Good Night World

Surprisingly good Netflix anime addition. I had no expectations outside of a very short description going into the first episode. To respect that experience, I fully recommend watching all twelve episodes, and consider Good Night World a very good anime.

The brief premise going in revolves around members of a family who spend a great deal of their lives playing a fully comprehensive, virtual video game called Planet. Their lives in the real world are at one extreme, their time in Planet is at another. A lot of this anime is spent showing the differences between the real world and the virtual realm.

As the show develops, we learn that the members of this family are all deeply connected to the game Planet. This includes development of sophisticated artificial intelligence which explodes into a variety of problems, first in the game, then in the real world.

I'm a big fan of any story that really takes a big swing with interesting ideas, and Good Night World's story goes completely off the deep end! While completely different, this anime unfolds like some sort of technological X-File. I also like how all the huge ideas are tied directly to individual characters, their experiences/motivations.

I'd say this comes at a bit of an entertainment price, because when Good Night World is in the game Planet, it's a lot like many anime; fun and full of action. But in the real world the characters and scenes can be abrasive and a rough watch. I fully approve, because there is a purpose to all of it within the context of the story, and how things play out.

I felt this anime really stressed one aspect of humanity, specifically our lack of perfection. Maybe Good Night World spends too much time on each character's flaws to allow them to be likable? Perhaps, and I do think this effects dramatic moments where it can be difficult to pull for any character.

I'd say Good Night World has a little inspiration from the movie Paprika (2006), and like that movie its pretty impressive how much content is delivered in a relatively short amount of time. Definitely a journey told and an interesting watch.

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.

I would definitely classify this as a horror anime and I did not know that going into it. It started off strong and I kept watching, but as things didn't really go well and bring good character development, I grew tired of it.

Generally, I don't do well with horrors. Not because I have a problem with them persay, but I'm too sensitive to spiritual things, so it freaks me out quite easily. Not scare, freak out - very different.

Initially, there were elements that suggested it might go that way, but when the show gets about halfway, you are introduced to the main antagonist or goal for most of the characters and that's where it gets super creepy, gross, gory and somewhat suggestively explicit. I DO NOT recommend this show and will not be finishing it. It feels straight up demonic - and I love anime, so don't take it like some anti-anime thing - it legit feels off. SAO was way better!

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.

"Good Night World" didn't really convince me in its first few episodes, which is why I was ready to stop watching after the third episode - but I'm glad I didn't.

Because although the anime seems a bit boring at first and has no recognition value, it picks up speed after the first hour and tells a story that is peppered with sadness, mistrust, fear, solidarity, etc.

Visually, the anime is also impressive, as the animations and character designs are very impressive in some places.

"Good Night World" was definitely a surprise hit for me personally. I would suggest looking past the first hour of almost pure world-building.