Night Head 2041

I expected another Ex-arm Instead I got Akira that was just way too much on the nose. (And worse in every other aspect as well) At first I thought it would be a political story considering the genre, but then it suprised me when the show started inclining towards more religious route. In the second half it went back and connected it with the political aspect. Don't get me wrong. In it's core the idea is decent enough to follow and expand upon. The problem lies with its terrible execution and abysmal handling of its own characters. If you can even call them that. Show started ina rather mysterious way with too much exposition. Exposition that will keep on not only repeating but also multiplying. I mean, why would you even relay an information to your brother that he has already been well aware of for MANY years ? Like he gets it. The water is wet and our parents are sacks of shit. Shocker. Instead of slowly explaining the themes and meanings of the show, the story just drops everything on you in one episode out of utterly nowhere. Up until that you could have interpreted it in couple of ways and theorize about your own possible interpretations.. But worry not ! There is no longer any need for using any percentage of your brain power. It could have been handled so much better. The entire thing was just couple of dudes sitting in a room and explaining what the story is about. What an easy way out of good writing. The other thing that really grinds my gears is the Noah's ark bit. Ark, rapture, dying for sins of humanity, return of Christ, crusifixion and all the other good christian stuff can be found in here. But Noah's ark showcases a big problem with the show. Instead of remaining as a painting in the big exposition scene, the show later draws attention to its own symbolism and that just makes me role my eyes. Don't tell me. I get it. I get the meaning. Why do you have a need to explaing everything ? Just shut up you. Leave something to my imagination. I know this feels like a minor thing but like I said. Its like this the entire time. Of course its capitalism that gets the most amount of shit. I was suprised that the word capitalism wasn't actually mentioned. Words like competition, equality and new version of the word materialism get mentioned all the time. And its pretty obvious on whose side the story is considering what religious figures represent each side. I liked it more when there were subtle mentions of war in middle east (that is still going on in 2041(cringe) ) and ways how China and Usa distabilize those regions. Not that I disagree with criticism of capitalism but it could have been handled better. Just because I agree with some of its messages that doesn't mean it makes for a good show. For a while I also got the feeling as if atheism was getting blasted as well but I don't actually think its atheism itself. More like the act of not believing in utterly anything. Neither God/s nor reincarnation or not even something like nature. More than atheism it was criticising Nihilism. Some of its better ideas felt like an afterthought. I actually really like the ending to the Prophet character. Overall it was as if the author thought of ideas and messages they wanted to put into their story and instead of actually making a story they made a numbered list of why this and this is good or bad. The characters are utterly laughable. Well I would laugh if there was something to actually laugh at. They don't exist. There is not a single thing I can tell you about them other than the brothers like each other. And even those very strong bonds are showcased to us by the brothers calling each others names from a long distance. But trust me. They have like really strong bonds. But you don't wanna know about it here. It's something really special. They're not your usual brothers. They care about each other. With that said. I still ship the blue haired brother with the brother of the pink haired guy. You know ? The black haired guy. I thought they were about to kiss at some point and like a droplet of blood actually started pumping through my veins only to have been wasted on nothing. Also the designs. I know that rule of cool stands but since I am already at it I might as well mention it. An authoritarian world that supresses not only religion but also fiction and music has no absolutely no reason to allow its poster boys to wear such punk inspired clothing. Punk has always been going hand in hand with anarchism. Which is absolute opposite of what the government wants. Because you know....they want to keep on existing. Also why do the soldier uniforms glow in the dark in such vibrant colors. Or why make them glowy at all ?! Art is fun to look at. Might take a second to get an used to. But once you do its pretty ok. I actually like it. Reminds me of Dorohedoro. Sad thing is that it is so forgettable because of its lack of important and memorable character moments. I really love the voice acting. Its filled with well known voice actors. Feels like home right away if you are familiar with them which you probably are. Too bad they had such terrible script to work with. The dialogue is bad. Very bad. I refuse to elaborate. Night Head 2041 was many things. But let it be know that it was not boring. I had fun. Wasn't enjoying myself. But I had fun. If you are going to watch it remember that it DOES NOT care about its own characters. But only themes and messages. Which they also don't really do a good job of presenting. They do this coming full circle at the end but its just not earned at all. At least I learned something about how not to write a story.

