(Apparently, WordPress hates my guts. I apologize if you have seen this post appear and disappear from the front page multiple times, but I promise this is the final version. At any rate, on with it!) I hate to drop spoilers at the beginning, but a meteoric epiphany slammed into my brain when Sena destroyed the illusion generator. Now don't get me wrong, her Di-Sword limit break totally slays, but I'm not talking about Sena-sama's cool moves; I'm talking about the exposed circuitry. After what seems like ages of confusion, six simple letters brought it all clanging into place: NOZOMI (dun, dun, DUUUUUUUN!)

Yea, yea, so they planned it like that. So what! Just because my understanding has been piecing together precisely the way the writers and director intended does not lessen the brilliance of the freshly-illuminated light bulb in my head. Indeed, it was a glorious moment. And while we are on the topic of glorious moments, anyone who happened to read my Touryanse editorial can now add another bold-faced submission to the list of pop culture references I pulled from Wikipedia. I nearly shat my pants at the end of this episode.

Is that a Di-Sword in your pocket, or...

Even without prior knowledge of this episode's insane conclusion, you can tell right away that something immense is about to happen from the little explosions of superb animation quality that pepper its landscape, as well as from Taku's dwindling mental state. I thought he had made it to the 'edge' already, but apparently Yua decided he needed to blow chunks into the schoolyard before she would be satisfied.

As promised, Rimi is there to support Taku through his mental struggles with her indefatigable feminine charms and thank the stars, obnoxious Seira-tan is relegated to a back seat now that (as I have suggested in a past post, accurately or inaccurately) Taku is being forced to quit the unreality of his otakuness and confront the "reality" of his delusions. Sorry Seira-tan but some things just can't be ignored. Let's hope you aren't one of them gwahaha!

WTF moments.

Taku's reaction to the latest New Gene murder -- the darkly ironic total lobotomy of his psychiatrist, who was on sabbatical due to "exhaustion" or "fatigue" or some such vagary -- is understandable, but a bit misinformed. He has a nervous breakdown because he concludes that the New Gene murders and any other strange events in the process of ripping Shibuya apart are all centered around him, but this may be because he lacks perspective; facts. Rimi returns with Cokes in hand to collect his broken pieces and put him back together again.

Yasuji and his chestnut jelly-eating trap of a friend (no matter how many times I listen, the seiyuu sounds like a DUDE) make up for what Taku lacks -- an outsider's objective perspective. They understand that the increased rates of gravity errata in Shibuya are somehow responsible for, or tied to, the New Gene murders and the cultish congregations of people that seem to be accumulating quietly in the background of each episode. They are also aware that Rimi's victim - if, in fact, it was actually her that committed the murder - was actively researching the increasing GE phenomenon and tried to publicize this information before he was killed, information that suggests Shibuya is sitting on top of some massive geological force comparable to a volcano.

Yet, Taku's knowledge about his own role is a vital component in this little mystery. He managed to deduce from Sena's gnomic train car monologue, from his recollection of the school bus incident, and... regrettably... from batshit Yua's (she's competing viciously with Seira for the title of "Maipeisu's Most Hated" in this anime) allegations, that he may possess the psychic ability to manifest his delusions. Add to this the little revelation about N.O.Z.O.M.I.-brand illusion machines, and it wouldn't be all that strange to think that Taku's psychiatrist had been murdered to prevent him from snooping (like the professor?), rather than to provoke Taku. Oh yes, and the other side of it is that N.O.Z.O.M.I. has definitely had its eye on Taku for a long time. Who knows, he might even be the result of their experimentation.

Hell's Bells!

In the end, equally many questions were newly produced as were answered. Taku gets a phone call from Shogun, hears Touryanse playing, which degrades into a freakish siren crescendo and all manner of frightening, lunacy-inducing, ear-splitting, seismic Hell breaks loose, bringing Shibuya to its knees and sending a white, misty haze over everything in sight. I had my speakers turned WAAY up, and this part scared the living crap out of me. What the hell is going on! (C;H VN veterans, I bid thee seal thine lips!)

Next Episode:

YOUR HAIR IS SUPER SPECIAL!

I knew from the very beginning the moment would arrive when this anime would bust out the 'science and progress' like so many anime are prone to do. It didn't dilute the mystery by explaining everything away, though. I'm actually thinking it will make the story even more twisted now that we know the Matrix a high-tech contraption is creating the delusions by utilizing Shibuya's dense pockets of G-Errate... err, something like that. I could ask you not to quote me on this, but seeing how this is a blog...

Random highlights: The Di-Sword was holy space-time-ripping AWESOME. Taku gets two thumbs down for buying that embarrassing cosplay accessory. Ayase looks like Ayanami Rei philosophizing in that indigo swimsuit in the underground tunnel. I don't care that her hair color is one-trillionth of a shade different, I will not forgive contemporary anime for emitting Eva vibes like a foul smell. Kozue's random acts of moeness were unbearably cute, but you can't trust anyone these days. And I'm really starting to wonder if that Gero dude is foreshadowing something. Maybe there's like, a Gero-Sword.

