Alienation, Conspiracism and Finding Happiness | Welcome to the NHK Turns 20
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ก.ค. 2024
- #WelcometotheNHK #anime #NHKniYoukoso
In 2002, Welcome to the N.H.K; a fictionalized semi-autobiographical novel written by Tatsuhiko Takimoto hit shelves in Japan. The novel follows Tatsuhiro Satou; a social recluse who has spent most of the last four years isolated in his apartment and comes to believe that his seclusion is the result of a powerful conspiracy against him. It was a hit spawning both a manga and anime adaption.
Directly in conversation with social trends in Japan at the time and tackling themes of loneliness, paranoia, conspiracism and alienation, Welcome to the NHK feels more relevant today than it did when it was first published over 20 years ago.
It must be a conspiracy.
0:00 Introduction
3:02 Alienation: Hegel and Marx
12:11 Japan's Lost Decade and Lost Generation
17:24 What is Welcome to the NHK
24:02 Conspiracism and downward comparison
36:46 The value of "bad" art
38:50 Finding happiness after all
46:28 Outro
🎥: pixabay
🎨: irasutoya
🎶:City Lights written by yuhei komatsu via DOVA-SYNDROME
🎶:polar star written by こうだつの via DOVA-DYNDROME
🎶:黄昏Sunset written by yuhei komatsu via DOVA-DYNDROME
🎶:Everything has an end. written by brightwaltz via DOVA-DYNDROME
🎶:se-no-bi written by Noru via DOVA-DYNDROME
🎶:我儘な夜のハーブティ written by のる via DOVA-DYNDROME
🎶:春よ、強く美しく written by 龍崎一 via DOVA-DYNDROME
🎶:野良猫は宇宙を目指した written by しゃろう via DOVA-DYNDROME
New model art is by: @artifexdemon
Rigging is by me (!)
Welcome to the NHK afterwords: / complete_afterword_of_...
Anime Lockdown Interview with Tatsuhiko Takimoto: • Q & A with Tatsuhiko T...
Works cited: The list is too long for youtube so here's a pastebin pastebin.com/sXnReU5N - บันเทิง
You said the words "Shinji to Misato trans pipeline" and I almost spit out my drink because that is my LIFE
tfw you think you've known the extent of Reagan's shittiness and you get jumpscared by yet another new nugget of "yeah Reagan was to blame for that"
This one really caught me off guard. Reagan was one of the last things I expected to find when I started this one
I first came across you when you did a playthrough of the VN I wrote, Highway Blossoms. Been a big fan ever since. NHK is one of the most meaningful and evergreen pieces of media in my life. Super super stoked to hear your thoughts on it.
Holy crackers. I loved Highway Blossoms and still think about it often. Thank you so much for writing it!
I loved Highway Blossoms! Me and my friends all played it over discord together a few years ago, we still make references to it. Great game, immaculate vibes! :)
gods I remember when this book came out and I read it alongside my roommates. I remember sitting on the floor of the kitchen in the house we rented with my best friend, passing a bottle of horrible cake-flavored vodka back and forth while we drank and cursed not being able to be hikkikomori because we were so burnt out from all of us working 2 or 3 jobs and struggling to make ends meet. Years later when I came out as trans that same guy was like "yeah, I know. You cried about it after the NHK read." Which I didn't remember, but, like, yeah.
and seeing this again in the context later it's like... Takimoto is right. There is a path to happiness. It's not really an ending, and it's not permanent, but eventually you can quit your dead-end job, break up with your abusive wife, spend a few months couch surfing in basements before hopping into a new more connected place. It's not fun, but yeah. There's a way out, and it's people, and they're great.
anyway thanks for making me cry at work
I'm glad I took the time to revisit it. Takimoto has a line in an interview about how he felt he had written an optimistic story but readers walked away thinking it was meant to be depressing. It took a few years for me to realize what he was going for and I love it more for it.
Hope it was a good cry and thanks for sharing all that. It got me a little teary (positive)
My favorite thing about this channel is listening to someone passionately talk about subjects I'm not super familiar with. There is a wonderful excitement in a your videos about the things you are talking about.
Thank. That's a tremendous compliment
Listening to this at work. Pulling my phone out on the clock to leave this comment 👍
Hell yeah 👍
Here on a deep dive from that hbomb list! I love the tone of your videos. They're very tender and full of the kind of attention to detail you only get when you love something. I hope your wedding went well!
Thank you! I try to focus on subjects I care a lot about. It means a lot to me that it comes through in the videos.