Having watched the original series of 2007 years ago i can see the similitud and how much both shares, now i have to say that i was having it under my radar since the anouncement of his release when i watched the teaser but it took me a little bit of time to actually watch it. This is gonna be my humble opinion about it and im gonna compare it with his predecesor in some areas wanting to bring to those who until now didnt hear any about it and were planning to watch it (or already did it) the approaching of this new installment inhow good or bad was. This is not an secuel of the original series and neither is an remake of any nature but an reinterpretation with the inclusion of many new elements that in many ways tries to adapting the original story with the inclusion of complete new characters that takes an good chunk of spotlight even going so far to say that to an degree taked the same (if not more) screen-time than our main protagonist this time with characters like kuroki yuuya and kuroki takuya (who wasnt in the original one) , differents settings and an direction that although respect most of the main plot desviate just because the incorporation of so many new cast. I could see the direction in which they wanted to take this series trying to appeal maybe an more broad audiencel, because though i can see that keeped many of the origins and events in this series with our protagonist kirihara naoto and kirihara naoya (that had an completly new design btw ) and we can see them from the begginig, the pacing was too fast almost aboviating many things going straigh to the point and is due to the narration that had in comparision with his predecesor an more accelerated and less darker one losing many subtleties in how was told and really in this aspect the attention span that they might had in mind when they were making this series was probably focused to people who was declining to an much more aciton based series with some touches here and there of mistery. There is always an lack of good narration and compressed many revelations in just one episode which makes it confusing and pretty clear how little importance and care had in the mistery aspect and overall plot. Many could attribute this faults to his format of 12 episodes but the reality is that if you see it can realize how at his core wasnt pretending nothing very elaborate but rather simple from the beggining. Character development was ok with at least our four protagonist because the rest of the characters mostly were discarded without any proper treatment and used just to serve some purpouse to move with the plot, which also leaves to the next thing many key characters like misaki for example were just mentioned a couple of times and just like most of the elenct in this installment everything just handle really superficialy wihtout to much though about it. To newcomers who never heared about night head i think gonna find very interesting the overall premise to even some going too far to say that was very good or amaizing but i would reccomend you after you finish this one to give it a try to the old one (night head genesis) so you can grasp the charm and the essense that was lost in this new installment. What i find very strange was the use of cgi which in general terms was good (making me to remember another series like ajin or knight of sidonia) with 2d animation and i say this because in many scenes there are times were our protagonist are in cgi and intereacting with another character that its 2d feeling pretty off in my opinion i mean in both cases the quality if not bad but not the most smart decision if you ask me. Sound wise worth to mention the sound effects are dope as f@ck there are a couple of them that just sound epic like the sirens or the power itslefts and the quality is top notch, the ost was mehh not bad neither good the op and ending was good though. RESUME Nigh head 2041 in general terms is an decent series that although might not be close to the old one (night head genesis) losing so much of what made the series good wasting to much of the story with a pretty fast pacing and focused in the action for most of the time which leaded to a pretty confused narration and dissapinting way on not only handling key character but also giving them a proper screen-time yet managed to hold an good quality in the animation and at least in general terms was enjoyble although i could reccomend that when you finish it give it a try to his predecesor and see how much of a difference are in between these two.

If Marvel made a Disney princess movie and had it animated in Japan, that would be Night Head 2041. Night Head 2041 does everything right that Night Head Genesis did wrong. Night Head 2041 is perfect in that it is only 12 episodes (I don't think I had it in me to sit through another 24 eps of night head brothers). So much is happening all at once in every point of the show that the 12 episodes go by very quickly so I would say you might as well watch it if you are interested. However, I would not say that the storyitself is particularly well written, as previously stated, it has all of the cliches and over action scenes of a super hero and a princess movie. The CGI animation was originally off-putting, but I felt that it improved as the episodes went on (or I got used to it). Over all, I would say go watch it if you want, but its nothing particularly amazing. Art: 4/10 Story: 7/10 Characters: 5/10 Sound: 5/10 (atleast this version actually had an intro song) Overall: 6/10