Welcome to the NHK! ep.10-11

September 23, 2006 | 10 Comments

I can't believe that it took me one and a half day just to complete this post. Everytime I tried to finish it off, there's always something to distract me. Anyway, this seems to be a good halfway point for the story. I am surprised to see Satou actually achieving something here. I thought the entire galge production will come to a halt due to one thing or another. I'm glad that doesn't seem to be the case. Having said that, I think he suffers from a major setback in episode 10 since I highly doubt Misaki is really what Satou imagines her to be. This makes me wonder how Satou's progress would look like if it's represented in a chart. Will it actually look as if he's on a downward spiral with a little 'ups' in between, or will it actually look like he's moving upwards with a few sharp 'downs' from time to time? In addition to this, who do you think should be with Satou? Misaki or Kashiwa? I personally think Satou is better off with Misaki.

Episode 10: Welcome to the Darkside

The episode opens with Yamazaki telling Satou that he feels they need to go out with women more often. Having said that, he doesn't want Satou to misunderstand him so he asks Satou not to read deeply into this. Yamazaki believes that a creator can benefit from different kinds of experience. Although Satou doesn't give any response, inside his mind, he tells himself that this is different from what Yamazaki said the other day. Yamazaki, however, is oblivious to this and tells Satou that if one were to portray a dating scene, it's impossible if the person him/herself has never been on a date with anyone. Satou suddenly realises that he and Misaki were in some kind of a date the day before and regrets the fact that he didn't buy her anything. He especially regrets it when he imagines the two of them sharing a kiss as they try to eat a cotton candy together. On hindsight, however, Satou realises that he knows nothing about Misaki and her family/friends.

Halfway through the day, Yamazaki wants to take a look at the scenario that Satou wrote. Satou is surprised about this so Yamazaki explains that he has a date with girl and they are going to see a film. When Yamazaki reads Satou's scenario, however, he realises that Satou calls the character 'Misaki' instead of 'Rei'. Satou is embarrassed about this and wants to smash the laptop. Yamazaki manages to stop him and orders Satou to just change the name from 'Misaki' to 'Rei'. After Yamazaki left, Satou returns to his room to fix the script but ends up thinking about Misaki again. He even decides to come earlier to their counselling session. Much to his surprise, Misaki is already in the park, giving a stray cat canned food. When he tells Misaki that she's unusually early, she points out that the same thing can be said about him. Satou blushes and claims that he's just out for a walk. Misaki thinks Satou lies since a Hikikomori usually doesn't go out for a walk.

Misaki, however, immediately changes the topic, saying that being a cat must be nice because they always look okay anytime, anywhere and even when they are alone. Satou points out that cat is usually unfaithful and tends to leave a person even if after the person gives it a food. In reply, Misaki tells Satou that she believes the cat will remember her as long as she gives it what it wants. During counselling time, Satou is unable to concentrate and ends up spending his time staring at Misaki. When she asks him if he was listening to what she said, Satou asks her to repeat everything. Misaki tells him that she'll be late to go home if she repeats everything and wonders if he'd mind if she just repeats half of it. Satou quickly tells her that he was just joking around, claiming that he actually listened to what she said. Misaki is annoyed to hear this and promises to fine him if he does this again. Satou simply smiles and grabs a cigarette.

When he looks at Misaki, however, he puts the cigarette down, cancelling his intention to smoke. At home, Satou thinks about how he never gives a thought about his future before but he wants to have one with Misaki. However, when he imagines them getting married, he realises that he knows nothing about Misaki's friends and parents. He remembers her saying that her grandma was a primadonna who married a Frenchman but he thinks that sounds like a lie. Even now he still doesn't know her intention in helping him. Satou's thought, however, is interrupted when Yamazaki knocks on his door. Satou opens the door and realises that his friend is drunk, saying that there is night or day for a creator and that they can't rest until Natsucomi. When Satou asks Yamazaki if something happened, Yamazaki tells his friend that his past theory has just been proven: women lies and looks down on men behind their back.

As Satou brings Yamazaki back into his room, Yamazaki explains that there was a guy at the place where he supposed to meet his girlfriend. The girl explained that it was just a coincidence but Yamazaki refused to believe her. Before Satou leave Yamazaki's room, Yamazaki warns Satou not to lower his guard against women since they undoubtedly have other intentions. Later on inside his room, Satou admits that Misaki does have a lot of secrets and knows a lot about his background. When Satou wonders about Misaki's true intention, her visage suddenly appears in the room, asking Satou if he knows her true intention, asking him if he thinks that she's plotting something. She then offers to give Satou explanation as to why she's been nice to him and that's because she wants Satou....to remain as a Hikikomori forever. Suddenly the Hikikomori monkeys appear and all of Satou's exits are closed down, causing him to wonder if this is a trap.

