ChäoS;HEAd

__NO SPOILERS__

Thought seemingly at first this anime concerns a delusional otaku-hikomori quickly the plot has a supernatural twist with mind games and possible conspiracies. Personally it reminds me a bit of the plot of The melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya but in a more paranoid and "bloody" way.

Story 8: The plot is really intriguing but has some anime-cliches that i find annoying such as the protagonist's "harem" and the fan service. Other than that minor drawback this anime really draws you in with the suspense and the "i don't know who i can trust" mood.

Art 7: The art is solid, plain and common. Most of the ... times the characters remind me of other charas from other popular anime, and that's annoying. The backgrounds are really well drawn and detailed though.

Sound 8: The opening theme is catchy and fun while the ending theme is simply annoying. The seiyus have done a very good job, especially Takumi's seiyu is amazing and his performance really brings the character to life. The mood setting "background" music themes are pretty good and manage to give an eerie feeling but i feel they're starting to get a bit repetitive.

Character 9: When i started this series i thought that every character nicely fitted a popular anime-cliche but i'm glad to say that i was proven wrong (well maybe except in the case of Takumi's sister). The characters are well written and have background motives and issues that explain their actions. Again i think Takumi is the most solid character, mostly acts as an anti-hero and his reactions are really unique and unexpected (although i must admit that there were times when he vividly reminded me of Ikari Shinji..)

Enjoyment 9: I watched at once all the 6 episodes and it felt like less than 10 minutes, this series really draws you in. I will be waiting in anticipation for the next episode, to see if my theories about the "mysteries" were right and to get new "clues"! I suggest you grab a coke (like Takumi does every time he sits in front of his pc) and enjoy Chaos;Head.

Overall 8: I might give it a higher rating once it's finished. It all depends on whether it'll have a well written, solid ending. I really recommend you delve into this series!

Story: The story is good. It seems to follow the Visual Novel closely (except for a few points) and for the most part is the exact same only in condensed format (chapters 1-2 of the VN are 1 episode, etc. etc.).There are some MAJOR differences like introducing characters earlier than they would have in the VN. Another fault of the anime is the fact the VN had "Delusion triggers" which would make Takumi go into a delusion and see something that wasn't happening, making him space out and confuse other characters. So instead, you have to deal with the pre determined triggers which mostly ... consisted of Seira-tan, one of the most annoying supporting characters in an anime ever. I can't really comment much more on the story because I haven't finished the anime and don't plan to.

Art: The art in Chaos;Head is terrible, honestly I don't even know what to say.

Sound: The characters sound like they do in the Visual Novel. Probably because they used the same voice actors. My only complain is Yoshino's voice for Takumi, he is the most annoying character I have EVER heard. The same stands for the visual novel as well. Second worst would have to be Takumi's delusion "Seira-tan" who is almost equally annoying in both sound and character personality.

Characters: Ignoring Takumi's TERRIBLE voice, he is a fairly interesting character. Although sometimes I cringed at how stupid he could be, albeit he had good reason. Most, if not all characters had some sort of secret that would be explained later and made it interesting at least in the Visual Novel.

Enjoyment: Basing it on the anime, the enjoyment factor here is 1. The art mixed with the story inconsistencies of the anime really screwed this rating big time. I do not recommend you watch the anime, it is a waste of time. Read the visual novel instead, I can guarantee a solid 8/10.

Overall: Don't watch the anime. Read the visual novel.

ChaoS;HEAd is a psychological anime with some action and a good plot behind it. Overall, it was pretty enjoyable, and something that is definitely worth watching; however, it isn't one of those extremely memorable anime like Death Note or Code Geass that everybody just loves. Actually, it doesn't reach those heights in the slightest, but that's not to say it was terrible either. Definitely watch it if you like short, psychological anime series, but if you're a casual anime watcher, ChaoS;HEAd should be watched after you've watched the Tops.

Story
Read the synopsis for more details. Basically, you have your generic "I hate human greed/selfishness and I'm ... going to destroy/remake everything to make a point" anime villain. Then you also have the generic male anime protagonist who attempts to save mankind. Sounds boring, but ChaoS;HEAd adds to this generic plot with its own unique recipes that makes the story worthwhile. There are unexplained points in the story for minor details that are never answered, but most are sci-fi related. It does make the story unsatisfying, but doesn't ruin the story.

Art
I watched ChaoS;HEAd subbed by m33w fansubs, which were 400 mb per episode, so the quality of the anime was great. Everything was sleek and clear. Besides that, the art style is also notable. It is drawn with seriousness in mind, so you won't be seeing any MOE characters or out-of-proportion body parts (besides the eyes, lol) that are common in comedy anime. The motions are very sleek and smooth, so you can just appreciate how many drawings came together to piece ChaoS;HEAd up. I haven't noticed any obvious reused background scenery, so that's a plus as well.

