I don't know if this is the right place to discuss this, but it's eating away at me so...
After informing the guy who recommened I watch Welcome to the NHK what I thought of how it ended, he insists I missed something. He says what I missed was "all of it" and I should watch it all again
As fun as re-watching 500+ minutes of anime again is, it's not something i'd really like to do since I more or less just finished watching it.
I have since read a general plot summary of the novel which atests to my way of taking the plot first.
That in the end, Satou and Misaki are still torn-up emotionally but are "okay".
.
But apparently, that's not
it.
You can take the plot so many ways though, off the top of my head:
#1:
Satou and Misaki, even at the end, are still no more in control of their lives than they were at the start.
#2:
All the centric characters in the anime have at some time, been lonely. Yamazaki now has a wife, Hitomi has a family and Satou has Misaki (and vice versa).
#2b:
Which could lead that by what Misaki interprets the NHK to be, she believes somewhat that if it is to blame for all the misery in their lives then it would mean that all the members of the NHK are "together", leading to a resolvement of lonliness as well.
#3:
The whole, Satou was saved by the fencing put up by society, Misaki was saved by someone that cared about her, thing.
In the end, all of these rough explanations could be merged together, to form a multi-layered plot which basically arrives at the same generic conclusion: Those who thought they were alone in a world of despair now have people to hold their hands and as long as they're together, everything will be alright.
Basically, I cannot, for the life of me... work out how to see the plot beyond this. Apparently it was what my deffinition of the NHK was... which, as i'm aware was:
The NHK was a fictional embodiment of a cause of suffering, something to blame all the woe and hardships on.
Satou - His NHK made him feel inferior at every turn until he found himself as a college drop-out who hadn't got a job in four years. In actuality his tormenter was effectively his allowance as it lead him to lead a life of comfort that he didn't need to step away from.
Hitomi - Her NHK saw to it that she would be rejected by love until she felt truly uncared about. I can't really pinpoint her tormenter, to be honest beyond "she hadn't met the right guy yet" cheese-line I can't really figure out why she felt opressed. Quickly skimming through the Offline Meeting conclusion, perhaps it was her over-reliance on men who always seem to not need her. To which her tormenter is a veil of self-loathing, which she escapes from when her boyfriend proposes to her since she realises she's what he wants to spend the rest of his life with. Or something.
Yamazaki - His NHK was not allowing him to succeed at life, not with love, career or education. His tormenter was somewhat a false-sense of superiority, that the world would one day realise he is awesome and he could beat the system. The more he struggled against the NHK the more he realised the futility of it all. After he stopped fighting, his "arranged life" turned out to be great, he seemed to enjoy being a farmer and had found love in a girl he thought would have no common-interests with him as it was all arranged. A true "go with the flow" metaphor I guess.
Misaki - Her NHK lead her to believe she herself was the center of all the misery. Her mother commited suicide to escape her violent father, her violent father was still full of hate and so was unhappy he was burdened with taking care of Misaki himself, after helping her aunt with work she noticed her aunt and uncle fought more (don't know if a reason was given, could chalk it up to a failing marriage that Misaki is coincidentally in the middle of). She seems to label her NHK as God until she redefines what NHK means. She is saved by someone that is glad she is part of their lives.
So, I ask you... what is this marvellous thing that I have overlooked?
Maybe it's a play on "The simplest explanation is usually the right one". In which case it would surely be a
these people are all lonely, in the end, they have people to support them
thing. But I'm sure there's more to it than that.
