CHAOS;HEAD / First Impressions

Summary:

Back when he was a kid, Takumi hadn’t been allowed to go on a class trip that he had been looking forward to, so he instead cursed the trip hoping that no one could go. On the day of the trip, he found out that the bus got into an accident as if his wish had come true. His mother had been glad that she had him take the day off, but he had questioned if it was really okay and started to feel sick. Takumi had stopped talking for a while, so his mother took him to the hospital, and he had been examined by a doctor. In the present, Takumi goes to that hospital again to see the same doctor, and he claims to be there because of a potential sleepwalking problem. He talks to the doctor about typing on the computer without remembering it, but he also reveals that he hasn’t been sleeping lately, so the doctor decides to have him sleep in the hospital for a while. Shortly after Takumi lies down in the dark hospital room, he has a delusion of Seira in a nurse outfit, and he falls asleep thinking about her. The nurse wakes him a few hours later, and since he didn’t have any symptoms of sleepwalking, he’s released from the hospital.

Meanwhile, at school, Rimi is in the library having a hard time reaching a book and receives help from a taller girl. This taller girl then sits down with several books about gods, heaven, and myths, and after Rimi moves on, the girl comments to herself on how the revival approaches of the wicked king Gurajioru who brings destruction to this world. Back at his apartment, Takumi thinks about everything that’s happened and Yua’s reasoning, and in checking out the grotesque pictures that he had been linked by Shogun, he discovers his own fleeing figure in one of them. He panics because he hadn’t been to the scene of the crime until the 29th, and the image is dated the 28th on his computer. It causes him to think that the image showed the future and about how he’s felt that he was being watched all his life. He remembers how Yua had mentioned precognition, so he tries to research all he can on that. Doing so leads him to an online message board with a post about a gothic punk band called Phantasm that has a female singer named FES, and he finds out that their lyrics – which came before the New Generation incident happened – talked about a crucifixion. Takumi’s suspicion is that FES is the same girl he saw on the scene of the crime, but with no pictures of her online, he decides to go to the band’s next live concert to find out for sure.

Takumi has Misumi check out the concert for him, but Misumi drags him in, and Takumi discovers that FES isn’t who he thought she was. She is actually the girl who Rimi had encountered, and before singing, she talks mysteriously about the gate to Cocytus shutting and about the equilibrium of the world. She then materializes a giant blade that Takumi initially thinks is a microphone stand and starts singing the crucifixion song. Partway through, everyone in the room stops cheering, and after FES stops singing, she jumps off the stage and approaches Takumi. Each time he looks at her, she’s got less clothes on, and by the time she’s right up close to him, she’s naked. All Takumi can see as she presses her body against his is the giant blade, and a moment later, everything is back to the normal concert scene as if the entire thing had been a delusion. What shocks Takumi is that FES then seems to look right at him and asks the whose-eyes question that has been in his head for a long time. It causes him to rush out of the concert in a panic, and he wonders how she knows those words. At around this same time, Yua is at home researching dissociative identity disorder. Elsewhere, a girl named Kozue burns a school uniform and is preparing to go to Tokyo.

Sometime later, Takumi goes out cell phone shopping with Nanami, and while in the middle of the street, he sees a girl nearby carrying a giant sword similar to the one he saw FES carrying. Before Takumi can think more about it, Nanami grabs his attention and drags him off. When he gets home afterward, he logs into an online chat and hears from his online friend Grim about the fourth New Generation incident. This time, it involves a victim whose blood got extracted and whose skin turned green. Grim doesn’t think this could have been done by humans and has begun to believe in the occult theories. Grim even links Takumi to an online auction with photos of the incident and victim, and the person who set it up is supposedly the true criminal. This person goes by the name of Vampire, but what shocks Takumi even more is that written in blood in one of the pictures is that same whose-eyes question again.

Preview

This was one of those episodes that just kept raising more and more questions with every scene and never answered anything. There’s the question of the creation date of the image on Takumi’s computer, the question of what FES’s connection to all this is, the question of what the giant swords are, and the question of what the “whose eyes are they” mystery is all about. I could go on and on. It’s kind of maddening to see how many clues are out there that don’t quite connect.

