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Welcome to the NHK: Complete Series Box Set |  | Artist: Artist Not Provided
Studio: Funimation Prod
Category: DVD
List Price: $69.98
Buy Used: $27.98
as of 9/8/2010 21:55 CDT details
You Save: $42.00 (60%)
New (18) Used (2) from $27.98
Seller: goHastings
Rating:  reviews
Sales Rank: 20310
Format: Box set, NTSC, Color, Widescreen, Subtitled
Languages: Japanese (Original Language), English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Discs: 4
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Running Time: 600 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.4 x 0.7
MPN: 704400096655
UPC: 704400096655
EAN: 0704400096655
ASIN: B002BWD73W
Release Date: August 25, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Textless Songs | | • | Trailers |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Satou Tatsuhiro, a 22-year-old unemployed hikikomori (recluse), seeks freedom from his condition and the conspiracy (NHK) he believes created his anxi
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| Customer Reviews:
 For Those Who Like Their Comedy Twisted August 21, 2009
ONENEO (Buffalo, NY)
44 out of 52 found this review helpful
There are some anime properties that you really can't imagine working in any other medium. Sure anime is very closely related to its manga cousin but comics fail to deliver when things really get zany and personable. Welcome to the N-H-K is exactly one such property. It's so unique on so many levels that it's actually hard to believe it came out of the typically conservatively regarded Gonzo studios. But before we get ahead of ourselves here, let's take a look at the hard facts.
Originally released by ADV Films, Funimation has recently acquired the rights to the show and has wasted little time in getting a Complete Series release out to the public. Coming in at a total runtime of 600 minutes, Welcome to the N-H-K the Complete Series spans 4 discs and comes packaged as a pair of thin packs within a cardboard slipcase.
The show wears an appropriate TV MA (17+) rating, which is surprising should you base the show on the previews alone (a more accurate depiction of what's in store would be to check out the cover art and its foaming can of beer, pair of scantily clad women, and lead character looking slightly neurotic).
Language options are typical sub & dub meaning the option of original Japanese dialog track (stereo) or an English dub (5.1 Dolby Surround) and English subtitles available under either language choice.
Extras are limited to textless songs and a host of Funimation trailers.
I'll do my best to summarize the story without giving away any spoilers. The viewer is introduced to Sato, a college dropout who has just about had all he can take of society. So withdrawn from society is our hero that he locks himself up in his dreary apartment where his very grip on reality is becoming more and more twisted by the day.
His own delusions coupled to his lack of outside contact result in his becoming convinced that he is the subject of a vast conspiracy designed keep him under wraps by the secretive agency known as the N-H-K.
Like most mentally ill individuals, being a delusion-suffering recluse results in a twist of incredible fortune when a friendly, pretty, and just generally good hearted young lady named Misaki shows up one day out of the blue with intentions of getting old depressed Sato back into society.
The lead character pair ends up becoming a trio once the loud-music bumping neighbor of Sato's (and an old high-school pal, it turns out) joins the fray. In all this unlikely team makes it their mission to rehabilitate the ever-degenerating mental and social health of Sato through a sort of long and drawn out intervention.
Believe it or not, this is a comedy anime title despite what you may have figured after reading the summary. It's based on a novel, which although I haven't had the pleasure of reading personally, can't possibly capture the oddity and personality that the anime just relishes in around every corner.
The core of the show alternates between a cityscape reality and the hallucinations of Sato, which sometimes border on sexual fantasies. I should note that there is no real nudity involved in said scenarios, but rather provocative outfits and a bit of suggestive dialog. It is the language that earns this show a majority of its MA rating here in the US.
A lot of the show's charm stems from the age-old gag of presenting a fairly "out there" conspiracy theory that can never fully be dismissed by the viewer. The show's creative team does a great job painting a lead character who is clearly suffering from social dysfunction although there are moments along the way where you can't help but wonder if indeed some other forces (like a top-secret agency for example) aren't at play.
