Welcome to the NHK! ep.8-9

September 12, 2006 | 17 Comments

At a time like this, I wonder how this adaptation would have been if the drawing is a lot better. The interesting storylines in these episodes deserve a better design treatment than what they ended up getting. However, this show proves that a good storyline can sustain a mediocre character design while the reverse hardly ever works. It helps that all supporting characters in the series are fleshed out rather well, instead of existing simply to support Satou and his story. This also shows that although Satou thinks that he has a big problem in his life, nearly everyone in his vicinity also has his or her own problem to deal with. If I remember correctly, this is the part where the storyline in starts to show that Satou's and other character's problems are just a minor part of a larger problem in society.

Episode 8

The episode begins with Satou's mother arriving at Haneda Airport, realising that her son is not there to pick her up. Because of this, she has no choice but to come to Satou's house herself. Meanwhile, Satou is busy trying to clean up his apartment without much success. He realises that he can't show his room to his mother and gets an idea to show Yamazaki's room instead. He, however, quickly scraps the idea when he realises that his mother will assume that he's a perverted otaku. Misaki then appears and much to Satou's surprise, volunteers herself to help him cleaning up the room. Unfortunately for him, Misaki stumbles upon his porn collections. An embarassed Satou made an excuse that those are just research materials. While the two are in the middle of cleaning up their room, someone else presses the bell. Satou immediately assumes that his mother has arrived so he tells Misaki to throw all of the rubbish into his apartment's loft.

While doing this, Misaki notices that a piece of fax is stuck in between the rubbish bags on the loft. She decides to pull it down when she realises that it comes from Satou's mother. As a result, however, she ends up pulling all of the rubbish bags that herself and Satou has thrown into the loft back down. She and Satou then fall on top of one another. At the same time, it is revealed that Yamazaki was the one who's been pressing the bell. He wants to give Satou the new version of the business card and since Satou doesn't answer the door bell, he decides to get in right away. He immediately apologises when he sees Satou and Misaki in a compromising position and proceeds to leave the two alone. After Yamazaki left, Misaki apologises for causing a bigger mess. She also points out that Satou's mother asks him to pick her up at the airport. Satou decides it's too late for that and prefers to use the remaining time left to hide his porn collection downstairs.

Unfortunately for Satou, he meets his mother on his way downstairs and drops his porn magazines in front of her. Satou immediately runs back to his room and ask Misaki to clean up the room as much as she can while he stalls his mother outside. Much to Satou's surprise, his mother doesn't even want to come inside and instead asks him to take her to a restaurant because she's hungry. Because of this, Satou returns to his clean room and tells Misaki to come with him. He then introduces Misaki as his girlfriend. Satou's mother, Shizue, looks stunned at first, but she quickly congratulates Satou for getting a good girl like Misaki. Inside the train, Shizue and Misaki try to decide which Chinese restaurant they should visit while Satou reminds himself that he has a business card from Yamazaki. Apparently the phone number on the card is linked to Yamazaki's room so if his mother rings the number, Yamazaki will answer the call.

Later on, once the three sit inside a restaurant, Shizue tells them how happy she is to know that a cute girl like Misaki will become her daughter. Satou wonders what his mother meant by this sentence so Shizue points out that surely the two of them are dating with marriage in mind. Unless, of course, their relationship is a sham. Satou and Misaki deny that the whole thing is a lie. In fact, they could get married tomorrow if they want to. Upon hearing this, Shizue asks Misaki what kind of qualities attracts her to Satou. Because of this, Misaki tells her that Satou is handsome, good with computers, etc. Satou is not comfortable by this and decides to leave the table and go to the restroom. Inside, Satou makes a phone call to Yamazaki. Satou asks Yamazaki to be ready since his mother will probably call anytime soon. Back in the dining room, Shizue tells Misaki that she notices that Misaki didn't call Satou by his first name, Tatsuhiro, and instead uses 'Satou-kun'.

Shizue knows that everything is a sham because Satou's irritated attitude makes it obvious. Apparently Satou always looks like this when he feels guilty. Upon hearing this, Misaki points out how lucky Satou is to have a mother like Shizue while hers is....At the same time, Satou regrets his decision to deceive his mother. He remembers how as a kid, he used to cause a lot of mischief and ended up getting scolded by his mother. Because of this, he always tried to blame others and found an excuse for himself. Due to his lies, his mother at one point told a person that her son is not guilty. Later on, however, Satou admitted his mistake. Even then, his mother simply smiled and gently told him that they were going to apologise to the person together. Because of this, Satou wants to tell his mother the truth but before he can do this, Shizue already asks Misaki to take care of his son and tells the two that they may as well go on a date since they're already here.

