CHAOS;HEAD – 09-10

Episode 09

Episode 10

第09話 「拒絶 rejection」 (Kyozetsu)

While Ban, Momose, and Yua discuss the New Generation group suicide that involved the latter’s younger twin sister Mia and how everything points towards Takumi, word of the sixth incident comes in from Suwa. Back at his container house, Takumi learns that the three guys who attacked him were found cut in half and sewn back together with mismatching body parts, along with wounds that resemble the letters ‘D’, ‘Q’, and ‘N’. After Rimi leaves him, Takumi looks through a paper he wrote in elementary school with both the phrase, “Those eyes, whose are they?” and the equation “fun^10 x int^40 = Ir2” — something that Shogun posted before.

Takumi later goes to the hospital with Daisuke and Rimi to pay a visit to Ayase, who tells them about the Seven Black Knights of Gladiale and how Takumi is one of them. Recalling how she had to go through a form of “divine punishment” before she could summon her Di-Sword, Ayase believes Takumi has to go through something similar before he can summon his. Meanwhile, Ban goes with Yua to check out the store that sells those popular Gero frogs and takes notice to the company that produces them, Shinkou. During that time, Takumi shrugs off another strange phone call from Nanami — his second one — and heads home to find Sena and Kozu-pii there. Upset about the Ir2 equation on Takumi’s paper, Sena attacks him only to have Rimi jump in and protect him, revealing that she’s a Gigalomaniac as well. To stop Sena, Rimi projects a delusion of her father, who she tries to kill, but comforts her after claiming he had no choice but to sacrifice her mother. While Sena continues to blame Takumi for the chaos in Shibuya, Gen’ichi and the other heads at NOZOMI discuss acquiring Takumi as a Gigalomanic sample and the Third Melt—a final test before putting Noah II into operation.

Despite feeling betrayed by Rimi, Takumi allows her to accompany him to his home so that he can check up on Nanami, only to find that there’s no house there. According to Rimi, he has no place to return to in this world. At the hospital, Shogun returns to his room, where the name plate says “Nishijou Takumi”.

第10話 「洗礼 purification」(Senrei)

Much to Takumi’s disbelief, Rimi reveals that all his memories are made up and that he’s actually a delusion created by the real Nishijou Takumi one year ago. She also explains that strong Gigalomanic delusions can synchronize, which occurred before with hers, Takumi’s, the New Generation criminal, and one other person. Claiming that she has to go save Nanami who’s been taken captive, Rimi gives Takumi a hug before leaving. Meanwhile, Yua gives Momose the new teary-eyed Gero frog that she asked her to buy, before they go through some information linking Shinkou to Noah OrganiZation Of Medical Instruments, a.k.a. NOZOMI Technology. (Japanese studios really need to hire some English QCs.) Momose reveals that the Gravitation Error Rate (GE Rate) activity that started up five years ago coincides with when NOZOMI acquired Shinkou, and seems to increase with the weekly new releases of Gero frogs. She also finds a connection to Inohana Kouzou among the heads of Shinkou — leader of the Meiwa party in the National Diet who censored media information on GE Rates in the past.

Wandering the streets, Takumi gets a call from Daisuke and is overjoyed there’s someone who acknowledges his existence, but soon finds out that he doesn’t even recall why they get along so well. Elsewhere on an overpass, Rimi tells “Takumi” that she’ll settle things. Having received a strange call from Suwa, Ban heads to the hospital where he’s directed to the roof by the nurse, Hazuki Shino, unaware that she’s talking to Takumi on the message board as Grim. Takumi then gets paid a visit by Nanami and suspects that she’s a delusion as well, but asks her to erase his existence anyway. At the hospital as well, Yua runs into what appears to be her deceased sister Mia, who accuses her of actually being Mia and getting Yua killed out of jealousy for their parents’ love. In a confused state, Yua is taken to the rooftop and convinced to commit suicide as well, but snaps out of it by summoning her Di-Sword and exposes the Porter who’s behind the delusion. Ayase later shows up to lend a hand and feels the discovery of Yua as a Gladiale Black Knight is the reason why she’s been stuck at the hospital. On another rooftop, Suwa fires a round into Ban’s stomach and (seemingly) kills him afterwards for learning too much.

At NOZOMI Technology, Rimi stumbles upon Noah II and the (real?) Nanami, who’s frantically searching for the bangle Takumi gave her and appears to be missing her right hand. From her tears, Nanami inadvertently summons her own Di-Sword, while Gen’ichi explains how they’re finished the “manual” for the awakening, even though it doesn’t apply to Nishijou Takumi. Upon asking who Takumi cares about more out of the two of them, Gen’ichi casts a delusion on Rimi, exploiting her fear of the dark and making her recall being experimented on, along with the feeling that her body once housed various different personalities.

