Night Head Genesis

Following a 15-year long seclusion in a research facility, brothers Naoto and Naoya Kirihara finally escape after the psychic barrier separating them from the outside world collapses. Abandoned by their parents, who feared their supernatural powers, the siblings now strive for a normal life. However, the two are soon forced to use their talents to save lives as the "minus energy" begins to engulf the world and crimes involving psychic abilities gradually multiply.

Learning to control their capabilities and using them for the sake of others will prove challenging, for Naoya is traumatized by his psychic abilities that allow him to read people's minds; while Naoto has hurt many close ones due to his unstable psychokinetic powers. With the help of the mysterious Shouko Futami, who can see into the future, the Kirihara brothers must find a way to foil the plans of an organization that seems to be linked to the harmful events related to gifted individuals.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kirihara, Naoto Main

Morikawa, Toshiyuki Japanese

Kirihara, Naoya Main

Ishida, Akira Japanese

Misaki Supporting

Ueda, Youji Japanese

Futami, Shouko Supporting

Watanabe, Akeno Japanese

Mikumo, Gengo Supporting

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Sonezaki, Michio Supporting

Yanaka, Hiroshi Japanese

Tsukasa, Kamiya Supporting

Yusa, Kouji Japanese

Kirihara, Yukihiko Supporting

Masutani, Yasunori Japanese

Mikuriya, Kyoujirou Supporting

Nakamura, Hidetoshi Japanese

Maruyama, Shunpei Producer

Yoshimoto, Masakazu Producer

Takeuchi, Yoshio Director

Iwanami, Yoshikazu Sound Director

Reviews

Dec 19, 2007

acceleratum

Recommended

Night Head Genesis is a show about people with psychic powers and the origin of that energy. It start with the story of the two brothers and their own problems being accepted in society due to their psychic power, evolves into a story about fighting to save the world from a supposed cataclysm and this unveils an elaborate plot about the world, nature, the growing psychic energy and its two sides, the good and the evil.
The theory is well explained and based on common scientific knowledge with a spiritual touch, the energy of all living things, animal, plants and humans is evolving and granting ... humans powers, all the wrongdoings of humanity turn this power into negative energy causing catastrophes and ultimately the armaggedon. Of course by doing good, and accepting the powers given to humanity we can evolve together with earth into a brighter future.
The theory is basically this but while the show does a good job explaining it in the last episodes the plot is very flawed, for 20ish episodes you'll follow the story of the brothers fighting against a big corporation who doesn't care for the future of normal humans but suddenly the story ends abruptly without even explaining what happens to most characters.
The last two episodes happen an year and half later and the two brothers again use their powers to prevent another disaster, this episodes are more of a showcase of what would be like if the show didn't end so fast i guess, wasting so many episodes building a complicated plot to end it abruptly greatly damages the show overall and despite the last episodes giving some clues helping to understand the whole story behind the psychic powers the previous 24 episode plot is just unfinished and the little story on the last two would probably be the start of another season. With all said and explained I cant recommend greatly this show despite having great potential, was completely ruined. Its still enjoyable and you do understand more or less what happens at the end, the soundtrack is very good and its not a bad watch if you can bare the sudden shallow ending and not knowing what happens to most secondary characters.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Feb 16, 2016

ggultra2764

Mixed Feelings

Nighthead Genesis attempts to mix around sci-fi, horror and drama in its focus on brothers Naoto and Naoya, both having supernatural powers that lead them to be confined to a laboratory up until their recent escape years later as adults. At first focusing on a series of cases where the brothers meet others with paranormal powers like themselves, they eventually cross paths with an enemy corporation seeking to abuse paranormal powers for their personal gain.

On the one hand, Nighthead Genesis has its moments of effective storytelling and character depth as Naoya and Naoto encounter other espers like themselves who are outcasts due to their powers ... and the brothers find themselves forced to deal with having to use their power to take lives when confronted with the enemy corporation espers later in the series. For the most part, the series applies the esper powers of the characters for more realistic applications as there are limitations to the scale and control that characters have with their powers and can find themselves becoming exhausted or being on the brink of death after applying large-scale effects with said power. Plus, the show's efforts with horror are genuinely suspenseful at points as enemy espers exploit the mental vulnerabilities of their victims to drive people against one another and to exploit the morality of the brothers to bring them under their control.

On the other hand, the show's storytelling approach has quite a number of flaws. Night Head Genesis' pacing is slow enough to the point where it causes development in the plot to drag and the majority of antagonist characters are so shallowly evil that you could care less when they are eventually killed off, even with the show's half-assed attempt at trying to paint sympathy for a few of the villains in one of the final episodes of the series. An annoying feature of the series is Naoya's angsting during many of the show's intense moments, which will have you wishing you could punch the guy out. Also, some of the show's sci-fi elements go a bit too far within its boundaries when it explores elements such as what happens to an esper when their power evolves too much and a later case tackled by the brothers involving an earthquake hitting a town.

The visuals to Night Head Genesis are also a major issue as the series is quite low-budget for a 2006 TV anime milking esper powers for a sci-fi anime. While sporting attractive-looking character designs, the series suffers from inconsistencies at many points with properly drawing their details, makes liberal use of animation shortcuts during action scenes and features laughably bad implementation of CG animation for vehicles and special effects that clash rather badly with the regular animation of the series.

While Nighthead Genesis has its moments of effective storytelling and sci-fi lore, it still suffers greatly from plenty of missteps in its pacing, storytelling elements, characterization and visuals. It's no wonder this baby is not too fondly remembered by many who seen it back in 2006.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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May 18, 2008

superdx

Not Recommended

After reading some reviews and lacking anything else to watch, I gave this series a go. Paranormal, sci-fi, two brothers - components for a decent anime. At the end though, this is one of those series that makes you want to take a screw driver to your eyes and ears.

The sound is fantastic. It brings back memories of watching X-Files, and the people responsible for the score really hit this one on the head.

The story is about standard anime fare - two protagonists which are brothers, gifted with extraordinary abilities, are prophesied to be either the destruction of the world or the rebirth of a ... new one. However it takes a long time to drive home the plot and certain encounters drag out just for the sake of filling air-time. The animation is so-so, nothing spectacular.

The characters are extremely annoying. The brothers depend on each other a lot, but their method of displaying their dependency drove me mad. The number of times the brothers call each other by name of just simply "brother!!" are through the roof. There's only so much repetition I can take - it brings back memories of DBZ where it took Gohan 3-4 episodes just to cast one energy ball. There is a considerable amount of verbal back and forth, mostly nonsensical threats that are associated with the worst of creature-of-the-week anime series.

Unless you are extremely bored, and have absolutely nothing else to do with your time, I would give this anime series a pass. There's a lot of stuff out there to watch instead.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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