| Chapter 12 - "Welcome to the Locked Room!" | |
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Volume |
3 |
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Chapter |
12 |
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English Name |
"Welcome to the Locked Room!" |
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Japanese Name |
"Misshitsu ni yōkoso!" (密室にようこそ！) |
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Published (Japanese) |
May 26, 2005 |
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Published (English) |
June 2007 |
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Pages |
39-76 (38 pg) |
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Welcome to the Locked Room! ("Misshitsu ni yōkoso!", 密室にようこそ！) is the twelfth chapter of the Welcome to the N.H.K manga.
Summary[]
Misaki Nakahara decides to use drastic measures to remodel Tatsuhiro's helpless brain. She shows up to his room with handcuffs and rope. While she asks him to hide away momentarily while she prepares the room for the therapeutic session, he falsely believes and imagines Misaki ridding him of his virginity in a submissive fashion. She confines him to a chair using the rope and handcuffs. He tries desperately to escape so that he can return to his video game world of Vina'Tiel.
She begins a harsh mediation with him. She reminds him of how he spends his days unemployed and living off of his parents' allowance, despite the fact that they invested millions of yen in faith that he would one day become independent. She humiliates him by reminding him how lowly and dependent of a human being he is and how things will never change for him on his current course of life. [1] In a state of disquietude, Tatsuhiro imagines himself in thirty years time. He is easily agitated, spends his days playing online games, wallowing in lustful urges, unkempt and hopeless. His parents have completely given up hope on him and leave him to his own devices. The world shatters around him as he looks at himself in the mirror, seeing what he has become. Misaki then elaborates, reminding him that his parents will one day pass on, and he will be wandering the streets alone, malnourished, and sleeping underneath a bridge. However, she promises that she will never abandon him despite the possibility of that scenario. She tells him that he must listen to her every word, as she is there to save him. It is at that moment that Tatsuhiro views her as an angel descended from the heavens.
There is a brief moment of comic relief where Tatsuhiro sees that she is reading from a book called, "Total Brainwash Manual: Light and Dark". This takes Tatsuhiro out of the state he was originally in, and he becomes very defensive about himself and makes attacks on Misaki's character. She puts duct tape over his mouth and runs out of the room, tears in her eyes.
Tatsuhiro believes that he's been trapped in his room for an entire week, when suddenly he thinks of a way to escape. He grabs his keyboard between his handcuffed hands and writes to Mia for help on his online game. It is at that moment that Yamazaki barges through his door. Yamazaki admits that he his alias was Mia the entire time, and that he did this to teach Tatsuhiro a lesson that real-life feelings of love are nothing more than chemical reactions. He tells him to use this anger to fuel his motivation for creating their ero-game. At that moment, Misaki barges in behind him, and tells Tatsuhiro that such a military approach to curing his hikikomori was a mistake. She will cure him by moving into his apartment and giving him treatment around-the-clock.
Footnotes[]
- ↑ In the manga, Misaki is much more domineering, assertive and honest with Tatsuhiro than in the anime. In the manga, she assumes much more control in his life than in the anime, and protects her own self-esteem by making Tatsuhiro feel bad about himself, and view Misaki as his sole source of survival.