Chäos;HEAd - Episode 8

If episode seven of Chäos;HEAd felt a little like reading A Brief History of Time in Arabic backwards to you, then the good news is that episode eight is far, far less strenuous on those precious brain cells, taking an extremely action-oriented turn that doesn't particularly require too much thought at all.

The whole thing starts with Takumi being persuaded to go on a "raid" with Kozue (or Kozupii, if we really have to use that annoying name) and Sena, who are off on a mission to destroy "Noah 11", a piece of equipment which is vital to whatever N.O.Z.O.M.I. are up to. The ability of a Gigalomaniac to project delusions onto others makes it easy enough to enter the target complex, but when it seems as though they've found Noah 11, they come across the CEO of N.O.Z.O.M.I. - Cue lots of fighting with Di-Swords, and a few dirty tricks played using delusions as weapons, before Ayase briefly joins the fray and does her part to turn the tide despite still being injured from her fall in the last episode. The intrepid trio (well, quartet if you include Ayase) win the day, but it seems to be something of a phyrric victory...


Mixed in with all of this are some important details regarding Sena, including her real family name and her reason for fighting tooth and nail against N.O.Z.O.M.I. and a little bit more about Kozue and why she doesn't speak (although if her telepathic voice is anything like her real one, I think I'd stay quiet if I were here too). Perhaps most important of all is what little we see of Rimi in this episode, as we learn that she is in league with Shogun, and seems rather keen to dispose of Takumi, although Shogun thinks otherwise. What are they planning? Who else does N.O.Z.O.M.I.'s President have captive? There are plenty of new questions to answer heading into episode nine...

Considering that I wasn't sure whether Chäos;HEAd would be able to make the transition to a more action-packed scenario particularly, this episode actually fared rather well, keeping the flow of interesting and important developments going alongside the more typical swinging around of swords, a segment of the episode that was actually made all the more watchable in itself by the use of delusions as weapons. While I get the impression that this series is heading away from the game upon which it is based at a rate of knots (although I still haven't played it myself yet), and is similarly moving away from the tone of those fascinating early episodes, it still remains a decent series with plenty going on to keep me both entertained and watching with due intrigue in the show and everything it portrays.