preview i wanted to watch the next episode right away. Anyway, this episode continues from where 2 left off, Satou has to make a game to show Misaki in order to prove that he isnt a Hikikomori (even though he is). Yamazaki explains that the game will be a galge, Satou disagrees and ends up triggering some hidden Super Moe Man powers in Yamazaki and he glows and has blue shit all around him. It might just be my imagination, but i think when Satou cowers away from Yamazaki’s hands, it shows how deeply unaccustomed to people he is and not just that he thought Yamazaki would attack him. He explains that these games can become the grounding for a company, and if done well, they could become the largest and most world renouned gaming company ever. With false thoughts of his own future, Satou finally agree’s and goes back to his room with several of Yamazaki’s games for research.

Satou has never played one of these, and its pretty obvious other then the fact he already said so earlier on in the episode. Anyway, in his first game he has a little sister, and hes completely amazed about it. After getting really into the game, and finally finishing one of the routes, and he doenst get to see anything other then panty shots. He calls Yamazaki, and he gets one of the cardinal rules explained to him. You cant charm multiple girls at once! He continually calls back with problems and wakes Yamazaki up a total of 3 times, and then finally gets the hang of it. He ends up playing through the games for a full week without sleep or food.

After the gaming incident, Yamazaki explains more in detail what he needs Satou to do as the writer. After a short talk, he gives Satou a stack of cd’s of his ’secret collection’ for more research, as in porn….or hentai….its in anime, how am i supposed to know if its supposed to be anime girls or real girls, blargh. Anyway, Satou apparently never heard of such things before, and once again almost craps his pants over it. We get to watch him literally fish for porn on his own personal boat with spear gun and everything! In reality, he’s just searching on “Qoogle” but we get a more dramatic, drug-enduced-feeling, version. Anyway, he spends another week locked up in his room downloading 12 (ive also heard 120, 210, and 30…but the subs said 12 so whatever…either way, a LOT) Gigs of delciousness, and Yamazaki yells at him about it. Satou starts having a mental breakdown after a short memory of him looking at the stars with his family, and Yamazaki tells him that he has to face reality. So, apparently to Satou that means go to a local school and take pictures of loli and have Yamazaki take a picture of him doing it, so that he can look at how horrible he has become. Yamazaki ends up running away after the school bells ring in shame (for Satou) and Misaki appears in his stead with her annoying lolita umbrella. And then, luckily for Satou, a strong gust of wind comes by and blows all the loli’s skirts up! He tries to take a picture but Misaki makes him hesitate and finally stop by telling him ’so you are that type of person’ and he gets embarassed and defensive again. After that, she tells him not to do anything that will land him on the news, basically to stay out of trouble. And thats pretty much the end of the episode.

Overall i liked teh episode, although there was some weird animation at times (Satou’s arm floating around when he’s on Yamazaki’s bed…either that or its horribly long and scary), and there wasnt enough Misaki. But i guess all the loli at the end made up for it, lol.

Next Episode : Welcome to the New World!

Yamazaki takes Satou to a cosplay-cafe and other places, in the famous Akihabara! Other then that, im not sure what happens…seeing as how i havnt seen it yet, otherwise it woudlnt be the next episode now would it =/

NHK ni Youkoso 2

This episode picks up right where 1 left off with Misaki and Satou in the park, and just overlaps a little with when she first arrived. She has this big contract written up for him to sign to join her project to help get Satou out of his current state of being a Hikikomori. He ends up telling her he isnt one, and leaving, and then coming back the next night to meet her again and ended up telling her he is a software designer of some kind. Back home he finally snaps from the neighbors music and (most likely thanks to Misaki again) he storms over and goes in, only to find out its one of his ‘friends’ from highschool (the one that was shown in the flashback being bullied).

After spending some time in the guys room and looking at all his ero-games, hentai posters, and dirty figurines (looks a lot like my room, lawls) he finds out that the kid is going to basically a trade school to make video games. So he asks him to borrow the book from the school, takes it that night to the park, and tells Misaki she can see one of his games in a month. And without realizing it, he was followed by Yamazaki all the way there (the neighbor) who ends up yelling at him for lying to Misaki. Anyway, Satou ends up asking him to make a game for him and Yamazaki forces him to write the story and script. What kind of game will they make? An ero-game of course! And so ends the episode.

From all the things ive read about the neighbor in the manga he’s supposed to be pretty terrible, but he seems just like a normal perverted otaku to me atleast right now. Then again, the show still doesnt seem all that serious and it WILL be at some point. So i woudlnt be surprised at his character drastically changing along with everything else. Anyway, i think the best part of the episode was when he was thinking about what would happen to Misaki if he didnt meet up with her soon. He looks so creepy hiding in his little room when the news reporters come, lol.

Next Episode - Bishoujo ni Youkoso! From the looks of it, it’ll be another funny episode, especially if it has lots of B-game references cuz ill probably understand a lot of them!

NHK ni Youkoso 1

Please pardon the fansubs, but meh.

After reading so much about how the manga is fun/comedy at first and then turns into a completely serious story later on made me just decide to watch it mainly like a serious show. Either way the first episode had its humor, but it obviously had plenty of weird as well…but i guess i woudlnt know if jelly women really appeared when your high…my guess is no? Anyway, its interesting already and the first episode already has me wanting more.

Anyway, love the music, the art, the characters, and the story (albeit the little one that there is so far) up to this point. It was also interesting to see the title of the episode at the very END of the episode. Speaking of the end, the song sums up pretty well the main issue the show will eventually focus on…although the animation was a bit annoying to watch, so ill probably just skip it from now on, but meh.

Yay for Nobue Ito, or rather Misaki Nakahara, being a reason all in herself to watch the show. The episode basically showed a little insight into the character Satou and how he is a Hikikomori and a NEET. At the beginning (and pretty much throughout), he suspects a big conspiracy to be revolving around him and ends up believing its the work of the NHK (the Japanese Television Network or something close to that i dont remember) and goes about to change the H to Hikikomori. Anyway, Misaki and some scary old religious lady come to his house to give out crap like mormons. Satou ends up basically wanting Misaki to just think he had the day off, and so he finally steps out of his ’safe zone’ in the apartment to get a job at a local manga-cafe. It just so happens Misaki happens to work there - after useless babble and running away he does a typical anime move, drops his resume i believe, and doesnt notice. Misaki brings it back with a note on the back, and tells him that he’s the perfect person for her big plan.

Short…but do you really wanna read another entry the size of the previous one? I didnt think so. O: And yes, i realize i went into completely different topics from sentence to sentence, gimme a break!