Sound
I'm not a big person on sound, unless it was noticeably awful. The sound in ChaoS;HEAd seems fine to me. The opening song really fit the anime. I personally didn't like the peaceful, pacific ending song, seeing as how it just didn't quite in with the psychological element of ChaoS;HEAd. Generally, the background music was pretty good and fitted with the various situations. The sound effects were satisfying as well. The effects for bodies .. "being damaged" were especially realistic *shudders*

Character
Characters were very unique in ChaoS;HEAd. Every main character has their own traits, from the queer Ayase to Yua with her extremely notable repetitions in speech. The protagonist, Takumi Nishijo, was especially interesting and quite different from generic characters, to say the least. His character development was also done very well. Most watchers will likely hate his personality at the beginning, and most will change their opinions ;)

Enjoyment
In the beginning, I didn't expect much. The first few episodes presented an interesting story and Nishijo's personality, albeit irritating, was noticeably different that most other anime characters. However, everything felt a little bland. But as I continue watching, it became quite enjoyable, as more characters were introduced, and more mysteries presented themselves, waiting for explanations in further episodes. The ending was especially good and is probably the highlight of this entire series.

Overall, ChaoS;HEAd was good, enjoyable, satisfying, but definitely not an epic/memorable anime. I recommend watching the first episode or two, and then take it from there: if you are interested, keep going and if not, hold it for later.

Ahh Chaos;head, such a sour affair we've had. Of course, like any passionate fling, it would be unfair to say that we were set off with a spark. No, to be more accurate, I was seared alive by a Nazi-era flamethrower with a love for this show when it first began. The early episodes contained all the elements of my other favorite series. We had a Hikikomori on par with Tatsu of NHK ni Youkoso, we had psychotic murdering high school girls akin to the killer lolis of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, and all the intrigue of Monster combined with the polygamous romances found ... in nearly every anime over the last five years. I only grew more and more passionate about the series as Taku dove headlong into his delusions, and as the invisible horrors of the outside world pressed down harder upon his shipping containers doors. However, at episode seven, the enjoyment i found in the series threw itself full force against a wall of disbelief. Granted, nearly every anime "jumps the shark" sooner or later (just look at H2O ~Footprints In The Sand~ episode eight, it took a rocket-boosted double jump over said shark). However, when Chaos;Head began trying to wed a logical explanation to a concept that by it's nature defies common logic, it leaves the watcher in a tizzy. While the technological jargon invented to try and explain the vast loneliness of the human condition and the vast conspiracy to justify the illogical nature philosophy of the mind do offer an explanation, they offer no solutions. Right now at episode ten, I can't help but feel dismal depression as even if "the bad guys" are defeated in the show, Takumi will still be unable to prove any facet of existence. Frankly, at this point the series has nowhere to go. While I admit that I have two episodes to come, I view their eventual arrival with a weary heart, knowing that the show can never retract the new technobabble it's branched into, and return to it's murder mystery roots.

This is one of the best Animes I seen in a long time. The story line is a really great one and it keeps you at the edge of your seat when watching it. The surprises in this anime is outstanding work.

There’s this anime called Steins;Gate that I watched a few months back. I really liked it. In fact, I gave it a near perfect score and rambled on about it for longer than I ever have any anime. But I discovered something whilst searching for a new show to watch: there was a precursor to Steins;Gate, a lesser known anime set in the same world. Lo and behold, I snagged a copy and started watching with expectations high and nothing less than elation at the fact I was about to embark on another journey with the people behind one of my favorite anime…

WHAT THE FUCK ... IS THIS?

Hey, it starts off generic enough. There’s a murderer on the loose, and I shouldn’t have to explain what this murderer is doing as it should be readily apparent. Our main character, Takumi, lives out of a storage crate where he collects anime action figures, plays MMO’s, and is constantly harassed by his waifu who doesn’t seem to have any redeeming qualities or personality beside the fact she wears enough clothes to cover an ant and has large tits. So um, he’s our hero.

Takumi.

Yeah.

While I have no problem with the portrayal of an otaku with a waifu (sounds familiar to me) I do have a problem with the fact that this character is so batshit insane and delusional that any sort of shits I give for him are thrown out the window by his overly dramatic everything. And on top of that, he’s just an all-around prick. His sister may be annoying, but you’d think he would give a bit of a damn about her, especially considering how scared he is for himself as these murders happen. But nope, not gonna walk my sister home, just gonna let her walk alone and be possibly murdered. Brother of the Year!

So anyway Takumi sees a pink haired girl murder some guy and picks up a weapon and runs away and meets another girl with glasses and she’s looking into these murders and thinks Takumi is the killer and wants to turn him in and…

IT’S FUCKING BORING! What the hell is going on? Why am I not excited? Seriously, you have this big plot concerning murders and a mysterious killer and the most exciting thing happening is going on a trip to the FUCKING ANIME STORE! Woop-dee-fucking-doo! But later when glasses (her name’s Yua, and while I typically remember names of characters without looking at the Wiki, I had to for this. It shows how much I cared) confronts Takumi about being the murderer, she threatens him with one of the stakes used in the murder he saw. Then she apologizes for threatening to murder him, saying she went a little “overboard”. Oh, are you sure about that? Last time I checked it was okay to threaten to murder someone and point a weapon at his chest.

Oh, and guess what happens? Bet you can’t?

