Forum - View topicNight Head 2041 (TV).
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2858 |
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Night Head 2041 (TV) Genres: science fiction, supernatural Themes: Plot Summary: It is said that humans don't use about 70% of their brains. It is believed that the mysterious powers some humans exhibit come from that part of the brain. There is a term for the 70% of the brain that doesn't get used... "NIGHT HEAD." Two men awaken in a forest. Cast out of society because of their psychic powers, two brothers named Kirihara Naoto and Naoya were kept in a research lab for psychics for the last 15 years. They hope that the reason they were able to leave the lab is because people were ready to accept and welcome psychics as a part of society, just like they were told by the head of the lab, Mikuriya Kyoujirou. But what they found was Tokyo in the year 2041, where not only was the existence of mental energy completely denied, but anything from books or visuals depicting supernatural phenomena, including psychics, were completely censored. The National Security Headquarters is tasked with upholding that idea of physicalism and protect the nation by reprimanding anyone with dangerous thoughts. On the elite special task force in charge of this were two brothers. Kuroki Takuya and Yuuya were abandoned by their parents when they were young and taken in by the task force. They believed that supernatural phenomena just didn't exist and never questioned their duty to chase down any dangerous criminal who thought otherwise, but one day during a mission, they meet a woman named Futami Shouko. "The barrier has been broken." Takuya and Yuuya end up encountering the wandering Naoto and Naoya, as though they were guided to the psychic brothers by Shouko's words. Brothers who flee, and the brothers who chase them... The story of two sets of brothers being controlled by their destinies is about to begin. |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2858 |
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#1
A retelling of an older series, "Night Head Genesis". I did not watch that series, nor am I familiar with the TV drama source material that inspired this and its preceding series. Nonetheless, the paucity of shows which interest me this season give me an incentive to try something which could entertain me for the coming quarter. World setting is simple enough: there's been a world war and Japan in 2041 has been at peace for 18 years. Anything related to supernatural powers (ESP etc.) is treated as a crime and special forces are specifically created to clamp down and subjugate anyone claiming special powers which defy the established laws of physics. Problem is, supernatural powers like ESP and the like are real. The two brothers who awake in the forest are exponents and have been sequestered in a research lab for over a decade waiting for the day when their powers need not be hidden because society has accepted them. Unfortunately for them, it's the complete opposite and they've attracted attention for all the wrong reasons. As for the other pair of brothers in the Special Forces unit, it appears at least one of them has a supernatural power of his own. It inadvertently saves his brother at the cost of failing the operation, but it seems the latent powers are of interest to multiple parties with an interest in seeing them develop further. The "Night Head" concept refers to the source of these supernatural powers being the unused capacity of human brains, so in theory many others could manifest similar powers if they unlock the "key" in their brains which the younger psychic brother alluded to in the car scene. Not enough information to go on for now for new viewers, but it might be explained further as the series progresses. |
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ACｘS
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1:
Night Head Genesis? Damn, that felt familiar. Cyberpunk elements in a dystopian world where religion, idolatry, cults, and the supernatural are banned, and hard science is king. Okay, interesting so far. First of all, I'm not completely enthusiastic with the heavy use of CGI. I personally don't like the animation that comes with it, which tends to be not fluid enough for my like. The stop motion-like animation is just something I can't get into. Another thing about such cyberpunk shows is that they tend to be cerebral in story. Intellectual. But lacking substance. Focus tends to be more on plot than character development. Of course there are exceptions, but that's kinda comes with the dystopian/cyberpunk package. But I must say, the production values are through the roof. I get strong Appleseed vibes. So it's not all bad; at least it's amazingly sleek and fun to watch. Not that stoked to follow this show, but I have time. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23803 |
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I thought this might be a "set in the same universe" as Night Head Genesis as opposed to an actual reboot (of sorts). I guess that's what you get when you don't bother reading the series summary. I never did finish watching NHG but clearly they have added a new element to this version: the prohibition against believing in anything supernatural as well as the unit tasked with bringing in spiritual leaders, etc. At least I think that is new. Perhaps those elements were in the original but didn't appear until later episodes of NHG that I didn't see (I'm pretty sure I saw at least half of the 2-cour original) and the creatives behind this version decided to "bump them up" to the first episode, but I kind of doubt it.
