Chaos;Head 3 – Her Song…

"Fly me to the moon and let--" Oops, wrong show
Fly me to the moon and--wait, wrong show

…is also a song of death. And goth anthems sung by Rei Ayanami clones.

This episode spends some time pulling things back and explaining what’s going on. Takumi is confirmed to have some kind of precognitive ability, more or less; what’s still not clear is whether he is literally self-fulfilling his own prophecies or not, and how he does it if it’s true. There is now a connection, too, between the New Gen killings as the band led by FES, who also happens to be a student at his school, and the one with the physical resemblance to Rei Ayanami. Both ordinary delusions and the usual creepy, “I know what you did last summer OOGA BOOGA” moments happen as Taku attends the concert and hears the song that seems to predict the murder he may or may not have committed.

Private eyes are watching you / they see your every move
Private eyes are watching you / they see your every move

At this early juncture, it’s still a relatively straightforward piece, with not too many incredible plot turns as of yet. It’s also not as genuinely frightening as Higurashi became at this point in its run; seeing the phrase “Whose eyes are those?” is just not as disturbing as getting one’s fingers stuck in a door in its proper context. But that’s all right, because there are enough hints in place to suggest a complex, involved backstory with plenty of mysteries to be revealed. I do hope it’s going to be more complicated than the twist in Fight Club, though we do see plenty of evidence to suggest that it sure looks like that for the moment. The main x-factor is the supernatural or clairvoyant stuff, and just how involved that will be is still to come.

Taku and the Fake Girl
Taku and the Fake Girl

So “Seira-tan” is now his “wife”? She certainly has no real personality of her own, though she’s simultaneously serving as a voice of (very very moderate) courage and the voice of insularity that keeps him in his 2D world. It’s very easy to see her dialogue as him talking to himself–the pattern of the dialogue fits with someone who’s thinking out loud. In either case, it’s pretty clear who are the real girls–everyone except Seira. The question is whether, say, Rimi is actually there where he thinks she is. Taku’s mind is definitely dislocated in some way, literally, probably temporally but perhaps also spatially.

Chaos;Head continues carving out its niche as the Higurashi-like show of the fall, though it is now beginning to face some real competition in the seriousness and uniqueness front from Mouryou no Hako. Not to mention that it’s a lot more elegant, along with the other fine contender of the season, Kurozuka. Still, this bastard child of NHK and Perfect Blue is still worth watching so far.

Author: gendomike

Michael lives in the Los Angeles area, and has been into anime since he saw Neon Genesis Evangelion in 1999. Some of his favorite shows include Full Metal Alchemist, Honey and Clover, and Welcome to the NHK!. Since 2003 he has gone to at least one anime convention every year. A public radio junkie, which naturally led to podcasting, he now holds a seminary degree and is looking to become Dr. Rev. Otaku Bible Man any day now. Michael can be reached at mike.huang@animediet.net. You can also find his Twitter account at @gendomike.

1 thought on “Chaos;Head 3 – Her Song…

  1. “僕の嫁”, “Boku no Yome”, is one of those 2ch otaku things – similar to “mai waifu” (and in fact, the latter is derived from the former).
    And well, I think the plot twists don’t really come until later, once the initial ideas and conceptions about the series have been established in the viewer.

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