Since I found this channel a few months ago it has quickly risen to be one of my favourites on youtube. As a non-binary person and a long time neet/quasi-hikikomori I find much to appreciate in your videos about Shuzo Oshimi (I had read & watched only Aku no Hana and these videos made me check out his other work too) and Welcome to the NHK, a work I hold very dear. Oh and the Wild Zero video rules too! Guitar Wolf was actually one of the first japanese bands I heard and liked back in the early 00s. :D
One thing I appreciated about the novel, and why I rejected the adaptations, is the simplicity of its story and conclusion, or lack thereof. Sato makes his grand heroic act that would bring about the end of his quest, mainly by it being an end to him also. But it doesn't happen. Nothing happens. No grand death, no real effect, and no real change. Just a return to plain old life, one which is unremarkable and unfixed.
On one hand, this seems awfully cynical, but I appreciated the self-deprecation of it as a positive conclusion to the novel. It was the revelation that we shouldn't look into grand narratives to impact our lives. Just as his conspiracy is a self-serving delusion, the clean conclusion to character arcs through stories is a self-serving myth, that people are their own agents that will conclude their story through narratively satisfying actions. But that doesn't happen. The road to change is slow, habitual, somewhat trivial, and awfully boring. Not to mention that the change will not be some nice and clean new life, but an extension of the old one, different, and hopefully somewhat better. People around Sato moved on from narratives, and maybe that's for the better, who knows. It's definitely not a place where a hiki story can end satisfyingly. Post-modern problems requires a postmodern solutions.
But, now in hindsight, I can see how my view of it was biased. My own experiences of when I read the novel wouldn't allow for concluding arcs, because that would hurt my ego. A misanthropic, suicidal, and pessimistic ego. What would shatter someone's self-serving hiki narrative more than acknowledging that improvement is uncomfortably possible and awfully meaningful?
I, of course, am still misanthropic, suicidal, and pessimistic, and I still refuse to do much about it. Getting a job, friends, lovers, fulfilling hobbies, therapy, medication, and a feeling of self-worth didn't change the underlying problems that created an ego like this; it all only makes the failure of change hurt more. But seeing the narrative of the adaptations now reveals the rejection of conclusions for what it really was: a grand narrative to justify the failure of coming up with ways to heal, and excuse the inaction against the root causes of alienation, both within and outside.
I love just getting randomly blasted with interesting informations and cool media that I never hear of before !
The video is wonderful and I absolutely love the way you dissect japanese media for your analysis' but the bit about Riegan showing up if you look hard enough like Bloody Mary absolutely took me out 10/10
EDIT: Congrats on your(upcoming) marriage too!!!
Thank you thank you
YEEEEES! NEW RICKIHIRSCH VIDEO BA-BY!
Nice to see/hear you again
3:00
18:50
20:42
I WANT TO BELIEVE
I cried.
Since Marx and Engels thought very higly about creativity as the path to become more human, lets talk about that hentai game XD I love that that sentence makes perfect sense
You know. I never stopped at thought about it that way until just now. That sure is a sentence I said with my words
We're generating laughs and shattering the idea that porn isn't (or can't be) art, this video really is several levels of great XD
I forgot how much I loved Welcome To The NHK. Thank you. I wish this was an zine I could hold in my hand.
This was such a great video, loved every second of it
Thank you! That means a lot to me.
Great video, very educational.
Okay but seriously, when do we band together and establish this Alien Nation?
Seriously though, phenomenal job with this video, excellent work and research and the Ronald Reagan Bloody Mary bit at the end cracked up. It's been rad seeing this channel blow up and I'm so excited to see where you go from here!
We'll start laying out the plans for the Alien Nation once I finish that last season of the X-Files.
Thank you for the praise. It means a lot. I have a few ideas cooking now and one that I'm excited to get started on.
@@RickiHirsch Super excited to see what you end up cooking!
Commenting to please the algorithm and lyk I will be finishing the video after reading or watching NHK! It's been on my radar so looking forward to your analysis
I loved this one so much. I hadn't ever really engaged with Welcome to the NHK but I'm looking forward to checking it out after learning about all this really interesting context. SO much fascinating philosphical/politcal background I would have never considered without you putting it all together like this, thank you!! Also huge fan of all the little high-effort 3 second jokes OMG THE STEAM PANOPTICON ACHIEVEMENT I died.
Yes!! I'm so glad you appreciated the Panopticon achievement.