FISH BURGER-KUN!

I hollered bloody-murder last week, and now I am relieved to finally see a few answers. Even if they are being pipelined at a deliberately restrained pace, we at least know we are circling back to the introductory scenes of the series from listening to Rimi and Taku's words resonate between the blue ocean and blue sky of their mental expanse. The moment is serene and beautiful, and of course the obnoxious Seira can't stand the thought of some 3-D slut touching her Takki so she brings him crashing back to reality with her giant, pink, spiky weapon of tortuous moe doom and tells him to get moving.

Kozue trips *up* the stairs and a lot of emphasis is laid on the fact that she whips out a Gero band-aid. She even gives Taku another one to apologize for being too moe, which somehow seems to undermine her original intentions. Things really get rolling out in Shibuya proper when he finds Sena in a train (with... chains... around her feet... for some reason) and listens to her explanation about the delusions and how neural impulses are fundamentally electricity, and how they can be controlled by machines, and blah blah blah maundering pop-sci anime discourse complete with diagrams (I prefer Nogizaka Haruka's maps, thank you.) Long story short: someone or something is controlling people's senses. The delusions may be the lie, or they may be the truth behind the lie.

20 points for bodyslamming Yua \m/. EWW why is she still on the floor?! Get up you freak!

Yua being the diligent soul that she is busily writes Taku another letter about how she wants to "help" him with his Dissociative Identity Disorder (that's DID, Dark Rebirth, not DIP). That tender little social workerish note of compassion in her voice bumps her down a notch on the cool scale. Yua can be a badass shrouded in fake moe, but she can't be real moe covered in semi-real badassedness covered in fake moe! She claims he is a multiple-personalitied murderer, but she's so damn stuck on Taku being the killer without any hard evidence to show for it that I think she's equally insane, not to mention her love for repeating phrases like a wannabe actress showing off in front of her mirror.

This is where things get a bit crazy, because I can’t definitely can’t tell the difference between Taku’s delusions and reality anymore. Yua’s impromptu pedestrian search party is freakish and implausible; hard to accept as reality. But if it’s fake, why is Ayase running too? Another thing, I can’t see why she would need to run from anyone considering that she wields her own badass Di-Sword, but then again I’ve never seen one in action. Something makes more sense to me now, though — if Taku is capable of locating his own Di-Sword, then the fact that the each girl in the harem carries/will carry her own sword does not mean that they are a team. Time to ditch the network idea and make way for the melee.

If the folks back police HQ only knew what Suwa and his senpai actually do on the job...

Anyone who tries to tell me that I'm the ONLY person that first thought Yasuji was consulting an Earth magic pendulum to help him do his investigative work is a dirty, dirty liar. It is a pendulum, but he's not contacting Odin, duh!, he's testing city's gravity waves which display bizarre behavior due to the fact that Shibuya has several G-spots dense pockets of "G-Errate" (which I believe actually refers to 'gravity errata', a phenomena pertaining to quantum gravity functions that is so far above my head that I would need an elevator to talk about it). Oh really. A little hand-waving, and the good detective blinds me with his science uses the phenomenon to explain the massive amounts of young folks gathered in Shibuya (and here I thought it was the shops!) as well as the peculiar incidence of the New Gene murders around the city. Oh goody, more unscientific science! ;- D

This week's surprise is the YouTube video at the end. Taku suspects the cameraman is Shogun! The more important question is whether or not *Taku* is Shogun, or if Shogun is someone else altogether. But the murder is not quite so critical. People die and the public seems to eat it up, what with their silly "sono me dare no me" T-shirts and New Gene fanfare. I'm more concerned about Taku being around the other ladies, because his delusions are becoming more powerful and more frequent. He needs to figure out how to control this power of his (i.e. find his Di-Sword) if he hopes to defend himself. Stupid Seira-tan is not doing anything to help by telling him to run from the 3-Ds every second. What he needs here is a bit of confrontation. The bodyslam was a turning point, and I'm confident he can do more. Oh and for the record, I will RAEG if Seira turns out to be the source of his power. Until next week! ^_^

Next Episode:

Yasuji likes 'em BIG.

The trouble with series that have overarching plots is that unless the story is a complete nuisance, they are hard to put down! There is no turning back now. I've got to know what happens to Taku next at all costs. It's time for me to strap myself up and get ready for the long haul, because I just felt the opportune time - the time when I could have gracefully dropped Chaos;HEAd before becoming too involved - brush gently by and slip away for good.

But don't get me wrong. I'm not griping because I want to drop C;H. Quite the opposite. I am lamenting the confusion this episode left in my hands, and trying to figure out how to endure another week without answers to my burning questions. This wasn't quite a troll episode (Geass has got a monopoly on those), but at the same time it forced me to toss out a lot of my hypotheses about where C;H is headed, mostly guesses about who the good guys and bad guys are. Is it harem versus Taku? Harem plus Taku versus New Gene murderer? Bah. Hell if I know!

