[thaumasiotes]

> Hikikomori (shut-ins / NEETs) seem to be a real problem... real enough that they've entered Japanese Anime culture as a new character archetype.

Character archetypes don't have to be real... they have to be interesting. It's vastly more likely that a character in a new show who draws on a different character in an older show does so because that original character was popular than that it does so because society as a whole has moved closer to that character in personality.