As Satou and Misaki walk together, Misaki tells Satou that her mother is wonderful but Satou thinks she's just normal. Misaki thinks if that's the case then it means she's not good since she can't even be average. Misaki then trips on the stairs and falls into Satou's arms. Satou is embarassed about this and thinks they shouldn't be doing indecent things like this in public. Misaki, however, reveals that they are standing on a date spot so it's okay for a couple to display public affection here. Misaki then asks him if he wants to kiss her. Satou realises that Misaki is wearing a lipstick and wonders if she did it for him. Before the two can kiss, however, Satou's mobile rings and ruins the mood. The caller is Yamazaki, who is not happy because he's been waiting for 2 hours. Satou apologises and gives Yamazaki some steam buns in exchange for wasting his friend's entire day. While this happens, Misaki lies on her bed starring a a weird-looking stuffed animal.

Episode 9

Yamazaki asks Nanako if she wants to come with him to see the fireworks tomorrow. Nanako, however, refuses him, claiming that she has an audition for a role called Suzuran, the magical ninja girl. After Nanako left, Yamazaki remembers that as a kid, he also rejected by another girl. Meanwhile, Satou can't concentrate on his counselling session because he remembers what was about to happen between him and Misaki the night before. Halfway through the lesson, Satou points out that Misaki already told him this a few days ago. Misaki is embarassed about his so she decides to end the counselling, claiming that Satou's heart doesn't seem to be in it. When Misaki is about to pack her bag, however, her face almost bumps into Satou's. The two immediately blush but before anything else can happen, Misaki already left the area. Later on, Satou tries to tell himself that Misaki is not good for him. After all, he doesn't know her background or motivation.

He thinks that she could be an agent of NHK and starts imagining Misaki looking cunning while trying to seduce him. Satou's imagination, unfortunately, comes to an abrupt end when he hears Yamazaki knocking on his door. Upon seeing Yamazaki, Satou immediately guesses that his friend is drunk. Yamazaki, however, ignores Satou and instead tells his friend that since it's summer outside, they should go to the sea. Satou starts to imagine the beach and Misaki wearing swimwear. Satou is frustrated to see Misaki popping out of nowhere inside his imagination because of this he tells Yamazaki that he can't go to the ocean because doesn't have swimwear. Unfortunately for Satou the 'ocean' that Yamazaki had in mind is not a real ocean but rather Natsucomi, a summer comic market located not far from the sea. Satou realises that Yamazaki actually wants to go to comiket, a summer/winter event that people visit to buy/sell doujinshis.

Yamazaki explains that some of his classmates rented a booth for the event but they think it's going to be empty since they are only going to show one game. A flashback then reveals that in a drunken state, Yamazaki asked her classmates if they think customers will stop by a booth which only has one lousy game. He told them that a lame scenario with mini games are not what he would call a game. This, of course, upset some of his classmates and they even wondered who invited Yamazaki to begin with. As it turned out, everyone was invited since it's the last drinking gathering for the semester. Having said that, no one expected him to come since he never came before. Oblivious to their whispers, Yamazaki continued to babble on about the importance of story because if it's not interesting, then no one will want to play the game. This annoyed some of his friends so they asked Yamazaki if he's capable of making an interesting game.

Yamazaki boasted that he's in the middle of making one with a friend who used to be a President of the Literature club. He believes that this will guarantee that the scenario will be impeccable. Yamazaki even offered to display the game at his classmates' booth. Satou is horrified after hearing the story because that means they don't even have a month to finish the game. In retaliation, Yamazaki points out that without a deadline, Satou simply procrastinate and does nothing. Yamazaki also points out that Satou was the one who wanted to become a creator. Satou eventually relents and agree to work on the game right away. Yamazaki tells Satou that he can use the laptop so that they can supervise each other while working. The next day, both Satou and Yamazaki are working hard in the middle of a hot day. Yamazaki tells Satou that he's completed the design for the heroine and asks Satou to look at it. Satou is impressed upon seeing the character, Rei.

He starts typing a scenario where Rei's secret is exposed inside the classroom that the protagonist attends. In Satou's imagination, however, Rei turns into Misaki. Satou screams in terror, confusing Yamazaki in the process. Satou, however, refuses to tell Yamazaki the reason why he screamed out loud to begin with. Satou then tries to write another scenario involving a trip to the sea. This time, Rei trips over and loses her bra in the process. Satou is embarassed to see this but Rei tells him it's okay if it's Satou. Rei then exposes her naked body to Satou but when Satou takes a closer look at her, she turns into Misaki again. Satou tries to write another scenario involving Rei in an unknown land but after Satou saves her from a tentacle-like plant, she once again turns into Misaki. When Satou starts banging his head, Yamazaki correctly guesses that Satou is troubled by real love. He thinks Satou is in love with Misaki.

Yamazaki thinks that Satou is a fool for falling in love with a human. He thinks the concept of 'moe' does not exist in humans. He also points out that at one point, Japan did not have the concept of romance, only miai (arranged marriage) and yobai (a time when a male sneak into a female's bedroom). Yamazaki believes that 'romance' is simply a trap introduces by foreigners to expand capitalism. Instead of being trapped, Yamazaki believes that they should exploid the idea of 'romance'. In retaliation, Satou points out that Yamazaki was infatuated with Nanako. He also believes that the heroine that Yamazaki designed was based on Nanako. Because of this, Yamazaki admits that he was about to make the same mistake again. He explains how when he was in elementary school, he got beaten up by some school kids but got defended by a girl. Yamazaki grew to like the girl but unfortunately, he was going to transfer out of the school.