The appearance of the 'real' Shogun threw me for a bit of a loop. That scene in the empty metropolis reminded of Ichigo's psycho-spiritual encounters with Zangetsu in Bleach, so I don't know whether to assume that Shogun is a personality 'within' Takumi (like Seira) or an altogether separate character. Aside from that little tidbit, the harem is my main source of confusion. They have all neatly congregated in Shibuya, but as to their intent... who can say?

The 'boy falls on top of girl and puts his WHOLE HAND ON HER BOOB by accident' scene is an anime classic! This might be editorial material.

So shall we start with the good news or the bad news? Since there's more good here than bad, let's start with the lame. The first thing I'm going to complain about is the animation quality. We all know what Madhouse is capable of, but it looks to me that they are not living up to their reputation in certain patches while putting full energy into others. The result is that the characters look really sleek in some scenes, and clank around like a badly-drawn doujin in others. I wanted to scream during one scene where FES's hair was sticking half off of her head like a cheap wig. Taku seems the most difficult to do justice, though. His face gets fatter and thinner, eyes look too narrow, too droopy -- it's a mess! Did they invite guest animators to do their dirty work while they went out for coffee one day?! Oh well. We all know it well get better again, and as Crusader has noted himself, I can endure a little bad animation as long as the story is good. A little. T_T

The other bad thing is not really so much of a bad thing come to be as it is a mystery egg that seems equally inclined to hatch an ugly ducking or a swan. Taku may be at his wit's end looking for answers, but for the audience, though we have just as few answers, some of the steam has been let out of the pressure cooker now that we know where things might be headed. We know this much: 1) there is a cataclysmic event to be avoided, 2) there HAWT harem with crystalline swords hunting for some ass to kick, 3) there is an otaku with the ability to predict the future(?), 4) there are bizarre murders happening in Shibuya. Beyond that, not a whole lot more can be said with any certainty. We don't know who is on whose side, nor how the prophesied event connects with the murders, nor the source of the crucifixion and vampiring. When the truth unfurls and the real fight begins, it could be a bone-busting explosion of awesomeness... or it could be another cliche with a grandiose lead-in.

∫øø7 ∫3715#.

Despite being a filler, this episode had its gleefully insane moments and a token 'critical plot development' reserved, predictably, for the very end. Taku's delusions are becoming so kinky that it's mildly disturbing, even if appropriate situated in dark harem show. Sena's foot job was the best (worst?!) by a long shot and I swear it won't be long now before the writers to break out the S&M. But the strange thing about his delusions is not that they are perverse - come on, people are guilty of far worse than foot fantasies - but that their sexual aspect is tangled up with their clairvoyance. Think back to the Phantasm concert. During that intense moment when their eyes locked, if Taku received some kind of telepathic insight into FES's purpose, why was it necessary that the imaginary FES mash her mammaries into his torso? It's as though alongside all the psychic meaning, he interprets any and every expression of interest from a girl as fundamentally sexual... even his little sister. EWWWW imouto-complex! Ecchi! Ecchi!

Most of the rest is all business. A lot of little loose ends are, if not tied, then tidied up. FES and Taku have a post-concert rendezvous, and she tells him he needs to find "the sword" to attain salvation, probably the same "Di-Sword" that Sena referred to earlier. Detective Suwa was huge n00b and couldn't handle a simple task like finding a high school student, so with big daddy Yasuji's help they FINALLY locate Taku and throw a few questions at him. Rimi pays Taku a surprise visit and cranks up the rabu rabu after he tackles her (and her boobs) to extract his new Seira figurine from her clutches. Taku checks himself into the mental hospital again to find that his doctor is on a leave of absence ("conspiracy", you say?); he returns to the shipping container to search for the mythical Di-Sword that might guard him from the chaos.

HA HA imouto broke Taku's Di-Sword!

The best is saved for last. Watching the so-called Di-Sword get snapped like a twig during imouto 's orange-flinging rage was even more hilarious than Taku swinging it like it could actually cut something. Really, it was kind of funny and pathetic at the same time, sort of like watching someone take five boxes of Benadryll to get rid of that 'mysterious little itch' and then sobbing when it returns with a vengeance in the morning.

Besides that, I'd say three important events are yet to come. The final member of the harem, telepathic Kozue Orihara, makes her debut in Taku's class under the much-abused guise of transfer student. Following that, Taku experiences a low-grade mental breakdown when he realizes he has no retreat from the chaos, from which he raises his head to greet the most intense delusion yet -- one where all of Shibuya's denizens have disappeared. He runs through the deserted metropolis, desperate to find someone, anyone. A withered little man sitting in a wheelchair is eager to oblige; he introduces himself as Shogun (dun, dun, DUUUN!) Last but not least, the sound of Rimi's voice jars Taku back to consciousness. A concerned slap, a gentle caress, and Taku is all but ready to throw himself at her mercy, eager to forget the deceptions that lay at the edge of the previous romances. We'll see how things work their way back to that scene in episode one, eh?

