Welcome to NHK

Are you depressed? Do you have trouble going outside? Do you believe a shadow organization is secretly trying to thwart your life and ruin everything you are trying to become? Then Welcome to NHK is for you!

One of the best animes I have seen in a while: Welcome to NHK makes anti-social disorder fun again! Welcome to NHK centers around a twenty-something named Tatsuhiro Sato (Sato for short) A self proclaimed Hikikomori. Hikikomori is a Japanese term for basically an agoraphobe. Essentially these people cannot bring themselves to go outside or even in some cases leave their own room. Sato believes the world is one vast conspiracy to set up college students and turn them into hikikomori. Sato is comfortable in his little life except for his next door neighbor. His neighbor plays this ultra-happy anime song over and over again and has  been doing it for a long while. Sato yells, screams, even kicks and punches the wall between the rooms but the music is up so loud that no one ever hears him. Naturally, Sato believes this is also a conspiracy against him. So Sato lives his little life the best he can until one day his mother calls to tell him that they have to cut his allowance in half so he must find a job to help support himself, this sends Sato into a mini breakdown but he eventually musters the courage to venture outside. He goes outside to find a job but the first place he goes he runs into this cute girl who came to his door the day before with her aunt to warn people about the hikikomori lifestyle.(Sato thought that this too was a conspiracy and awkwardly yelled at them that he was not a shut in but a well adjusted member of society.) So Sato panicks and runs home. Later Sato finally can not take the music from next door anymore so he bursts into the apartment next door only to find the resident is one of his classmates from highshool, Misaki. They happily greet each other and catch each other up on old times. Later the cute girl from before shows up and claims that she can cure him of his hikikomori ways. All he would have to do is sign a contract that states that he would meet her in the local park at night for lessons. If he ever failed to show up he would be fined 1,000,000 yen. Eventually Sato begrudgingly signs the paper.

Welcome to NHK is a great series that sets itself apart through its quirkyness but also tells a great story and has an extremely likeable cast. It also has a somber side that deals with issues of depression and loneliness as well friendship and dealing with the future.

Funimation's S.A.V.E. program just released Welcome to NHK at the low price of  $ 25.00 for the whole 26 episode series, which is a pretty sweet deal.