Welcome to the NHK! ep.7

September 4, 2006 | 7 Comments

This is not a bad episode although it's not as funny or raunchi as the manga's version. Instead, the anime writers decided to come up with their own original fanservice. On the positive side, this episode includes an insert song performed by Makino Yui, 「ダークサイドについてきて」- Dark side ni tsuite kite. Speaking of song, I'm starting to get used to the ending theme now although I admit that this is mostly because of that Hikikomori Monkey. That creature would have been a perfect merchandising item. I want one that can dance around and make silly poses. I think someone should come up with a Tamagotchi version of that creature. One where you can encourage it to go out of the house so it won't stay as a Hiki. It can then make silly poses when you forget to feed it or dance around when it is happy.

The episode opens with Satou having an imaginary conversation with an angelic Misaki, claiming that his Hikikomori symptoms are pretty much gone. Angelic Misaki asks Satou if that means he's now capable of going to public place. When Satou confirms this, she pulls a rope which causes Satou to fall into a street. Satou convinces himself that he's not a Hikikomori any longer so he goes to a large building which seems to be an animation school. Once inside, Satou is greeted by the writing lecture and her classmates. The teacher and his classmates are also impressed with the thickness of his assignment until they read the content and call it the work of an amateur. They then laugh at him and reveal themselves as men in black working for Nihon Hikikomori Kyoukai (NHK). Satou, however, manages to escape by pressing an eject button which propels his chair up into the sky. He then runs into the desert, trying to avoid some tanks.

His attempt to escape, however, comes to a halt when a large sun-like figure falls on top of him. Satou then wakes up sweating inside his apartment. He then hears Yamazaki knocking on the door, asking permission to get in. He then enters the room bringing groceries for Satou. Satou apologises for asking Yamazaki to do this everyday because Satou has been bed-ridden due to sickness. Yamazaki makes a comment that he first thought that Satou's Hikikomori has gotten worse. Satou denies this, claiming that the other day he went to Yamazaki's school on his own. After Yamazaki left, however, Satou tells himself that he's a liar. The truth is, after he went to Yamazaki's school he has become an even more of a Hikikomori. He doesn't want to meet anyone, answer his cell phone, or do anything. Worst of all, Satou doesn't want to live anymore although he also believes that dying is also a hassle. Because of this, Satou wishes he could just disappear.

Satou thinks to himself that if Yamazaki hasn't been taking care of him, he doesn't know what to do. In order to do this, however, he has to deceive Yamazaki, telling his friend that he got summer flu. He, however, realises that it's only a matter of time before Yamazaki finds out the truth and wonders what he should do. All of a sudden, his appliances start talking to him again, urging him to fight his enemy, the Nihon Hikikomori Kyoukai. When Satou tells them that he doesn't have any weapon, the appliances attempt to tell him that he does have love and courage. All of a sudden, the appliances tell him that Satou's normal phone is ringing. They think it's unusual for Satou to receive a normal phone call. Satou decides to leave the answering machine to answer the call. But much to his surprise, the call comes from his mother, who lets him know that she's going to visit Tokyo soon. While she's in the city, she'd like to see her son and discuss his future.

Satou panics upon hearing this, assuming that her mother is coming to take drag him all the way back home. He immediately imagines himself as a dog who's been pounded and captured. In his confusion, he paces around his room and ends up inadvertently picking up his phone. Satou pretends that he's just return home so his mother decides to tell him that she has a school reunion this coming Saturday. Satou is shocked to hear this since this is only 3 days from now. However, she has a free time a day before it so she wants to see Satou. Satou panics because instead of 3 days, the appointed day becomes 2 days from now. She also thinks that Satou can't possibly be in Tokyo forever. Sooner or later he has to go back so he can get a job and get married. Satou immediately lies and tells his mother that he's already found a job as a writer for a small software company. He also tells her that there is a girl that he's thinking of proposing to.

Much to Satou's surprise, his mother praised him for finding a job and thinking of getting married. Satou immediately backtracks and tells his mother that marriage won't be for a while since his income is still low. His mother seems fine with this but she wants Satou to introduce her to his girlfriend. After her mother hang up the phone, Satou asks her mother not to trust him so easily. He, however, is shocked when the phone rings again but upon picking it up, he realises that the person on the other side is not his mother but Misaki. She's been worried since he hasn't been coming to the counselling or answering his mobile phone. When she threatens to fine him, Satou tells her that there is a good reason for it and that's because his mother is coming. Later on, Satou explains everything to Misaki, who's not impressed with Satou's lies. Satou, however, argues that he had no choice because his mother would have drag him back home otherwise.

Satou tells Misaki that he only has two days so Misaki gets an idea to pretend to be his girlfriend. Satou, however, has another idea and that is to ask Yamazaki. Misaki is horrified to hear this, thinking that Satou wants to ask Yamazaki to pretend to be his girlfriend. Before Misaki can stop him, Satou already runs back to his apartment. Satou then wakes Yamazaki up, telling him that they need to start a company. He remembers that a person can establish a company with a capital investment of a single yen these days. Yamazaki becomes excited about the idea upon hearing words such as "Our Brand". Because of this, they begin by deciding the name of the company. Satou thinks they should name the company "Sayama" where the "Sa" is from Satou and the "Yama" from Yamazaki. Yamazaki points out that the company sounds like it was created by someone called Sayama-san. Because of this Satou came up with the idea of using english name.

