Tatsuhiro Satou

Summary
Satou Tatsuhiro is a 22 year old, socially withdrawn, parasitic hikikomori. He lives off of the allowance that his parents give him and from the food Misaki cooks for him. At the start, he is depicted as a hopeless human being destined to rot in his apartment room. Until one day, he came across a mysterious young girl who will eventually save him from his Hikikomori state. He was born in Hokkaido. The last place he attended school was Heisei Bunka University, a private school, but he dropped out.

Appearance
Satou is a somewhat tall and often times shady looking man. He is sometimes seen with stubble and messy hair, has deep eyes, and huge eye bags. He normally wears a jacket, cap, and glasses whenever he goes out, giving him the typical otaku/stalker look.

He is sometimes depicted as a thin, malnourished individual, but this was only when he faces times of absolute need for food.

He is often seen smoking a Marlboro cigarette.

Background
Satou Tatsuhiro, who was born in Hokkaido, came from the country side before coming into Tokyo. From conversations with Hitomi Kashiwa, it could be assumed that he spent his middle school and high school in his hometown. He joined the literature club where he and Hitomi were the only members. They would often play cards and talk about conspiracies, which is pretty much the only thing they did in the club room. It is unclear if they ever had a romantic relationship or not, but from what Satou has said regarding a past event, it could be assumed that they had mutual feelings for each other but never got more than that. He moved to Tokyo after graduation and studied at a university but ended up dropping out after a panic attack on a hot summer day on the way to school. Since that day he has made a point to avoid leaving his apartment as much as possible, which led to his hikikomori way of life.

Personality
Satou is a rather indecisive and lazy person. He knows he is a hikikomori and knows how he can get out of it, but decides that it is too much of an effort to actually do anything about it. The most remarkable thing in Satou is his paranoia and mistrust to the point of believing that everything is a conspiracy against him, and due to being a hikikomori for so long, he often tends to believe that people make fun of him or see him as a joke.

He is often selfish, a liar and somewhat cynical. His selfishness is demonstrated, for example, when by his own decision he decides to escape with Hitomi abandoning the project he had with Yamazaki or the times he has distanced himself from Misaki only because he thinks about his own well-being (when he suspected Misaki or was absorbed in a video game) hurting her in the process. The reason why Satou tends to lie is due to his inability to face his problems, he is a coward who decides to lie to escape his conflicts, which only ends up making the situation more problematic and making Satou feel worse. Satou's psychological traumas have made him delirious many times, to the point that he hallucinates too much believing that everyone is against him. At the beginning of the series, it is seen how Satou fears the exterior and people, since it is difficult for him to communicate correctly and ends up wrapped in embarrassing situations (see in episode 1 or when he goes to Yamazaki's school), all this due to their trauma and paranoia. However, as the story progresses, Satou gradually gains more self-confidence.

However, Satou's fear of reality and the outside is persistent, reaching the point of feeling that the world is a cruel place, demonstrating an inferiority complex and the loneliness Satou feels in the world, which is demonstrated when almost try to commit suicide. That is why Satou has an escapist side that prefers to immerse himself in fiction, either when he started playing galges or when he played RPG and fell in love online.

It is also mentioned that during high school Satou used to be a bit colder and more degrading, especially with people he did not like, being completely disinterested in terms of studies, romances or friends, because he believed that this attitude was 'cool'.

