Chaos;HEAd Episode 9 Overview – jinx^10 x nova^40=Ir2

Author: nova

The terribly weak quality of Chaos;HEAd episode 8 shook my faith in the series to the very core and filled my mind with doubts. I swore to myself that episode 9 must do something about the recent stall in quality, or I would become a bitter hobo living in a box down the alley cursing Madhouse for the rest of my life. I can hardly say that the this episode really cut the stall but at least we’re back from the silly conspiracy story to a more psychological mystery stuff, allowing the story to do what it does best. This post is indeed late once again but the Finnish independence day took much of my working time. In addition, I’d be lying if I said that a certain game stealing my soul had nothing to do with the delay. With the feds closing in on his tail and Nanami being in major trouble the life of our no.1 nerd is far from uneventful. But is Takumi himself the root of all evil? Fasten your seatbelts folks.

We start with Yua meeting up with Momo-chan and Ban, the older police investigator, and it is revealed that Yua’s twin sister was a victim of a New Gene murder – remember the video from episode 5 with one of the victims looking much like her? Her sister’s death is what motivated Yua to start investigating on New Gene by herself and thus ending up trailing Takumi, whose name she mentions to Ban. Before she gets a chance to spill more beans, Ban gets a call from his subordinate; the 6th New Gene incident has taken place. In his container base Takumi has noticed this too – and that the victims were the same three delinquents who attacked him the other day! Is Shogun trying to frame him as the perpetrator? Or did he really do it himself? Additionally Ban’s subordinate looks awfully suspicious. A spy for NOZOMI? Perhaps.

Takumi spends the evening watching Burachu to get his mind off the latest New Gene murders but just can’t shake the feeling that something isn’t right. He remembers writing the phrase “Sono me dare no me” even on school test papers and decides to dig up some of them to see if they contain any hints on whatever’s going on. On one of the test papers he notices a scribble on the reverse side and finds a weird equation written next to it: fun^10 x int^40 = Ir2 – the same equation Shogun posted on IM when he first appeared. Suddenly Takumi’s cell phone gets a call – it’s Nanami and she seems to be in trouble. “Bro…help me” is the only thing she says before the call hangs up. Is his little sister in danger or was that just a prank? Takumi decides on the latter.

Meanwhile Ban asks Yua if she’s aware of females pulling big, nasty swords out of nowhere. Surprised by Ban’s knowledge on the matter she reveals that there is a girl named Kishimoto Ayase in her school with such abilities. Looks like she witnessed the underpass scene when Ayase first showed her Di-Sword to Takumi. Ban in turn tells her about Sena being another Di-Sword holder, which he saw on the surveillance camera recording. The investigators are also aware that both Sena and Ayase have had contact with Takumi, and that all the bizarre happenings seem to have a strange connection with him. Momo-chan seizes the discussion and asks if Yua could get her one of the Gero Kaeru straps. This seems totally unrelated to the matter at hand, until Yua happens to tell Ban about how the shops in Shibuya are always crowded by young people during weekends as a new design of Gero Kaeru is released every friday – timing fits perfectly to the sudden spikes in GE-rate. Looks like we’re on to something here.

Takumi, Misumi and Rimi have decided to stop by the city hospital to visit Ayase. Rimi says that she needs to use the bathroom and the three split up as Takumi and Misumi head over to see Ayase. However, Rimi seems to be headed anywhere but to the bathroom. Takumi and his player friend find Ayase’s room empty but notice a book lying next to her pillow, Gladiole Saga. Oh well, figures that a gothic punk singer would be interested in grim fantasy literature. The two decide to split up to look for Rimi and Ayase.

Takumi takes the upper floor but as he arrives from the stairwell, something happens. The corridor seems all empty and unnaturally bright. Despite having the feeling of not being supposed to be there, Takumi continues to walk along the hallway. Soon enough the hallway turns to the right and around the corner there’s a dark dead end. Although only seeing his own shadow on the wall ahead, Takumi becomes terrified and runs away. As he runs past a window, we see a person on the other side – the nurse who has been treating Takumi and Ayase, facing a computer and repeating “Let there be Salvation by faith” (The Shining, anyone?).

While our main man is taking a stroll around the hospital Sena and Kozue have broken into his container apartment. Bothered by the thought of Takumi not fitting any theory she has, Sena notices the old exam paper with “Sono me dare no me” on it and more importantly, finding the scribble on the other side. The equation = Ir2 appears to be quite familiar to her. Meanwhile at the hospital Misumi has found Rimi and Ayase, and hails Takumi over. The two seem to be having a conversation in the courtyard and suddenly Ayase slaps Rimi and walks away. Soon enough she comes across Takumi and co in a hallway and seems to be pleased to meet Takumi while ignoring Misumi’s pathetic attempts to hit on her.

Back at Ayase’s hospital room she suddenly starts talking to Takumi, telling him that he’s one of the Seven Knights of Gladiole, apparently referring to the book she’s reading, plus a whole ton of other barely comprehensible stuff about evil gods and whatnot. According to her Takumi’s recent hardships are a divine punishment he needs to overcome to get a hold of the Di-Sword. After Misumi wisely decides to jet Ayase continues her explanation on the divine punishment and a short flashback takes place, giving us a view into her past in some research lab where she’s undergoing Chinese water torture during which she summons her Di-Sword for the first time. This confirms one thing: By divine punishment Ayase means extreme physical and/or mental pain, to which Gigalomaniax-users apparently respond by awakening their powers instead of simply snapping insane like any normal person. To Takumi this hardly is any good news since he’d rather not suffer any more than he already does. It also seems that Ayase knows that all Gigalomaniax-users have gathered at Shibuya and that it’s only a question of time until they awaken – and something pretty nasty will probably happen.