Misaki gives out an eerie laugh and then jumps onto a platform, revealing herself as a secret agent of the NHK (Nihon Hikikomori Kyoukai). All of a sudden, her arms fell off and are replaced with a bunch of sharp weapons, turning her into some kind of a freak. Misaki admits that her job is to entice guys with Moe and to take them to the realm of Hikikomori. She thinks Satou won't be able to escape anymore now because he likes her. Satou denies this, asking Misaki who could possibly like her. The next morning, Satou wakes up looking disturbed. When he visits Yamazaki, the other guy asks him if he said anything last night but Satou doesn't say anything. He asks Satou to wait for a while then they can resume their work. Satou, however, asks Yamazaki if he wants to take a walk with him instead of working. Yamazaki is surprised to hear this since it's rare that Satou would want to go out on his own initiative but nevertheless, he agrees to go with Satou.

Satou takes Yamazaki to the manga cafe where Misaki works. After confirming her presence, Satou and Yamazaki observe her from the building across the road. Eventually Misaki comes out of her workplace so the two decide to follow her around. Yamazaki seems reluctant to do this so Satou points out that Misaki knows about his mother and feels that it's unfair that he knows nothing about her. The two eventually find out that Misaki lives inside a big mansion up on a hill. Much to his surprise, the area overlooks the park and as Yamazaki points out, there is a clear shot of their apartment from this area. This makes Satou wonders if Misaki has been observing him all of these times. Their conversation, however, is interrupted when Misaki comes out of the mansion with her aunt. Satou and Yamazaki decide to follow the two and see them entering a building, which Yamazaki thinks belongs to the group that produces the solicitation brochures.

Misaki eventually comes out of the building and follows her aunt and a group of other people. Satou, however, is not in the mood to follow her anymore so he decides to go back home. However, when he sees the brochure that Misaki's aunt once gave him, Satou starts to imagine the appliances in his house warning him about Misaki. They convince him that Misaki will betray him so that he will never be able to trust other women and people ever again. Once that happens, he will never be able to walk outside again. The appliances then tell Satou that he will be better off not seeing Misaki again so that he won't be hurt by her. That night, Satou comes late to his counselling session and finds her waiting at the park for him. Instead of apologising, however, Satou tells her that he's quitting counselling. Misaki wonders if he's busy writing game scenario but Satou tells Misaki that he doesn't want to see her face again before running away from the park.

Episode 11: Welcome to the Conspiracy

In the aftermath of Satou's refusal to continue counselling, Misaki wonders where things went wrong with her plan. Meanwhile inside Yamazaki's room, Satou can't seem to concentrate on his scenario writing job. An annoyed Yamazaki asks Satou to hand in the scenario, prompting Satou to ask if he's going on a date again. Yamazaki angrily tells Satou that he just wants to put the scenario into the game. Satou weakly protests, saying that the scenario is not ready. Yamazaki realises that they are not going to have the game ready by Natsucomi so they should just make a trial version of the game instead. He explains that he never promised to bring in a full game and even if his classmates asks for it, he'll blame it on Satou's tardiness. He believes that Satou hasn't been able to concentrate because he's distracted by Misaki. Nevertheless, he gives Satou a can of beer, telling Satou that Satou's decision to give Misaki the boot was a right one.

Meanwhile Kashiwa is with her boyfriend inside a restaurant. When she asks the guy if he's busy, he tells her that everything should be okay by the end of the week. He also assures her that he won't cancel their trip since it's an important promise that he made to her. Upon hearing this, Kashiwa asks him which one is more important: the promise or her? Although the guy tells Kashiwa that it's both of them, Kashiwa doesn't seem to be happy. After dinner, the guy apologises for not taking Kashiwa back to her room but he has to go back to the office. Later on while taking a shower, Kashiwa takes out an unknown pill out of a box and swallows it. She then surfs the net, reading a site belonging to a group that wants participants for their 'offline meeting'. Kashiwa logs in to their site and writes a fake story about her life under the name 'Hana-hana'. In her story, Kashiwa apparently had a fight with her lover inside a Yakitori stall.