Story
Satou's first appearance was during a dream he was having about a conspiracy against him. He is then awakened from the dream by the sound of the Purururin anime theme song. He contemplates about going next door and complaining about the noise and was just about to go outside but suddenly gets a flashback about his first time in Tokyo and how he has convinced himself that everyone around him is laughing at him. Scared, he ran back to his apartment and decided to live as a hikikomori. He is next seen lying down on his bed, wasting away the day listening to the anime music playing next door. He gets flashbacks of his high school days; about his senpai, him trying to save a junior middle school student, and his times in the classroom. He wonders why bad things keep happening to him. He hallucinates about his furniture talking to him, telling him that it is all a conspiracy. It was then that he decides that an evil organization, called the Nihon Hikikomori Kyoukai (N.H.K.), is conspiring not just against him, but the entire world by airing funny and addicting anime so as to make people into hikikomori. Convinced that he has discovered the truth, he wonders if he has become equal to a hermit who has spent years alone in mountains. He decides to test this and tries to break a bottle with his bare hands. He succeeds but injures himself in the process. Just then, his door bell rings and he fears that it might be the electric company. He opened the door and was surprised to see a young, beautiful girl holding an umbrella. A short while after, an older woman appears before him. The older woman hands him a flyer and starts to talk to him about the increasing NEET (Not in education, employment, or training) population. Satou wonders if he is a well known NEET in the neighborhood and if this woman somehow knows it too. He starts to speak about how if simple prayers could cure hikikomori, he would not be living like this. He shuts the door and sighs in disappointment. However, he hears the older woman call on someone named Misaki, who Satou assumes is the young girl. He slightly opens the door and sees that the young girl is looking right at him. She smiles and leaves afterwards. Later that afternoon, he sits in his apartment and thinks to himself, saying that he knows what he must do to get out of being a hikikomori. He thinks that if he were to get a part-time job, then the rumors of him being a NEET would stop and that Misaki would not think of him that way as well. He leafs through the flyers given to him and finds one for a hiring in a manga cafe. The next day, he decides to go to the job interview. He makes his way to the place of the cafe, continuously reciting "I heard you were hiring". When he got to the cafe, he was about to say his line when he saw that the girl on the counter was Misaki. He stops short, which made Misaki ask him why he was there. Satou, not knowing what to say, immediately says the first thing that came to mind; he asks her if she has ever ridden a motorcycle before and if she would want to ride one with him one day. He leaves right after, but did not notice that he had dropped his resume'. Upon getting home, he tries to strangle himself to death but gives up later on. He starts to wonder why a servant of god would work part time, but later realizes that they are also flesh and blood who need money. Moments later, the doorbell rang. Satou hesitates from opening it, thinking about the misfortune that befell him when he opened the door the other day. He decides to ignore it but the person behind the door started knocking. After a short while, Satou heard something drop into his mailbox. Curious as to who is behind the door, he looks through the peep hole and sees the Misaki. He opens the door but she had already left. He looks through his mailbox and finds his resume' with something written on the back. It says that he has been chosen for a project and that he is to come Mita park at exactly 9pm. He wonders if this is one of those schemes where they use young women to get men into joining in clubs and organizations. He struggles in deciding whether to go or not. He then thinks to himself that he was planning on going to the park anyway, and that he should not let that letter get in the way of his schedule. Later on, he is seen sitting on a bench on the park, preparing to smoke. He later on questions the validity of the letter, thinking that it might be a prank and that he was a fool for even coming. Just then, Misaki came and asked him why he ran away during the job interview. She asks him if her was afraid to work outside because he is a hikikomori. Satou was not able to answer, so Misaki reassures him ,saying that she has come to rescue him and that she is able to cure him of his hikikomori state. Misaki hands him a contract for him to sign. Skeptical, Satou asks her if she really should be outside at night, given that there are molesters. He also asks if this was some kind of religious solicitation, to which Misaki denies. Satou returns the contract, says that he is not a hikikomori and walks away. Misaki blocks his path and hands him back the contract. She tells him that she will be waiting at the same time and place. Satou goes back to his apartment and stares at the contract. However, the anime theme song is again played at full volume, which urges Satou to kick the wall out of frustration.

The next day, Satou stayed in his apartment and watched tv, shadowboxed, and ate cup ramen. Near the end of the day, he lies down and wonders for how long he is going to keep up this routine. He remembers a science-fiction novel he read long ago and thinks if he is in a similar situation as the main character in the story. He sits up and started to unconsciously sing along to the anime theme song playing next door. He realizes this and kicks the wall again. He reads the contract given to him by Misaki, a contract which would bind him to go under counselling with Misaki as the counselor. Satou mumbles to himself, saying that a hikikomori would never go out two days in a row, which he realizes is contradictory to what he said last night about him not being a hikikomori. The night went on with him trying to decide whether he should go or not. He looks at the clock and wonders if Misaki is still waiting for him. Just then, a sudden thought came to his mind of the possibility that she might be molested or worse while waiting for him at the park. Deciding that it would be trouble if he were to get involved in a sexual harassment crime, he runs off to the park. Upon arriving, he sees Misaki petting a stray cat. She tells Satou that he is one hour late, to which Satou responded by asking her who she really is. Misaki answers that she is a nice girl who wants to help Hikikomoris. Satou repeats himself and says that he is not a hikikomori, but Misaki retaliates by telling of how he acted when she and her aunt knocked on his door the other day. Misaki also accurately tells Satou of his daily routine. Satou tells her that he stays in his apartment all day because his work requires him to, saying that he is a creator. When Misaki asks what he creates, he gives a vague answer about how it will put Bill gates to shame. Misaki ignores his answer and tells him to come again tomorrow with the contract.

