CHAOS;HEAD / First Impressions

OP:

OP: 「F.D.D」 by いとうかなこ (Itou Kanako)
Watch the OP! Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Stream

Summary:

Nishijou Takumi is reclusive high school boy who lives by himself and experiences many delusions. One of these delusions is that he’s accompanied by his favorite anime heroine Seira whenever he’s at home. Takumi only goes to school when he has to, and when he’s there, he doesn’t associate with anyone other than his friend Misumi Daisuke. He also has no interest in the girls in his class and refers to them as three-dimensional. On this day, Misumi tells him about a series of incidents being called New Generation, but Takumi isn’t interested. It’s not until his online friend starts talking about it too that Takumi reads up on what’s been going on. The New Generation Madness involves two separate incidents: one where a group of five high-schoolers jumped off a building and another where a fetus was discovered in a man’s corpse. Before Takumi can get too engrossed in the news, he’s paid a visit by his little sister Nanami who’s here to check on him. He tries to get her to leave, but she wants him to accompany her to get him a cell phone as per their father’s orders. Takumi refuses and won’t even take her to the train station, causing her to just leave in anger.

Once he’s by himself again, Takumi goes back to his online chat and is surprised when a user by the name of Shogun suddenly shows up with a link to an image. This Shogun person claims that more incidents will occur like the ones that have been happening, and he spams a series of image links. Takumi accidentally clicks one and is shocked at the sight of a dead man pinned to a wall by dozens of stakes. This freaks him out so much that he has to go to a net cafe to relieve some stress, and on his way out, he notices that the door of one of the other booths is open. Inside this empty booth is a bag with a set of cell phone straps similar to the one his sister has, and the computer screen shows a site about New Generation. As he heads home, Takumi suddenly finds himself alone in a dark alley, and he hears a hammering in the distance. When he goes to investigate, he finds a dead-end littered with the same stakes from the grisly image, and a pink-haired girl is finishing up nailing them into the same bloody corpse. It gets even worse when the girl turns around, identifies him by his name, and claims that she wanted to see him.

When she starts walking towards him, Takumi runs off in fear and returns home, only to realize that he brought with him one of the stakes. He panics until Seira appears and suggests that it was all a delusion, and Takumi convinces himself that she’s right. The next day, however, he gets the feeling that he’s being watched and thinks that it might be the pink-haired girl. It turns out to be just a girl with long hair and glasses, and she appears harmless. When he sees her again later that day from across the street though, Takumi experiences a delusion where she charges at him with the intent to kill, and this prompts him to run away. He ends up tripping and hurting himself, and the girl comes over to help him. She introduces herself as Kusunoki Yua and claims that she became interested in him after just one look at him. Takumi tries to get her to go away, but since he’s hurt, she helps him home. Once there, Yua recognizes the Seira figure that Takumi has on his desk, and it turns out that she’s a fan of the anime series as well. Takumi tells her all about his collection of Seira figures and then experiences a delusion where he thinks Yua is confessing to him. He’s knocked out of the delusion when Yua trips over a stack of CDs, and as she helps him clean up, she notices the stake he brought home. Not letting on what she saw, she proceeds to ask him to accompany her to the store to place an advance order on a Seira figure. Takumi wants to refuse because he thinks that it’s a trap, but when he sees her about to cry, he agrees on the date.

The following day, Takumi goes to school and is shocked when the pink-haired girl sits down next to him, smiles, and greets him good morning.

ED:

ED: 「Super Special」 by 加賀美セイラ (Kagami Seira)
Watch the ED! Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Stream

Well, I think the OP here is a more fitting song to represent this series, but I ended up liking the ED more because it’s Kagami Seira with a catchy song. It’s not quite as good as the Kaiba OP she sang, but still pretty good.

Preview

Well, after watching most of the new Thursday shows this past week, I finally got around to CHAOS;HEAD, and I have to say, it was pretty impressive. Madhouse did a good job with the production quality (the save message at the end was a nice touch), but the main appeal for me comes in how much potential the story has. It has a bloody thriller feel that I haven’t really experienced since the finale of School Days, and I expect it to ramp up from here Takumi’s having all those delusions is an interesting way to keep things tense because it’s not always clear what’s real and what’s not, and I suspect that’ll become key later on.

Speaking of Takumi, his reclusiveness makes him a not really likable character, but I have a hard time hating him since it seems pretty likely that he’s going to die by the end of the series (the opening scene suggests that as well). In fact, given the bloody nature of this series, I assume that most of the characters won’t make it out alive. I just hope things don’t get too ugly, though they very well may since the CHAOS;HEAD game supposedly had tons of guro (grotesque) scenes. Regardless, I think there’s a lot of potential in this show, and if the second episode is as good as the first, I’ll probably continue blogging it.

54 Comments

  7. I know the game very well (by Nitro+ people and for those who want to get it: There’s no limited edition so go for the version you find (there’s only one)). The soundtrack is also available.

    That said I knew about the story potential and I’m happy a studio like Madhouse (besides Bones my fav) is doing the show. 1st episode looks promising so far~

    mutio
    Reply

  17. Weirdly enough, the guy who made the character designs for Chaos;Head also worked on Myself;Yourself. Guy has a fascination with their semi-colons eh? 😀

    Madhouse+Myself;Yourself art style+School Days vibe = Must see show for me.

    Giantrouble
    Reply

  27. Maybe it is just me but Takumi’s character is a huge detraction for me. I can deal with the hallucinations, the gore and pretty much everything else but his character just makes me angry. I’ll watch an episode or two more just to give it a fair chance but for now this is definitely not something I’m interested in. Kudos to you Omni for blogging an anime with what appears to me to be such an un-relatable main character.

    Random Lurker
    Reply

  33. I amused it would be bloody since Nitro+ is having a say in the production. They are famous for their dark and blood thriller type shows/games. All in all Chaos;Head looks to be the most promising anime out there is season. For me anyway.

    Kitty
    Reply

  36. Wow the first episode was really good. Probably going to watch the 2nd episode later, hope its as good as the first, if not even better. Btw loved the ED. BrooklynO… must be having a laugh riot. 😀

    Random Boy
    Reply

  39. goddamit as soon as i saw that pink haired girl in the first scene, it just reminds me instantly of nanaka (m;y). it appears it really was the same guy.

    interesting series, if this doesn’t go too bloody i’ll keep watching.

    Eruruu
    Reply

  41. hahaha i think that chaos;head, is going to be the best show in this season, although i really dont think that they`re only do the show in 12 episodes i’ve played the game and i think twelve episode isn`t enough

    david
    Reply

  51. That’s right.

    This show has a lot of potential within, so I’m hoping Madhouse will do justice and give us a really good piece of work.

    Who’s going to last until the end? I wonder…

    Syaoran Li
    Reply

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