Takumi on the other hand is losing it after finally convincing himself that he can confide in Nanami, only to have her disappear before his eyes. As per Grim’s message about a “festival” starting at the Shibuya scramble crossing, Takumi heads there and finds Shogun among the havoc. Telling Takumi that he can’t die here, Shogun explains that this chaos is caused by their invisible weapon and that their goal with Noah II is indiscriminate human experimentation, before adding that he’s the only one that can put a stop to it.

Next Episode:
第11話 「自立 independence」 (Jiritsu)

Impressions:
So as most people have probably heard, I’m helping Omni with a little catch-up on CHAOS;HEAD, but plans are to have him back to blog the final episode (Christmas Day) and say a few words about the series as a whole. Since I had watched episode nine over a week ago, writing impressions about it alone didn’t make much sense when I had already seen episode ten, so I decided to lump the two together as seen above. With that in mind, here are the divine side of things. (No pun intended. :P)

From the get-go, I was thinking (and hoping) that CHAOS;HEAD would end up being somewhat tangible in the unraveling of its mysteries much like Higurashi no Naku Koro ni was, so I was happy to find out that it’s all a big conspiracy backed by a huge corporation. While the whole projected illusions bit is still pretty far-fetched, it’s tangible in the sense that we’re not dealing with anything supernatural. I like the whole premise of an obscure equation being developed into an invisible, mental weapon rather than apparitions or curses horror-wise because it’s plausible in the real world despite being outlandish. (Hmm, this is already sounding like me saying a few words about the series as a whole.)

In any case, episode nine left us with a big cliffhanger with Shogun entering the hospital room with the name “Nishijou Takumi” on it, but episode ten quickly revealed that the Takumi we know is nothing but a delusion of the real Takumi who sits withered in his wheelchair. Back in episode two, Omni and I discussed about it possibly being a case of schizophrenia when Yua revealed that Takumi sent himself messages as Shogun, but this clears things up as they both simply go by the same name. The production studio was wise not to cast the same person to play Takumi and Shogun, otherwise seiyuu-otas like myself would’ve seen through this from the beginning. With that said, the real Takumi evidently has some ties to NOZOMI in the past and is trying to put a stop to their plans now with the help of Rimi.

Ayase’s talk about the Seven Black Knights of Gladiale is still a bit obscure to me though, as I’m not sure whether it’s simply her interpretation of what’s happening with Noah II or if it’s actually written in this “manual” Gen’ichi refers to — possibly as a “formula” to stop the awakening. Furthermore, the letters ‘D’, ‘Q’, and ‘N” written on the three victims of the sixth New Generation incident don’t bear any significant meaning to me at this point, but they undoubtedly stand for something. The sixth New Generation incident is known as the “DQN Puzzle”.

As things stand now, it looks like we finally have some established antagonists. With Shinkou (probably) distributing devices under the guise of the popular Gero frogs — most-likely akin to the ones the Porters carry in their backpacks — Norose Gen’ichi and Inohana Kouzou (left in pic) are the obvious big ones at NOZOMI, but Suwa Mamoru was a bit of a surprise unless you bothered to read into the opening sequence. (I didn’t for whatever reason.) As such, I figure that Hazuki Shino is with them as well, but I’m uncertain what she was trying to achieve by messing around with Takumi as Grim. Was it to make Takumi create more delusions and test his abilities or is there more to that?

Shogun on the other hand isn’t the enemy after all, which wasn’t that big of a surprise in retrospect. Some explanation is still needed as to why he created the delusional Takumi in the first place though, in addition to who the fourth person that Rimi, Takumi, and the New Generation criminal (Gen’ichi?) synchronized with. I’m suspecting that it’s Nanami though, since she’s still being experimented on, but I’d like to learn more about what exactly happened when they synchronized. (i.e. Was it the earthquake?) Also, a bit of resolution between Sena and her now homeless father would be nice, since it seems like he used her mother to give birth to Nishijou Takumi (Shogun).

With the big conspiracy out in the open, it seems like all they need to show now is the Gigalomaniacs banding together to take down NOZOMI and destroying Noah II in the final two episodes. I know this sounds a bit chiché, but it doesn’t look like we’re in store for any major twists from this point on. That’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed the series up to this point though!

-divine
…is reminded of Tidus from Final Fantasy X with the whole illusion/dream-like protagonist bit.