From a mid-twenty-something suffering a quarter-life crisis, feeling depressed and meaningless in the post-education, office-life monotony of the world; to a naturally caring, vulnerable person being forced to change in the financial reality of their world and being stuck in a vicious MLM scheme; to someone suffering a clash between chasing their passionate but unlikely dreams and the responsibility they feel as the sole heir to their family's business... I love all the characters and stories this show explores. With every character's arc, I find myself developing so much sympathy. It's a huge credit to the show that they're always written in such a believable, hard-hitting way despite all the comedic elements and exaggerations of the story and characters.

This show is deceptively smart in the exploration of its themes, and its ability to create comedy from them—even of its darkest themes—without coming across as reducing their depth and weight. When it comes down to it the show at its core is really just 24 episodes of a guy learning to get up, out, and get a job—and it manages to remain captivating, relatable, and emotional throughout despite that. This is definitely in large part owing to its writing, but also to its wide range of interesting and unique character and story concepts that always serve perfectly as case studies for its thematic exploration. This show is also greatly served by a highly emotive and diverse soundtrack that is well utilised, being in balance with its quieter moments and never coming to feel overplayed. As the show develops certain tracks come to carry so much weight and emotion in them because of this. It's been several years now since I first watched this show - and I continue to regularly come back to many of them.

I first watched this show at a very dark period in my life, and I credit it a lot for what spurred me to get out of that pit I was in. It spoke to me in a way no media had before—it felt direct, personal, and understanding—and it shook me. It owes to the author's situation at the time of writing it, having actively been a 'hikikomori' (recluse) himself. It's a story that 'gets it'—the experience. The stupid yet routine mental traps and hang-ups you can't quite seem to defeat. The perpetual one-day vows you make to yourself. That feeling of waking up in the evening and enjoying the bittersweet quiet of the night at the loss of another day. The appeal of the all-absorbing distraction in degeneracy. The cyclical nature of depression and anxiety, and the underlying, always horribly self-aware selfishness and hypocrisy that forms in those swirling pits of self-hatred and self-pity...

It's dirty, dumb and over-the-top, and certainly quite crass at times, but it's never without strikingly real and emotional thematic exploration and moments that make it all worth it. The main character is undeniably a loser—seldom acting anything other than pathetic and lazy—but he is also someone shown to be genuinely struggling and wanting to be better. The disgust and frustration you feel toward him at times is always quickly replaced with sympathy as the show gets you to understand him better and makes you see yourself and the undeniable human in him, bit by bit, through his thought processes and his interactions with the characters that surround him—however exaggerated they both can be.

I love how the story is set in motion with just a smile and the tiniest bit of persistence—a tiny flicker of hope that spurred a little bit of bravery and one small step forward. And I love how it all regresses in just the next episode. I especially love how the show handles the female lead. You'd think she'd be a huge detriment to the messages of the show, but she's not. As she never proved to be the answer for Satou. The idea of her is not even 'real' in the show.

This series and its soundtrack always make me emotional now. I'll always be able to relate to it on a deeply personal level that so few things ever manage to reach, with it forever serving as a reminder of that phase of my life—and the pit I've gotten out of. At the same time as all this praise, though, I find I only ever recommend it to a person if they're at a point, or have been at a point, where they've felt genuinely lost, alone, and/or rejected in their culture, and experienced the same mental illnesses that might lead you to shut yourself away from society. It's not that enjoyment won't be found otherwise, but that this is a story which in many ways is specifically written for those people—for them to relate to. It's written by one and rather implicitly written to form a message to others like him.

Welcome to the N.H.K. is 'Life can kind of suck sometimes, can't it?' the anime. It's deeply relatable and often tragic, but at its core, it is about realising that moving forward and taking our own steps through our struggles is really the only option we will ever have to finding anything truly worthwhile and fulfilling. No 'Misaki' will come and 'rescue' us, and no other answer or special 'conspiracy-based' calling will ever actually appear for you either. And you'll almost certainly regret running away from it all in the last moments if you were to try. To pull a quote from the show, "A drama has a progressive plot, an emotional climax, and a resolution, but our lives aren't like that. All we get day after day are a bunch of vague anxieties that are never really resolved."

It's a narrative that ultimately reflects how people are all damaged to some degree, in their own different ways—all of us dealing with our own unique set of failures, shitty circumstances, and mental hang-ups—so often making us act hypocritical and selfish, but all just earnestly trying to chase the same basic stuff: acceptance, love, and fulfilment... No one is really that alone or unique in that reality, even if the situations and hang-ups we face are completely different from one another. It can be a horribly disappointing, but necessary first step to take, accepting the truth that - we're not special. Because if we're not special - we're also not alone. In our struggles or our feelings. And there's ultimately comfort to be found behind that realisation, no matter how hard it is to accept the cold, harsh reality that may come with it.

Welcome to the N.H.K. is a story about moving on. About learning to accept your own damage and reality for what they are - and picking up the pieces.