Next Episode:

Abunai!

And just when Takki thought it was safe to leave the shipping container and bump elbows with the 3-Ds! Actually, Taku makes a surprisingly levelheaded decision for being such a doofus. He checks himself into the local hospital for a psychiatric examination. That's right, he thinks he's crazy. Wonder what would give him THAT idea?

Taku is not crazy. My reasoning? Exhibit A: He is at least sane enough to step back and realize that he has specific moments that feel like utter, bottomless insanity. If he recognizes that he is going crazy, then he is not totally crazy, at least not yet. Exhibit B: Taku only goes into the hospital to check on a certain part of his sanity. He only wants to know that the little part of the human mind that makes sure we all don't go around hanging unsuspecting sarariman up with wimbled crosses and forgetting about it afterward is intact. He mentions nothing about Seira, who goes out of her way to make an entrance on his hospital bed decked out in nurse cosplay. He just wants to know that he isn't the one committing those horrible murders.

Then again, maybe he's so batshit that he only he thinks he's partially insane, when in fact, he is about as far off the deep end as one can get. Maybe he IS the one committing the murders. Maybe there is a reason that Yua is busy researching dissociative personality disorders. When a buxom harem shows up toting gigantic, fantastical swords and insinuates that a poor, helpless loogey of a NEET is going to bring about the destruction of the world, you know *something* has got to be up. Let us scrutinize the otaku in question. Sorry for the late post; was waiting for m.3.3.w. subs, as requested ^_^;

"Hellooooooo, nurse!"

So after a brief recap on the last episode (oh the abundant good and wonderfulness of brevity), poor Taku is on his way into the hospital to get his head checked. Looks like the Cokes and animu aren't doing it anymore. Looks like Yua's revelations really jangled his nerves. Problem is, he didn't really think it through. For one thing, he's not willing (or able) to tell the doctor all of the details of his troubles. He only gives a vague account of the problem. So the doctor resorts to the cliche placatory measures that are expected of all witless physicians -- he tells him without batting an eyelash, "sleep disorder", and has him spend the night in the hospital.

Okay, so what's really happening here? Well before I get to the big, fat, shiny golden hint that we need to tuck into the backs of our heads, let me first mention this: yellow. Tons and tons of yellow. The color yellow is associated with insanity, especially the sallow, jaundiced yellow you might expect to find in an abandoned building, creeping out in places where white once prevailed. For some reason, they decided that this would be a good color to have in the mental health block of the hospital -- you know, to keep the patients appropriately "stimulated". Yellow is not only in the hospital, but it is also in the uniforms of Taku's school and it is impassably obvious in the flashback scene with the big eye staring at young Takumi... Kind of reminds me of The Gate from FMA...

...Which brings me to the next point: the flashback. The hospital scene was kind of stupid, on the surface. I mean seriously, what was it? Taku goes to a hospital and starts gushing about mental problems he can't explain. They put him to bed and strap him up to a few monitors to help him make sure he isn't a somnambulatory psychopath. Seira shows up and puts in her two cents. He wakes up and they send him on his way. WASTE OF TIME. FAIL. Obvious idiocy aside, the hospital scene was a neat little way to explain a few things we didn't realize before: 1) the flagrant displays of yellow are not a coincidence, 2) Taku has a childhood history of causing accidents with his psychokinetic powers, and returned to the hospital not so much because he sought legitimate answers, but because he had had his noggin inspected by the same doctor when he was a child, and...

3) ...N.O.Z.O.M.I., the big shiny clue. There was a top-level government agent (obviously government, because they always, always, always wear all black and dark glasses) watching young Taku not so stealthily from the background during the flashback. Which means there probably still is a government agency watching Taku. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that the name of the agency is NOZOMI. The doctor, of course, is blissfully ignorant. And if you believe that, I got a bridge I can sell ya for reeeeeal cheap.

Wanna know what REALLY creeps me out? I think he is smiling in that security image.

A montage of the harem is all we need to realize that something immense is unfolding, and that Taku is at the center of it all. But that raises even more questions, like, "why does Rimi act act so moe if she was the one that stabbed the dude full of holes?" Did she really commit it or not? It would be a mistake, I have realized, to assume that because Rimi held one of those giant swords to Taku's chest in the scene from the first episode, that she is a murderer. In fact, a giant decorative sword indicates just the opposite. Both a murderer and a warrior kill, but each kills for very different reasons; each act is propelled by very different motivations. I may have mistook Rimi for a murderer (all according to Madhouse's plan, no doubt), when the actual murderer might have been the one on the business end of her blade.

More questions: are they really all a network, or are they individuals working separately toward a similar purpose, perhaps even competing? Let's suppose that they all know each other. Let's also suppose that they each know of the New Gene murders. Let's suppose that they all suspect Taku for their own, individual reasons. Yua has her research, FES has her mythological prophecy, Rimi has... big, bodacious, magical pink hair!!! But if they all suspect him, and they are working together, and they all agree that he is the culprit, it wouldn't make sense for them to approach him one by one unless there was something holding them back.