Kashiwa claims that her lover, whom she imagines as Satou, beat her up. She's basically fed up with it and wonders if she should join the meeting. After typing the email, Kashiwa wonders why she always imagines Satou everytime she thinks about a person who is a failure. Cut to a scene of Satou waking up from his sleep, wondering if Yamazaki called him. Yamazaki denies this and tells Satou not to disturb him. Satou himself has a job of cutting up the CD cover for the game. However, after seeing the amount of work that he has to do, he wonders if they are going to be able to sell all of them. The next day, Kashiwa is called by her manager, who demands explanation for her proposal. Kashiwa explains that she wrote it because during last meeting, everyone were encouraged to write suggestions about service for the residents. The manager thinks she didn't have to go this far because the kind of service she proposed will require a lot of staff and money.

He argues that the proposal Kashiwa puts forth will have an effect on the existing service. Kashiwa tries to explain that she mentions about it in her proposal but her manager refuses to listen. He suggests that instead of wasting her time writing the proposal, she could have re-checked electoral register. Kashiwa points out that she already re-checked it last week but the manager is not happy and asks her to triple-check it. The other office girls are happy to see Kashiwa reprimanded by their manager. They think Kashiwa deserves it for thinking she can do anything just because she's pretty. One employee pretends to defend Kashiwa but as it turns out, he just want to take her out to dinner. Kashiwa ignores him because she suddenly receives text message from her boyfriend, saying that he can't make it to their trip. When Kashiwa calls him up, he explains that there is an unexpected problem which prevents him from leaving Tokyo until it is resolved.

Kashiwa reminds her boyfriend that it's an important promise. The boyfriend apologises for it and asks Kashiwa to enjoy it since it's an important summer vacation for her. Kashiwa tells her boyfriend that there's no use if she goes by herself and informs him that she'll cancel the hotel reservation. The boyfriend tells Kashiwa that he promises to make it up for her but Kashiwa shrugs it off and wishes her boyfriend, whose name is Jougasaki, 'good luck'. Once the conversation ended, Kashiwa turns to her box of pills to relieve herself from the disappointment. When she hears the Hikikomori monkey laughing, Kashiwa concludes that conspiracy really does exists. At the same time, Yamazaki snaps at Satou because he's slower at burning the CD than he does. In retaliation, reminds Yamazaki that his machine burns the CD faster than the laptop. Back to Kashiwa, she's now back at home, printing a note about a meeting at an 'Island close to heaven'.

Back to Satou and Yamazaki, they successfully packed all the CDs into a box. Yamazaki tells Satou not to oversleep tomorrow morning because even though they'll go as a club, he'd like to be there by 8AM. He then gives Satou an advance preview of the game that they've been developing. Later on inside his room, Satou looks at the CD in doubt, wondering if he can really become a creator from making a game like this. Satou eventually falls asleep, dreaming of being congratulated by Kashiwa. He, however, wonders why Kashiwa wears a lot of clothes in the middle of hot summer day. Kashiwa tells him that they must be careful because it's a conspiracy of a global proportion. She then rambles on about how by facilitating rapid global warming, the amount of carbon dioxide will increase, bringing about the sudden arrival of the ice age. She then asks him if he can hear the footsteps of winter. Satou suddenly wakes up because he hears his cellphone ringing.

At first Satou wonders who could possibly ring him at such late hour and immediately suspects it's Misaki. When he picks up the phone, however, he realises that the call comes from Kashiwa. Because Satou is in shock, however, he doesn't answer the phone and it ceases to ring. Satou blames himself for not answering the phone but thankfully Kashiwa calls him again. Upon picking up the phone, Satou hears Kashiwa sounding happy and asks him to join her drinking. She asks Satou for his address and tells him that she'll be there soon. Satou is shocked to hear this and proceeds to clean up his room. Kashiwa then arrives in a car, making Satou wonders how she's going to go back. Upon seeing Satou's room, Kashiwa tells him that his room is unexpectedly clean for a Hikikomori. She also tells Satou that she knew he will accompany her just like in high school. Satou, however, thinks that it's strange that Kashiwa is suddenly cheerful.

He believes he never saw Kashiwa looking this happy until he realises that he once saw her behaving like this after high school festival. Back then she found Satou standing on the rooftop of the school and invited him for a drink as well. She told him about how this will be her last school festival and the next day she has to prepare for entrance exam. Having said that, she assured Satou that she'll show up occasionally at the club room since she feels sorry if Satou has to play card by himself. When Satou saw Kashiwa's boyfriend with another girl, Kashiwa explains that she broke up with him. She wondered if Satou is happy but Satou pretended that he didn't care one way or another. Back then, Kashiwa tried to be positive by saying that breaking up with her boyfriend will allow her to study for entrance exam. Eventually Kashiwa couldn't stop her sadness and cried in front of Satou. Satou thinks that back then he should have done something but he didn't.

