More Genshiken makes me happy, even if it’s just a short OAV series. Of what few “otaku” shows there are, Genshiken probably captures the flavor of fandom and its associated subculture best. Comic Party, on the other hand, basks in the warm glow of a slick, idealized version of fandom cooked up by some self-help guru. And NHK ni Youkoso! is just an absolute mess.

Then again, NHK ni Youkoso! isn’t really an “otaku” show - it just plays one on TV. So what is it? Is it social commentary? Character drama? Tragic comedy? Love story? A little bit of everything? Perhaps so. That’s why it’s an absolute mess.

To me, the show is an entertaining failure. Why? Because, as much as the show wants to be taken seriously, I just can’t do it. Satou is the crux, I think… he’s just a wildly inconsistent and unrealistic character. One minute, he’s a disturbed idiot. The next minute, he’s a capable and intelligent young man. In other words, he’s only what the story demands him to be at any given moment. Sometimes, he’s a sorry hikikomori. Other times, he’s a pretty normal guy, with goals, friends, and romantic interests.

You can’t have it both ways.

But perhaps that’s the point? Perhaps the only way to celebrate the life of a hikikomori is to present Satou as everything but? And perhaps the only way to maintain the integrity of this framework is to have Satou revert to his hikikomori ways the moment his life gets to be too normal? After all, every time Satou starts making progress, he just ends up huddling in his futon, talking to his appliances. Perhaps this “one step forward, two steps back” narrative is the point of the show… I don’t know.

I should point out, however, that this is more personal observation than critique of the show. Like I said, it’s an entertaining failure. As a comedy, NHK ni Youkoso! succeeds more often than it fails. As something more serious, however, the show rarely delivers. Unfortunately, it desires to be serious more than it desires to be funny. That may be its downfall.