Did you guess the pink haired girl goes to Takumi’s school, is in his class, sits right next to him, and claims to be his childhood friend? DING DING DING! You are right!

So anyway, there’s another murder and Takumi figures out that the song lyrics of this band Phantasm are apparently prophesying the deaths. So he goes to check them out. First of all, the music that you are forced to listen to is so bad, so shrill, so horrifying. The band, headed by lead singer Rei Ayanami…I mean Ayase Kishimoto, is horrible. Bad. NOT GOOD. Their most popular song is apparently called Crucifixion, which is what I wished someone would do to me while watching this scene. Thankfully, the song is only forty-five seconds, so I’m assuming their other songs are longer, and the reason Crucifixion is the favorite is because it ends fast, but not fast enough that your brain won’t start punching itself. The concert must have been free with fantastic drink specials, because that is the only way I can see anyone rocking out to this bullshit.

Takumi talks to Ayase about stuff. The police catch Takumi on camera running from that first murder scene so ask him questions, then let him go. Later he is pursued by the police for further questioning, but I guess it is too hard for the police to walk into his classroom and take him away. Why the hell is the guy at school, learning, doing normal things, when he’s being chased by the police? And why wouldn’t the police check the school for him if they want him so bad?

There’s this catchphrase the murderer leaves behind. “Those eyes, whose are they” becomes a kind of pop culture thing. People are saying the words left behind by the murderer everywhere: on the street, in the school. They want to brand it. WHAT? So a whole section of Tokyo is scared to death of a murderer, yet they decide to make his motto into a pop culture kind of thing? And the anime can’t figure out what this catchphrase actually is. “Those eyes, whose are they” becomes “Whose eyes are those” and then goes back to the former. Consistency…Chaos;Head doesn’t have it.

Oh, did I also mention that Wikipedia is called We-Key Pedopheria in Chaos;Head? I’ll let you decide why I find something odd with that.

So Takumi is having these delusions. He sees a guy in a wheelchair named The General who constantly harasses him about auto insurance or some bullshit and he blames it on the pink haired girl who he witnessed at the first murder. Her name is Rimi and I don’t know how she puts up with Takumi. He calls her a demon and tells her he’ll kill her. And her response? Slaps him, cries on his shoulder, and holds his hand. Because, you know…realism!

As the plot continues to thicken, and I mean thicken to the consistency of syrup, we are led deeper and deeper into a world of confusion. What I mean is the plot makes no sense the more it keeps going. Well, let me rephrase that. It makes a little sense but is so convoluted and explained so badly that you’ll end the show scratching your head and wondering how Ir2 is the equation that can destroy the world. There are these people with swords who are fighting to protect the world from being peaceful or something. There’s a big evil corporation that uses these backpacks to make people believe their delusions are reality. The corporation has created a big metal testicle that will save the world from evil and make people happy through rebooting the system or some bullshit. There are six girls and one guy, Takumi, with these D-swords that are going to stop le evil corporation from making the world happy and safe because Takumi is a selfish fuckwit who wants to pork Rimi rather than let the world be without war.

This sounds as exciting as watching butter melt, and it is. The originality of the plot stems from its use of delusions being projected between people, but this entire idea is so badly explained. I didn’t get it. I still don’t understand half of what happened. When blowing minds, you must first set up a base level that everyone can get, and build to a pinnacle point where my head explodes with the ideas complexity. But this show jumps right for the pinnacle rather than explain the lower layers. Thus, no mind blown, just a guy scratching his head.

Let’s point out some more fallacies. First, our buddy Takumi is the only person in his school wearing green. Everyone else wears blue. Trying to stand out and be a rebel Takumi? I mean, nobody likes you and you don’t have many friends anyway…no need to stand out from the rest…

Ayase jumps off a four or five story school building and lands in a bed of flowers and manages to survive with no injuries. Because flowers are like a ten foot thick pillow.

At a later point in the show, the people downtown have a mass delusion and see the gayest excavator of all time strut down the road. When it disappears, they move on with their lives like nothing happen. And as the sword bearing girls destroy the backpacks containing the delusion machines with their seven foot tall ridiculous-ass swords, nobody says anything. Just a normal day in Japan.

There’s a very cute character named Kozupii. She’s probably the only character I can say I gave a percentile of a damn about. She can’t talk. So she uses telepathy instead. She apparently had a bad experience as a child, and, as with everything in this show, it’s fucking stupid. When she was a child, people followed her with mirrors and asked her who she was. Because…that makes sense? People do that? Sure.

In episode nine Takumi is called by his sister, in dire need of help. He tells her to quit prank calling him. You know, when she sounds like she’s being hurt, it must be a prank. Rather than be nice and ask what is going on. Because it’s not like there are FUCKING MURDERS HAPPENING AND SHE COULD BE HURT!

So let me stop complaining about the plot and complain about everything else I haven’t complained about yet. The animation is horrible. It may be old, but the animation is still bad for the time.

And let me tell you something inspirational: You’re always super special. The lackluster opening can be forgiven because everything else about the anime is lackluster. But the closing credits are a thing of beauty. Accompanied by the beautiful sounds of a Japanese person trying to speak English, this song is the epitome of laughable. Why are you trying to speak English when you don’t know English?