It would be more plausible if they didn't all belong to this fictitious network I speak of. It is a network insofar as it represents the trappings of shounen, but within the scope of the story itself there are some glaring disjunctions that cannot be ignored at this point. For instance, Yua doesn't have one of those gigantic swords. The library scene suggests that Rimi does not know FES. Past encounters imply that Yua and FES are not acquainted. Yua gave her little 'helpless girl who can't throw a ball' performance in front of Taku's sister. I'm more inclined to believe that none of them know each other, that they are deliberately hiding from each other, and that not all of them share an equal understanding of the grave and apocalyptic situation that FES ponders in the library.

This is good. This is good because it means that Taku still has a chance. He is not being suffocated by a merciless harem serpent. The alliances have not been decided yet. Romance has not restructured the equation yet. There may be bitchfights (pardon the French, but we are dealing with *harem* here.) I'd even go so far to say that is not some grotesque psycho-thriller masquerading as a harem show; it is an altogether new breed, a titillating syncretism that will make its mark with a familiar cast but a new kind of script. I am excited.

As a musician, I just had to love the Phantasm concert.

With the montage complete, Seira sets the ball rolling again by making the delightfully naive suggestion to Taku that all he needs to do is prove that the Shogun images didn't come from him. If it were only that easy! To both their ohshiatness, his efforts fall flat on their ass and he instead confirms the accuracy of Yua's dreadful research. The image was created the day before it happened, September 28th, without a shadow of a doubt. (Here, I couldn't tell if Seira was simply his kimochi-warui way of thinking out loud, or if she was just giving him bad, bad advice for a change.)

Anyway, Taku bites the bait and hunts for some information on precognitive abilities. The info search leads him to Phantasm, a four-piece goth punk band whose frontman goes by the name 'FES' (the blue haired girl that goes to his school). For me, the concert was the highlight of it all. I did not totally comprehend how and why the "Crucifixion Mass" lyrics could/would have described the murder exactly as it happened, but it wasn't terribly distressing, because I was totally absorbed by the music. I may be a sucker for all things musical, but more moving than the sound of the band was the way it tied everything together, gave a voice to the haunting bog of events we have already sunk knee-deep into, and into which we will inevitably submerge. At the height of the epicness, FES leaps off the stage with her giant sword and crosses the cultishly entranced audience to stare Taku in the eye while she presses her bosom against his chest, sword inches away from him. So. Intense.

I think I've babbled enough. He runs from the concert, but he cannot escape. Taku spots another sword girl in school uniform looking for someone while he is out on a date with his sister the next day (note: she buys him a cellphone and forces a gero on it, an act not at all without significance.) To top it off, back at his apartment, he receives an image of the next murder victim, a person sucked completely dry of his or her blood... and Taku's trademark slogan smeared on the adjacent bathroom wall. Now that the harem has been gathered neatly together, things are about to get quite interesting.

C;H #01 made it clear that (o)Taku suffers from serious delusions -- there's no doubt about that. What remains unclear is when we are being shown another delusion and when we are being craftily fed the truth. There was some speculation that the murder scene in the first episode was another delusion -- but I never bought that. I could not buy that. I would demand the precious, wasted seconds of my life back from Madhouse if the central premise of the story turned out to be a big, fat, steaming lie (::Maipeisu proceeds to bludgeon himself to death with a series of convulsive facepalms::). No, no, no -- that would be the troll way out.

But what of the opposite extreme? Are Taku's grandiloquent fantasies simply there to help define his character? Will they lose significance as the series progresses, to make way for the gruesome facts of the central plot? Or will Taku's psychological interpretation of the New Gene murders prove to be just as important as the murders themselves? As episode two continues to integrate his delusions into its piecemeal unveiling of the truth, we find that there's a bit (okay, a lot) more to Taku's wild imagination than meets the eye. The plot thickens...

Devil moe = Otaku's worst nightmare.

So, picking up where we left off, kawaisou Taku discovers to his horror that the culprit (the person he saw at the scene of the crime, at least) behind the New Gene murders is in his classroom, sitting right next to him. She goes by the name of Rimi Sakihata. "But wait," you might be thinking, "it's too early to draw conclusions! She's so innocent and sweet! Maybe he imagined the entire thing!" Let us not forget the introductory scenes, which left off with her straddling him, her lips on his, and the tip of her massive blade poking his chest. Though it hasn't happened yet (presumably), we are privy to this information for a reason. And though his head is a jumbled, fragmented mess of information, strangely enough I believe Taku's paranoia is justified. Moe moe smile is NOT to be trusted. Later, we'll see why.

WTH

Rimi insists that they are friends, and that Taku forgot her [name/face/flamboyantly pink hair] because he rarely goes to class. Adding insult to injury, Daichi steps in and 'proves' it by showing him a cell phone picture of the three of them together. Who to believe! I think she and Daichi are in cahoots. I could bore you all to tears with few rudimentary explanations, but the story is so wide open to possibility at this point that I'm just going to admit that I'm damn confused. Time will tell. I will say one thing though -- allowing for exceptions like Perfect Blue, protagonists tend to be among the more credible characters in a story. If it's his word against theirs, I'm siding with Taku.

