Good Night World

グッド・ナイト・ワールド

7.15(3K votes)

Ranked #7393Popularity #2828

chapters

volumes

Status

Finished

Published

Dec 28, 2015 to Jan 9, 2017

Authors:Okabe, Uru

DramaFantasy

Worth Reading? — Global Verdict

7.3/10

Average Review Score

67%

Recommend It

Reviews Worldwide

International Reviews

BlueKite

Mixed Feelings

With the success of Sword Art Online there has been an influx of stories that attempts to reconstruct, in some other cases blatantly rip off, its formula and concept. Virtual reality is indeed interesting and deserves to be explored by various sci-fi narratives. However, it’s always a challenge to grasp such a futuristic premise and successfully deliver a story that revolves around it that balances world building, character development, and overall plot progression. Good Night World is such a case that tries to cater to each of these departments and almost does a decent job with it, until the author decided to haphazardly merge everythinginto one half-baked conclusion. The story revolves around four players in the virtual game “Planet”. They act like a happy family that care for each other when in reality they are actually a family as well in real life unknowingly. This is quite a surprising catch because it lays the foundation for a potentially compelling family drama but with the virtual reality setting included. Not only is that main drive of the story but also the presence of the legendary “Black Bird” which has the bounty of 300 million yen, which attracted people who don’t normally play online games. At the get go, it immediately establishes the situation between game and reality. There are characters that reject reality and immerse themselves within the game which has become quite the stereotype for online gaming stories. But then there are also characters that play the game because they are interested with the “Black Bird” event. This serves as an interesting deconstruction because lines such as “It’s just a game” is being thrown so often and casually that certain players are only motivated to continue playing because of the money reward. Things such as rare items and skill points seem irrelevant all of the sudden, becoming a game of wits instead being one about being the strongest player or guild in the game. It stresses a point that all of your achievements inside the game will mean nothing if you are incapable of living in the reality, but what if the game offers a reward that serves as a ticket to a better life? The story explores on that further, albeit it never gives the answer. Everything was going well with the strong start and foundation it has but all of the sudden things became weird halfway. We get a bit of resolution with the family drama but then it uncovered things that made things more complicated. It became more than just an ordinary family drama, it became a very serious apocalyptic story with their family at the core. The Black Bird’s real origins and purpose is unveiled and that propelled the story’s direction away from what made it very interesting in the first place. It would’ve been fine if only they gave it less importance in the story but it became a threat that endangered humanity all of a sudden. It then breaks down the barriers of the virtual world and reality proceeding to become a very intense yet uninspired sci-fi thriller while dragging the family drama with it. It could’ve been better to be honest but the problem is that the author paced things rather poorly. The world-building at the start is done pretty well albeit it required better exposition. The characterization is there, though it’s often a struggle between character background and character development. The overall plot progression is also there, but its attempt at a very intense and world-shattering climax makes its flaws more known by abandoning the virtual vs. reality conflict it has and then makes a statement that two of them are just the same. Overall, it is a mess that could’ve been handled better. Still, it’s still a manga I recommend to readers who like sci-fi fantasy in general as it has enough things going on to get hooked. I recognize that the author wants it to be an ambitious piece of work, but it should’ve focused on its strengths displayed at the start of the story.

Community Discussion

Yakushoku Distopiary

Shafir_Esmeraldo

Recommended

OK, this is my first review in MAL, and my first review for a manga overall, so... Be gentle, nii-san. Oh, also... This is my 2nd manga completed, and my 1st manga readed without an anime adaption (you can say this manga is the one who maked me into read manga) knowing this, please understand me and my point. By the way, I'll try my best to not write any spoilers, but be careful If you read this before readed some chapters of Good Night World. ________ -Story When I started this manga, the premiere for my was a mix of SAO and Overlord, so, I started Good Night Worldwith this expectations, but... I encountered something very different. Story at the start is more light, with all the Planet thing and the Akabane Family. While reading, It remembered me to SAO or Accel World in a point, also with all the group things I've finded similarities with Overlod in a way, so I thought the story would be something similar to them. But, with the advance of chapters, the story torn'd out to be pretty obscure. I really liked how this manga was at they mid-point. But, uh... The final is pretty dissapointing. All was a chaos, and the final was the typical ''all went okay at the end''... I expected a more realistic ending, to being honest. Also, the final isn't very conclusive, leaving behind the possibility that Planet and the Reality are still mixed, but the confusion comes because most of things aren't explained at all, so they just leave without a conclusion. I hated the final, to being honest. Advance was great, twists were awesome, and in many parts the story didn't got mercy to kill characters or show they cruel reality, even If in some parts weren't like this, but anyways, it was cool. I've would given an 8 or more If the end had not been shit. -Note: 7.75 ________ -Characters Liked the characters, but, somewhere near the end, they felt so unrealistic. They changed without develop, and they changed A LOT, like Azuma accepting Taichi to be Ichi, while at the start he hated the whole Planet idea and, mostly his brother. Also, very characters were pretty unrelevant to the story, like the Mother (sorry, I don't remember her name) and I don't really liked any character in this manga besides Piko, and she didn't even appeared practically in the story. Oh, but the Akabane Counterparts as Ichi, Shiro and AAAAA were cool. Talking about Aya, she's interesting, but nothing than a plot-device at the end, sadly. She is based on a real case, that's why she's interesting. Basically, the Characters apart was bad. -Note: 5 ________ -Art Art at the start was acceptable, practically mediocre I'd say, but at the advance of chapters, drawing and shades were very cool, also the scenarios were good drawed. And, it was good to look at, some arts like the Black Bird and others were pretty cool. Not an expert about this, but I liked it. -Note: 8.25 ________ -Enjoyment I enjoyed the manga, yes. But the final were nothing but deception. It is better than what I heard, about being a mix of SAO and Overlord (honestly, better than this two) but while reading I've expected an adult final or something, something at the height of the development. -Note: 6 ________ -Overall I did not regret reading this manga, the first one that is introducing me to this whole world of manga, so, yeah. ¿I recommend it? Yes. If you like Seinen demography, you will like this, but not expect a SAO ripoff. And, well, If you like psychological/obscure genres, I recommend it too, but don't expect too much of the final. -Final Note: 6.75 (You can take it as a 7)

8 found helpfulJan 27, 2019

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Good Night World

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Yakushoku Distopiary

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