Here, just read the lyrics. Maybe you can interpret them for me:

You’re always super special, that’s why you are here with me
Miracle baby, I’m happy to be with you
Big sing of “love and peace”
Where there’s enough bombs to blow the Earth
“All A-kids only”
Prioritize money they own

I wish I was kidding, but those are the real lyrics.

So anyway, I watched twelve episodes of this giant piece of festering dog shit. In those five or so hours I wasted I could have been reading a book, taking a class, learning a language, giving my time to charity. Nope, instead I dulled my mind with an overly complicated, underdeveloped, ugly, uninteresting mess of an anime. The characters are all cardboard cut outs with nothing at all to keep you interested in them. The plot continually gets more and more overly-complicated and badly explained. The writing is downright atrocious. The design is idiotic (the bad guys sword…what the fuck was that?). Everything about this anime is bad. The only redeeming factor I may be able to give it is the fact that it ends.

Save yourself five hours and heed my advice. Don’t watch this. If you haven’t seen Steins;Gate, watch that. If you have, go back and watch it again. Just, please, avoid Chaos;Head at all costs.

Chaos;Head is a show I went into knowing nothing about except one thing....That it wasn't good. I had low expectations naturally, However I found myself fully enjoying the twisted world of Chaos;Head. Simply put (Which is hard to do) Chaos;Head is the story of a shut in, Anime obsessed Teenager who lives in a large town where awful murders are occuring. Relatively simple....Minus the fact that he's seemingly going down a spiral into madness. What's real and what isn't?

Chaos;Head certainly isn't the best show I have ever seen, but it's pretty darn good considering the flak this show gets!

Part 1 of the Science Adventure trilogy
This has all the makings of a great psychological thriller, and it does accomplish most of what it sets out to do, however, there are a few things it falters in. It's biggest problem is that it often mixes up being confusing with being clever. In most stories like this, things start out not making sense. However, things line up when the audience is told this universe's rules. In ChaoS;HEAd, right when some questions are answered, something happens that make about twenty new ones appear. The audience is never given a break until the 11th or 12th episode. Still, ... for the most part this is still an interesting and thought provoking story, if a little clumsy at times. The voice acting in the dub is also noteworthy, particularly for Todd Haberkorn. I liked it.

This is a really creepy show. I never know what is real or what isn’t with this, it seems to be all in Takumi head. I can understand why they call it Chaos;HEAd, his head is all screwed up. The guy seriously thinks a anime character is real and his girlfriend, he lives in a strange box on top of a roof, and just keeps being a whiny little prick for almost the whole show.

I got confused easily in the beginning, it was odd and out of place almost. I do have a question though, a lot of shows seem to have the main ... character that’s really off and then he ends up being the center of attention for all the girls. And of course, they all aren’t what people call normal. This is the base of all Harems and yet I still cannot get into it with the character. The strange thing is, Takumi sounds a bit like a couple people on DesuDes in his love for anime and such. He even talks about studying the director and writers which is pretty awesome. I like the fact that they really seem to add that part to the show.

When they say Psychological Thriller, they really mean it. It’s been making me wonder why a lot of these types are being dubbed now. I found this one on the Funimation Youtube account or I would of probably not heard about it until one of DesuDes looked into it. The whole show if a mind fuck, seriously. I watched with I had no sleep so I might be making it worse then it is on that account but really….

The artwork is really good, very crisp like normal shows in this time. While looking at all these shows, it’s hard to say anything about artwork that looks almost exactly the same as every other show that’s out there at around the same time.

The music for the ending is a little odd, and I don’t get it even if it’s a good beat. The opening is much better sounding then the ending and seems to give a better feel to the show. The English dub is pretty good and the girls don’t seem bothersome except for his sister. She is just plain annoying, like Eimi Ohba from Comic Party.

This anime is garbage. All of the characters are boring and have absolutely no character development. The worst of all the characters is the MC, Takumi. Throughout the entire anime, Takumi is a little whiny bitch. He is weak, emotionally fragile, and is an absolute asshole that only cares about himself. He spends his time running away and when he can't run, begging the random girls that show up to save his sorry little bitch ass. When he becomes momentarily suicidal, he can't even do THAT for himself. He just begs his little sister to kill him. The female characters of this anime legitimately have ... no reason to like the MC, but they do so anyway. Super weak sauce. The plot moves way too slow to keep me interested. If you're thinking about watching this because you're into the Harem genre, don't bother. This anime BARELY has elements of Harem in it.

I've never written a review on MAL, and I never intend to write another. But after watching this show I have a few things to say.

ChaoS;HEAd is an incredible story. It's beautiful, complex, intricate, and an absolute joy to experience. The characters are well developed and unforgettable, and that only serves to deepen the feelings of dread that allow you to sympathize with the trials they are forced to endure throughout the story. I adore ChaoS;HEAd, it's a masterpiece that few can compare to.

ChaoS;HEAd is a truly special piece of art. It's a shame I can't say the same about its adaptation, though.