What was probably the most confusing for me was the inconsistency in the date of Shogun’s messages according to Yua’s logs and when Takumi received them. One of the rationalizations for that (assuming that precognition isn’t actually the answer) is that Takumi was imagining that he got the images and somehow was creating the crime scene in his mind and on his computer the day before. That would of course imply that he committed the murder. Another possibility is that he’s being framed, and the message logs that Yua found were planted there. It seems that there’s some shadowy organization behind all this, and I would guess it’s called NOZOMI based on that one man‘s badge in Takumi’s flashback since it wouldn’t have been shown so prominently otherwise. I’m not sure what to think though, and things gets even more curious when considering the fact that we don’t know who or what was taking those photos in the first place. The blurred distinction between what’s a delusion and what’s not complicates things as well.

In any case, I’m enjoying how the mystery aspect of this series is keeping me guessing, and I expect the story to get even more complicated with more characters being introduced next week. All I hope is that there’s not some supernatural occurrence that explains everything away in some simple manner – I’d like to see how the individual pieces of the story fit together.

33 Comments

  4. …Am I the only one who noticed that Rimi looks like she’s having an orgasm in the next episode? Can’t wait for the next episode! (AND NO, IT’S NOT BECUASE OF THE ORGASM, well, at least not entirely…lol)

    chad001
    Reply

  6. Oh, I just noticed… FES looks like she’s flirting with him or trying to iniate sex in the next episode. And, NO I am not a perv… it just looks like that…seriously, they should add ecchi to the genres… next to romance, which would explain the ALOT, even the ecchi…

    chad001
    Reply

  11. “It’s kind of maddening to see how many clues are out there that don’t quite connect.”

    Ugh, tell me about it ><

    “All I hope is that there’s not some supernatural occurrence that explains everything away in some simple manner – I’d like to see how the individual pieces of the story fit together.”

    I’m told (from someone who played the game) that it isn’t just some simple phenomenon, like it all being a delusion and he’s really just in a bed in some medical ward, but all the same, I can’t help thinking that none of it is real and that the answer in the end is going to be really bizarre.

    Nazarielle
    Reply

  13. Omni, that’s what Chaos Head is all about, being mysterious and raising questions. Let me just tell you this: What’s true and what not – you may never know it 😉 If you see it in that way, enjoy. If not I think this show isn’t really something for ya.

    mutio
    Reply

  25. im left confused but still interested to see who the hell all those people are that keep looking at him always carrying swords. i dont see any evil spirits or something to use the swords on unless its used to show power levels or something. omg shes at 4,500 on the reader

    exia
    Reply

  28. Well to put thing somewhat simple, this is leading to an apocalyspe, and it was mentioned of some kind of resurrection coming of a devil to bring this. For now it seems this will lead to Takumi being the one to be center of this resurrection.

    On a side note the girls are noticing him one by one. picking him out of a crowd full with people (fes).. Seeming him in a crowd on a street before the mess with his sister goes off (missing name?).. The sudden girl and the changed environment of her being a class mate for a long while (rimi)

    None of them seems to be related by one another. In the library taku was never there and the chance of that being a delusion is pretty much nihil.

    I also find the sudden thought of omni *some kind of organization is behind all this* kinda out of line here. This anime clearly messes with the mind and and is also clearly psychological. Therefore I doubt there is really any organization behind this.. The only piece of organization I have seen is the police finding out it was him who was present at the third new gen event. The girl with the long bo blond hair and glasses (lost name lol) had one of the stakes and threated him with that. And seems to be way to young to be in the police department let stand alone private detective type.

    Well one of the questions answered here is that something is coming slowly. A resurrection. that is the only question that got answered.. Next week seems to have some answers I think looking at the preview.. but it is not even for sure with this anime. I love it 🙂

    Azania
    Reply

  31. It’s been a while since I’ve come across a character that’s so well crafted. Taku is one hell of a piece of writing, almost makes me think the game writers had experiance with a paranoid schitzophrenic. It’s a really intelligent piece of work, I’m playing the game probably about an episode ahead of watching the series.

    In the game you fill in a form at the hospital that was written by “N.O.Z.O.M.I.”

    I don’t really see what’s confusing about the show though, there’s a story, there are clues and, we don’t have all the answers becouse the show isn’t finished. It’s nice being treated like an adult by a series.

    Matt_D
    Reply

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