In my opinion, its one of the best things about the show. And yeah, I’ve realised I spelt grammatically wrong. I REGRET NOTHING!

The series I most looked forward to has finally aired and I have to say that though it hasn’t begun the way I thought it would, I’m still pleasantly surprised. Rather than delve straight into the gruesome and dark side of the show straight off, we get a mixture of a typical harem comedy (ironically, the personality of the main protagonist allows for many statements about the improbable nature of events that happen to him later in the episode) and a disturbing horror/mystery show, both of which offset each other fantastically. The BGM is perfectly suited to the two sides of the series (especially the disturbing piano piece that played during the meeting between Rumi and Takiumi in the alleyway), the animation is for the most part fairly good (apparently, it was headlined done by the studio responsible for Spice and Wolf, Imagin). The OP’s quite good as well, though I think introducing all of the characters and the weapons they have is a bit of a spoiler (this seems to be the habit of many anime shows these days)  but the ED is completely average in every way (the Engrish and minimised screen don’t help either). I’ll definitely be covering this show from now on, so without further ado, its time for random specualtions on the first episode that’ll most likely be proven wrong later in the series!

Brings new meaning to the term “Kiss of Death”.

Beginning at the end is a good way to start of a series which has such a wealth of unexplored information at its core, especially considering the fact that cute girls with huge blades aren’t don’t seem to be the norm in the (similar to our own) world of Chäos;HEAd. Who wouldn’t wonder how we suddenly got to this post-apocalyptic setting with two seemingly normal school kids the only living beings on a site of massive destruction. Something which stood out to me was how Takumi called Rimi an “angel”. I wouldn’t have thought much of it if it weren’t for the other religious symbols in the episode. I love the refraining sentence of “Those eyes, whose are they?”. I could wax philosophic on how whenever we look into other people’s eyes we aren’t truly seeing their eyes but their eyes as perceived by us and therefore we can’t actually comprehend whose eyes they truly are, but I think I’ll just stick to saying that as Takiumi exhibits paranoia throughout the episode, constantly believing that someone’s observing him (which they were in the case of Yua, but how does that explain how he felt in his panic room apartment metal box?) he most likely becomes focused on the other (soon, in my opinion, to become highly suspicious) people around him, and this will lead to an obsession on his part of wondering who’s eyes he is looking into i.e is the person he sees within those eyes the same person he’s known up to this point? Or I’m just spewing hot air and drawing needlessly complex conclusions from a five word statement (in both English and Japanese, weirdly enough).

HELL YEAH HIKKIKOMORI LIFESTYLE FOR TEH WIN.

If Takumi’s not simply made out to be a pathetic, depraved, insane individual so that we feel all the more wrong for thinking of him as such hating him by the end of the series when he has evolved into a more respectable person then I’ll eat my hat. I truly don’t understand how he could be crazy enough to have such vivid delusions just because he’s a willingly anti-social bastard who thinks of the three dimensional world as irrelevant. I do understand that there’s a problem of this sort in Japan, but I still think it’s a tad unrealistic (he says about a show which has super powered, sword wielding school girls in it). To quote from the newly returned American television show Heroes (watch it now!) “The greater the fall, the grander the ascension.” I really hope he stops being such an easily despisable character soon (though I do like the contrast between him and his classmate Misumi, who seems to have banged “collected” all the girls in his class). I also give dredit to the voice actor for making Takumi sound just as crazy as he looks.

Uguu~~

I’m not sure if I should be rooting for the random incest route or not, simply because I love Nanami (she’s so stereotypical, but in such a moe way!) and I don’t think that she should lower her standarads to that of Takumi. Anyway, the direction of the good/bad delusions that Takumi has over the course of the episodes is excellently jarring, by which I mean, they show up at themost inappropriate times in the best way. The scene of the darkness suddnly closing in on him during a time of wha he thinks of as “peace and quiet” (at least on the surface) shows that maybe subconsciously he doesn’t wish to be left alone.

Yandere moe ftw.

“The world changes if you click it”. There’s definitely a sense of foreboding in the sentence typed by the mysterious Shogun (why in Engish?) Someone clear something up for me if I’m wrong, but Takumi received the picture of the crucified man (again, religious connotations. Stabbed onto a wall by cross shaped stakes, anyone?) before seeing the adorable horrifying Rumi in the alley. You could think of it as just another one ofhis insane, Coke stimulated delusions, excpet for the fact it’s announced that the man’s body has been discovered in a news report at the end of the episode. Either we have a huge pime taradox on our hands or Takumi with his black hole otaku soul has managed to predict the future. Also of note, the blue-haired girl singing about the crucifixtion of fate. These extremely substantial and informative pieces of information three coincidental references can lead to specualtion of something godly, in every sense of the word, being involved in this show.

KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!

Gruesome, dark, disturbing, horrifying, macabre goodness are the words to describe this scene. It places #1 in the “Takumi’s Delusions Awards” for the first episode of Chäos;HEAd, followed by Bikini Yua at  #2 and indirect Coca Cola kiss at #3. Tune in next week for the new batch of contestants. Seriously though, I’m always intrigued by madness in any television show, especially anime (Paranoia Agent is one of favourite series to date) so hysterical laughter from a red/yellow eyed creature of darkness carrying a huge cross shaped metal stake trying to kill Takumi was pure awesome for me.

Could this be a d-d-date?!

One thing I like about the show is how it doesn’t take itself seriously all the time. This’ll probably change as the show continues into its depths, but for now, I’ll just enjoy the comedy for what it’s worth. Already we see signs that Takumi truly is being deceived by Yua as he so suspectsby keeping quiet about the cross she sees; too bad despite all his suspicion he has no chance of resisting the group of moe girls soon to swamp him in traditional harem storytelling style.

ZOMGWTFBBQCRAZYKILLERGIRLWUTO_O?!

The sound effects used in this show are amazing simply because they always show up at the best time. I don’t normally like S-S-SHOCKING revelations to be accompanied by overly dramatic music, but when done well (and inculding appropriately timed falshbacks) I have to admit it sent shivers up my spine. Even worse is how normal Rumi acted towards Takumi; I think it’s a sgn that she was probably there all along and he was too busy emo-ing it up to notice her. Not sure whether the “Dou you want to save?” part was a nod to the players of the VN or a hint that they might just take the Matrix route in all this, wither way, it was an interesting technique and i can’t wait to see the next episode.

Next Time:

Moe girl turns evil…

…and evil girl turns CRAZY.