Good Night World

The first two episodes of this series seemed like maybe it would have something to say about family dynamics, internet addiction, online vs. Offline personas and personalities, or something else. By the third episode, though, it becomes increasingly clear that it's not really interested in having fun with the premise, leaving the tone in the unfortunate position of being too absurd to be serious but too serious to be fun. Unfortunately this means too that, although this is a show about a "NEET" main character, it doesn't really have anything interesting to say about that social group... the show clearly WANTS to say something, it just doesn't know what it wants to say or how to say it.

The first episode or two was pretty neat! A good intro to the world and what's possibly going on, it sets up the characters and their in-game challenges to overcome, what the room for growth is etc. And it does this for their out-of-game characters as well! I thought "gee that's nice, sort of like another Sword Art Online, or No Game No Life. This could be interesting, I'll give it a shot".

But then it starts to introduce things that don't make sense, given the above-mentioned initial setup. So you think, "ok that's that's fine, it's not a complete bait and switch, there's just something deeper going on, I'll stay invested in the series to give it a chance".

But then it does it more. And more.

It shifts completely away from the vibe, setting, and challenges of the first episode(s), and even episodes immediately preceding the current. It also makes the mistake of setting things up and indicating that there's a high level of importance attached to them, but then they're completely dismissed in the next episode.

There's so much whiplash that I genuinely cannot help but wonder if this series was written by AI (or a child with a great imagination); it's just a mish-mash of ideas that don't connect or flow, over and over again. It's either that, or it was rushed. I.e., perhaps the writer(s) were only given 12 episodes to condense what should have been at least a few seasons.

Good night World deal with the open world RPG and dark life of geek and destroyed family. It takes time to raise the main question and develop the story, but when we had reached the first 4 episodes, it becomes clearest and deal with the bad relation to video game, numeric life and family troubles.

Between « Sword Art Online » and « Parasite: The Maxim », this anime mix MMORPG, deep questioning, action and blood. The in-game part is a bit less developed and let us with a feeling of « cheap » MMORPG world anime, but tend to make a perfect mix in the middle of the show.

Finally, I really appreciated the show, I had watched the last 7 episodes almost in a raw because a I was caught by the action and the story. I would really recommend this show to the fan of anime in a numeric world, who likes action, blood and deep sentimental character.

The reviews for this anime are too low in my opinion. As the most helpful review (current at the time of writing) points out the show doesn't really have something to say, but I'm not convinced this is a flaw of the show. In some ways, it felt like a more realistic take on this kind of sci-fi future a lot of shows try to make some critique or point about what would happen with futuristic technology, but realistically, these things are pretty much impossible to predict. Instead, the show focuses on great plot and family turmoil, and uses great sci-fi to do so.

The show is definitely quite cerebral in its plot, despite not making a point, but it definitely gets you thinking, if you're more philosophical in nature.

A good solid Netflix Anime Production which has enough in its story to draw you and keep you there. It wasn't until episode 4 and 5 that I saw its potential. Its story line stepped up a gear and the characters developed in such a way you feel intrigued to find out more. The same applies to the story line.

It's by no means a Demon Slayer, or Attack on Titan. However it sits on Par with other Netflix original anime's. So if you've enjoyed other Netflix Anime's give this a go.

One this I was surprised at was how it turned from "slice of life" anime to horror anime! And the fact it doesn't start as a horror, is a nice surprise when it does, if you're into horror (which I am) so give it a go and stick with it.