CHAOS;HEAD / First Impressions

Summary:

While sleeping, Takumi finds himself in a world of water, and Rimi is there, wondering why the sky is so blue. He answers that it was because she wished for it, but she denies it, so he admits that he was the one who wished for it and further explains that this is both of their imagined worlds. When Rimi then questions where that sky is, he replies that it’s wherever she wishes it to be. The final thing Rimi asks before Takumi wakes up is if it’s okay to wish for it. Realizing now that he had a dream of Rimi, Takumi wonders what he should do. At school, he passes by the new student Kozue on his way up the stairwell and notices her fall and scrape up her leg. She takes out a bandaid for it, but she then notices that he is staring at her, so he hurries off. In class, Misumi and Rimi tell Takumi about how two detectives paid a visit to their principal yesterday and were interested in a list of all the students in the school. Right as Misumi changes the topic to Kozue, she walks in, and while Misumi is off trying to talk to her, Rimi asks Takumi if he was okay going home by himself the day before yesterday. Rimi then notices that Kozue is standing beside Takumi looking like she’s about to cry. Kozue places another bandaid on Takumi’s desk as if to give it to him, so Rimi tries to explain that Takumi isn’t mad at her and is actually just shy and withdrawn.

Later that day, Takumi sees Aoi Sena walking around with her Di-Sword out, and since he’s curious about where she bought it, he follows her. Just as he’s thinking about going back home, he notices a chain on the ground and follows it into a streetcar where Sena is waiting. Once he’s inside, she prevents him from leaving by closing the doors, and she thinks that he’s here to report an error. Sena explains that there’s not a perfect world because errors exist, and she goes on to compare everything including people to electronic devices. She asserts that it is not a question of what’s seen but rather of what’s being shown, and she qualifies this by citing how 80% of the information a person receives through his or her senses comes through sight. In describing how these images become pulse signals that are sent to the brain, she brings up the science of Visual Rebuilding and how people’s senses, wills, and even physical movement could be controlled if converting certain information into neural pulses were possible. What disgusts Sena is how there are people in the world who would sacrifice others for their own profit, and she feels that ignorance is a sin. She ends by warning Takumi to be suspicious of the world and to know its mechanisms, and as she walks out, she offhandedly questions if the world that he sees is real.

When he gets home, Takumi finds an email waiting for him from Yua saying that she wants to talk to him again and that she’ll be coming over to his apartment the following day. He assumes that it’s a trap, so he spends the next day away from home at the internet cafe. Unfortunately, Yua still manages to track him down. Despite the force she uses to restrain him to keep him quiet, Yua is concerned about Takumi and doesn’t want him to get hurt or be unhappy. She asks him to stop killing people and is convinced that he has dissociative identity disorder, so she wants to help him by taking him to the hospital. Although Takumi considers the possibility of multiple personalities, he decides that this isn’t possible and that it’s Yua’s delusion. Thinking of her as an enemy, he forces his way past her and out of the internet cafe, running all the way to a park. He notices a police officer in the distance, but he then sees Yua talking to that officer and pointing at him, so he runs away again. Takumi flees all the way until he reaches an alleyway where he’s met by Ayase, and she proceeds to lead him to a subway tunnel. The first thing Takumi thinks about once they stop is how good Ayase would look in a swimsuit, but she brings him out of his fantasy by revealing that the police suspect her too because of the lyrics she wrote.

Takumi in turn reveals that he was betrayed, but he insists that he’s innocent and that he only witnessed an incident. Ayase views that as guidance of some great existence, and she thinks that it’s unimportant whether what he saw was real or an illusion. She claims that his pain and anger are necessary things, and that’s why he needs to find his sword quickly. Ayase knows that the sword he bought was a fake, and when he asks how to obtain a real Di-Sword, she demonstrates by shattering the space behind her. After she pulls a sword from it, the dark void closes as if nothing had happened. Ayase explains that the sword is something that holds their fate, focuses their grief, and is for interfering in a transcended place. Since Takumi doesn’t understand what she means by transcended place, she explains that it could be another possibility in the same dimension or a delusion, but what they call it is meaningless. The one thing that’s certain is that the sword exists there too. Takumi uses this to conclude that the Di-Sword is a product of FES’s delusions, and to demonstrate, Ayase directs his attention to the other copy of her that’s appeared wearing a swimsuit, just like he had imagined earlier. The two girls then launch into an explanation of how Shibuya is unique and is known by all as a young people’s town. They attribute this to divine will, and they claim the Di-Sword is guidance by that will.