He goes back to his apartment and starts drinking and realizing just how bad a lie he had just told. Meanwhile, the anime song continues to play next door. Satou decides that this is the last straw and charges next door, and bangs on his neighbor's door, demanding that the song be turned off. When no one answers the door, Satou opens it himself and sees someone sitting head down on a desktop computer. Satou shouts his demand, which made the person raise his head and turn to Satou. The person turned out to be Yamazaki Kaoru, Satou's junior from high school. Satou starts to talk with Yamazaki but sees the many H-games and erotic materials lying around the room. Satou was a little surprised but initially knew that Yamazaki would turn out this way. When Yamazaki tells him that he is studying programming at a design school in the area and shows him his textbook, Satou got the idea of burrowing the textbook and showing it to Misaki as proof that he is a creator. However, Misaki does not believe this and asks for a game that Satou has created. Satou refused at first but eventually relents but asks for a month so he can search for the game he made. Misaki accepts this and agrees to meet Satou next month. After Misaki leaves, Yamazaki is shown to have followed Satou and hears the whole conversation. They go back to his apartment where Yamazaki shows his disappointment in Satou. Satou apologizes and says that he was just caught in the spur of the moment. However, Yamazaki offers him the chance to write the scenrio for a Hentai game, which Satou accepts but quickly regrets afterwards.

Satou tries to back out by asking if an ero game is really the best thing to show Misaki, which flipped Yamazaki's switch. Satou was handed a pile of ero games by Yamazaki, saying that it will help Satou appreciate ero games more. Satou played one game and instantly got addicted to it, going so far as to wake Yamazaki in the middle of the night 3 times just to ask questions about the game. Satou would have also forgotten about the promise he made to Misaki, had Yamazaki not reminded him of it. Satou is then assigned to do character background. However, Satou realizes that he does not have many experience with real women, and that the only women he knew were Misaki and his senpai from high school. To help him, Yamazaki let's him burrow his private collection of girl's photos. Upon looking, Satou finds out that these were actually nude photos and he again got addicted, spending weeks holed up in his room collecting 30gb worth of pictures. Eventually, his computer broke down due to insufficient storage space. Yamazaki fixed it and saw Satou's huge collection of pictures. After a bried lecture from Yamazaki, Satou had a flashback of how he wanted to be an astronomer when he was a child, and how he turned out like this. Realizing his shameful actions, he went outside to take pictures of little girls coming out of school, and that he wants Yamazaki to take a picture of him doing it. As he is about to take pictures, Misaki suddenly appears behind him, asking what he is doing. Stunned, Satou looks for Yamazaki but finds out he has left him. Misaki then asks if Satou is a lolicon, to which Satou denies, saying that it was all part of his research for the game. However, when a sudden gust of wind blows up the skirts of the girls, Satou immediately prepares his camera, confirming the suspicion of Misaki. But instead of hating him, Misaki puts up a smile and tells Satou that they should meet up again and not to do anything that will get him on the news. Freaked out by her actions, Satou runs away fast.

Satou is next seen in his apartment. Struggling to come up with a good story for the game, he comes to Yamazaki for help. Yamazaki gives him some helpful tips on creating character patterns, which made Satou think of how a gal game heroine is similar to Misaki's current behavior towards him. Satou returns to his room but still has not come up with a good story, which made Yamazaki furious. Satou is dragged out of his room by Yamazaki and taken to a district of Tokyo where there is an abundant variety of anime related stores (Akihabara). While there, Satou has fun with Yamazaki and also comes up with an idea for a character. Towards the end of their trip, Satou is left alone in a smoking station where his Senpai from high school chances upon him.