Congratulations on everything, from marriage to the shout out to completing this huge video! I’m glad you’ll be taking the time to produce videos at your own pace in the future 💖💖💖
And hopefully we’ll run into one another at a tournament 🤭 I plan on learning your chosen weapon someday
May we meet in the field of battle and blunt swords
What an incredible video!
Thank you. I'm glad you think so!
Hearing that hikikomori phenomenon may have been as old as the 70s is really interesting, I'd always assumed it was a result of post-bubble quality of life changes.
I was surprised to. It seems like post-bubble changes elevated hikikomori to a public health conversation but there were cases of social withdrawal even during the height of the bubble.
This video essay reminded me how much I loved the anime when I was in college. Thank you for bringing it back to my attention with the Marxist framing. I think it’s time for me to revisit the anime and try actually reading the book finally!
Glad you enjoyed it. The book is my personal favorite version of the story. I hope you enjoy it.
:D yaaay new video
I'll watch anything you make 💙
30:00 there is a saying in Russian language: "The world is wuled not by a Secret Lodge, but by an Obvious Fail"
36:06 This thing actually exists. Not in the exact way it is described in the book, nor by this particular name, nbut exists nonetheless.
And again you introduce me to a fascinating piece of media that would've been profoundly helpful if I had stumbled upon it more than a decade ago. The last half a decade of my life has been filled with stuff I wish had knew about or had access to when I was younger, which is kinda bittersweet. Bummer I didn't have/know before, but glad I have it now.
Your videos remain a highlight when they show up, and seeing you show up in the Hbomb vid was really cool. I'm gladdened that things seem to be going well for you, if for no other reason than it gives me hope that things can go well for me too.
:3
Thank you. Fwiw, I also often find things I wish I had known about 5-10 years ago. It always leads to some complicated but it also means I'll have it going forward. I hope things go well for you too.
I watched the NHK anime at a time when I was working my way out of my most alienated stage in life. I don't remember how I felt at the time - if it gave me inspiration moving forward, reflection on where I had been, or made me feel like I was still in the struggle (likely some combination of all these, thanks to that complicated brain doing all its things). But this show has stuck with with me long since watching. I'm glad I'm not the only one. This was a great revisit, and it makes me feel like I should find the manga or novel to read now.
I found that the manga had aged the worst of the three, but I still enjoyed the novel as much if not more than when I first read it. I hope you enjoy them both if you decide to read them
Congratulations on your upcoming wedding, what an exciting time to exist!
Thank you! It's exciting but so so so much work!
I know it's been a while since this video came out, but i just want to say I'm loving the new model. It's adorable
Thank you! I couldn't be happier with it and it let me try a lot of new techniques in Live2D
Oh my god. YES.
The ghost of Ronald Reagan forever haunts us all.
I hope you heal from your concussion soon, that sounds horrible to have gone through...
I'm basically back to 100% now so it was thankfully minor. Just a bummer than I won the match and had to withdraw after taking that hit on the last point :(
Watching Welcome to the NHK, and reading the manga when I was younger honestly messed me up in a strange way. At first it was bad, but then when I started growing up, it changed to good. I really needed that time and experience to process and understand the what exactly the work was telling me.
Also having the double whammy of then almost immediately going into reading Oyasumi Punpun while in a particularly vulnerable state of depression did not help I guess
┐('～`;)┌
Anyways, thank you for the video, it was great! Hope you recover fully soon and omg congratulations on the wedding (and the motorcyle)!!!
(((o(*ﾟ∀ﾟ*)o)))
Welcome to the NHK & Oyasumi Punpun back to back, damn...
You're brave going right into Oyasumi Punpun like that.
@RickiHirsch Nah, I was just a kinda dumb teen who didn't know any better. The part that was bad, though, is that this was during the time the manga was still coming out, and there was that several month long hiatus in the translation for those final 3(?) volumes. That part was a special kind of hell
( ´∀`)
I used to re-watch the anime a lot as a teenager and every time it'd plunge me into a depressive hole. Even just watching this video was kind of hard. At some point I stopped the re-watches and avoided giving it another go ever since, afraid I wouldn't able to bear it. It might be time to pick it back up, though, as today I may be able to appreciate the positive aspects of the show I wasn't able to see back then
I don't know if it will be the case for you but I also found it to be very depressing in my teens. As an adult, I was able to see more of the positive aspects of the story and see more of the story that Takimoto wanted to write about people making connections.
New RickiHirsch video dropped, gonna be a good night shift.
OMG CONGRATS ON GETTING ENGAGED 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭❤❤❤❤❤
Thank you thank you!
