The Japanese series knowns as ?Welcome to the NHK!? is often said to have been fated to be another run-of-the-mill drama-comedy series, had it not been for the presence of the unusual female lead. Nakahara Misaki is perhaps one of the most unusual romantic leads to have emerged in the anime industry in recent memory. She exhibits a number of traits that are most often associated with villains. She also displays some very human psychological flaws, such as bouts with separation anxiety, depression, and, according to one of the characters within the show itself, a dramatic personality disorder. She is also noted by other characters for being a compulsive liar.



The first impression that viewers might get of Misaki is that she's a nice, possibly religious, but very strange girl. She initially appears offering to help the main character of the show, Tatsuhiro, overcome his problems. Such problems include extreme social anxiety, some hints of paranoid schizophrenia, low self-esteem, and a Lolita complex. However, as the story progresses, viewers eventually come to see that Misaki is not all that she seems to be. She is particularly keen on manipulating Tatsuhiro into either accepting her offer of ?rehabilitation.? In one notable instance, she willingly paid for all of his hospital bills after he was injured, simply to force him into allowing her more easily supervise him. An earlier instance showed how willing she was to use Tatsuhiro's own social anxiety and self-esteem issues against him, manipulating him into going outside to check the veracity of a highly improbable statement she made.

However, Misaki is not entirely without her own issues to overcome. Throughout the show, she is shown to be a compulsive liar, such as claiming that she was physically abused by her father. She displays extreme separation anxiety when the prospect of her losing Tatsuhiro as her ?project? becomes apparent. Her appearance also clearly marks her as being a high school student, yet she is never seen in uniform and it is later revealed that she dropped out. She later comes back, but finds herself an outcast due to her social anxiety and her own disdain for others.

Some viewers may also note how just how much anxiety Misaki displays when forced into a situation where she is with her peers. While her confidence is overwhelming when dealing with social recluses like Tatsuhiro, she shows considerably less confidence and self-esteem during the periods when she was shown to have returned to school. Her self-esteem and perception of her social worth also seem linked to Tatsuhiro, with her mind interpreting his participation in her ?project? as his need for her presence. At one point in the comic adaptation, she confesses that she only singled him out for her project because his behavior at the time they met showed her that there were people that were worse than she was. It should be noted that Misaki does not appear dependent on Tatsuhiro, and that just about any social recluse will do. Also notable is how she seems to have overcome many of her problems by the end of the series, though whether or not this is the case is never made clear.