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SHD
Posts: 1752 |
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Just fyi - this is not a retelling of Night Head Genesis. It's most definitely not that. (Night Head Genesis was... a thing that wasn't good at all. From what I can see from creator/cast interviews/etc. everyone is kind of pretending it didn't happen, heh.) It's based on the same source material, but that's about the extent of it.
Night Head was originally a TV drama that aired in 1992-1993. Previously it had spawned a novelization, a manga, a movie, an anime (Genesis), a comicalization of that anime, and now Night Head 2041 is basically a reboot of the franchise that comes with its own comicalization and novelization. It has the same basic premise and the same leads, that is, the Kirihara brothers; but it has a completely new futuristic/dystopian setting and from what I can tell a new plot that loosely retreads some of the same plotlines as the drama but with many changes and twists. It introduces a bunch of new characters such as the Kuroki brothers, and "repurposes" some others like Kimie or Miracle Mick. (Shouko seems to be playing the same basic role...) The whole science vs spiritual stuff thing is also completely new. So you don't need to be familiar with the franchise to follow 2041, although if the comicalization is anything to go by I'm actually glad I'm familiar with the drama because otherwise I'd be fairly lost.  Let's just say the manga's plotting/pacing is not awesome so I hope the anime will do better on that front.
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ACｘS
Posts: 887 |
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2:
I'm curious: there was a flashback scene where the brothers were taken away from their parents. That scene was clearly animated differently compared to this CGI-laden show, almost as though it's a scene from a different show. Was it referring to an older show? A prequel that I don't know about? Back to the show. World War 3 happened which upended the world order, and it has something to do with psychics. So right now, we have a totalitarian and dystopian pro-science society that is anti-psychics. And there's a conspiracy where the ruling order is going to be run by psychics. Interesting... so why exactly are psychics seemingly at war with each other? I guess that's the main plot we're looking at here. |
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SHD
Posts: 1752 |
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No, it was just a flashback - both cases, actually. I suppose they were animated differently for stylistic reasons, to show that the scenes happened in older times. At least I assume. The point the show was trying to make, with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, is that spoiler[the two pairs of brothers are essentially the same, not even "mirror" images of each other. They seem to have the exact same power set distributed in the exact same way (the older brothers have psychokinesis, the younger brothers "reading" aka telepathy/empathy), and they seem to have the exact same backstory with the exact same issues re: their parents*. Except where the Kirihara brothers got taken away by Mikuriya and were experimented on in the lab, the Kuroki brothers probably got snapped up by the state in much the same way. *I'm not sure how deep the show is going to go into this and when, so spoilers I guess: the Kirihara brothers' backstory is that their developing psychic powers were not understood nor controlled, however they made everyone's lives a living hell and people, including their parents, were afraid of them. So when Mikuriya showed up and offered to take them in, their parents drugged them (the drug was put in a fizzy drink, hence the bubbles/etc) and had them taken away. This was obiviously pretty hard on them, especially on Naoto, and they had thought that their parents had thrown them away, driving them to eventually try and contact them... this part is going to be in the show, so I'll just leave it at that. Considering the flashbacks and the dialogue, the probably same happened to the Kuroki brothers. Actually, given how they went out of their way to show the two pairs of brothers having the same childhood memory (playing with the same toy), and how Yuuya, the empath of the Kuroki pair, felt the Kiriharas' presence, I'm wondering if there's not simply time travel involved but alternate universes, too... who knows. The Kirihara brothers may have gotten displaced in time/space when Misaki's barrier broke by some weird glitch. Anyway, being familiar with the source I have a fairly good guess at what the plot is trying to do re: psychic powers, but I don't like speculating much so I'll just wait and see, while fangirling... er, being very pleased about how the show is much better than what I had expected. OK, my expectations were really really low, but still, I'm loving what I'm seeing so far. The visuals are especially pleasing to me, not necessarily the animation but the whole visual design of the show, from the colors to the fashion (Kimie's leggings!), but I also really like the music, and wow, the voice cast is so good. And I like the new characters so far, Takuya especially.] {Mod edit}: Your post needed far more spoiler tags then you used for the references and insight you have with the source material. So I tagged most of the entire post. ~ Redbeaard 101 |
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Harleyquin
Posts: 2858 |
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A little more about the world this series is set in gets revealed in this episode, although it would be nice if discussion about the source material with relation to this show was given the spoiler tags.
