Chaos; Head
I finally got around to watching the first in the “Science Series” of visual novel adaptations from 5pb and Nitroplus (others in the series being Steins; Gate and Robotic; Notes). While all three of the visual novels (and thus the anime’s) are set in the same world,there is not a story that links them together. They all stand on their own, and Chaos; Head is the weakest of the three.
The story is set around Takumi Nishijo who for all puposes is a hikkikomori, rarely attending school, playing video games all day, and keeping to himself. After a conversation with an online friend in a chat room he gets a cryptic message with a picture file attached. The picture depicts a ritualistic style, brutal murder. From here on in Takumi is drawn into a world where the lines of reality and delusion become very blurred.
I could try to describe this better, but I won’t…I’m not sure I could. And this becomes my main problem with Chaos; Head: it is confusing. The show has a lot of cool ideas, but the story is confusing and poorly structured. There are shifts between reality, girls who carry around imaginary (di) swords, a council of bad guys, another bad guy, lackeys, nasty murders, and a creepy old guy in a wheelchair.
This all leaves Takumi frequently clutching his head and screaming: “I don’t know what is happening!”
And I can sympathize, neither did I.
It wasn’t all bad. The explanations for the “science-y” things that were happening were interesting, probably a big load of horse poo, but at least interesting sounding horse poo. The animation was decent, nothing to get excited about, just good. The OP and ED were both good as well.I watched the English dub and felt like it was well done.
Attention Parents: The show contains blood, violence, and murder. There is some minor fan service elements, but not too much. Some of the violent themes would be disturbing for a younger viewer. And again, it’s confusing.
I was a little sad in the end that I didn’t enjoy this more. Perhaps it works better as a visual novel? Give it a look if you’re really curious: I’ll don’t often tell people to not watch something: different strokes for different folks.
It’s okay Takumi. It’s over.
Until next time: Happy Viewing!
dadwatchesanime 
Out of the three Science shows this is the ugly stepchild. It started okay, as a mindfuck sort of mystery. The ending lost me though, as it got very silly.
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Agreed. I really wanted to like it more, but it was just too messy as a story. Like I said in the review: it may work better as a game (and I think I’ve read that it does), but as a show it kinda fell flat.
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