Takumi meets up with Rimi and Misumi outside the hospital and Misumi leaves utterly defeated, convinced that Ayase is a complete nutcase instead of a hot girl he should try to flirt with. As Takumi is left alone with Rimi he gets another phone call from Nanami. As she says “Bro…where is this? I want to go home…” in a tearful voice before the call hangs up, Takumi seems to be finally convinced that something’s not right. Meanwhile Ban and Yua have stopped by a Gero Kaeru-store but since it’s not friday, there isn’t much crowd. Ban notices a delivery truck unloading what’s apparently going to be the next friday’s new release and takes note of the name of the manufacturer – Shinkou.

Back at the container Takumi tells Rimi that he wishes to visit home, apparently to check on Nanami, but is interrupted by Sena holding his old test paper and asking if he’s the one who wrote it. As Takumi admits she leaps at him with a rather clear intention to impale him with her Di-Sword, but Rimi real-boots her Di-Sword and comes to his aid. While shielding Takumi she tries to convince Sena to stop before Takumi is cornered and awakened, which seems to mean that a lot of bad things would happen. Not paying attention to her, Sena manages to break her way past Rimi but as she is about to strike a killing blow to Takumi her father appears in front of her. As the illusion provokes her to attack, Sena ignores Takumi and impales her father to finally get revenge for her mother being used as a test subject. Soon enough the man disappears, being only a delusion made by Rimi, but not before gently embracing Sena.

As Sena breaks down crying Kozue tells Rimi not to touch her to which she agrees, saying that she never had an intention of harming Sena in the first place. Sena curses Takumi for coming up with the equation =Ir2 which seems to be the root of all the evil going on. As Kozue shows the exam paper to Takumi we finally get a good look at the entire sheet and as anyone with half a brain can tell, it’s a rather clear illustration of the Noah II system.

Conveniently we skip the scene to NOZOMI’s HQ where Norose is explaining the =Ir2-equation’s purpose in Noah II and affirms that the equation was indeed first discovered from a scribble by a child. The equation allows the system to run at full capacity equal to the powers of God and for now only requires code samples of Gigalomaniax-users. The corporation has already secured five samples which according to should be enough to run Noah II. Norose however is interested in one more sample, obviously Takumi’s, and notes that with additional samples the system can run at a higher capacity. When the other conspirators ask him when the system can run at full potential, Norose answers that there will be one more “Melt” experiment before full-scale operation – as you might remember, Melts refer to the earthquake-like happenings. This Third Melt would have a magnitude of 7.9 to 8.4 on Richter scale (runs up to 10), equal to the Great Kanto earthquake.

Meanwhile Sena is explaining what =Ir2 has created – it essentially allows the powers of Gigalomaniax such as mind peering, projecting visions and controlling the senses to be used by anyone. Before it becomes commonly available though the ones with existing technology, NOZOMI, will have a complete dominance. Despite being its creator, Takumi has no idea about the equation and does not remember ever writing it. Kozue says that it’s all of a lesser importance however, because Takumi is the one who created the phrase “Sono me dare no me“, as some guy on the street told her. When Sena asks her about this guy, who also told Kozue about the importance of a Di-Sword, we get a short flashback showing Kozue and the man she’s talking about. Familiar face? Yup, that’s the bum holding up a sign saying “Judgement will fall upon this town” and more importantly – Sena’s father.

Takumi and Rimi take a train to his hometown and during the ride Takumi is wondering if Rimi really is a friend or foe, but nevertheless thanks her for protecting him from Sena. While they’re closing in on Takumi’s house Rimi gets second thoughts and tries to convince Takumi to go back, because things wouldn’t be back to normal if he didn’t. She promises to stay with him as long as he wants if they just go back to the container apartment and forget about everything but Takumi states that he needs to see Nanami. Ignoring Rimi’s protests he runs over to where his house…may have been. Instead there is only an unbuilt lot and as Takumi is trying to figure out what the hell is going on, Rimi tells him that he no longer has a place to return to.

In the finishing scene we see Shogun strolling around in his wheelchair at the city hospital. He’s moving along the brightly lit corridor and takes a turn to right towards the dead end Takumi explored earlier – except that this time it’s not a dead end, but there is a door to a room at the end. As Shogun enters the room, we get a glimpse of a nameplate next to the door saying – surprise surprise – Nishijou Takumi.

This episode was certainly an improvement as I have mentioned before. If Madhouse keeps the plot on this course, I am rather confident that the ending will be decent. However I must once again express my disappointment in the artistic quality of the series. Although the background art is very good, the character animation is poor which is really a shame. If Chaos;HEAd had decent character art, it would definitely be among the best series in the season but unfortunately Madhouse chooses to go from where the fence is lowest. That’s all I have for this week, see you next week. And although I’m late, I’d like to wish everyone happy Day of Finnish Independence (yeah, I did sit through all the three hours of The Unknown Soldier).