Disenchantment with everyday life is hardly uncommon. Most of us harbor some secret hope that one day, something will happen to us that will make everything better, even though it's more likely the next exciting thing that comes our way is going to be unpleasant. Logically, we know that there is no substitute for hard work and talent, but it would still be nice to win the lottery. While superficially, Welcome to the NHK appears to be a parody of extreme Japanese subcultures, predominantly hikkikomori and otaku, at its core it imparts a more relatable story of a common struggle to move beyond fantasies of effortless success and find one's way in life.

The main character, Tatsuhiro Sato, was a young man with everything going for him. However, less than a year after getting accepted to a good university in Tokyo, he becomes plagued by paranoid delusions that he is the target of a conspiracy cooked up by a nefarious organization called the NHK that has made him into a hikikomori, a term describing someone who chooses to avoid social interaction. For the last four years, Sato has only left his apartment late at night to do basic shopping or visit a nearby park. As the series begins, he encounters the niece of a missionary, named Misaki Nakahara, who decides to make curing him of his affliction her top priority.

However, Sato wants nothing to do with her plan, and being prone to taking things too far, he becomes determined to convince Misaki that he is not a hikikomori rather than just ignore her. In the process, he discovers Kaoru Yamazaki, an old high school acquaintance has been living next door for the past several months. Together, they plot to create an adult video game and convince Misaki that Sato just works from home.

When the plan doesn’t work out the way they expected it to, Sato finds himself enrolled in Misaki’s amateurish therapy sessions. On the plus side, he is also venturing out into the big bad world again and just might be taking baby steps to rejoin society.

The show is a unique commentary on how to come to terms with the disappointments of life told through the perspective of damaged, lonely people who, like many of the rest of us, don’t know how to find what makes them happy. The show addresses a number of substitutes for real human companionship that people use to fill a void in their lives, like online games, Internet chat rooms and drugs, as well as touching on scams the desperate turn to. While the situations are often funny to watch, there is a poignant realism to the hopelessness that leads the characters to walk the paths they follow.

Not all doom, gloom and dark comedy, the show also encompasses a love story of sorts and touches on the theme of learning to appreciate what is right in front of you. Even if it’s not what you dreamed it would be, a good alternative to what you are looking for may be right in front of you if you open your eyes and are willing to accept what you see.

While initially regarding the show as a bit ridiculous and offensive, upon reflection the series is one of the more honest portrayals of people that I have seen. For those of you bothered by depictions of pornography, inferences of masturbation, or the topic of suicide, steer clear of this title. But if you can handle those things and are willing to regard the show with an open mind, you just might find something you’ll walk away from having enjoyed on some level.