Avalon: NHK ni Youkoso! (Welcome to the N.H.K)

First off I’ll say that this came VERY close to being my favorite anime or at least tied with Code Geass. This anime is unlike any other I’ve ever seen. This anime is basically a slice of life anime mixed with comedy and angst.

Animation – 10/10
Some people might say the animation wasn’t all that great, but I love how this anime looks. You can easily tell what the characters are feeling just by looking at their facial expressions which often-times are very entertaining to look at. A good portion of the comedy comes from the characters reactions during certain events.

Sound – 8/10
If you haven’t figured it out yet, I don’t pay too much attention to sound, but I think I would notice if it was bad. The opening and endings I do believe fit with the style of the anime as it progresses. The first ending which is VERY entertaining to listen to and watch fits well with the anime (see Wej’s review for playable ending song). As the mood of the anime changes, the opening and ending change to enhance that mood and it is does quite well. The background music is what I didn’t pay too much attention too, but I never heard that bugged me. The voice acting is well done too giving the characters believable emotions.

Story – 10/10
The story is very simple yet very entertaining. Satou is a complete loner that withdraws himself from society and locks himself in his room (aka hikikomori) only leaving occasionally at night to buy food. This obviously shows that he’s also a NEET (Not currently engaged in Employment, Education or Training). One day he answers a knock on his apartment door believing it is the electric company and allows himself to open the door, but he sees a young girl (who is quite cute) with an older religious solicitor. Satou grabs what she offers and hides behind his now closed door. They leave and Satou believes they were part of a conspiracy to isolate him from society.
Some time after, he finds a note addressed to him from the young girl telling him to meet her that night. She tells Satou that night that he has been selected to participate in her project to cure him of his hikikomori condition. This is only the beginning as a crazy chain of events follow, for example Satou attempting to create a Galge which is the most normal of these events (I won’t ruin any others for you). This story is very well done and will have you laughing your head off at times to wanting to hit something.

Character – 8/10
Characters are well done and fun to watch when they try to get out of the situations they’ve trapped themselves in. Each character has their own secrets they hide from the world and it’s interesting to see those secrets get revealed as the anime progresses.

Overall – Average this anime gets a 9/10 which is very good and my personal score would probably be a 10/10. I personally kind of liked the first half slightly better than the second because the episodes foreshadowed that what I was hoping to come from the ending wasn’t exactly going to happen so that was a little disappointing, but don’t get me wrong…the ending was still really good and satisfying. I highly recommend this anime to pretty much anyone, unless your looking for action.

~ by Avalon on July 18, 2008.