May 9, 2017
With the success of Sword Art Online there has been an influx of stories that attempts to reconstruct, in some other cases blatantly rip off, its formula and concept. Virtual reality is indeed interesting and deserves to be explored by various sci-fi narratives. However, it’s always a challenge to grasp such a futuristic premise and successfully deliver a story that revolves around it that balances world building, character development, and overall plot progression. Good Night World is such a case that tries to cater to each of these departments and almost does a decent job with it, until the author decided to haphazardly merge everything
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into one half-baked conclusion.
The story revolves around four players in the virtual game “Planet”. They act like a happy family that care for each other when in reality they are actually a family as well in real life unknowingly. This is quite a surprising catch because it lays the foundation for a potentially compelling family drama but with the virtual reality setting included. Not only is that main drive of the story but also the presence of the legendary “Black Bird” which has the bounty of 300 million yen, which attracted people who don’t normally play online games.
At the get go, it immediately establishes the situation between game and reality. There are characters that reject reality and immerse themselves within the game which has become quite the stereotype for online gaming stories. But then there are also characters that play the game because they are interested with the “Black Bird” event. This serves as an interesting deconstruction because lines such as “It’s just a game” is being thrown so often and casually that certain players are only motivated to continue playing because of the money reward. Things such as rare items and skill points seem irrelevant all of the sudden, becoming a game of wits instead being one about being the strongest player or guild in the game. It stresses a point that all of your achievements inside the game will mean nothing if you are incapable of living in the reality, but what if the game offers a reward that serves as a ticket to a better life? The story explores on that further, albeit it never gives the answer.
Everything was going well with the strong start and foundation it has but all of the sudden things became weird halfway. We get a bit of resolution with the family drama but then it uncovered things that made things more complicated. It became more than just an ordinary family drama, it became a very serious apocalyptic story with their family at the core. The Black Bird’s real origins and purpose is unveiled and that propelled the story’s direction away from what made it very interesting in the first place. It would’ve been fine if only they gave it less importance in the story but it became a threat that endangered humanity all of a sudden. It then breaks down the barriers of the virtual world and reality proceeding to become a very intense yet uninspired sci-fi thriller while dragging the family drama with it.
It could’ve been better to be honest but the problem is that the author paced things rather poorly. The world-building at the start is done pretty well albeit it required better exposition. The characterization is there, though it’s often a struggle between character background and character development. The overall plot progression is also there, but its attempt at a very intense and world-shattering climax makes its flaws more known by abandoning the virtual vs. reality conflict it has and then makes a statement that two of them are just the same. Overall, it is a mess that could’ve been handled better. Still, it’s still a manga I recommend to readers who like sci-fi fantasy in general as it has enough things going on to get hooked. I recognize that the author wants it to be an ambitious piece of work, but it should’ve focused on its strengths displayed at the start of the story.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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