CHAOS;HEAD / First Impressions

Summary:

Takumi is shocked to see the pink-haired girl at school, but she laughs and has no idea why he’s scared of her. He thinks that she’s going to kill him, and when he questions why she knows his name, she explains that they’re friends. It’s not until she gets him to look into her eyes – saying that he should know her name – that he recognizes her as Sakihata Rimi. Takumi is confused as to why he knows her, but Misumi then shows up and explains that they’ve been in the same class since their first year. Misumi even has a picture of all three of them together at an amusement park. At home, Takumi’s delusions of Seira convince him that he was having delusions about Rimi, but she suddenly appears in her bloodied up form and threatens his life. At first Takumi thinks that this is another delusion, but then he realizes that the real Rimi actually is in his room and is looking his figures. She’s here to check up on him, but he promptly kicks her out. Meanwhile, at the police department, inspectors Ban and Suwa reveal some surveillance footage to an investigation team. It shows Takumi carrying one of the stakes, but the video isn’t clear enough to identify him – the police only know that he attends Suimei Academy.

The next day, Takumi is paid a visit by Yua who has come because of his promise to accompany her to place an advance order on a Seira figure. Takumi goes with her, but he keeps his distance and barely talks to her. The two run into Nanami along the way, and after seeing Yua, Nanami warns Takumi to shape up. Yua ends up having a good time at the store, and when it’s time for the two to part, she gets Takumi’s email address. She emails him soon after he gets home and asks when he’ll be going to school because she wants to see him. Takumi, however, deletes the email. When Yua doesn’t see him the next morning, she goes looking for him in his classroom and meets Rimi who informs her that Takumi took the day off. Upon learning of the fact that Yua and Takumi went shopping, Rimi asks what else they did, but Yua denies anything else happened. When Yua runs into Takumi the day after that, she sticks with him and promises to wait for him after class even though he admits that he’s a hikikomori. True to her word, she waits for him, and the two head home together, though they first make a stop at the park.

It is here that Takumi finally notices that Yua has three frog straps attached to her bag, just like the bag he saw at the internet cafe several days ago. In trying to give him one of the frogs, Yua accidentally spills the contents of her bags, and Takumi realizes that she’s been doing tons of research on the New Generation incidents. With the cat out of the bag, Yua confirms Takumi’s fears that she got close to him because she was after something. She prevents him from running away and confronts him about what he’s hiding by pulling out one of the cross-shaped stakes. Yua had seen the same stake in his room, but despite her suddenly threatening nature, she claims that she only wanted to ascertain if he knew about it. The other thing she’s curious about is if he has the power of precognition. Her reasoning behind this are the images of the third incident that Takumi had been sent, so Takumi claims that he got them from someone called Shogun and wonders if Yua is that person. Yua, however, explains that the images were found on the computer he was using at the internet cafe, and she also produces the chat logs between him and Shogun. The timestamps on all of Takumi’s messages are from Sunday, but all of Shogun’s messages are from Monday at the same time that Takumi was at the internet cafe. Yua’s conclusion from this is that Takumi is Shogun. Nevertheless, she lets him go, and Takumi returns home thinking that he doesn’t belong in this world.

Preview

I have to say, they’re doing a stellar job keeping me on my toes because throughout most of the episode I was guessing what was a delusion and what wasn’t. Actually, most things that were delusions were pretty obvious, but it’s afterward when you’re left wondering if Takumi is still hallucinating or if he’s back in reality again. It certainly made the beginning of the Yua confrontation seem surreal, especially since Takumi had delusions about her trying to kill him back in the first episode. In fact, even the way the passage of time is shown could all be wrong if Takumi’s delusions (and perhaps schizophrenia) are affecting it. Basically, this series is turning out to be intriguing to me on both story and storytelling levels.

Gore-wise though, this episode was pretty tame. I’ve been expecting more mutilated bodies and the like, but nothing new really appeared this week. The closest we came was when Yua got all threatening for real, but she surprisingly let Takumi go. It’s not clear so far what Yua’s goal in doing all this is, but I assume that since she’s holding a weapon in the OP and since she’s shown flashes of craziness in the way she questioned Takumi, she’ll soon get involved with all the other girls in a not-so-pleasant way.

44 Comments

  5. Darn, I was really hoping for some bloody insanity akin to ep 1…But this show still has quite an interesting premise, if only our protagonist wasn’t such a drag…

    Kudos to Nitro+ for this one.

    Nanatsuya
    Reply

  12. You shouldn’t expect blood in every episode. The psychological factor is what gets you, like with Higurashi.

    And with that, a good episode to keep one intrigued.