This anime ... is dreadful. I don't know how anyone can have read/seen both the VN and this show and call this a faithful adaptation. Massive plot points are reduced to casual occurrences that are easily forgotten, and some are left out entirely. They made up for leaving out those big points by replacing them with a jumble of events that never took place in the original story and don't fit at all in the context of what had already happened in the anime. Characters and the relationships between them border on being unfinished with how poorly developed they are, so it's almost impossible to sympathize with them. The animation was incredibly lackluster as well, despite coming from Madhouse, which at the time was a titan in the industry with shows like Death Note, Black Lagoon, and Hajime no Ippo already under their belt. The opening and ending songs were both good, but I can't give them credit for the opening because it includes two huge spoilers for the story. The bad animation, cut events, and underdeveloped characters and relationships show how rushed this show was, given that they crapped this out mere months after the VN released in Japan. This anime is an insult to its source material and the people who worked on it, and it's a slap in the face to fans. It was truly a disappointment.

When I first started to watch Chaos Head the whole show seemed slow and awkward. Meaning that everything was poorly put together and did not really seem to go anywhere. The only thing that kept me watching was the increasing mystery and the fact that it was highly recommended for those who liked Higurashi.

This is one of those shows where the main character is ignorant, cowardly, and terribly unstable all at the same time. Having the main character be an otaku not only made him pathetic and cowardly, but also it resulted in him making stupid decisions. I do not understand why the guy who ... made this story thought it right to make the main character, Takumi, really easy to hate. The rest of the characters made enough sense, although at first I did not understand why all these girls were somehow attached to Takumi, but it all made sense down the line.

Chaos Head, being so close to Higurashi, was a very dark and mysterious show. At first things sort of happens without explanation, but then more and more is revealed to make a highly complicated and satisfactory plot. After awhile I was hooked on this gory and disturbing plot.

I believe that Chaos Head is highly underrated and can be very enjoyable once one gets into it. I am glad that this show did not turn out to be some corny romance or end in a big battle with no meaning, because although Chaos did have romance and a final battle, both of these were not comparable to the typical anime. So watch Chaos Head because it will not disappoint (I think).

Oh yeah! I forgot to mention the background sound(s) in this show is so perfect it was scary (literally).

*please note that I am writing this review after not having seen the series for quite a while*

A lot of people go into Chaos;Head expecting the second coming of Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. Those people had better brace themselves for major disappointment.

The story centers around Takumi Nishijou, a teenage shut in who basicly spends all of his time playing RPG games, watching anime, and chatting online. He has heard through the grapevine about a series of murders, known as "New Gen," occurring in his town. However, he dismisses this, as it does not apply to the "two dimensional world" he lives in…that is, until ... he witnesses an awful murder at the hands of a pink-haired girl, who then becomes his classmate and claims they are best friends.

The thing that pisses me off the most about Chaos;Head is that they actually had a really great idea for what could have been a very successful anime. All of the supernatural elements are based on the theory that if the majority of people can perceive something, it is reality. They introduce a secret organization that plans to bend reality by sending images into the "blind spots" in people's brains, and "giglomaniacs," who use the same power to try and stop them. It started out as an amazing mystery, but quickly took a turn for the worse when they started bringing in all of these stupid sci-fi elements. Also, the back stories of the characters made absolutely no sense. Basicly, they just didn’t give reason for any of the events. So your mother was tortured…okay…can you tell us why? No, you just needed a back story to add more trauma to the life of your already generically angsty character.

Speaking of the characters, the only one who seemed to have thoughts of any kind was the main character, Takumi. The rest of the characters were so flat, it almost seemed that Takumi was the only character in the entire series. They all had very generic and uninteresting personalities, and barely any presence at all. Also, there was almost no development. The characters were pretty much exactly the same from the beginning to the end. Nobody grew, nobody learned, nobody seemed to gain anything from this journey. These characters were clearly only around to be looked at.

That’s really all that needs to be said about the disappointment that was Chaos; Head. Avoid this series at all costs. Believe me, it is NOT worth your time. It took a brilliant idea, and made it into a sloppy, generic, and overall terrible series.

Hello there!!!

I watched Chaos;Head while I was waiting for the next episode from Stein's Gate to appear. I've read somewhere (I do not recall the web site) that these animes have in common the scientific approach. So, if I find Stein's Gate a very interesting anime, why wouldn't I try watching Chaos;Head?

And I wasn't wrong: Chaos Head was a delightful experience for me. I like very much the story, but, I am enthusiastic about the concept that built up that beautiful story.

The power to materialize a delusion- it's the power that is possed by Gigalomaniacs. They can bring weapons (usually swords) from a different dimension ... and materialize in this reality. But, beside fighting with peculiar swords, they can use delusions to fulfill their wishes;except one person, they do not have the power to materialize those delusions, but, they can manipulate minds.The events are related to how a person discovers this ability and how this power is perceived by a normal mind or a large group of normal human beings.

My thoughts after seeing this anime were: delusions have many ways of working; they can destroy a person, but also, can be very useful. Delusions can be dreams of a pure and brave soul that wants to grow stronger, stronger and stronger.

So, give Chaos;Head a try!

