Night Head Genesis is an excellent arc-based mystery-series. It focuses on paranormally gifted people, with as main characters to seemingly special ones: Naoto and Naoya. When they were children, they were been locked up inside a research laboratory. The researchers may have had good intentions, it still doesn’t feel good to be locked up, especially as a child, so Naoto and Naoya came to hate that place. So then, fifteen years later, they finally get a chance to escape. After that, they get involved with numerous psychic incidents.

This anime has some great points, but at the same time, it gets held back by a few potentially bad points, but first, let me say that it’s got an awesome soundtrack. Night Head Genesis comes accompanied by a highly atmospheric OST, which really contributes to the overall mood. Ranging from the OP to a couple of very sad but simple tunes, the background music is totally amazing.

Now that that’s out of the way, in order to be able to watch and enjoy Night Head Genesis, you must be aware that Naoto and Naoya are quite close as siblings. Especially the first half is filled with “Naoto!” “Naoya!” “Naoto?” “Naoya”. While it’s not necessarily a bad thing (I didn’t mind this myself), I’ve seen a lot of people who became too annoyed with this to continue the series. It’s a shame, as it turns bloody awesome in the end.

Well then, this anime is divided into three parts. The first part takes up the first 12 episodes, Naoto and Naoya get involved with a few rather heavily subjected cases, with themes such as suicide and child abuse. This part starts out amazing, though it gets a bit worse with each episode progressing, and especially the last few episodes in this part aren’t really that enjoyable to see. Then the second part starts, and the good stuff really begins when the cases start to involve both Naoto and Naoya’s history and background, and they start to reference back to previously dealt with cases.

But the really good part starts with the third part, which starts at around episode 18. In there, the show works towards its final goal, which gets accompanied by some amazing scenes. A few annoying moments here and there, a few unexplained moments there, but overall, these episodes were greatly developed and very enjoyable. This also is one of the few series with an actual good and interesting ending.

Overall, Night Head Genesis has been an amazing series, though be aware that it has quite a few moments which can and will get on your nerves. If you can sit through that, you’ll be rewarded with a great mystery-series.

You know what? I’m surprised to say it, but that actually was a great ending. It’s strange, as I expected this series to fall into the pit of predictability, like so many other series did before it, but no. This actually is the second series, after The Third, that introduces a whole new arc in its semi-final episode, and actually pull off a great ending. Why did these shows avoid the thing that strikes almost every series?

I think a major point is the building up, as strange as it may seem. Usually, a show has one big climax, where the final bunch of episode work towards. Side-characters are sacrificed in order to focus to the main character, tension builds up, and things are starting to look really bad. And that’s where the problem lies. It’s so hard to make something new and fresh out of that, when these three things have already been decided. You really need a series of the calibre of Noein or Utena to really make something worthwhile out of it. Most shows, obviously, don’t have that calibre.

The thing that made Night Head Genesis so fresh was that this ending focused on some newly introduced characters, instead of the usual main characters. Naoto and Naoya are just there, doing their thing to save the world, nothing more. By making the stakes in this episode higher than ever, but focusing on something other than Naoto and Naoya, the creators did make sure that this was an appropriate ending for this anime.

The fact remains that usual endings are just way too limited. Most of them exist to show how much certain characters have grown (Good Witch of the West, for example, or Makai Senki Disgaea). Others show one major character, usually a protagonist, who has some serious issues and threatens to do something stupid (Ouran High School Host Club, NHK ni Youkoso, Magikano). The thing is that this character has to be brought back to senses, in one moment, when the climax is at its highest. That’s obviously not an example of good character development. These things take time. And there is of course the ending where the great evil has to be defeated. The problem here is obvious: the great evil has to be defeated, otherwise the ending won’t be conclusive. It becomes way too predictable. These endings have to rely on how well developed and emotional their characters work. Like I said. That’s difficult.

I loved how this episode didn’t make the worst possible scenario come true. Naoto did his thing, he made sure that the earthquake wouldn’t trigger other earthquakes, and he did this in advance. When the earthquake comes, okay, things rumble a bit, though the tension isn’t as high as when something unexpected happened which would trigger even more earthquakes, but it’s so much more realistic and enjoyable. And not to mention that the creators found another way to provide a nice twist in the ending. Not by having a main character fight for his life, but by actually killing off one of the newly introduced side-characters. Even though he’s been introduced on such short terms, his dying words were great.

And god damn, Shoko. Only now I realize that the creators really “killed off” one of my favourite characters. She really isn’t coming back. That is SO sad for her. While this ending doesn’t beat the endings of Noein, Utena or The Third, this one definitely goes into the file of “succeeded endings”. I’m glad to see that this anime avoided the pitfall that strikes almost every other anime. I’m glad to have seen this series, even though it doesn’t enjoy much popularity.