Welcome to the NHK: 02

A definite improvement on the first volume. Dispenses with some of the wacky inanities and gets more into character.

How many times I watch read or think about this story, it at the same time hurts me but also give me with hope that things will get good, just hold on to life.

I've heard good things about this series, so when I had a chance to pick up volumes 2-4 for dirt cheap, I went for it. I haven't read volume 1, but found this to be an engaging series nevertheless.

Satou is a hikikomori, basically a slacker with poor social skils and no job who rarely leaves his apartment, preferring to spend time online playing games. Misaki is a girl who's trying to get him out of his shell and more engaged with the world. I'm not sure why, actually, but that was probably covered in volume 1. There definitely seems to be some potential for romance, but not for many volumes as both are pretty clueless. As this volume opens, Satou and his friend, Yamazaki, are trying to write an erotic computer game--neither seems to have much experience with real women, but that's traditionally never stopped anyone from writing such games. Misaki shows up to play the role of girlfriend on a lunch date with Satou's mother (he's sort of given her the impression that he has a job and a girlfriend.) It's a pretty familiar sitcom plot, but it plays well. Hijinks ensue, and volume 2 is off and running.

This is definitely a fun series. It reminds me a bit of Genshiken in some ways. Satou would definitely fit in with Madarame and the rest of the Genshiken crowd. I like the characters and the themes, and will definitely try and track down a copy of volume 1. Good stuff!

Three and a half stars.

This volume contains the most memorable arc from the anime: the one in which the protagonist, Satou, travels with his high school senpai Hitomi to a private island for what he believes to be a short vacation, and the story becomes a brilliant black comedy. But the anime diverted significantly from the source material in a way that changed the tone of the story.

The scumbaggery of all the characters is turned up to eleven. Satou's pal Yamazaki pressures him to write the script for a scene of the erotic videogame they are making, which apparently involves, of all things, raping an underage girl. I'm in awe that this was even published. Satou's mind resists heroically; his "therapist", Misaki, has become his muse, and he can't bear to imagine that scene. However, scumbag Yamazaki reminds him that women are worthless. When he was a child the girl he fell in love with lied to him in order to date someone else, and he'll hold on to that bitterness forever. He coaches Satou until he can write the draft of that rape scene, but before he finishes it, Yamazaki receives a call: the girl he currently has a crush on actually wants to go out with him that night, so he forgets about women's worthlessness for a while. He's pretty much the archetypal "nice guy": he'll be all smiley with the girl he wants to fuck, but if she rejects him, he'll believe that the girl owed him a relationship, and he'll make her regret it by indulging in rape fantasies.

Meanwhile, Satou's senpai is having a hard time. Her older boyfriend, a company executive, doesn't have enough time for her. The girl's schizotypal nature makes her unable to fit in anywhere, and overdosing on anxiolytics and narcotics isn't cutting it anymore. She visits Satou in the middle of the night and they spend it drinking. The next day, Satou, wanting to put a smile on her face, offers her to take a trip somewhere. The girl is overjoyed; she believes he's read the printout she was carrying about an offline meeting she was going to attend, and now she'll get to go with her old friend.

From here on out come the biggest changes from the anime. In there, the company executive is a fleshed out character. Once he realizes that his girlfriend has gone to a private island to kill herself, he meets with Misaki and Yamazaki and together they travel to the island to save them. After some black comedy moments in which the ones who intended to kill themselves change their minds, and the one who didn't want to ends up realizing he'd better die, the rescuers win and everybody leaves the island alive. Here's that sequence in the anime: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMCJV.... Apart from the ending, maybe my favorite moment in the show.

The manga handles it very differently. The company executive is completely absent. Misaki finds the printout about the offline meeting, and along with Yamazaki they run towards the meeting place. Or so Misaki thinks. Yamazaki manages to get out of her that she's so attached to Satou because she has finally found someone more worthless and despicable than herself, so through saving him maybe she can save herself. Yamazaki has recorded that confession and intends to use it as inspiration for a scene of his erotic videogame. Turns out they weren't going to the meeting place. After all, he argues, no way Satou was going to succeed in killing himself. People like him couldn't win in such a dramatic manner. He'd puss out and eventually die in some silly way.

In the island, Hitomi's drug abuse is out of control. She's high all the time, barely conscious. When all the members of the offline meeting decide to call it quits, Satou argues convincingly that his life is worthless and that he might as well end it then and there. He tries to die of carbon monoxide poisoning, but when he passes out, the others just drag him out the island. Now that Hitomi's boyfriend has proposed she promptly forgets about Satou.

This arc was more fittingly anticlimactic than in the anime, but I don't know if I prefer it. Still, the manga honors the tone of "hitting rock bottom as a Japanese twenty something that doesn't have a future" better.

I still haven't made up my mind about this manga but it's interesting enough to keep me going.

molta dolcezza, molto amore, molto bello.

Il secondo volume di Welcome to the NHK è decisamente un passo avanti rispetto(al comunque buono)primo,scopriamo ulteriori dettagli sulla vita e sul carattere dei personaggi principali,viene introdotto un nuovo personaggio importante per levoluzione della serie e abbiamo un primo spiraglio nelle reali intenzioni di Misaki.
Anche se la saga di "welcome to paradise" rimane una delle mie preferite nella serie,credo che il modo in cui sia gestita nell'anime sia migliore,con l'introduzione di più personaggi e un climax più teso,però l'intera vicenda assume toni più realistici nel manga(dove non c'è il provvidenziale salvataggio all'ultimo seondo)

Esta vez la historia se manda de lleno en la temática de la depresión y suicido, aunque el autor hace un buen uso del humor negro y la ironía para hacerlo más digerible y dar el mensaje de que una buena red de soporte emocional ayuda a salir de esos sitios más oscuros.