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ADV's advertisements for this one are a little misleading. Those who go into Welcome to the NHK expecting it to be something wacky like Excel Saga or playfully funny like Full Metal Panic! Fumoffu? are in for quite a shock, as anime comedies don't come any darker than this. Sato's actions, behavior, and situations certainly do have some humor inherent in them, but at times laughing at Sato feels as dirty and distasteful as laughing at the “special needs” kid you knew in school, the one stuck with the mentality of a 3-year-old. Think about the first volume more as a sociological and psychological case study which generates the occasional laugh and its true value and appeal appears.

Based on a light novel of the same name, the NHK anime explores two sociological phenomena that, while not unique to Japan, seem to be more prevalent there than anyone else in the world: NEETs (i.e. individuals aged 15-34 who are Not in Employment, Education, or Training) and especially hikikomori. The latter in particular has recently been the subject of jokes in anime, but nowhere else will you find such an in-depth look at what it actually means to be a hikikomori and how pathetic an existence it actually is. The first few episodes hit all of the major points which typify the hikikomori lifestyle: sleeping 16 hours a day; reluctant to leave one's room; rarely associating with other people; devoting all waking time to some combination of Internet porn, hentai games, TV, manga, or anime; not bothering to maintain personal hygiene; and withdrawing from society in general. So self-absorbed and limiting is this lifestyle that it can hold a grip akin to drug addiction on a subject, and like with drug addicts, an outside intervention is often required to drag a person out of it. Misaki presents such an “out” for Sato, but like with any drug addict he has to admit he has a problem and dedicate himself to doing something about it before he can be helped, and like with addicts, that usually requires hitting rock-bottom first. That, in essence, is what we see in episodes 2 and 3.