There are many animes that I dislike, but there are few animes that I can truly say that I hate. This is the prime example of that.

An anime can be boring, or have bland characters, and that's fine. I'll dislike the anime, but whatever. This anime, however, had an excellent start. The main character is interesting to see just how insane he is, and he's suddenly pushed into this dark and dangerous world filled with gruesome murders. He worked perfectly with this premise, because he would actually try to escape into his own insanity simply for comfort and that was really interesting to watch. We ... had a great mystery, and I genuinely wanted to see where they would take this.

And then we got the payoff. The only compliment I can give the payoff was that it was unexpected, as in I would never have expected this show to take such a turn for the dumb. For obvious spoiler reasons I won't list it here, but I'll tell you what I can. Essentially, they took genuine mystery story, that I wanted to see continue, and turned it into this crappy excuse of a supernatural sword fighting anime fighting against an evil corporation that wanted to use their powers for evil. The tone of the story ENTIRELY changed, and quite suddenly too. Everything of value, of seeing this guy go insane, of the mystery of what was happening to him and how he was tied to all these murders, of the hope for a decent explanation was gone in an instant.

And even by supernatural sword fighting animes it was stupid.

But not only was the payoff bad, but the timing was off too. When did the solve the mystery? At the end right? WRONG. The mystery was solved in middle of the season. The mystery was SOLVED and they still had HALF A SEASON TO GO.

And it's not just that they screwed up the ending so badly. Possibly the worst thing about this show is not only did it burn down this great mystery story it had set up, but it pissed on the ashes. They added insult to injury by continually taunting us with "mystery" moments that are supposed to make you think "What's happening to this poor guy?" when we already know what's happening to the poor guy because THE MYSTERY WAS ALREADY SOLVED. And the rest of the season was just as boring as you'd imagine it to be.

As I said, I truly, truly hate this anime. I'll give it a 3 overall, because despite my hatred of this anime, I still at least try to remember what a good mystery they had originally set up, and even though they screwed that over, I can still find some value in remember those first few episodes when it didn't suck. If you really want to watch this, only watch the first few episodes, and run away as quickly as possible when you see a girl with a big transparent sword. Let the mystery always be in your head, and you'll be fine and might actually walk away from this with an enjoyable experience. And then go watch Steins;Gate, which was made by the same people and actually became one of my personal favorite animes. How these two animes could be related though still baffles me.

Do you ever wonder why you’re rarely if ever in the situations found in Anime? It’s likely because you have common sense. Just as you cannot have a hero without evil, you cannot have these adventures without stupidity; a whole lot of stupidity.

In essence that’s what drives the plot of ChäoS;HEAd. The frustrating story can be somewhat attributed to our demented otaku protagonist but more so to the writers for burning through 10 episodes before any semblance of character development occurred.

Thank goodness the staff that made ChäoS;HEAd was mostly scrapped for Steins;Gate.

On MAL ChäoS;HEAd is listed as an alternative setting to Steins;Gate but there’s ... no real relationship between the series; it’s like the equivalent to that retarded cousin that you won’t admit as family. If Steins;Gate is the reason you’ve come to this series you’ll be awfully disappointed as I have been.

The premise of ChäoS;HEAd is that delusions and reality are not so different from one another and that through beings called “Gigalomaniacs” who are capable of projecting their delusions to other people; reality can be morphed.

“For example, if you sent a mental image of what person A is thinking to a hard disk recorder and turned it into a video recording and then somehow transmitted that information to person B’s brain. That would mean person A’s mental delusion would become person B’s reality; your thoughts become part of the world.”

As explained by the protagonist Takumi Nishijō in episode six.

That’s all incredibly interesting if not flawed for the amount of plot holes this generated throughout the series. You see changing one’s perception of reality and changing reality itself are two things all together.

If for example a speeding car is heading towards person A and person B sends the delusion that there is no car, what would happen? Of course person A will still be hit by the car and sent flying even if in their mind there is no car. See the properties of reality (i.e the force of impact) cannot be altered just because you believe otherwise. This same reason is why believing you can fly doesn't mean you can fly or that when your buddy sneaks up behind you and smacks the back of your head it still hurts like hell; no matter what happens in your mind and that whether you’re aware or not, reality still occurs.

In other words, just because you perceive reality does not mean reality is only that of what you perceive.

If you understand that then you’ll understand that ChäoS;HEAd is nonsensical and flawed. That and you’re also a stable person; congratulations you’re sane.

What’s more absurd is that they spent the majority of the episodes explaining this phony theory and expecting viewers to buy into it. They even created the formula Fun^10 X int^40 = lr2 to justify the anomalies that occurs in the series. I was actually tempted to ask my math prof about this but then again I do want to succeed in the course.

ChäoS;HEAd wasn't scientific and by no means deserved the Sci-Fi label. It’s alright for anime to be absurd but not when they've committed so much to be otherwise. If ChäoS;HEAd had just skipped the redundant explanation by saying that it was magic and progressed the story, the series would have been far more enjoyable. There was clearly a lot more that could have been included as ChäoS;HEAd the visual novel was far more expansive and has fared far better than the anime series.

