Welcome to the N-H-K
overview
Sato's life – or what's left of it – is a paranoid mess of conspiracy theories and social anxieties. He's terrified of the outside world; his apartment is overflowing with the remnants of cheap take-out food; and his retinas have been permanently scarred by a steady diet of internet porn. But maybe it's not all his fault. After all, the nefarious N.H.K. is out there, and they’re determined to turn society's fringe-dwellers into a brainwashed lot of jobless, hopeless, futureless recluses. Enter Misaki – a mysterious girl-next-door type who is Sato's last chance to beat-down his inner demons and venture out into the light of day. She's ready to help him overcome his crippling phobias, but Sato would rather cower in his existential foxhole and pretend to work on the demo for his virtual sex game. He’s afraid to face the world. She's strangely desperate to fix a total stranger. Maybe together they can be normal.
reviews
kinda unsure how to feel about this. dealt with cool topics and themes, just had weird attitude towards that really brings you out of the experience, and its decently often too. at the start its just a lot of objectification of women which is gross, but unfortunately pretty standard, plus it remains relatively tangential to the primary plot. as the show progresses though, the things that bring you out become more central: vulgar life affirmation, life purpose living for someone else, amatonormativity, ideological spin on wage labor. i want to feel highly about the show but i don't feel like i can :c