Yamazaki decided to ask her to watch fireworks with him as a final farewell. The girl, however, refused, claiming that she has to visit her hospitalised grandfather. When Yamazaki visited the fireworks on his own, however, he saw the girl together with the boy who beat him up back back then. Ever since that incident, Yamazaki can't trust girls any longer. He believes that Nanako lied to him when she told him that she has an audition tonight. Yamazaki also convinces Satou that Misaki is looking down at him behind his back. Yamazaki's anger, however, disappears when Nanako calls him, saying that her audition was postponed at the last minute so now she has time to see fireworks with him. Upon hearing this, Yamazaki immediately leave from his room, ignoring Satou. Thankfully for Satou, Misaki then arrives in her Yukata, asking him if he wants to watch fireworks with her tonight. The episode ends with Satou realising that he will be okay even if this is a trap.

Impression:

The scenes where Satou got caught red handed by Misaki and later on, his mother, for possessing porn magazines were quite embarassing. Even though I'm not the character, I can imagine quite easily the kind of embarassment that Satou probably went through. The worst part of it is that both Misaki and his mother were not that surprised by the revelation. Anyway, I also got the impression that Satou's mother already know that the whole thing is a sham from the time when Satou introduced Misaki to his mother. For a 'couple', Satou and Misaki did not show the kind of closeness that couple normally have. But then again, Satou is such a bad liar, getting irritated easily when his mother asked simple questions about him and Misaki. In addition to this, two people who are in love usually like answering questions about their relationship. However, neither Satou nor Misaki looked enthusiastic or interested when Satou's mother asked them.

Episode 8 also reveals a little bit of information about Misaki. She seems to have a bad relationship with her mother. This explains why she likes Satou's mother a lot. After all, Shizue seems to care about her son. This probably also explains why Misaki lives with her aunt instead of with her parents at the moment. In other note, it's interesting to see Misaki blushing in this episode. I still think she already has a crush on Satou right from the start. For someone who is pretending, she seems quite eager to act like a couple with Satou and shares a kiss with him towards the end of the episode. In addition to this, she dressed up quite nicely just to help Satou with his mother. I think the most telling sign of her attraction towards Satou was at the end of the episode, where she was seen trying to re-enact her kissing scene with Satou to a stuffed animal. That is one strange stuffed animal by the way. I am actually curious if the thing has a particular name or something like that.

In comparison to episode 8, I feel episode 9 is a lot more interesting mostly because the topic of the story starts to shift from examining Satou and Yamazaki as troubled individuals to examining society as a whole. First thing first, however, Satou's imagination involving Misaki has been changed a little bit from the manga. It's quite strange to see this because in the manga, he's frustrated because he keep seeing her in some naughty scenarios. He feels that it's not right for him to imagine an innocent girl like her in this kind of scenarios. However, in this version, he actually suspects Misaki as being an NHK agent, so the fact that he's attracted to her simply scares him. He thinks that she's a trap sent by the organisation to play with his life. This is one of the few times when I feel that Yamazaki is not a good influence on Satou's life. Back in episode 8, he was shown as a good friend, one who was willing to give his whole day to help Satou.

On the other hand, this episode shows how Yamazaki can be a bad influence for Satou. He seems quite capable of transferring his hatred for girls in general to Satou. I think this is one of the few moments where Yamazaki was at his lowest. Having said that, it's hard not to feel sorry for him as well. The person that we are now is partly shaped by our experience with the society. Some people have an easy life being in the society while others have a difficult life. Those who are strong enough, persevere and remain kind regardless of how others treat them. Most people, however, are not superhuman. They don't have the patience or kindness that last long despite the harsh reality of life. It's not unusual for an individual to become bitter and cynical as they grow up because their exposure to society at large has not been pleasant. I couldn't even begin to imagine what it must be like to see the girl that you like going out with a boy who beat you up.

On top of this, the girl was lying to Yamazaki about being unable to go in the first place. Admittedly, the girl probably lied to spare Yamazaki's feeling and didn't expect Yamazaki to go to the fireworks as well. The situation, however, was more than enough to ruin whatever perception Yamazaki had about girls in general. On the other hand, Yamazaki also failed to understand is that there are a few individuals out there that are worth finding. For example, if Yamazaki had rejected an offer of friendship from everyone because he has had a bad experience with people in the past, then he would never become friends with Satou. However, I think being friends with Satou had been a good experience for Yamazaki. In order to find the people that a person like, that person must socialise and willing to accept a few unpleasant experiences in between. The same thing can be said about significant others. Nanako was a proof that not all girls lie when they said that they can't go.

© memento 2003