Being a harem, expectations for character depth was low at best and this series did not disappoint. As always each girl follows a generic archetype with very few characteristics that would warrant your attention. Every heroine is simple in nature and has an uninteresting issue which amazingly resolves itself with no direct involvement from the protagonist. Throughout the series it is often difficult to see the need for so many heroines as most of them barely contribute to the story.

The protagonist however was certainly different. Takumi Nishijō is one of the worst written characters I've experienced to date. He could be described as an idiotic socially awkward high school otaku bordering becoming a NEET with no sense of realism or values to speak of. Also being a delusional pervert, Takumi often confuses reality with his fantasies which is often abused by the producers to insert fan service. These poor characteristics managed to drag the series out for 10 episodes as Takumi continually denied his responsibilities and preferred to live in his delusions. Even when his friends are threatened and his life is constantly in danger he ignores it and continues his day by saying “This has nothing to do with me.” Indeed, his common sense is lacking to point where he can’t contemplate that if people want to kill you there has to be something to do with you. This is a weak character that does nothing but panics in just about every scene with an issue and always waits for other characters to resolve it for him. Worst of all Takumi’s character development was also practically non-existent with the extent of it occurring in five minutes of episode 11 whereby he accepts his role in the story and through unknown means suddenly knows how to fight and utilize his powers perfectly.

The plot is actually thin enough to expect you to accept that kind of nonsense.

Another flaw is giving girls swords. Is this the sexist in me speaking? Well if you watched any of the action sequences or even the OP you’ll notice how bad they are. The ridiculous stances the girls take are clearly otaku bait and no one knows how to fight in this series. The action sequences are incredibly flimsy and slow as the writers felt that they had to pause all action and explain every occurrence on screen otherwise we wouldn't understand. This all leads to some of the worst action sequences I've ever seen.

The animators were also very lazy. They seemed to have tried hard to cut down on the amount of work by blanking backgrounds with speed lines during action sequences and abusing zoom ins and outs of still frames. Characters and background components seem to try very hard not to move at all. Often only one thing moves at a time during each scene as if they were taking turns. Motion of characters and objects were often rigid and unnatural. The animation style was decent and acceptable but ultimately the animation was poor overall.

As for genres the mystery component is lacking and is quickly forgotten after the first few episodes. The protagonist doesn't investigate each mystery preferring far more to ignore reality and dive into his delusions and games. By the end of the series the mystery component resolves itself and ends anticlimactically all without any deductive work by the protagonist. This inevitably leaves bundles of questions unanswered and many mysteries unresolved all the while with the sense that it was all pointless. This was especially insulting as the draw of the first episode was the mystery and for it to go completely underdeveloped only leaves a bitter taste.

The only thing decent enough to speak of in this series was the sound. The voice actors were okay with the exception of the voice of Takumi who did a splendid job capturing the essence of creeping terror. The sound effects were decent; sounding realistic but often weren't matched perfectly with the animation. The soundtrack choices were okay as they did represent the feelings of each scene but weren't strong enough to instill it into the viewers.

ChäoS;HEAd started out promising with a great pilot episode. By utilizing the end as the start, a relatable character (assuming you’re an otaku) and the lure of a mysterious killing it certainly managed to do everything right in drawing you into the story. However as the story progresses seemingly unending flaws and plot holes become apparent, destroying what expectations that you have established. As the series continues you become more frustrated with the direction it has taken and each episode becomes less enjoyable. By the end you realize this is another series that has tried to do too much yet did nothing right at all.

You will perceive this series to be bad because in reality it is bad. Not even a Gigalomaniac will be able to change your mind.

The anime that first got me into the medium was Steins;Gate. I had never imagined before that such a crazy premise would have that much to offer. Very few TV Shows had combined such quirky humor with strong characters and a fascinating plot. It took me very little time to realize that it was part of a series. Only a week after finishing Steins;Gate, I dived into Chaos;Head with high expectations. I knew that some of the reviews had fairly low scores for it, but I kept being optimistic.

I should have listened.

The first few episodes are incredibly strong. The plot begins with several mysteries that ... are very compelling, questions that give plenty of reason to continue watching. Takumi acts believably and the various girls each have their own distinct personality about them. However, this strength does not last for long.

Several of the female characters periodically show up to either provide slightly more detail into the plot or to say pretty much the same thing to Takumi. It works for a little while, since there's a sense in how important Takumi's sword is. However, it seems to get dropped as more of the female characters become important to the overall plot.

The anime falls short in two primary areas. First, the primary cast is entirely too large and spaced out to be characterized effectively in thirteen episodes. This is incredibly apparent in the second half where two or three of seemingly minor characters are forced into the spotlight. It looks very out of place and seems tacked on. It also has this weird idea that the best way to go about a subplot is to solve it at the same time it's introduced. It definitely felt that way, as any hints of those subplots beforehand are either incredibly small or easily forgettable. Second, the complete change in the premise from mystery and paranoia into full on action just doesn't fit or flow well. The initial premise is basically thrown to the side, as most of the initial questions that got me interested in continuing got an incredibly shallow answer. For example, one of the mysteries involved a seemingly minor character who is suddenly thrust into the spotlight and similarly brought back into obscurity several minutes later. This character has been showing up in several past episodes, but only in passing. There's no reason before that point to ever pay attention to their presence.