At around the same time, detectives Ban and Suwa are back at the scene of the third New Generation incident, and they’re testing gravity by swinging a coin in a circle. Ban explains that there are places in the world where gravity becomes unbalanced, and it’s referred to as GE Rate. If the GE Rate of the crime scenes are all abnormal, then they can conclude that the incidents happen at such places and could predict where the next incident might occur. Back in the tunnel, Ayase tells Takumi that obtaining a Di-Sword isn’t something that can be taught – he has to find it himself. All she can say is that the Di-Sword is visible to those who have power, and she urges him to feel the will chosen by the world. Before leaving, she finally tells him her name and gets his name as well. Takumi then heads home with thoughts of the Di-Sword in his head, but once there, his attention is turned to an email he receives from Grim. Included in the email is a link to a video that was supposedly shot by the New Generation criminal. The video, which is very blurry, shows a group of five people on the rooftop of a building, and right before they jump off the edge, one of them recites the whose-eyes line. Though frustrated, Takumi suddenly realizes something and replays the video. In the background, he can hear a creaking, just like what he heard when he met the guy in the wheelchair who called himself Shogun.

Preview

Ugh. This wasn’t a bad episode – in fact it was quite interesting from a plot point of view – but trying to put together some of the pieces of what was explained this week made my head hurt. What Sena said about people’s senses and wills able to be controlled and what Ayase did to bring out her Di-Sword reminded me of the Matrix, however it doesn’t necessarily sound like there’s both a real world and an illusionary world. Instead it seems like delusions might be the key to getting to what’s real and what’s not. What also bothers me is that all the girls seem to know more than Takumi, yet none of them – at least for now – seem to be lying to him or are hiding something big from him. What I’m trying to get at is that it doesn’t appear that any of the girls are involved with any villain or shadowy organization, and there is generally a lack of explanation about what’s motivating each of them. The closest we have to a villain is the guy in the wheelchair, but I’m not so sure that’s not just form of Takumi himself.

Speaking of suspecting the girls, the most suspicious out of all of them is probably Yua, especially after the Group Dive video where it looked like she was one of the victims. Her hair style and hair color matched the victim’s, and it seems too big a coincidence not to be true. I’m also wary of Nanami because she’s gotten very little development even though the OP shows her holding a Di-Sword, and she seems like a good candidate to betray Takumi.

36 Comments

  7. As ANON said in his spoiler, which is the truth and all the other girls are also connected to the New Gen cases differently…its messed up with many tragedies from the past. @_@

    JCDRANZER
    Reply

  10. I thought Takumi’s behavior was stooping to new lows this week… hurting Yua (probably wasn’t a delusion… *probably* — She told him she was going to come to his house because she knew he only had one other place to go where he could use the internet – genius!) and then ignoring the transfer student when she got hurt even though he was the only one around. Poor girl. And then getting caught imagining Sena in a swimsuit.. so much for innocent fantasies.

    Maybe they’re setting us up for positive character development when he finally pulls his shit together. : )

    Trillian
    Reply

  13. this series is definatly strange-i like the mystery aspect ot oit ant the use of online search engines and other normal means of investigation. Also that the main charater is an otaku mmo junkie gives it realisam. Also deciding whats real and whats not in this anime is hard. Though i have though of something i think that the cause of all of this is right infront of use the who time.

    Chaos
    Reply

  15. oww , i hate so much when people spoil when they comment think that if u know the plot(cause yu`ve played the game or read the manga ) so just shut up or don`t spoil i said this beacause someone spoiled me just days after i finished the game, anf chaos head i basically done for leave us thinking

    david
    Reply

  25. It seems to be alot like the matrix, in the very first episode when taku and rimi were in that world where it was only them, it might be that the world he sees is an alternate reality but for some reason or another hes connected with a way to see the “true” reality, and theres an organization that is sending these externals signals causing everyones senses to be controlled. its still too early to say, but one thing i know for certain is each episode gives me an amazing amount of anticipation for the next, easily my favorite series for this season.
    (ill assume the 6 girls in the opening has beaten the “system” of senses controlling)
    but ya its still perplexing and my guess is merely a theory, one that could be WAY off.

    Precise Moment
    Reply

  32. omni the reason that every girl had, it going to be revealed soon, very soon , what i`m wondering what ending they would choose from the game or, they`re goi to made up a new end, i`m sticking with the idea that they`re going to chooose to create a new ending

    david
    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *