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May 19, 2009 
Original text at the nekoheadz.org forum
Chaos: Head comes to us from a myriad of companies, one of which I think is worth mentioning for their eroge production Chaos: Gate, which is totally unrelated to this series but has some really great character designs; those of you into the figure scene have probably seen the awesome figures of Ignis. Anyway, I seem to have stumbled my way into a bunch of heady, philosophical and psychological anime lately and while I’ve been trying to get some variety in there for all of you reading these reviews, I really like thinking anime; I guess it comes from so many years studying philosophy at college. Just out of reviewer integrity I will make a point to watch some other things (Queen’s Blade is coming along nicely, by the way) so you guys don’t keep getting buried with all of the emphasis on character revelations and such. Anyway, you won’t have to worry about too much depth here as Chaos: Head is another thinky anime that tries the mainstream approach.
Chaos: Head is about a second year high school student named Taku. Taku lives in Shibuya and is a NEET of rather unique determination. The NEET is a term used almost exclusively with Japanese fans that are obsessed with anime to the point where they prefer the 2D world over the 3D in pretty much every aspect; experiences out in the ‘real’ world for NEETs are generally painful and awkward. From my understanding, NEETs are generally hikkomoris (shut-ins) and are seen as a bit of a drain on Japanese society, from both filial and federal perspectives. There are lots of other things to say about the NEET, but for our purposes Taku is a super Otaku shut-in that is shunned by a society he disdains. Taku’s main companion is a delusional anime character that shows up when he’s at home; Taku’s sister and a couple friends at school add some touch of the outside world to his life. One thing I like about Taku’s characterization is that he has a carefully made chart so that he can be absent as much as possible while still meeting minimum graduation requirements. As you probably guessed, Taku’s world gets interrupted when strange events start to happen in Shibuya. Turns out there’s some sort of group trying to destabilize society with a related string of suicides and murders. Much to Taku’s dismay, he gets pulled in kicking and screaming as the line between perception and reality get blurred with as much subtlety as a neon colored sword to the face.
Speaking of subtle, the production values in Chaos: Head are pretty good; well, above average. The music is fitting with a kick ass opening and a really sappy ending (more on that later), and while I wouldn’t bother with the incidental music, I would gladly have that opening on my iPod. The animation is pretty top notch with a lot of polish; everything moves fairly well and the swords are really cool looking. The character design is good, though a bit stereotypical, but this is coming from people that make erotic computer games, so I’m just happy they weren’t cut-and-paste generic characters; but they were awfully close. Things get a little clunky at times, but I’m willing to chalk it up to the generic look and feel the rest of the series has. The music and animation never do anything to take away from the series, and end up contributing with a bit a style and flair. Now that that’s out of the way, I can address this series for what it is.
The story in Chaos: Head goes through several stages. It starts out as a romantic comedy harem thing with all of these cute girls throwing themselves at Taku while he makes a rather sad attempt to ignore them all for his beloved anime character Seira. Weird dreams and vivid hallucinations aside, things go fairly straightforward until Taku stumbles onto a guy crucified with a bunch of little cross-shaped spikes. With the sinister turn the series then takes on the format of a terribly written console RPG (role playing game like final fantasy); bad dialogue with our super-powered yet totally helpless guy surrounded and aided by a number of beautiful, mysterious women in a fight against an evil authority figure. Once Taku “levels up” enough he reaches a point where he no longer needs the women to fight for him and the series turns into Noein with its soft-science psychological and perceptual weirdness. I would not have been surprised if one of the characters said “there is no spoon” and was totally serious about it. The overall affect of these transformations is to give us the weird feeling that we’ve seen it all before, like the series has gotten itself all lost and confused in a closet full of popular things from Japan.
On the whole, Chaos: Head plays like a NEET fantasy: the reserved male star having power beyond imagination, the loads of pretty girls, a secret plot that has the whole world out to get him, etc. Maybe I should rephrase that as otaku fantasy, but either way you get my point. The characters (by which I mean the girls surrounding Taku), though interesting at first glance, quickly devolve into one dimensional support figures that are ultimately powerless on their own. The only exception is Rimi, the pink-haired love-interest, who actually has some depth and character development, but again it’s all shelved for the sake of Taku. Well, it’s not exactly shelved, just pushed off to the side. Even the ending titles play like some fantasy, with the opening lines talking about how “You are always super special.” Naturally, for the end of the series we get what I can only guess is an attempt to make a more accessible (understandable) Evangelion type of ending; some business about perceiving others and so on. It actually comes out more awkward and leaves more questions. Chaos: Head leaves me with a lot of questions, and not just about the ending. While I could go on about all the things that don’t make sense, I’m afraid it would just spoil most of the series for you, so I’ll just say some things about the dialogue. (Although I still need to ask 2 question: what is so magical about Shibuya and what on earth do characters like these do after the series the ends?)
The dialogue in Chaos: Head is so clichéd, so horrendously bad, that it really deserves its own paragraph. See, a really good series and really bad series actually get similar reactions from me while I am watching them: I talk back, I shout, I laugh, I taunt. Every episode ended with me telling Taku that he needed to get killed in a sufficiently brutal fashion (too much Higurashi, I suppose), but he was just so whiny and self-centered. He never said “I mustn’t run away,” but I really wish he had; I think Shinji may have more backbone than this punk. At one point one of the girls says she loves him because he is so weak and pathetic. Another girl is a perfect cross between Rei Ayanami from Eva and Yuki Nagato from Haruhi (particularly the rock concert), I couldn’t help but feel some affection for her even though I kept getting a Frankenstein’s Monster vibe; also she spouts gothic poetry and fiction. If you’ve ever played a poorly voice-acted rpg, it’s exactly the same feeling. The series is totally sincere in how terrible the writing is, too; there is never any sense of parody or an indications that the series doesn’t take itself seriously; it made me laugh all the more at how terrible it is. It’s like a little kid pretending to do something adult; you want to criticize but all you can do is smile and laugh. Consequently, I think the series itself comes off as a huge joke, but more of the kind you groan at. The writing doesn’t just stop at the bad dialogue: the plot is every bit as bad.
Chaos: Gate is, as I’ve said, so terribly bad that it makes the full loop back to being wholly enjoyable. While I hated Chaos: Gate, especially Taku, I couldn’t help but enjoy it. It makes the perfect example of what’s bad about the generic philosophical “I am the me that exists in your mind” style of psychological anime that we’ve been seeing more of; vague, indeterminate, and pretentious with no real substance. Clichéd and hokey as it is, the story was entertaining enough to keep me interested, I got psyched up by the opening every time, and some of the supporting cast was actually pretty charming. I think what I’m getting to here is a recommendation: it’s great if you’re looking for something a little shallower than the mental black holes I would typically recommend; it’s also got some cute characters, humor, and a little fan service; and it’s really terrible while making every attempt to be a serious show. I hope you’ll enjoy it, but if you can’t make it past the second episode I won’t blame you. Actually, I will blame you because you made the mistake of taking the series as seriously as it takes itself, making both of you the joke.
~Whim
PS – I watched this as a fansub from m.3.3.w; just pretend the 3’s are e’s and say it out loud.
PS2 – See, shorter again for both of them this week. Now that you’ve had a taste of my shorter reviews, which do you prefer?
PS3 – I cannot emphasize how much I hated this show, but I couldn’t stop watching and laughing and enjoying myself.
PS4 – What is with all of the shows either starting with their last scene or having a narrative from the main character from after the series ends? I guess they don’t want us to be too surprised by an original ending. Higurashi is a special exception due to good writing and sheer mind-screwy awesomeness.
