Genre: Drama, Romance, Slice-of-Life
In today's technology driven society, it's fairly easy for one to become completely cut off from the world. The internet has certainly made people's lives a lot easier; some people are able to work from home, pay their bills, buy groceries, find a mate, and spend recreational time all in the comfort of their own home behind a computer monitor. Despite these ubiquitous advantages the Internet offers us, people have all but forgotten to communicate directly with people. Online social networks, text messaging, and MMORPGs are the bane of today's youth. When one is Before I sound any older,Welcome to the NHK sheds some light on the potential hazards of living one such life.
Story
Tatsuhiro Sato is a twenty some year old college drop out living in an apartment in Tokyo. A NEET (Not in Employment, Education, or Training) scraping by on monthly allowances from his parents, he lives a secluded/antisocial hikikomori lifestyle. Influenced in the past by a classmate of his, Sato begins to believe that there is an underground organization called the NHK (Nippon Hikikomori Kyokai) creating a society teeming with anti-social hikikomori--with him already stuck in a pitiful scenario. An opportune yet unfortunately depressing encounter with a young girl named Misaki changes Sato's life (for better or worse) as she hopes to break him away from his self-destructive lifestyle. Characters
Sato, Tatsuhiro: Our main protagonist, he could be best generalized as one lacking any type of social competence whatsoever. Heavily dependent on the aid of others to sustain himself, his equivalent would be the stereotypical man who lives in his mom's basement type of person. 
Yamazaki, Kaoru: Sato's high school acquaintance, he is your typical otaku character. Conveniently living next to Sato, they develop a close bond with each other as they encounter numerous problems, mostly rooted by Sato. A very blunt and straightforward character at first, but Yamazaki's issues later on make him quite personable--for me at least. 
Nakahara, Misaki: After her first encounter with Sato, she presents him with a proposal to help him rid of his hikikomori ways. Mysteriously nice and upbeat most of the time, her motives for helping Sato are unknown for most of the series. Cute, nice, and delightful, most would call her wifey material. Kashiwa, Hitomi: Sato's old high school classmate who for the most part causes Sato some trouble. She has the body of a goddess; the primary reason why Sato sticks around, but carries some ridiculous emotional baggage.
Aside from Misaki's oddly peculiar upbeat attitude, the main cast could be said as very depressing and problem-ridden. I felt a particularly close connection to these characters as I have personally gone through equally depressing circumstances. The characters are well rounded and developed nicely as the series progressed.
Voice Acting/Sound
With most slice-of-life anime, the interactions between characters is essential to its success. Welcome to the N.H.K's Japanese voice actors are well versed and fit the roles of their respective characters quite well. Yui Makino does a spectacular job as Misaki, playing the mysteriously innocent, altruistic girl. I was also impressed by Daisuke Sakaguchi's work as Yamazaki; compelling during his numerous outbursts of enthusiasm.The soundtrack is also nothing to sniff at. Most will notice the incessant blaring of the Pururin theme, but in retrospect, the soundtrack set the tone well for each particular scene--joyful or gloomy. Tunes comprise of ambient/chill, jazz, and soft rock variety. Overall, the soundtrack definitely has some gems out there worth listening to again.
Loved
Brutal Reality: The world isn't perfect and one's life won't always go as planned. Misfortune and mistakes are to occur in life. These are a few of the messages I came to pull from Welcome to the N.H.K. Some of them may hit personally as the series evokes a gloomy and melancholy tone brought forth by issues of depression, hopelessness, and suicide. Despite the series ending on a fairly unsatisfying note, N.H.K delivers on its message that everyone will inevitably encounter bumps and hurdles in life, and it takes great deal of effort to work oneself out and above them. Are some of these problems applicable to everyone? Probably not. Inspiring perhaps? Definitely.
Pururin Anime: Simply a parody of other shoujo anime used within the series; I wouldn't mind watching a few episodes myself. That theme song is just too damn catchy, and yes I need to make a ringtone of it for my phone. Hated
Lackluster ending: This tends to be the problem with most series, and N.H.K is no exception. I touched upon it earlier, but the ending needed some work. No doubt the string of events leading up to the ending had me over my seat with my mind blown waiting what would happen next, but to no avail. Again, there are some polarizing views on this, and the ending wasn't so devastatingly bad that I wanted my eight or so hours watching the series back; it just could have been approached better.
Ecchi scenes: Oh why oh why must great anime be watered down to random scenes of nudity? Yes, they are there for fanservice and the environment Yamazaki/Sato indulge in lends itself to very ecchi material anyhow. If there weren't those few boob shots, this series could be accessible to more audiences.
The Lowdown: Welcome to the N.H.K might be a turnoff for some as some facets of Japanese culture are introduced like otaku, hikikomori, NEETs as well as some ecchi scenes. It's not a typical sit-down-with-the-family type of anime, and if one were to be fairly open minded, one shall be treated to a very cute and whole-hearted romance anime with a bit if everything.
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