NIGHT HEAD synopsis – episodes 4

trigger warnings: childhood sexual abuse, suicide

We flash back to the brothers still living with their parents. Their mother and father are having a spirited conversation at home with some distant relatives, the Hanaokas, a married couple and their teen daughter. Masuo Hanaoka, a man around their father’s age, laughs and says he’s surprised Naoto is only in the fifth grade – around 10 years old¹ – given how tall he is. He had taken him for a high schooler!

Once she leaves the adults, Sanae drops all pretense – she lopes into the room smoking, and when Naoto tells her not to use his pencil case as an ashtray, she burns his hand. But things go beyond run of the mill bullying at this point – after showing a disturbing level of interest in what his burnt hand looks like, Sanae then proceeds to fellate Naoto’s hand in a way I can really only describe as sexual assault. Naoto’s powers come to the fore here not in protecting himself, but to protect his younger brother – when Sanae tries to reach for him next, Naoto’s psychic powers snap, pushing her away. In the present, Naoto recalls that this was the first time he had ever injured someone. 

Their recollection of events was that their powers were born in trying to protect their parents from a bad business deal – that the Hanaokas were trying to scam them, and if the deal had gone through it would have bankrupted both their family and their father’s business. However, it’s worth noting that in the past, Naoto first tried to tell his parents that Sanae was a bad person – and they didn’t believe him. When he speaks up, his parents assume that he must have done something wrong to her first, and then suggest that Naoya (age 5¹) must have “said something strange” to have upset her, and that Naoto shouldn’t go around making accusations like that. So, well before the brothers understood that their parents were being scammed, alarm bells went off because their parents thought Sanae was nice, and didn’t notice – or believe – that she was hurting them. The birth of their psychic powers came about because of the required escalation at not being believed – because now they needed to see and understand more than their parents did, so that they could be the ones to protect themselves as well as their parents. 

They describe the birth of their powers like so: 

What transpires after this is that – as the Hanaoka family attempt to move forward with their scam – the lads utilize their newfound powers to intervene on their parents’ behalf, ‘reading’ the ill-intent of the Hanaokas through touch, and preventing them from leaving with all the explosive, ham-fisted violence you’d expect from a 10-year-old. 

Naoto recalls that, “after that, it was hell” – he was banned from school, while Naoya was hospitalized – a year later, they were taken in by Mikuriya. What sticks out in their memory, however, was that clown doll. Naoto remembers its eyes being extra disturbing, Naoya agrees, and they laugh, wondering where the Hanaokas could have bought such a scary toy. In passing, Naoya says he thought its red eyes were particularly spooky – and Naoto, confused, asks him what he meant. Red eyes? The eyes were blue. No, red – Naoya is sure. They go back and forth on this, both absolutely certain of what they remember, but eventually drop the issue. While Naoto finally presses forward to look for their house, Naoya momentarily seems perturbed, thinking on the disconnect between their memories. 

A car horn honks, and they turn to see a young woman who they recognize, and call out her name: Mariko. She’s someone familiar from Mikuriya’s research lab, perhaps his secretary, and she’s politely cross with them for not appearing here sooner after escaping from the facility. She says that she’s been waiting here, since she knew they’d come eventually. Naoto becomes increasingly distraught, demanding answers: what about their home, parents, memories? Is any of it real? Mariko says she has a message to pass on from Mikuriya: “Find the answer for yourselves.” Naoto, in shock, asks if that’s all. To this, she says no – handing them a thick envelope full of money, “for living expenses.”⁴ In stunned silence, she tells them she needs to get going, and asks them to keep in touch – and that no one is trying to get in their way. But Naoto is still fired up, demanding to know if their memories were implanted by Mikuriya – and if so, what is their real past? Bluntly, she repeats Mikuriya’s message: “find the answer for yourselves,” before driving off – leaving them in the road, staring after her. 

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With this watch, the entire crux of the episode – two men, revisiting a traumatic site from their childhood – takes on an entirely different nuance, for me. It has both the textual understanding, as the birthplace of their psychic powers and subsequent institutionalization, but also of the implicit sexual violence of their older relative. Naoya’s later trepidation can be read as both psychic foreshadowing, as well as just straight up PTSD. I especially feel for Naoto, given that his seeming “maturity” in looking older could have led others to feel justified in pushing him further than he was capable or willing – or for people to not believe him, as we saw later with his parents. An older female relative who manages to slip under the radar, taking advantage of two younger boys with threats of violence? Even if this was their only encounter, it does go some way towards explaining the pair’s mutual discomfort around sexually aggressive women throughout the show.

This episode was a tough watch, and I really feel for the lads. A 5-year-old forced to read social situations beyond his years, learning to intuit danger to be able to avoid it, and his 11-year-old brother doing his best to protect him physically, boiling with rage… It’s interesting to think about the root of their powers in the context of this trauma. What George has presented us with is trauma that birthed “power” (in terms of psychic abilities), but while still understanding the limitations and difficulties they bring (much like PTSD). These powers are both a strength and a weakness, and the clarity with which this is linked to their trauma is both tragic and, for the time the show aired, refreshing. 

1. In his book George Iida Talks about NIGHT HEAD, it’s stated that Naoto is 27 and Naoya is 20. While they were at Mikuriya’s research lab for 15 years, this scene in the past occurs a year before he took them away – if Naoto is in the 5th grade, this would make him either 10 or 11, depending on his birthday. Naoya is described as being in kindergarten still, so 4 makes the most sense. I opted for 5 and 10 in the above writing because it felt less presumptuous (given context), but I suspect they are 5 and 11.   ↩︎
2. In his book George Iida Talks about NIGHT HEAD, it’s stated that Naoto is 27 and Naoya is 20. While they were at Mikuriya’s research lab for 15 years, this scene in the past occurs a year before he took them away – if Naoto is in the 5th grade, this would make him either 10 or 11, depending on his birthday. Naoya is described as being in kindergarten still, so 4 makes the most sense. I opted for 5 and 10 in the above writing because it felt less presumptuous (given context), but I suspect they are 5 and 11.   ↩︎
3. I can’t help wondering where George thought he would get a clown doll that large!  ↩︎
4. How they got by without money was one of my initial questions – this feels like a cop out, but I’ll let it slide, since I enjoy seeing their odd little journey. Stories about psychics often end up solving this problem by having them cheat at roulette, or poker – it’s a trope I don’t enjoy, so this is preferable. (…Wouldn’t it be fun to see them get part time jobs, though?) ↩︎