This line really sunk home for me, "Shinji to Misato trans pipeline." I feel like this has been my life in a lot of ways. Thank you for creating these videos, they are always a pleasure to watch.
God, I love the Welcome to the NHK anime and light novel Despite the flaws. its just that good.
Coming back to it after ~10 years, I was expecting it to age much worse than it had. I was more aware of the flaws while reading as an adult but its still just so good.
\clears throat\
im so fucking unhappy
Also, congratulations on getting married soon!
Thank you!!
For me I feel like I am half Sato and half Misaki. 😅
REEEAAAAGAAAAAAAAN!!!!!
No escape
Is it okay to post unrelated stuff in a comment section? I don't know, never tried! Loved the video btw! I gotta confess tho, the character designs in Welcome To The NHK, I just never connected with them as much as I did with the more cutesy anime stuff... I guess loneliness isn't cutesy though...? I would beg to differ, but I feel that may sound a bit... incorrect...? Eh. Also, damn, Ronald Reagan is tied to this too... I wonder if Kennedy not being assassinated in the hit game Prey has anything to do with why the world doesn't seem nearly as hopeless, yet... well yeah of course it does! That's what the whole game is centered around afterall, in part atleast. God all these unrelated, yet equally stressing thoughts that I just want to get out there that people wouldn't tolerate or not care/not understand plus be annoyyed by and so on at me for sharing cause they're just shearly all over the place!... I might've just been unkind, apologies if this is the case... I uhh... would really like to work on wording stuff better like you and all the other great TH-camrs I aspire towards in terms of wording oneself... (on second thought, this is definitely a bit cruel... cause concussions make mental processing hurt I'd imagine, as it would make reading and trying to decipher especially whatever the hell this 'oland guy' is trying to put straight into words)
*Me when alienated* *feels like I can only be worth something if I have a video recording of myself saying stuff and involving myself in some conversation even if I have no idea/don't have the best idea as to what the heck that conversation is 100% or if it even exists, but just saying fuck it...* even tho yeah as much as I lament about not being well worded enough and not having skills, I still don't have said attributes developed adequately enough to be considered polished + am too lazy/demotivated... yet feeling fed up with the feeling of alienation enough to, again, say fuck it... and oh god is it bad when I do... cause its all unfiltered like this!...
th-cam.com/video/0ZC-EOPnWW8/w-d-xo.html
I am always curious to see how much overlap there is with hikikomori and autism, but all the studies I've read are still very scant. Granted, I might view it more as a related condition of the wide arrange of ND, where it is an acquired neurodivergence from the traumas of the capitalist system. I am obviously not a shrink, but it is still interesting to me.
While I am a history major and most of what Marx has to say deals with change over time, class conflict, and cause and affect, his writings are still a useful critique. I would definitely suggest some of Engels writings as well. They don't get as much coverage by leftist content creators but are a good insight into early Victorian criticism of capitalism as well. Just don't become a chunni anarchist like me, when you find that you don't feel like they went stronk enough in some areas of their writings. lol.
There were a few papers I came across that mentioned the connection between neurodivergence and social withdrawal as something to explore as a future direction. Unfortunately, I also didn't find anything that tried to speak definitively on it.
@@RickiHirsch, I have a Japanese psychologist friend that's a fellow uniform nerd like I am, that pretty much says that is under studied as well but he believes that it is a type of ND. The one thing I will say about a lot of the cute girls doing cute stuff series aimed at hikikomori. Definitely a lot of ND coded characters as of late, since the crash generation is now starting to write and make mangas. Stardust Telepath (Fall 2023) hit me like a ton of bricks with ND coding and it gave me feels, which I don't feel that often over a slice of life series about a bunch of girls with niche interests in rockets lol.
Entschuldigung angenommen 👍
Vielen Dank!
comment for algo
congrats on marriage!
Thank you!
im gonna be blunt here for whatever reason and say that its pretty offensive to make a video about being a hikki and loneliness and then casually mentioning getting married in the end of the video. like okay.... yes i am in fact very alone in my loneliness, dont pretend like you understand how my life has unfolded. life is a numbers game and i have all the factors stacked against me.
if this says more about me than Ricki thats totally fine. in fact i welcome flaming me for this post because i hope im making some jarring category error.
That's a lot just to say "I'm sad and lonely and jealous 😢"
Thank you for making this video. 🫂
Ah! Congratulations on your marriage. :3
Thank you. Still a lot of planning to do but the big day is coming up soon!