Something is acutely wrong with that statement O_O;

I'm willing to bet money that Seira will have an important role at some point or another (above and beyond being Taku's personal aidoru.) She's too permanent a fixture to stay stuck in that nasty shipping container. Funny question: is she really just a subconscious creation, or does she have a will of her own? Although she sometimes tells Taku what he wants to hear (as though a device to articulate his thoughts in a fluffy, moe sort of way), there are other times when she gives him advice that he *doesn't* want to hear (e.g., "wake up", "go to school", etc.) On the flip side, she never appears when he is in the process of confronting reality, but that doesn't really help to cast her as an innocent imaginary friend. It kind of makes me think her intentions are ever so slightly less than benign (you know, like that little demon that whispers strange things in your ear when no one else is around... or is that just me?)

I know what a wimble is, I don't know what a "wimbled cross" is, and I'm not sure I want to find out.

Rimi marks the third member of the harem evil moe network to invite herself over Taku's 'economy apartment'. He promptly offers her a glass of GTFO and sends her on her way. I would advise him to change the locks, but, well, it's a SHIPPING CONTAINER.

The boys in blue are hard at work, as usual (::snicker::).

"So let me get this straight, gentleman. You are dealing with one of the biggest, most twisted and bizzare murder cases you have ever encountered, and you decide to conveniently ignore the fingerprints on the fifteen gazillion wimbled crosses you found sticking out of that poor man's body, and conclude, simply because you have a grainy surveillance photo of some boy running with one of them in his hand, that he is the killer?" (Boy are they going to be surprised when they find out their first suspect is an epic FAIL at the game of life. Still, the video is a good lead, and more importantly, we can now confirm a vital piece of information: the murder... was real.)

Notice the distressed look on Seira-tan's face.

It's like a harem tag team! Rimi leaves the shipping container, Yua takes her place and reminds Taku of their pre-planned trip to Anime8 for some shopping. The directing makes it painfully obvious that the owner of the bag that Taku saw in Room 36 of @Cafe in Episode #01 is Yua! ドン！ It was quite darkly amusing how the date were scenes so carefree and happy (with pleasant tunes, to boot), while this giant assfuck piece of information was tucked neatly between the visuals. True to the Japanese storytelling style, we get the news long before word reaches Taku, but he'll find out eventually. Oh, and notice how cutely concerned Seira-tan looks while reading Yua's e-mail to Taku. The standard harem love competition has begun... err, rather, let me rephrase - what *appears* to be your standard harem love competition has begun. Underneath the surface, something wicked lurks. Each girl is interested in Taku for a very, very different reason.

That uniform symbol looks vaguely reminiscent of a weed leaf.

Yes, the harem cliches are in full effect. The date scene was cute in its own cheesy sort of way, a watered down version of what one would expect in a shounen anime like Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu, tolerable because we know that it will all crumble to dust before the episode is over. I sort of felt... bad... for Taku. I mean, Yua succeeded in coaxing him out of his shell, only to let the hammer fall abruptly and harshly on his horrid dreams of becoming the progenitor of a new generation of mutant otaku at the expense of some poor young lady finding that special someone.

INCOMPETENCE.

If I ruled the world, I would have this doofus fired. Oh sure, it is very possible to miss someone when searching for them in a crowd. I'll allow that. I'm mad because he didn't have the good sense to meet Taku at home, rather than searching for him at a school where he *may or may not* be. Had they really wanted to find him, it would have been done by now!

Moe moe smile is NOT to be trusted. Here's one reason why.

Come deito number two, the beans are officially spilled. Taku notices the Gero keychains on Yua's bag and she accidentally knocks her New Gene research materials out of the bag while trying to pull off a Gero to give to him (how a *zipped* bag managed to split open in one fluid action, I'll never know.) With her cover blown, she turns off the moe and turns on the badass. Taku's overactive imagination may have shaded the encounter a degree or two darker than what it actually was (especially considering the ridiculous and creepy way she kept repeating her accusations in emphatic threes), but the general gist of what happened, we can be sure, is true. Looks like that whole "oh I'm a prissy, girlie girl and I can't throw a ball" act in Episode #01 was just that--an act. Yua is not your average high school student. In fact, I'm not even sure she's a student at all. She has an exceptionally good grasp on the situation (the police must be a few thousand donuts and coffees behind her) and singled out the person with the most relevant exposure to the murders. How she accomplished this, I have no idea. I am utterly confused and will await further backstory. But, the REAL kicker is why she is interested in Taku ~

Prescience. Precognition. Prediction. Foresight.

Yua concluded from Taku's net convo about the Shibuya incidents, as well as the image of the murder which was taken the day before it happened, two things: 1) ドン！ Taku himself is 'Shogun', and 2) ドン！Taku has the ability to see the future. If he really is Shogun, then he has some important knowledge locked away in his mind. Somewhere amidst the chaos in Taku's head, lies the truth. ...The bad news is that his perception of events is now called into serious question.

