Chaos;Head - Bits 'n Pieces

Last time, I established a baseline anime that fell under the barely watchable category. That sets up my impressions of the Chaos;Head anime. There were numerous, promising pieces there

• The opaque mystery reminiscent of Lain
• Paranoid atmosphere like Boogiepop
• Eva-elements including the Rei-like singer named FES
  
• A long haired tsundere
  
• good female character designs
  
• whacky blades.
  

It was like a dating sim with swords. In fact, it's roots are a dating sim with swords, as I found out after posting the first draft of this review. And it does little to rise above the limitations of that genre.

The opening episodes were unappealing, to put it mildly. In Evangelion, the weak anti-hero Shinji was drawn along by the extraordinary events. Chaos;Head's main character is portrayed as a sniveling, disgusting otaku. As a fanboy and video-game playing otaku myself, I mean disgusting when I say it. Takumi has delusions about a game gal being his wife and plays an mmorpg all the time, then spends two episodes fending off the come-ons by a pretty student by the name of Yua Kusunoki.

The only reason why I continued watching was because I knew that she would betray him and the blood would start flying. I had read the first chapters of the manga scanlation [2]. When the audience gets a taste of gruesome New Gen crimes and Takumi is accused of the killing by Yua, the series begins to get off of the ground.

The opaque mystery gives tantalizing hints, but instead of letting them unfold, the answers are dumped into the otaku viewer's lap like a bucket full of ice. The ending is so full of tropes that it even had the evil council that was actually lame and the random evil corporation. I'm convinced that listing "megalomanical plot" or "apocalyptic project" in the investment information packet must add at least 50 points to the gain on the IPO.

As I was saying, there were elements there, such as the singer Fes. She's a bit like Sister Creep from "Swan's Song". She's crazy when the world is sane, then is the best equipped to handle the craziness when the crap hits the fan.

There's a gorgeously animated scene where the long haired tsundere whips out her blade with Soul Caliber effects. There's also the voice actress of Kawashima Ami playing the sweet girl, who seems to betray Takumi.

In the end, it never integrates the tantalizing pieces into a work that's greater than its parts. The 12 episode work overall achieves half of a step above Yukikaze and can be entertaining in a looser fanboy kind of a way, but there are better works out there.

My gut instinct tells me that the Chaos;Head anime owes some of its mix of atmosphere and mystery to Paranoia Agent [3], but I haven't actually seen Satoshi Kon's work, so I can't comment.

[1] Fansubbed by m.3.3.w Fansubs
[2] Scanlated by SCX-Scans
[3] Drawn from trailers and comments of people that have watched it.