Satou and Kashiwa Hitomi went to a restaurant where they talked about their times in high school and how their lives are going. Satou confessed to Hitomi that he is a hikikomori, to which Hitomi showed no surpise for, saying that she expected him to turn out that way. Near the end of the conversation, Satou asked Hitomi if they could see each other again, to which Hitomi said that it would be impossible since he is a hikikomori. Satou met up with an angry Yamazaki and went back to the apartment. While Yamazaki was talking about freckles on girls, Satou kept thinking of Hitomi's refusal and of Misaki's offer to him. Getting a new found determination to escape hikikomori life, Satou signed the contract and went to the park. Realizing that the deadline was still ten days away, Satou wondered about the possibility of Misaki being a goddess sent to help him. A short while after, Misaki appeared. Misaki asked why was Satou there, to which Satou replied that the game he was developing might get canceled. Misaki did no believe him and eventually, Satou confessed his lie about being a creator. He handed the signed contract to Misaki and asked who is she really, but Misaki simply said that she is a nice girl wanting to help out a hikikomori. Misaki said that the session will begin tomorrow at the same time and place. Satou is next seen waiting for Misaki at the park. She arrives moments later and they begin the lecture. Satou listened but was unenthusiastic about the lecture. He was even looked down upon by Misaki saying that a college drop out like him might not get the lecture. Satou decided to get back at her by manipulating the result of a dream analysis she was conducting. Misaki got angry and adjourned the lecture for that night. Satou went back to his apartment and thought about if these sessions would actually be of any help, but decided that he would humor Misaki and see where it goes. Then he goes on to his computer and writes the scenario for the game. After which, he goes to Yamazaki and hands him the script, saying that he does not intend to give up and that they will make a great gal game, which made Yamazaki determined as well. However, Satou accidentally steps on a pururin figurine which made both of them scream out of shock.

Satou is next seen trying to come up with a character script but has trouble writing down the dirty lines needed for ero games. He sees that the time is almost 9 pm and rushes to the park where Misaki is waiting for him. They begin another hikikomori recovery lecture about conversing properly. Misaki once again unknowingly insults Satou about how she looks down on him. Satou tries to get revenge by asking again about the results of the dream analysis. Misaki did not seem to be fazed and remarks that Satou is a virgin. She goes on by saying that Yamazaki has a girlfriend named Nanako. Satou finds it hard to believe and convinces himself that its a lie. Misaki challenges Satou to find out for himself, which Satou readily accepts. When he got back to the apartment, Satou thinks of the possible answers that Yamazaki might give him. However, when Satou is face-to-face with Yamazaki, he fails to ask him the whether he has a girlfriend or not. The next day, Satou decides to follow Yamazaki to his school. Once there, Satou ends up getting into a game scenario writing class where they are tasked to come up with a sample story proposal. Satou successfully comes up with a proposal but suddenly got the feeling that he was being laughed at because he is an amateur. He screams about the N.H.K. and ran out of the room. On the hallway, he sees Yamazaki speaking with a girl who seems to be the one that Misaki was talking about. When the girl left and met up with her friends, Satou overheard their conversation and how Nanako denied to her friends that Yamazaki was his boyfriend. Back in their apartment, Satou was drinking and talking with Yamazaki. Yamazaki started to tell Satou about Nanako and how good a girlfriend she is. Satou, knowing the truth, decides to not tell Yamazaki the truth. Later that night, he meets with Misaki and tells her about the happenings of that day. Misaki, however, seems to have already suspected that it would turn out like that, which made Satou suspect if Misaki's plan in the first place was to get him to go outside on his own and go to a place with a lot of people.

Satou is next seen in another dream of his where he thinks back to when he went to Yamazaki's school and convinced himself that the whole encounter was part of the NHK's conspiracy against him. He was woken up by the sound of Yamazaki knocking on his door. It was later revealed that Satou is pretending to be sick so that Yamazaki will take care of him. Truthfully, Satou's trip to Yamazaki's school made his hikikomori condition worse, to the point that he completely isolated himself from the outside world. However, a phone call from his mother shook him from his self pity. She said that she will be coming to Tokyo in a few days and would wish to visit him. She also said that Satou should come back home to find a job. Not wanting to return to his hometown, Satou lies to his mother, saying that he has already found a job and also a girlfriend he is planning on marrying. Afterwards, Satou realized how big a lie he just told and regretted it. A short while after, Misaki called him and asked if he's okay. They meet up at the park where Satou tells her about the lie and his mother. Satou then quickly has an idea and runs back to the apartment and explains to Yamazaki about his plan to make their own brand so he could deceive his mother. After coming up with details about the company, Misaki reminds Satou that he still does not have a girlfriend. Satou then goes back to his room and calls Hitomi to see if she can pretend to be his girlfriend, but Hitomi says she has other plans. Out of ideas, Satou considers having Yamazaki cross dress so he can pretend to be his girlfriend. Misaki then comes up to him and says that she can do the task. The next day, Satou goes on a date with Misaki so they can familiarize themselves of how couples should act. At the end of their date, they go to the park where Satou tells Misaki that she should say something about herself. Misaki reveals that she actually knows a lot about Satou, and Satou questions to himself of how Misaki knows his apartment's phone number. Satou pushes on about the topic and so Misaki tells him about her family tree. Afterwards, Satou is convinced that the family tree she said was a lie and wonders just who she really is. (to be continued)