Next Episode:

Your guess is as good as mine. More harem?

Well, where to start? I have so many good things to say about this episode and I am so excited to follow this series that I haven't a clue where to begin. I watched it in several five minute snippets while rushing back and forth from the kitchen to cook my hangover breakfast (what a night!), practically trembling with excitement after each installment. The aptly named Chaos;Head is a maniacal muddle of humdrum Japanese high school student life, twisted murder, and most importantly, EXTREME MOE-INDUCED PSYCHOLOGICAL OTAKU-DELUSIONS! Best of all is that we never quite know which mode is at work at any given time, which fractured lens we are viewing the world through. The directing is fantastic, and fluctuates between extreme moods so eagerly and effortlessly that a golden-haired beauty like Kusunoki Yua could babble on about Seira-tan one moment and shake fifteen blades out of her skirt under a crimson glare the next, without seeming the slightest bit out of place. Never has that ‘moe moe smile’ looked so delectably sinister.

[WARNING: I've had one complaint already, so beware -- spoilers abound.]

From the pits of Otaku Hell.

Summary: If I don’t have a clue what’s going on, how can I possibly be expected to summarize! Nevermind, let’s start with the basics: Nishijou Takumi is a moe-obsessed hikkikomori high school sophomore who inhabits in a dingy metal shack atop the roof of a high-rise, surrounded by empty Coke bottles and Seira-chan merchandise. He sits long hours hunched over his HD computer monitor watching anime, playing games and Netsurfing. He is the ultimate otaku Loser, and has receded so far into the cavernous depths of his perverse imagination that he regularly has psychotic hallucinations, many of which somehow involve the incorrigible (and generously-endowed) Seira-chan, who always seems to be cheering him out of an apathetic funk or dragging him out of bed to go to school. Things get very interesting when the mastermind behind a series of grotesque local murders (who Takumi had accidentally discovered burying the final knife into her latest victim) turns out to be an attractive young transfer student that looks disturbing similar to Seira-chan. Why does she know his name? What does she want from him!?

Review: “Those eyes… whose are they?”, is not only Takumi’s signature utterance, but seems to capture the very essence of the show. We never know exactly whose eyes we are viewing the unfolding of these strange events through. Chaos;Head opens with a scene of Takumi laying in the middle of a catastrophic pile of rubble in the rain, his distant gaze suggesting paralysis...? Grave fatigue? Perhaps the dwindling sputters of life that precede death? Takumi narrates a time-displaced monologue about a world where “only the two of us” exist, as a pink-haired girl in school garb kneels to kiss him while holding a massive blade to his chest. “I’m sorry,” she whispers.

Intro.

It would be reasonable to conclude that the remainder of the episode is an extended flashback; reasonable, to assume that the chronology will eventually work its way up to the time of the introductory scenes. Problem is, we are not dealing with a *reasonable* show here. Considering the way Seira-chan tries to wake "Taki" and get him to go to class (with bouncy J-Poptronica fistpumping in the background), or the way Takumi's garden-variety classmate Misumi smacks on the shoulder and reports his latest efforts to capture all the girls in his class while he sits hunched over a desk in room 2-C, one would almost expect a 'normal' slice of life to ensue... until we realize that Seira-chan is the diseased outgrowth of his supersaturated imagination, and that the weird tune accompanying the classroom scene hints (if not assures) that 'normal' life will provide no such retreat from the insanity. (I can almost hear the director chuckling.) Takumi sweats profusely from uninterrupted torrents of neurosis, mumbles to himself, constantly compares his daily life to an eroge, thinks perverted thoughts about his sister, triumphs gleefully in video games -- all from the suffocatingly comfortable enclosure of his otaku-box apartment. This dude is a Class-S NUT, so unbelievably over-the-edge in his otakuness that he has transcended the outer limits of depravity and reached some kind of impenetrable, folded-space character archetype that I can only clumsily describe as 'otaku-moe'. (Limit: one per series.)

The killer.

Misumi quickly changes the topic to the New-Gene(ration) murders happening in Shibuya. He continues to pester him about it over chat once Takumi is back home. With new information to worry over and a chilling chat conversation that will reveal pictures of the next murder, the dramatic mood shifts seamlessly away from school business back to the basket case zigzags of Takumi's thoughts, as though they were bouncing off the walls of his stuffy apartment like three-dimensional Pong balls. When Takumi discovers the identity of the New-Gene killer, things take an unexpected twist. Outwardly, of course, it is a mindfuck. But more significant to me were the psychological implications of his discovery. The borders between Takumi's imagination and reality are beginning to shift in unprecedented and frightening ways, as his hallucinatory idol seemingly incarnates as a bloodstained avatar that knows his name and confesses that she "wanted to meet him" (she looks like Seira-chan, doesn't she?) In addition, we are fed subtle hints that a dangerous network of moe (Nanami, Yua, the killer, and the blue-haired girl?) have surrounded Takumi and are beginning to circle closer. If three-dimensional women frighten him, threaten him, then he must be absolutely terrified.