The biggest problem I had with the show is that it lacks consistency in nearly sense of the term. There are some genuinely funny moments but they are few and far between. There are some intriguing psychological undertones that slip away to cheap attempts at humor. There are some nice textures and visuals on occasion but more often than not you'll be looking at art that simply gets the job done. About the only aspect of this program that holds steady is the soundtrack, which includes some smooth melodies and catchy J-Pop numbers throughout.
The acting work is solid in both language options, with the Japanese dialog squeaking into the top-spot thanks to a female actor ensemble that feel almost custom tailored to the material.
In all, this is definitely not a show for everyone, nor is the silly/ goofy type of light-hearted romp that previews suggest. It's really a tragic tale if you allow yourself to look beyond the bright visuals and giddy personalities that make up the superficial. Pacing is nice and swift even if the show does struggle at times to firmly establish itself into a genre.
Reality be damned March 28, 2010
Cikkle (Upstate NY, US)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Up front, there isn't much to speak of in terms of the box set itself; It's a pair of slimline DVD cases without inserts, each disc containing little more than the episodes themselves with Japanese and English audio tracks and an assortment of trailers. In fewer words, you get what you paid for - no more, no less.
Welcome to the NHK concerns a young shut-in, who retreats to his off-campus housing after dropping out of college and sustains himself on his parents' living allowance, and the series opens a few days before he comes to learn a high-school friend has taken up residence in the room beside his. Still later, and even more improbably, he finds his reclusive ways being actively disrupted by an unexplainably benevolent girl who takes an interest in him and declares her intent to rehabilitate him. The premise brings to light what's probably the most jarring aspect of the remainder of the series: the kind of serendipity that can only exist in a world penned by a human author. As much as I expected this series to take a more sardonic, bleak and introspective tone, the plot as it unfolds is for the most part, deeply sentimental and warm-spirited. Oddly so. While I have no qualms with my expectations being broken, the way the story takes form is so far divorced from reality and saturated with euphoric ideas of love and comradery it often seems to dive straight into outright escapist fantasy. Indeed, the author of the original novel the show is based on is a self-described hikkikomori himself, and in watching this there's an overwhelming sense of melancholy that seems to have less to do with the story itself than a lingering feeling of someone clawing at a distant idealized life, the kind of wishful rescue fantasy that has more grounding in the desperate imagination of a shut-in than in real life. For that reason the story sorely lacks introspection on the part of the author and the only real insight this show offers into the condition of a Hikkikomori is realized when it's viewed from the context the story was written in, rather than taken at face value. The series progresses from the premise noted earlier into mountingly unlikely dramatic scenarios of last-minute rescues and tearful confessions of love in ways far beyond romanticized, and the feeling one gets from watching this is a disconnect from real-life and a sort of Norman Rockwell depiction of a failed college student recalibrating to everyday society. Amazingly, in a dialogue near the end of the series one character unflinchingly contrasts the monotony of everyday life to the "outbursts of emotion" of TV dramas, with no apparent trace of irony.
In fact, it seems so clearly to be the intention of the show to evade the coldness of reality that it's slightly hard to criticize it for being as it is. Welcome to the NHK is a manifested fantasy of love and friendship arbitrarily befalling a lonely self-insert recluse, the story of a nobody who spends all his time alone in hiding masturbating and playing video games, suddenly drawing the affections of an attractive young girl who rejoices in pursuing a complete stranger, and in cooking him meals, cleaning his room, solving random tribulations, enduring his repeated tantrums, and above all, loving unquestionably.
Why? It doesn't matter. It's fiction and it's supposed to make you feel good. And it often does.
Spoilers in the comments.
 A very funny anime that is less conspiracy and more psychological May 28, 2010
Haunted Flower (Indianapolis)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2F16DVZS7NJFW Gina from Haunted Flower reviews "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, and Ben Kingsley in this video game adaptation about a prince who finds a magical time altering dagger.
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FANTASTIC April 12, 2010
Kenji
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I got this boxset when it was $36.99 and I quite glad that I did because it's perfect.
If your a person who would like to see a unique anime that stands out from the rest, then this is the boxset for you.
It will make you laugh, think, and try to make you relate to the main character, even though its hard to fully relate to him.
All in all, this anime isn't one of your common anime and deserves a look at by all who claim to like anime and/or japan culture.
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