Welcome to the N.H.K., Volume 1 Paperback – January 1, 2006

A little background on the hikkikomori is an individual who subjects him or herself to being an indoor recluse for months or even years as a result of giving up on life. The term hikkikomori is of Japanese origin, though the stigmatized phenominon does exist outside the country. The hikkikomori aren't typically people who are well put together and they seclude themselves because of past traumas or previous failures. The main character is himself a hikkikomori supported by a cast of odd characters. One, a girl, who is tasked with counseling and reintegrating him back into society. Another, a former classmate and fellow hikkikomori interested in initiating a game company that designs erotic games. The story itself so far is a progressive narrative on the MC's resolve to terminate his hikkikomori status in order to regain some control back into his life while ensuing a partnership with his classmate in developing games exclusively for the hikkikomori demographic.The narrative itself is great, but due to the sensitivity of multiple subjects such as sex and eroticism, the manga itself may offend casual readers. That said, art-wise, the manga itself is excellent and is easy to follow.

The book came in earlier than I expected it to, and the condition for a book printed over a decade ago is pretty good. No library labels or anything like that

as someone who hopped on with the anime, i can honestly say i REALLY enjoyed the manga!

Weird and wacky with plenty of Otaku humor about a guy who is Hikkomori, a shut-in with trouble socializing or even talking to other people especially girls. A girl, Misaki, tries to help him to resume a normal life and rejoin society. Entertaining!

Such an amazing manga series! One that not many people know about, I can't recommend this series enough.

GREAT ITEM LOVED IT !!!!

I got up to volume 4 of Welcome to the N.H.K and I just can't go on. Initially the cool style of the art appealed to me, but the story just has no point. It is so repetitive and doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Here we have Satou, an anime and porn obsessed shut in. Along comes a cute but strange girl to "cure" him...but she's not doing a very good job. Satou's character seems very one dimensional. He pretty much wants to screw every girl he comes in contact with. He hates himself and thinks he's useless to society. There's nothing about him that makes him a particularly likable character, other than the sympathy he gets from others by being so damn pathetic. I guess I just can't root for a character like this. He's really such a loser that I hope he doesn't have a happy ending.This manga is definitely not for kids. There is a lot of sexual content in the manga and also suicide and drug references. The adult content doesn't bother me, but it doesn't seem to move the story along. After 4 volumes nothing has really happened! I can tell that the author himself didn't know the direction he was going when he wrote this. No event feels particularly important or relevant. Just a random series of events. Don't waste your time with buying this manga.Pros: cool and unique art, edgy contentCons: dumb story with no progressstupid and unlikeable characters who are difficult to connect withVery few truly funny parts for a "comedy"

A fantastic take of the welcome to the nhk universe, definitely meant to be read after complete the novel and the Anime. I hope Tokyo Pop reprints them!