Misaki Nakahara

Misaki Nakahara(中原岬) is a primary protagonist in the anime, manga and novel of Welcome to the N.H.K.

Summary
Misaki is a mysterious high school girl who decides to help Tatsuhiro Satou with escaping from his Hikikomori lifestyle. She lives in a mansion that has a clear view of his apartment. In order to better help Satou, she successfully persuades him to meet her for nightly lectures. Despite taking on the role of mentor towards Satou, she herself also has a significantly warped world view as to impede her social interactions.

Personality
On the outside, Misaki seems to be a joyful and spirited girl (albeit somewhat odd). However, she is convinced that everyone around her dies or has something generally bad happen to them. In an effort to remove this self imposed stigma, she decides to help Satou with his severe social anxiety. As the story progresses, she starts to develop feelings of sorts for Satou, made apparent when she shouted that she needed Satou as he was about to jump off a cliff, going to his apartment everyday to make him lunch, and going as far as to attempt suicide when he seems to turn away from her.

Her personality greatly differs between manga and anime. In the manga, she is seen as sadistic and even manipulative, often times enjoying making a fool out of Satou. In the anime, she is more innocent and well behaved.

In the anime, she is portrayed as someone who is interested in psychology. This is shown during her counseling sessions with Satou, where she tries to apply psychoanalysis.

She is also somewhat compulsive. As seen when she hurriedly and suddenly runs off to somewhere to try to solve whatever problems Satou faces, coming up with strange methods of treatment for Satou, and even coming up with a "love contract".

Appearance
Misaki is an 18-year old girl going onto 19, and considered very attractive. She has short dark brown hair and brown eyes, and usually wears a yellow shirt with black sleeves. In the manga, she is also often seen wearing a a jacket with a scarf, a schoolgirl outfit, or pea coat with epaulets. It can be assumed that she is of above-average female height, as she is only a few inches shorter than both Tatsuhiro Satou and Kaoru Yamazaki.



Background
It is revealed that Misaki came from a step family. Her father died right after she was born, and her mother remarried sometime after. Her stepfather was a drunkard and would often beat his family. Misaki's mother was no longer able to cope and committed suicide on the Ishihama Promontory. Misaki stayed with her step father till her 3rd year of middle school. It was hinted by her uncle that Misaki continued to be physically harmed by her stepfather. This was also made apparent by her cowering in fear when Satou acted like he was about to hit her, showing a flashback of her stepfather beating her. It was not directly revealed what happened to her father, but Misaki hinted that everyone around her either dies or has bad luck fall upon them, like what happened to her mother and father. After middle school, she stayed with her uncle and aunt during high-school studies in Tokyo.

Meaning of the name "Misaki"
The word "Misaki" (岬) means "promontory" in Japanese. Her first father named her after the Ishihama Promontory, which existed near the house that her first father built. Ironically, this is the promontory by which many people have willingly cast away their lives by means of jumping. Notable attempts of suicide were made by Misaki's mother, Tatsuhiro and Misaki.

Story (anime)
Misaki's first appearance is when she is seen accompanying her aunt handing out religious flyers from door to door. The scene reaches a sort of climax when they come across Satou's apartment because as he struggles to talk to Misaki's aunt, his demeanor and response inevitably ends up freaking her out. Before going, however, Misaki is shown looking back at Satou and giving him a truly warm, gentle smile. She is next seen at the counter of a computer cafe when Satou stops in, hoping to apply for an open position. She asked Satou what he wanted, but in his awkward uneasiness, Satou stutters and stumbles over his words and ends up asking her if she has ever ridden on a motorcycle before and if she would like to ride one with him. Embarrassed, Satou leaves immediately, dropping his resume in the process. Later, Misaki stops by Satou's apartment to deliver his resume, but Satou of course neglects to answer; so she drops the resume -- on the back of which she includes a note -- in his mailbox. The note states that she has a way to cure Satou of his hikikomori state and to meet her at the park at 9:00 pm sharp. At the park, she revealed to Satou that he has been chosen by her to be the test subject for her project. She presents a contract for Satou to sign, obligating him to attend Misaki's counselling at the park. Satou refuses at first, but Misaki insists, saying that this might be his last chance and that she will be waiting for him at the same place and time the following evening.

After some deep contemplation, Satou again goes to the park where he finds Misaki waiting. Misaki asks if Satou has accepted her offer and if he has signed the contract she gave him. Satou retaliates by saying that he is not a Hikikomori and that Misaki misunderstands his situation, saying that he is a creator. Misaki decides to challenge Satou and gave him a month to show her his work, to which Satou accepts.

She is next seen catching Satou in the act of attempting to take pictures of young girls coming out of school. She asks him if he has a lolita complex, to which Satou denies, saying that it was for research purposes for the game he is creating. Misaki does not believe this and instead says to him that this is actually good for her project. She tells him that they should meet up again sometime but that he be careful not to do anything that would get him on the news. She then starts to mark her calendar and count down the days left before the 1 month allowance time she gave Satou is up.

She is next seen appearing right before Satou in the park, to which Satou believes is a wish come true. She asks Satou why he is there and if he somehow forgot that the deadline is still ten days away. Satou explains that the gal game he was working on is about to get canceled. Misaki sees through Satou's lie and immediately gets him to confess his lie. Afterwards, Satou presents a signed contract to Misaki, implying that he has accepted her offer. Misaki cheerfully tells Satou that everything will be all right now that she has come to rescue him. Satou asks who she is really, to which Misaki replies that she is a cute young girl who wants to help people out. Misaki then tells Satou that the therapy session will start the next time at the same time and place, then runs off. She does remind Satou that there will be a 1 million yen penalty if he skips out.

She is next seen walking up to Satou, who is waiting in the park. They move to a table and start the lecture. Misaki gives out a short overview of what a hikikomori is about. Afterwards, she gives Satou a psychoanalysis test by Freud. But before she does, she condescendingly tells Satou that this might be too much for a college dropout to understand, which infuriates Satou, causing him to tease Misaki by telling her a fake dream about a snake, a sword, an apple, and a gun which she has to analyse and interpret. After looking through a book and finding out the interpretation of the dream, Misaki blushes and moves on to another topic. Satou insists on having Misaki tell him what the interpretation was, which angers Misaki and lead her to end the session for that night.

She is next seen at the park, lecturing Satou about his tardiness, telling him that he should arrive right after eating dinner then starts the therapy session. Midway in the session, she gives Satou some tips on how to converse with others. She tells him that in order to gain confidence in conversations, he can think of the other person as someone lower and more pathetic than him. She says that she also applies this method in her conversations, and also uses her current converastion with Satou as an example. Satou is angered at this and decides to again ask Misaki about the results of the dream analysis. Misaki, ignoring Satou's taunts, asks if Satou is a virgin and that he has not yet had a girlfriend. She continues on, saying that even Satou's friend, Yamazaki, has a cute girlfriend named Nanako. Satou refuses to believe this and so Misaki challenges him to find out for himself. The next evening, she is seen trying to balance herself on the playground, conversing with Satou about how she suspected the truth of Yamazaki's situation. Satou also suspects if this were all part of a plan by Misaki to get him to go outside by himself, making him wonder if she really is that clever. However, she clumsily falls to the ground, cancelling out his suspicion. (to be continued)

Relationships
Satou Tatsuhiro