Satou believes that this is probably a chance for him to do something and stop his life as a Hikikomori. Kashiwa then tells Satou that for a long time, she strangely feels compelled to tell her miserable life to Satou. Satou immediately imagines himself comforting Kashiwa and escaping his Hikikomori lifestyle but his dream falls apart when Kashiwa ends up sleeping against the wall. Inside her dream, Kashiwa imagines herself telling Satou inside their club room that she has come to say goodbye to Satou. She then hands in Satou the 'offline meeting' paper she printed out. She tells Satou that in order to escape the clutch of conspiracy, this is the only solution. In the real world, Satou asks Kashiwa what he's supposed to do but becomes excited again when Satou remembers that Kashiwa mentioned something about summer vacation, thinking he still has a chance. That night, Satou writes a letter to Yamazaki and leaves it in his pigeon hole.

The next morning, Satou tells Kashiwa that he'll follow her either to heaven or hell. Kashiwa thinks that Satou has seen the paper in her bag and wonders if it's okay for him. Satou assures her it'll be okay since he's only a Hikikomori. Satou tells Kashiwa that this will be a good chance for him to get rid of his cursed life. In addition to this, he believes that when he's with Kashiwa, he's not afraid of anything. Kashiwa cries upon hearing this and thanks Satou. At the same time, Misaki is seen waking up inside her room. When she walks out of her house, she notices Satou walking with Kashiwa towards a car. Misaki tries to call Satou but he obviously can't hear her because she's way up in the hill. Because of this, she tries to chase the car but she falls down before she can reach it. Inside the car, Satou thinks that his Hikikomori life is over and he'll start a new life with Kashiwa. Kashiwa, however, asks Satou if he won't regret this decision.

Impression:

It's interesting how Satou uses his fear of being Hikikomori to reject an interaction with a girl. In general, he's not that different from Yamazaki. He just uses excuses to ensure that he's not getting hurt by Misaki. I suspect that he's afraid of being rejected by her and therefore before she rejects him, he decides to reject her first. It's the same with Yamazaki, who automatically assumes that his date was cheating on him because she was seen with another guy. I can't really blame either of them of feeling like this though. I get the impression that they are relatively inexperienced when it comes down to interaction with other people. Because of this, they simply take their first experience as a guide for their future experience. Unfortunately their first experience in social interaction have been rather bad, judging from the little brief of flashbacks we got to see. As a result, they immediately assume they'll get similar experience in the future.

That reminds me how I didn't have a good social experience either when I was young. I had a miserable time during Kindergarten and Primary School and I can't remember having a good time either during Junior High. It was not until I was in my 2nd year high school that I actually started to enjoy any form of social interaction. University was definitely a good time for me even with its ups and downs. It's probably because at a University, people tend to meet others who share similar interest with them as opposed to being grouped with a bunch of people they can't relate. Having said that, I often wonder how things would turn out if I didn't meet the friends that I met in high school. Because being able to interact with them made me realise that although there are jerks out there, there are also some good people. It also helped me a lot to be a bit more brave at giving social interaction a try even if it may not turn out the way I want it to turn out.

Unfortunately, as episode 11 shows, people can often be unpleasant to deal with. What Kashiwa has to put up with at her workplace is probably what some people can identify in their daily life. It never ceases to amaze me when someone in a upper position like a manager assumes that he/she always knows what's right just because their position is higher than everyone else's. They refuse to listen to advice from others and often tell others that it's their way or the highway. And then there are those who like to badmouth another person just because they hate the person. Unfortunately, whether a person likes it or not, sooner or later he/she will meet these kind of people once they enter the workforce. The person will also have to remain professional about it because he/she have to work together with these people. Having said that, it is hard to remain working at the place when you don't even like the people that you work with and you have to see them everyday.

Moving on to other part of the story, it's obvious that 'offline meeting' that Kashiwa has in mind is actually a suicide club. I think Kashiwa has already had enough of the problems in her life and decides to end it all. That's why she wants to say goodbye to Satou. Satou, on the other hand, thinks that he can help Kashiwa getting through her bad times. I believe he doesn't know that Kashiwa is about to commit suicide and he just offers himself to do the same thing with her. Episode 11 also suggests that Misaki really does have a crush on Satou. The expression on her face when she sees Satou walking with Kashiwa clearly shows that she's worried about the presence of Kashiwa in Satou's life. Last but not least, I'm surprised to know that Yamazaki and Satou managed to complete the trial version of their game. I really have to hand it in to Yamazaki for being able to motivate Satou even if he had to drag Satou kicking and screaming while doing it.

© memento 2003