The main characters overall aren't great either. Takumi is a strong character in the first half of the series, but the giant plot twist involving The General and everything afterwards does a lot to destroy that credibility. Some of the other characters are strong, but others are incredibly weak. I still don't see what true purpose Takumi's sister has in the entire anime. There's not much purpose in having so many female characters in the spotlight. If they had combined some of them so that there were four instead of six, they would likely have been able to solve some of these issues.

When it comes to the antagonists, there's no real contest. There's only one primary antagonist in the entire anime, and he gets increasingly shallow as time goes on. He's a generic villain, a character that doesn't really stand out from the rest of the cast even though he plays a major role in the story's climax.

I feel this anime would have been much better if it was spaced out to 26 episodes instead of condensed into 13. With a cast as big as this and so many subplots being thrown around, it's incredibly difficult to avoid rushing through various things. If they had more time to flesh out all the characters and give a compelling answer to all the mysteries at the beginning, this would have been a much more satisfying experience. However, the way it is, I can't recommend anyone I know to watch this.

I watched Chaos;Head not expecting much. I've read a lot of reviews that do not look favourably on it, but I wanted to make my own judgement.

The show starts out fairly well, actually. For the first few episodes, we get a nice look at the delusional insanity of the main character, Takumi Nishijou. The show actually does really well, creating an oppressive and slightly hostile atmosphere, which really helps to justify the character of Takumi. Takumi, in short, is a fairly pathetic and unpleasant character, but because we see the story through his eyes, his actions don't seem entirely unreasonable, which makes for an interesting ... first few episodes.

This set up is promising. Shows that explore insanity can be really really good if done well. Chaos;Head should have stuck with the feeling it had in the beginning. We should have been lead through a maze Takumi's delusions and made to wonder about how much of the plot was actually happening and how much it was being distorted by Takumi's mind.

Instead, the show devolves into a loser hero and his harem battling against a stereotypical villain. Delusions, which should have been the trump card of the show, is effectively relegated to being a plot device (basically magic with a different name), and to being the subject of flawed and shallow philosophical musings. The big problem is that the show tries to be two things at once: on the one hand, a philosophical and psychological thought-experiment; on the other hand, a harem mystery/action show about saving the world from an evil man. These two sides of the show interfere with each other and ruin the show. The detachment from reality that is necessary for the psychological aspect conflicts with the need for a definite reality to ground the conflict of the action side. This results in a disappointing halfway compromise which fulfills neither need.

Overall, this review hasn't been nice to Chaos;Head. However, I will say this: I don't regret watching it. Sure, it was disappointing, and sure, nothing in it is particularly well done, but the actual experience of watching it wasn't bad. I don't hate this show. So I will end with this: while I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, if you think it sounds interesting then it's probably worth a watch.

Story: the story ugh! Huh... I'm a fan of the visual novels but the story in the anime was rushed as heck and even though I knew the story it was just madness and very difficult to keep track of. I mean like could anyone really understand what was going on half the time. Even on the parts they tried explaining they failed at explaining all the way. Well the main reason for this is because they only made the show 12 episodes they needed to make it at least 18 episodes
(I know that's a weird number but still).

Art: the ... art was really choppy and was only decent sometimes, the opening didn't even have average animation. You could tell the animators tried their hardest to make as many still scenes as possible.

Sound: probably the most passable thing in the show(just cause I am fan of Kanako Ito (not sure if I should put the "u" doesn't really matter). The ending theme wasn't anything special (wasn't trying to use the word special but all well) the only reason I remember it because it was pretty annoying. The sound track can't really remember anything worth mentioning except "Phantasm" which was great except they changed "Phantasm" in the dub which really pissed me off.

Characters: I'm one of those people who doesn't hate on Takumi just because he really wasn't annoying to me but I understand why people hate him as a main character. He wasn't really a stable person to begin with so why make him get even crazier with all the mind f*cks, don't know maybe just me. All the other characters were actually generic and I only really ended up liking Kozue(not because i'm a lolicon)because her attitude was very enlightening.

Enjoyment: Yeah.......couldn't really enjoy much from this i'd rather just play the visual novel because it has everything I could enjoy from this and more. This wasn't enjoyable there are a lot of things in this that made me cringe while watching this. The thing that made me cringe the most is most people won't play the visual novel because most people will watch the anime and think the visual novel is terrible.(btw I don't think the visual novel is the best thing in the world and it is not my favorite either, just saying it's way better than the anime)

Overall: just don't watch it I just recommend the visual novel or watch steins;gate or robotics;notes since they take place in the same universe.

Even if this story came before steins;gate It still feels like a really good add on to the story universe.Also for people that have a hard time keeping up with all the things that happen in the story don't stop watching and everything will make sense at the end it alwasy makes sense at the end with these type of stories.Also everything here happens in the Beta timeline.Some people rate this anime low because they can't keep up with the things that are happening.