Unfortunately Satou's idea of the name is: "Wonderful, fantastic, dreamy, Gal Games company created by Yamazaki and Satou from M.H for the future". Yamazaki immediately rejects that name on the ground that he can't even remember it. They eventually decide to called the company YS company and change it later on when they become big. Because of this, the next step is creating the logo. Yamazaki presents his idea for a logo but Satou reminds him that logo is similar to the logo of a Japanese baseball team, Tokyo Yakult Swallows. Yamazaki manages to convince Satou to use it temporarily. The next step is to write a company song but because Satou can't sing, they decide to create a business card instead. Yamazaki presents himself as the President. Satou is a bit jealous and wants to become a co-owner but unfortunately he already told his mother that he's just an employee. Yamazaki tells Satou not to worry because he has a perfect position for him.

He then shows Satou a business card with Satou's name and his position title in the company: NEET. Yamazaki immediately receives a kick on his face from Satou. Satou then places one of Yamazaki's cardboard figure to act as a secretary. Yamazaki thinks that Satou has gone overboard so he asks his friend if he really is going to show his mother this room. He thinks Satou just need the basic idea of the company and doesn't have to bring her to his room. Satou agrees with this but Misaki then points out another problem: what will he do with the girlfriend he is planning to marry? Satou panics upon hearing this because he forgot about it. Misaki once again offers to become Satou's date but Satou ignores her and makes a phone call to Kashiwa-sempai instead. He thinks she will help him and hopes that their pretend act will become a real romance. Unfortunately for Satou, Kashiwa tells him that she already has a plan for that day.

Unknown to Satou, Kashiwa is now sitting inside a posh bedroom while someone is taking a shower in the bathroom nearby, suggesting that she's possibly in a relationship with someone else. Satou becomes depressed to lose his last hope and thinks that he may as well as Yamazaki to cross-dress. Satou, however, scrapped the idea right away and thankfully for him, Misaki then knocks on his door, telling him that she'll become his girlfriend for a day. Because of this, the next day Satou meets up with Misaki during daytime to have a 'trial' date. Inside the train, Misaki explains that this is necessary thing to do since Satou is a bad liar. If they don't do this at least once, she thinks his mother will know right away that he's been lying to her. Satou is afraid that he'll panic again if he goes to a place with many people but Misaki convinces him that he should be okay if they are together. The two then go shopping, having lunch, and watching a movie together.

While the two watch sunset, Satou realises that this is probably what it means to go on a date together. He remembers how Kashiwa-sempai once said that they should have dated each other back then. On their way home, Misaki asks him if they should hold hand together so they look like a real couple. Satou agrees with this so Misaki grabs Satou's arm and pressed it to her breast. Satou wonders if Misaki is seducing him and if this will turn into a real relationship. His imagination, however, is cut short when he hits a pole. That night Misaki tells him that next time will be the real thing so he should clean up his apartment or his mother will be shocked. Satou then asks Misaki to tell him her personal details. He thinks this won't work unless they know more about each other and right now, he only knows her name. Misaki assures Satou that she knows a lot about him and points out that Satou was born on January the 28th and his star is Sagitarius.

Satou's blood type is A and he was born in Hokkaido. His hobby is watching video and his final education was with the University of Heisei Bunka but he dropped out. Misaki even knows his parents' name: Tatsuo and Shizue. When Satou asks Misaki why she knows so much about him, Misaki tells him that he's the one who told her. Satou, however, wonders how Misaki knows about his phone number since he only told a few people. When Satou asks Misaki about her personal info, she tells him that her grandfather is a Frenchman called Georges Bruffel and her grandmother was a Japanese primadonna. The two met in Port Moresby and got married in Japan. They gave birth to her mother, who married her father, an elite businessman. However, due to inexplicable circumstances, she now lives with her relative. Misaki tells Satou that his homework tonight will be to remember these details. After she left, however, Satou realises that Misaki lied to him.

Impression:

I always wonder why Misaki wants to help Satou with his problem. I have the suspicion that she actually has a crush on him and this episode simply reinforces that idea. She looked rather disappointed when Satou kept ignoring her suggestion to pick her as his pretend date here. However, because she generally manages to supress her true emotion, it's hard to guess if she actually likes him or has something else in her mind. At the moment though, I'm going to say that she's just a girl who is infatuated with Satou but manages to hide her crush rather well by pretending that she has no interest in him. Having said that, I can't help but wonder where she gets all of the personal informations about Satou. It is possible that Satou has some of those info listed on the resume that he dropped at the manga cafe where Misaki was working. However, I doubt that he listed the name of his father and mother on his resume.

Of course it would not surprise me if Misaki turns out to be a stalker-kind of girl. She does seem a bit possessive of Satou at times. I found it amusing that she immediately assumed that Satou wants Yamazaki to pretend to be his girlfriend. It was even funnier when Satou entertains the idea and imagines Yamazaki dressing up as one of the galges' character. Anyway, the scene made me wonder what she'd do once she finds out Satou's obsession for Kashiwa-sempai. Speaking of Kashiwa-sempai, it looks like addiction to prescription drugs is not her only problem. Judging from the brief scene in this episode, I think she is either in a relationship with another man or has 'on-the-side' late night work. Last but not least, I think Satou went two step backwards in this episode. Not only he lied to Yamazaki about being sick, he also lied to his mother about finding a job and a girlfriend. It was kind of low of him to deceive someone who's been subsidising his life.

© memento 2003