It's strange how the pairs of brothers have backgrounds with similar settings yet end up on completely opposite sides. The runaway brothers were taken away from their parents nearly 30 years ago, while the special forces brothers were supposedly abandoned by their parents 15 years ago (same length as the supposed duration of the former pair's stay at the institute). Somehow the two pairs are linked, but there's no information to explain why they are beyond one photograph. The Japanese government's take on special powers is quite a simple one; monopolise all available resources at hand relating to it and drive home the public message that they don't exist. What people don't know can't hurt them if there's no chance of any interaction with the gifted ones in everyday life appears to be the ideal. It doesn't stop some from slipping through the cracks; viewers are not told what powers the cafe owner has beyond Yuuya's word that she's just like the brothers. It's amusing that Akira is on the list of banned material; I didn't think Japan in 2041 for this series would resort to doing what China did in the 200s BC. I can see where the show is going, so I'm sticking around to see if my guess is right. The action scenes work for me, while the world and its character development will need more time to show their hands. Nothing much more from this quarter catches my eye, so the only thing I'd like as a minimum would be for the air-times not to be too disrupted by the ongoing Olympics. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23803 |
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Yes, so far this show is much superior to Night Head Genesis in every category (a show that I enjoyed despite some deficiencies, by the way). My advice to the Kirihara brothers would be to cease dining in restaurants. That never seems to work out for them. Plus, that's a pretty flash car to be driving if you're hoping to stay incognito.
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SHD
Posts: 1752 |
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Er... I'm kind of scratching my head about the spoiler thing above?
;; The setting in this show is completely new, the Kuroki brothers are completely new characters as well, I've no idea what their deal is, I was just going by what I saw in the episode. I thought the show was being really blatant about it too, what with the children playing with the exact same toy in the flashbacks and whatnot.
Anyway, I'll try to be careful, but I'm not sure where the line is drawn... |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23803 |
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SHD - I should probably just let Redbeard expound further if he wants to since I may just end up muddying the waters, but I like your insights and I want to encourage you to keep posting in this thread, so in that spirit I'll express my opinion on how you can probably avoid any issues in the future.
First, as long as you simply post information/impressions/predictions/speculation that is based on things shown in the episodes, you should be fine. In that instance, I don't believe your first paragraph needed spoiler tags since everything you wrote came from the show itself. I guess Redbeard disagrees with that assessment and you should definitely question him further if you have confusion. Where I think you got into spoiler territory was in the next paragraph where you imparted information that could only have been gleaned from earlier incarnations of the show. Any time you do that, spoiler[(i.e. reference to the brothers being drugged and fizzy drink, etc)], you should definitely use spoiler tags to be on the safe side. We may eventually see a flashback of what I've put in a spoiler tag in a future episode, but obviously right now, somebody who is only watching this version would not know about it. As I said above, I hope this doesn't just make things even more confusing. |
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ACｘS
Posts: 887 |
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OH NO I'M SPOILED ;_____________;
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SHD
Posts: 1752 |
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No, thanks, this was helpful! I'm of course planning to put anything not implied in the show and coming from my own background knowledge under spoiler. I was just wondering because I thought I'd done it well the first time.  But I guess Redbeard will explain in more detail if necessary.
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11378 |
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Well, if there's any reason to spoiler tag his opinions in his last paragraph, I'm sure not seeing it.
But I probably would've just grumbled to myself except that the way it's all put under one huge tag (so my pointer loses the <spoiler> as I scroll down, and hides everything again), the only way I can even read the last two paragraphs is to quote the post, which then uncovers all the spoiler text, thus defeating the purpose. So it would be helpful if such slash and burn tags were selected by paragraphs rather than under one big chunk. Anyway, I don't know what the hell is going on right now, at least with the timeline leaping, but I'm enjoying it nonetheless, and I figure things will become clearer in a few more episodes. 
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ACｘS
Posts: 887 |
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3:
At first I thought it was a conspiracy. Psychics controlling a society by denying their own existence and pulling strings from the shadows. But now it feels like it's a story of capturing psychics with psychics. You know, like how criminals are caught using criminals in Psycho-Pass. How did it get to this remains to be seen, and it's probably something to do with this WWIII. So how exactly are the Kirihara brothers, especially in relation to the Kuroki brothers? They seem to share a similar history... maybe even the same history. |
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