    @huh?: In the real world, anyone will break down if exposed to something like this. I wouldn’t be surprised if he did cry; his mind would’ve been crushed.

    Chicle
    Reply

  13. @huh?: Yeah, I understand the feeling, I know that the guy is supposed to be like this because of his condition, but still for a main character with a harem (or so I think), it’s really lame. I mean why in the world would these girls like him in the first place? It’s for sure not because of his GAR lol. I didn’t like the first ep. anyway, and I am just giving this series the benefit of the doubt and just watch it a bit more.

    @Chicle: True it is somewhat like Higurashi, because of all the mysteries and pyschological factors, but the main lead is very different. This guy doesn’t even compare to Keichi. I mean Keichi is just awesome lol, with his funny antics, pyschotic moments, and just his quality of overcoming fate.

    If you think about it, the series can somewhat relate, the main lead in this show doesn’t quite understand the world because of his constant delusions in his head and in Higurashi, Keichi doesn’t understand the mystery behind the whole town. So it’s between the delusions of one individual versus the mystery of the whole town, clearly IMO Keichi has it worst especially since he truly experiences it in reality, like torture, hallucinations, and even death compared to this guy. Yet there were some of Keichi’s parallel or alternate or whatever other lives he had before where he was able to overcome such impossible barriers. Although just as I said before, I’m gonna give this series the benefit of the doubt, since it is still only 2 ep. after all.

    X
    Reply

  16. Takumi looks like a total weirdo freak when he’s just smiling at his monitor for no reason. That said, this series is just stringing me along for now. I want to see him entirely lose his brains and have a 22 minute brain trip of ridiculousness going on but I guess it’s too early in the series for them to let that one out. It’s fun to have a series that instead of rope-a-doping you around like Geass just goes the opposite direction and leaves you to sort out the facts from a bunch of red herrings. There’s probably lots we don’t know yet though.

    blind_assassin
    Reply

  17. @X: Didn’t intend to compare Keichi Takumi. At all. Since they’re obviously different.

    Rather, I was just pointing out how both series revolve more around the mystery than BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD, though both are present at some point.

    Also I wouldn’t consider this a harem. Sure, he’s surrounded by girls, but romance isn’t a main factor in the series.

    One more thing. Is his reclusive personality considered a condition? And I doubt that is a major factor in paranoia. I’m still sticking to the idea that he’s like any real-life person, who would go batshit crazy when you’re pulled into a mind-breaking conspiracy of a sort.

    Chicle
    Reply

  31. @Chicle: I know you didn’t intend to compare them, but what I mean is that just as Takumi was like a real-life person that gets to experience such conspiracy, it was the same thing to Keichi as well in Higurashi seeing as he just moved in the town, but I think it’s even worst cuz most of the time it revolves around him and his friends. Yet in the end he was able to conquer such odds, so I hoped that it would be the same with the main character in this series, cuz I would be really disappointed if the guy just ends up dead in the end just as Omni stated in first episode.

    X
    Reply

  36. This episode was really good, from the scene with him and rimi in the class room. It kinda makes me think that rimi might be one of his delusions. You can’t really tell cause when they pan to him falling off his chair they only show him and a couple of other students.

    Show reminds me of Fight Club and American Psycho.

    This kid has a harem of beauties and still cries out for his 2-D fantasy girl (omg I want to stab him in the eye)

    what
    Reply

  37. the show is tryin so hard to pls fans obviously but i,m rather confused too just as the main character is. In addition to that, the main character is annoying. if you having problems go see a doctor or somethin rather than lock yourself up in container on top of roof playin games till u can,t take anymore but i guess he can,t because he has a reclusive personality.Although the show looks like it has potential, i,m still worried about how they will end it hope they don,t end it like code geass r2 ended with that confused expression on your face.

    babel
    Reply

  38. this anime might have an alternate ending i hope the fans would be satisfied at the end though as for me i don,t think i can,t stomach watching the remainin episodes of this anime the main character irriates me evrytime i watched it i can,t help it at least i tried to watch it but i,m givin up just yet it might change my mind right now i,m not sure i noted sumthin though at the end of this episode the girl changed all of sudden and started questionin him that might be real or maybe a delusion again this delusion might break or make this anime.

    john memento
    Reply

  41. I see people bashing on the protagonist quite a bit here, but would this anime REALLY be interesting if he was a better character? I don’t think it would. He NEEDS to be the way he is for the anime to have half the impact it does.

    Delfofthebla
    Reply

  44. i hope everyone who make negative comments here at least know about the term hikikomori, and can relate it to this series. you then should be able to understand why taku behaves like that 😉

    for me, chaos head is one of top ongoing series on my list for this season 🙂

    ferre_kun
    Reply

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