I’ve been watching Night Head Genesis and it still looks pretty boring so far. I mean, yeah, two brothers-psychics, a lot of drama, some elements of a detective story, conspiracies, moral choices and yadda-yadda-yadda, but generally it’s too serious and too self-important. The notion is that we still can’t fully comprehend what our brains can do, that there might be a whole world of hidden potential we couldn’t even dream of, but the presentation of this notion lacks an opportunity to relate. The two main characters do end up saving a lot of people most of the time, but they look like they’re just observers who don’t exactly care about the people they save (because, in truth, they don’t). If the initial idea was to represent everybody in a brechtian way without any possible connection to the viewer, I don’t think I like the way it’s turned out. It’s usually about the personalities I can relate to to me. I can’t say that I don’t like to observe human cruelty and stupidity sometimes — I loved the Polish movie Bejbi blues, for example, which is basically one big contest of teenage fucktardity, and I’m still a huge fan of Man Bites Dog… Well, that one actually had at least one memorable character I managed to place my sympathies with. I can’t find anybody like that on this show. Two main guys are just… guys, I don’t know. If it wasn’t for their psychic powers, they could have easily been secondary characters. Their adventures can produce an occasional stroke of lulzy genius (like what happened at that hick bar in the second episode), but those are just occasions. You wanna see some brechtian-like anime with some actually entertaining-looking characters — try Baccano!, there, I said it.
Or even Durarara!! — no, seriously, think about it: Izaya, right? Can you relate to him? Yeah, you wish you could, but I’m talking about real possibilities here, and they say «No, you fucking can’t». What is he? A human being of exceptional mental perversion with the IQ over 9000, decent physical strength and a mindset of a chessmaster extraordinaire who doesn’t seem to belong in this world whatsoever. He might be the douchiest douche ever to appear on anime screen, but you can’t stop yourself from intently watching every move he makes and anticipating more of those douchy things he subjects other characters to. Because that’s what he does — he makes suffering of others entertaining. That’s what we, viewers, are in there for. If we want to observe things happening matter-of-factly, we might as well observe them with extra-painful consequences for everyone involved, right? Kind of a sick thought, though.
But I digress.
Night Head Genesis was made by the same guy who did Sci-Fi Harry, about which I also had some mixed feelings. Not so while ago I’ve started reading his Dragon Head manga (what’s with this guy and «heads», anyway?), and guess what? I’m 2 volumes in and still waiting for it to get good. It’s very, veeeeeeery slow-paced, but, I must admit, somehow the brechtian element is implemented much better there. It works, fueled by the strong atmosphere of isolation and upcoming unknown danger. Might as well make an exclusive post about this manga if I ever finish it.
So yeah. First 11 episodes of Night Head Genesis are okay, but also kinda «meh». Loved the first ED song, though. Got stuck in my head a little at some point.
Of Hedgehogs And Shadows 