all the little details in the soapy it's
got to be some kind of conspiracy this
week
welcome to the NHK the first image this
Opie shows us is an abstract expression
as a painting reminiscent of hands
Hoffman's work right away there's a lot
to interpret here to understand the full
implications of this shot we need to
understand the intentions of that art
style the abstract expressionist
movement evolved as a response to the
undercurrent of anxiety in the wake of
World War two and aim to capture
universal themes through use of simple
evocative imagery abstract expressionist
paintings are works of profound
emotional depth and at its core the same
can be said of welcome to the NHK though
it's often seriously obscured in the
same way the painting is obscured is
when a sake steps in front of it and we
pull away through the smoked glass to
Sato the way were introduced to Sato
implies a lot about him right off the
bat his head is hung low in despair and
were separated from the emotional truths
of the painting and Misaki as well as
the soul spot of life that they happen
to occupy by a number of barriers we can
also glean a lot of information about
Misaki - she's shown analysing the
painting which if we take it to be
symbolic of Sato's mental state is
pretty similar to the role she takes in
his life by showing us only a wry smile
on her back the opie presents her as a
mystery which is how she first appeared
to Sato in the series but the way she
enters frame is what's really telling
she more or less forces herself into the
center of the shot dominating the entire
picture this hints at her near
pathological need for Sato's attention
we also see a bit of Yamazaki and though
he's mostly a neutral presence on screen
it's his initial motion in opening the
door that cues Sato to raise his head
and let the opie move forward we zoom
into a picture on the back of Sato's
menu which oddly happens to be the
outside of his apartment they say
there's a lot you can learn about a man
by looking at his home and that's
certainly true of Sato looking up at the
patios of his apartment building we see
that Sato who rarely gets out or bothers
to take care of himself is the only one
of his neighbors who hasn't left laundry
hanging to be
now despite it being on the top floor we
descend into Sato's room like some sort
of dungeon lair sliding through the gap
under the guardrail as the bright Sun
outside gives way to the darkness within
inside Sato's room the only light comes
from his computer monitor and the thin
crack and the curtains beside him stack
nearly to the ceiling are countless
miscellaneous boxes remnants of past
meals products ordered from Amazon and
likely things he moved in with and never
put away all dropped haphazardly within
arm's reach
speaking of reaching arms it becomes
clear what's odd I was using his for as
well as what he's looking at when he
hurriedly moves to grab a single Kleenex
from the box in the stack this knocks
the top box off the precarious tower and
one of the more imaginative metaphors
for ejaculation I've seen this week the
falling box also highlights something I
really like about this o P which is the
credits all exist as physical objects in
the world much like they do in the Jojo
o piece from the show's title edged in
glass to the Sun playing off the letters
of this credit to the titles behind
Misaki appearing backwards before we see
them from their proper angle care has
been taken to make each one in the
central part of the Okies world it's
details like this that are the mark of a
really strong opening theme Misaki looks
up from under the brim of her hat and
locks eyes with us giving us a peek
inside her mind
female silhouettes and stylish garb
reminiscent of the old iPod ads and
Sega's surreal vs minigame collection
feel the magic are seen milling about
against a sunny yellow backdrop the lack
of distinct facial features aside from
some slightly sexualized mouths
demonstrates that these aren't supposed
to be proper characters but rather
symbolic elements these women are
fashionable sexy happy sociable and very
very tanned they represent aspects of
femininity that miserable quiet tiny
Misaki wishes she could have body the
dream is broken by a ringing alarm and
were brought into the real world to see
a glimpse for ooh
from an animation standpoint the camera
movement in this shot is stunning and
what we see in misaki's room definitely
speaks to her character shelves full of
neatly arranged books with a few stuffed
animals tuck neatly underneath makeup
beauty products and perfume arranged
into neat little baskets this is the
room of someone who's very organized
very concerned with being presentable
and very very repressed as soon as
Misaki is awake she moves to leave the
room filling the screen with the striped
pattern of her shirt the title of the
song puzzle appears on the fabric and
one of her fantasy girls tears away a
puzzle piece to give us a way back to
the realm of fantasy
here we see Misaki as she wants Sato to
see er that is a literal angel the
embodiment of his salvation basking in
sunlight before the Gateway to the
outside world the thought of that image
sense Otto's deranged mind into
