Whose eyes are those?

Oh and a quick friendly reminder: The anime fucking sucks.

Overall Playtime: 33h29m

I just found out that writing reviews in Vietnamese gives me and my viewers unbearable cringe. So, English all the way, I supposed.

The core members behind the Vietnamese translation of the game, if you are reading this: You did good. The devotion and enthusiasm you poured into the game, put any other official localizations - especially the one on Steam (trash) - out there to shame. I had an absolute once-in-a-lifetime experience playing this game and probably C;HN is gonna stay rent free in my head for quite some time.

The score is 8/10, if you don’t want to spend your time reading the entirety of my review. Yeah, it might be not that great but don’t get me wrong, C;HN is definitely the game you have to try, not only because the story itself is sublime, but it’s also pivotal if you want to enjoy the other famous titles in the SciAdv franchise with a somewhat better context - though not strictly required, namely Steins;Gate and Chaos;Childs.

So, what is Chaos;Head NoAH?

An extended directors cut of Chaos;Head. And also, according to what I’ve heard, the Steam version of the game is extremely bad.

With that out of the way, let's head straight to the review. It won't be long.

New Generation Madness

The protagonist of Chaos;Head is Takumi Nishijou, an otaku who lives in a shipping container and attends school 2.5 times per week. Takumi is a borderline shut-in who would prefer to do nothing besides play MMOs and watch anime. This is more or less his life, until a mysterious stranger crashes his chatroom and sends him a picture of a gruesome murder. Takumi is shaken but able to shrug it off, that is, until he witnesses that exact murder the next day. The murder is the latest in a series of bizarre killings across Shibuya known as the “New Generation Madness” and Takumi soon finds himself drawn into the horrifying eddy of paranoia and insanity that seems to be slowly consuming Shibuya.

Otaku protagonists are not uncommon in visual novels. Usually, they’re played for laughs in some wish-fulfillment fantasy where the erstwhile loser soon has beautiful girls throwing themselves at him on his way to a happy ending. Chaos;Head is interesting because it swerves so sharply in the other direction. Takumi is pathetic and at times even detestable. He stutters when trying to hold a conversation. He sneers at the “delinquents” he passes on the street (who are in reality just average people going about their lives), raging against the gazes he imagines silently judging him while he passes judgment on them without a thought. He objectifies women, discarding those that don’t conform to his ero-game fantasies as inferior (relatable).

Takumi represents a dark side of otaku culture, of escapism and obsession taken to destructive extremes. He’s often delusional, and his delusions form the main choice mechanic in Chaos;Head. When Takumi’s anxiety becomes overwhelming, his vision tunnels and he can retreat into a delusion. If playing the PC version, [Z] triggers positive delusions, which are pleasant escapist fantasies that indulge Takumi’s whims. [C] triggers negative delusions that see Takumi succumb to panic and paranoia. You can also do nothing, in which case Takumi keeps his focus on reality. A fixture of Takumi’s delusions is Orgel Seira, the heroine of his favorite anime Blood Tune. Seira is the voice of the weakest part of Takumi’s heart, encouraging him to take the easy way out regardless of the consequences.

Don’t Look at Me!

The view through Takumi’s eyes is unfiltered, and some find him a difficult character for this reason. His delusions can be lewd, objectifying, cowardly, and vindictive. He refuses to conform to the expected “zero to hero” trope, and even rejects opportunities to connect with those who show him kindness. He’s not a determined shounen protagonist who can will himself onward in the face of hardship. Takumi’s growth comes through honesty born of desperation when he can no longer drown out what’s in front of him with fantasies, and this honesty often leads him to become more rather than less pathetic as he begins to acknowledge the toxic facade he has constructed. This is what makes Takumi an exceptional character though. He’s at a low point in his life in a terrible and bizarre situation, and his choices and responses are authentic to his journey. Chaos;Head is unafraid to portray Takumi as ugly, vulnerable, weak, and decidedly not the cool hero. Takumi can’t honestly see himself that way or be that person, but that’s ok, and there are more important things than being cool and heroic.

Gaze is a major theme in Chaos;Head. The “gaze of God” Takumi feels, his aversion to eye contact, his fear of being seen and judged, and even his mantra “whose eyes are those?” fundamentally shape him. Takumi may sneer at the “delinquents”, but he won’t look them in the eye. To do so would be to acknowledge being seen, and Takumi can only imagine himself being seen the way he sees himself: pathetic, worthless, useless, and unwelcome in the outside world. Even with his sister Nanami, who takes time to visit Takumi and treats him with kindness, Takumi won’t let down his guard and constantly pushes her away. The “gaze of God” Takumi feels is especially frustrating as he asks “whose eyes are those?” to the one pair of eyes he can never escape.