This scene was pure genius.

If we were to dissect the show (assuming that Episode #01 is an accurate augury of things to come), and examine its component pieces, we would find that each is strong in its own right. The music is diverse, yet never strays far from the comically insane undertones that tie it into the meat of the show, even in the most lighthearted moments. The animation is gorgeous in terms of color, contrast, style and balance. The directing is superb, making clever use of simple but spontaneous cinematographic tricks to delicately adjust the mood of a particular scene (e.g. minimizing Takumi's visual dominance during bloody encounters, or skillfully reusing a still to introduce school scenes, or shifting between shots of Yua's and Takumi's feet while maintaining precisely the same gait in the scene where he realizes she is following him.) But what has impressed me most about Chaos;Head is that each of these aspects operates in near-perfect unison. As a coordinated effort, the show seems to give equal balance to visual, contextual, and aural elements, the result of which is a juggernaut first episode that pleases in almost every way possible and is definitely, definitely, DEFINITELY worth replaying. Chaos;Head is off to a strong start, and sets the bar high. Let's hope #02 does not disappoint.

Verdict: B+/A-, and I will definitely be blogging this.

Impz on Understanding The Delusional State of Takumi

To end off Maipeisu's excellent entry, I have invited myself to this entry in order to present the true delusional behavior of Takumi. This will be a very serious continual editorial to understand the true delusion of Takumi. It is also to strengthen and build up the logical hints of confusion into a state of instability and chaos. It's time for the true chaos: Understanding the delusional state of Takumi and Chaos;Head.

Key Case #1

The surface issue is to debate whether Takumi has a younger sister. I bet most of you have not thought beyond how he tried to sexualize his younger sister. Considering how fake the sister is (I mean, a stereotypical genki young sister with an otaku elder brother), I believe that it is in fact a delusional thought by Takumi to imagine a younger sister that is annoying. In the near future, he will start realizing that she is in fact a non-blood sister and starts to find her moe. Eventually, he will create the first delusional virtual reality world where he has 1055 clones of Level 6 younger sisters who can conjure balls of electricity and the 1056th clone is the one who looks like a 300 pound Girl Saurus.

If we dig in deeper, there is in fact a sublime delusion that aims to affect us in real life. That is in fact a conspiracy by Coca Cola to usurp the control of Pepsi in the oriental country of Japan. Despite the great popularity of Coca Cola in Japan, it is said that one of the rare population groups that have not taken on the brainwashing is the otaku group. The otaku group has generally went up in arms after realizing that Coca Cola is the mastermind that has orchestrated the creation of a stereotype known as retarded moe, aiding in the development of Soul Link (*the greatest anime show that is strangely and wrongly hated by 99% of all anime viewers*) and the delay of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Key Case #2

This is in fact a quicktime event where he has forgotten to press the X button within 3 seconds at the top right of the screen. If you notice, that X button is the key to getting 100% completion in the game, "How to click off stupid and ridiculous chain letters.", a cult hit among the spamming population. In fact, it has hit triple platinum recently and has sparked a fresh debate whether to make the 195th sequel.

Moreover, anyone can tell you that the image is photoshopped. Yet, is it really a photoshopped image that is blatantly fake? Being a conscientious viewer, this is where the confusion comes. It is actually a photoshop image after not being photoshopped. Try to figure that complex psychological fallacy created by the brilliant mind of Takumi.

Key Case #3

Have you heard of the show called Truman Show? It is a series about a salesman where his life is in fact a TV show. This is in fact the complexity of Takumi's life as his parents has sold their son to the secretive media known as the "OOC" - The Obsessive Otaku-loving Community. This OOC has some of the most influential members of society, whose main aim is to broadcast the confusion of otakus when they have scenes straight from various games.

This is in fact a scene re-created by the OOC to see how Takumi will react to a killing that is from a visual novel known as Chaos;Head. In fact, the OOC spent a million dollars on the cosmetics and special CG effects to appear real to Takumi. Moreover, they also spent two hundred thousand yen to make the advertisement sound like a news piece in order to make it great. Of course, everyone but Takumi knows about this, and is a secret subscriber to "The Takumi Show: Your life is ruined when you watch this."

Key Case #4

If you think that this is in fact a delusion, you are wrong. It is a delusion to think that it is a delusion because delusions which are so easily delusional are obviously not delusional unless you do not believe that it is a delusion. Try to figure that simple delusion problem.

For those that are lazy, the truth is that Takumi is already dead after being killed by this killer bishoujo of hell. She is in fact known in the otaku circle as Sena the murderous Aoi for her ability to kill otakus using female figurines of the rarest order. She usually tangles it around their face after binding them with her ninjutsu, making them lose blood from profuse nose bleeding until they die in extreme agony.

Key Case #5

The bikini is a lie. She is naked.