Just came across this a few hours ago and had to spread the word – this is a brand new manga (5 chapters scanslated out of like based on the  first novel from the writer of Welcome to the NHK called Negative Happy Chainsaw Edge. It’s about a young man in high school who is walking home one day and stumbles into a battle between a man in a hooded trenchcoat weilding a chainsaw and a schoolgirl with a wooden sword. After an assessment of his life’s state, he decides he will find the girl and help her fight the chainsaw man in any way possible.

That’s what a plot summary looks like, but isn’t what this manga is really about. Essentially, it’s what happens if you take the equation NHK – hikkikomori + battles. Our main character is bored with his life and very emotionally stressed and confused, always wondering when things are supposed to change or how life can be more interesting. The recent death of one of his 2 best friends has him in a depression and his shitty grades aren’t doing anything to help him out of it. After his first encounter with the fighting girl and the chainsaw man, he decides that he wants to fight with her to give his life meaning, and even if he dies in his fight, it will have been to protect a beautiful girl! Of course, it quickly becomes apparent that he is totally useless in a fight and winds up being the girl’s mode of transportation instead.

What also is evident from early on is that this manga really isn’t about finding an escape from normalcy – it’s about how anything becomes normal when you get into a repetition, and reality is inescapable – one must find their place in reality and learn to be happy there. It gets these points across rather quickly and bluntly in comparison to NHK, though neither does a bad job of it.

Character-wise, the main character is pretty much Satou if he weren’t a hikkikomori, and the girl is easily as mysterious as Misaki, though about 70% more tsundere, and it’s apparent she might turn out to be equally unstable. As of chapter 5, there’s what I think will be a big plot twist starting to become evident, though I’ll let you decide/figure that out for yourself.

If you like NHK, this will almost feel like a repeat, but not an unwelcome one. Worth a shot, at least.