Simmering Insanity

The revelation of the truths behind the New Generation Madness run parallel to Takumi’s internal journey. Chaos;Head builds a slow-burn mystery that leans effectively on paranoia and disorientation. What is real? What is the truth? The atmosphere is tense and sinister, and the reveals are imaginative and thrilling. The ideas in Chaos;Head quickly go afield in interesting ways, so it’s difficult to say much without spoilers besides that the construction of the central mystery plot is strong.

Even so, the mystery ultimately acts as a vehicle for Takumi’s inner journey. The science fiction of Chaos;Head is on the softer side. However, I had no problems accepting things, and Chaos;Head builds some spectacular set pieces for Takumi by embracing the madness. Even in the action scenes, there’s a lot of symbolism that connects the challenges Takumi faces and the decisions he makes in response to them with his inner struggles with the way he sees himself and his isolation.

I haven’t said much about characters other than Takumi. There are seven “heroines” in the sense of female supporting characters whose paths intersect Takumi’s. However, aside from Rimi, they are very much supporting characters. The are a handful of other minor characters–in particular police detective Yasuji Ban gets a handful of viewpoint scenes–but make no mistake this is Takumi’s story.

Shibuya Style

Despite its age (2008), Chaos;Head NoAH is visually appealing on account of its aesthetic and presentation. Admittedly the character sprites are nothing special, but the backgrounds and CGs that bring Shibuya to life are impressive. Locales such as the post-apocalyptic ruins from the opening and Shibuya viewed at night atop a skyscraper are detailed and evocative. The presentation also highlights Takumi’s retreat to the virtual world. Chat rooms, message boards, online news, and video sites are all rendered visually and aid in the immersion, while a TIPS menu provides a primer on the otaku/internet slang Takumi sometimes employs.

The soundtrack has a few bangers, which is high praise from me, as I find the vast majority of visual novel music pleasant but forgettable. The more atmospheric music leans into the tension. All characters, including Takumi, are voiced. For Takumi especially, this makes a huge difference. Hearing him pause awkwardly and stumble over his words adds an authenticity to his dialogue that would be easy to lose with text alone.

Oh, and the sound effects as well. They alone deserve some praises because let me tell you this: About 70% tension of any event of the game is built by those SFXes. They are so realistic to the point of being unreal to me. From the mundane noisy traffics, the clashing of intense swordfights, the ominous humming of reality-breaking machineries to the squishy mushy sound of someone’s brain being scooped alive by a spoon: They enhance and direct any ongoing situation to its intended direction - The happy moments become marrier, the intense sequences become much fiercer and if apply correctly - some can be downright nightmarish.

Alternative Scenarios

There are nine endings in total, with six of them are for each of the six heroines Takumi meets along his journey. These routes are locked behind the Silent Sky ending and assume familiarity with the main plot, so it’s impossible to go into specifics without spoilers. While some of the routes do explore loose ends from the main story that observant readers may wonder about, they are overall disappointing. Several see characters make bizarre decisions for the sake of manufacturing dramatic conflict that peters out into an unsatisfying ending. If you are invested enough at any particular heroine then her corresponding route might be enjoyable. But that wasn’t the case for me. To me, Kozue’s route is the most chaotic one out of them all, true to the title of the game.

The true ending, Blue Sky, is among my favorite visual novel true endings. It’s a beautifully written and thematically powerful conclusion to the parallel stories of Chaos;Head’s central mystery and Takumi’s inner journey. Putting the true route at the end works in visual novels where the other routes feel like a necessary part of the journey to reach that final conclusion. But being forced to go through so many endings that chase tangents to unsatisfying conclusions dulls the impact of Blue Sky when you finally do get there.

Verdict?

As I mentioned above, 8/10.

Bold, powerful, and one of the most thematically interesting visual novels you can read. If only they polished a tad bit more on the heroine routes. Especially Yua. Or just simply don’t put them in in the first place.

I really hate the fact that just because you have a really good true route doesn’t mean you have an excuse to write mediocre routes before that true route. That has been the case for so many multi-route visual novels I have read so far, especially those with multiple different writers where you can see the discrepancy of quality between the routes. They can definitely be recontextualized to be better in the grander scheme when the work isn’t showing its full hand, but reading a bad one doesn’t suddenly become good just because of it fitting into a grander scheme. A good work should be able to deliver both.