overdrive and as he goes out of control
his normal room is overtaken by the
anthropomorphised furniture that he
elucidates whenever delusions of the nhk
conspiracy crop up his mind is literally
blown all over the screen and we get a
glimpse at his innermost thoughts and
it's no coincidence that this core image
takes the form of an abstract
expressionist painting this is how the
agoraphobic sato sees himself in the
world around him he is alone frightened
and paralyzed within an endless expanse
of identical uniform dots that's how he
sees other people and clearly he does
not fit in with them the dull gray and
uniform pattern of oak a sense of tedium
while the murky crimson of the dots
creates a tense agitated atmosphere
around the image if there were any doubt
this shows Sato to be a depressed
stunted man cut the Misaki on the street
after a rain storm and note how even
when looking down on her the animators
have managed to use the reflection in
the puddles to frame her against the
heavens in fact whenever Misaki is
looking at the camera and the snows that
arse and sat those eyes are on her she
contrives to put the sky behind her she
goes out of her way to sell this image
of salvation but when the veil drops and
we get a glimpse into her mind we see
that it's just a facade misaki's own
little expressionist painting world is a
closed off box of a room with nothing
but stairs in a shelf to define it the
pink gradient in the background hints at
1/8 compassion but it's walled in by
dark angry red hardly surprising when
you look at the
sakis abusive home life it's clear that
she feels trapped and isolated and even
though she has nowhere to go she makes a
run to break free right before we're
pulled back to some semblance of reality
here we see Misaki holding up a little
puzzle piece as though trying to find a
place for it the obvious interpretation
for what this means comes in the next
shot where we see Sato wearing a shirt
with a similar piece on it Sato is
clearly a little empty inside and the
sake is trying to fill that void but
that's not the only way to look at it
the flat blue of the pieces backside
makes it look as though a piece of
Misaki is missing as well and as we zoom
in that emptiness grows to consume her
that certainly reflects what happens to
her over the course of the series
regardless of your interpretation what
follows is a rapid-fire barrage of match
cuts connected by a thin thread of
logical Association in order from the
puzzle piece to Sato to hitomi's hat to
a shredded heart to the heart tattoo on
one of the fantasy woman to some of her
Tommy's more alluring features to a son
print bikini model in a provocative pose
to an anime character in that same pose
on Yamazaki shirt hmm we get a slight
breather as Yamazaki moves aside for
Misaki so let's try to figure out what
that all means some of the match cuts
are pretty obvious Sato is on hitomi's
mind and as his first crush and first
lay the connection from heard of the
shredded heart makes sense as well but
the sexual imagery seems to come out of
left field after that thing is I think
we're looking at Sato's thought process
here the same erratic disjointed train
of thought that came up with the NHK
conspiracy in the first place he makes
odd logical leaps jumping from otomí
into various sexual fantasies until it
doesn't really matter who he's thinking
about at all then Yamazaki breaks him
out of it in an appropriately awkward
way another thing that happens often in
the show and his attention is drawn back
to Misaki in the park where she and Sato
often meet on Misaki shirt we see a
stylized hiki Komori that's obviously
Sato and then we see Sato in a frog
costume gleefully dive off a cliff into
the water in a direct reference to the
series big climax this gives way to a
series of symbols representing various
parts of the show the drug Sato only
takes in the manga novel them in the
Suicide Club for
at last the puzzle piece fills in an
image of Misaki in santos' Park and we
pan up to see her hat blowing away in
the breeze an oddly serene conclusion to
such a high energy intro like the show
itself
welcome to the NHK zopi is surreal and
evocative and more than a little funny
in a dark sort of way it might seem like
a lot of sound and fury but it actually
offers a lot of insight into the show's
two central characters motifs like this
shows use of abstract expressionism or
something that we'll be looking at a lot
in coming episodes you should see if you
can spot any in your favorite Opie's
before I get to them and on the off
chance you missed a favorite that I've
already covered you'd do well to check
out some of my older videos
this week's highlight is why very first
a comparison between the openings of
Baccano and Durarara complete with
terrible headphone audio as for what's
up next because I'm feeling like
something a little lighter I'll be
picking apart what works so well about
high Q's infectious exciting training
montage if you want to see that when
it's up click to subscribe and follow me
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me how great I am anyway as always this
is Jeff thew professional shitbags
signing out from my mother's basement