Chaos;Child [Review]
“A series of gruesome murders dubbed “New Generation Madness” once induced mass hysteria in Shibuya. At its peak during a frenzied riot, a sudden earthquake reduced the district into nothing but rubble, while leaving surrounding wards strangely intact. Six years later, in a newly rebuilt Shibuya, mysterious deaths begin to crop up again. It is not long before third-year student Takuru Miyashiro realizes a connection: the dates of the recent murders match those of the New Generation Madness incidents. He, along with several members of his school’s newspaper club, decide to delve deeper into the mystery, only to find themselves stranded in the middle of a new crime scene themselves…”
-MAL Rewrite
Personally, I saw Chaos;Child being a chance at redemption for its predecessor, Chaos;Head. And in a lot of ways it is successful, but its far from being perfect. And for those that have already seen the show, there is another episode called Chaos;Child (Silent Sky) which will explain the events that take place after the ending and is airing this summer (2017).
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Story:
The setting is set six years after the Shibuya incident in Chaos:Child and they bring the “New Generation Madness” which involves gruesome deaths of particular individuals. The gore and fear aspect was done marvelously, the gruesome details that were involved in each death were stomach-wrenching to the point where I would avoid eating before watching an episode. These deaths are much more violent than Chaos;Head which is a start. What Chaos;Child does very well is that it throws a lot of what seem like useless info at you, the entire show. Until the very last episode and everything is revealed, in one fell swoop. The last episode is guaranteed to leave you screaming at the screen and racking your brain for the answer to what exactly happened. It was nice to see a lot of Chaos;Head references, with the anime being In many ways Chaos;Child is an excellent sequel to Chaos;Head but it’s far from being a great anime.
Artwork & Animation:
The artwork is similar to Chaos;Head, there wasn’t any drastic changes, which was a good choice in staying consistent. But it’s also a downfall because Chaos;Head’s art and the animation is plain and dull. There are interesting artwork and animation when it came to the deaths, but other than that everything was basic. The character designs are flatter than a pancake!
Character(s):
Our main protagonist, Takuru, has a little more courage and handle on his life than Takumi (Protagonist from Chaos;Head) who screamed at any living thing that approached him. Takuru went into danger on purpose, but would always scream and flail when danger ever presented itself. I appreciate the realism, but hearing Takuru scream every 5 minutes started getting on my nerves while watching the entire show. Besides Takuru and Serika, the other characters are practically background noise, with no depth, story, or development for any of them, it was hard to remember anyones name and presences for that matter. Hana (the gaming girl) had absolutely no value to the story whatsoever, why was she even there? Hana had three lines the entire show but she also had a lot of screen time and for what? I’m sure the Visual Novel does a better job at addressing these issues, but the amount of effort to create these characters is minimal at best.
Sound (OST & Voice Acting):
The cast for Chaos;Child is god tier, yet why does it sound so plain and boring? The only thing that was memorable about this show is the soundtrack, which includes the Opening by Itou Kanako, Ending by Konomi Suzuki, and a wonderful and suspenseful OST. If Silver Link would’ve but as much effort in the adaptation of the characters and story as they did on creating the soundtrack for the show, Chaos;Child would’ve been a dark horse in the anime world.
Enjoyment:
I didn’t enjoy most of the show but in the part where horror and mystery still played a key role, I was extremely invested in the show.
Overall: score 6
If you haven’t seen Chaos;Head and have no idea what the anime is about, I wouldn’t recommend watching either show. Instead, I’m going to tell you to go and get the Visual Novel and experience it that way. It’d be a better use of your time that going through this pain.
KiritoNarukami 
I recently completed the visual novel and enjoyed it. Shame that the anime isn’t great. Perhaps this is one of this things that doesn’t translate from text to TV screen well. Maybe more episodes would have helped? I am surprised they squeezed the story into just 13 episodes.
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Visual Novels, in general, are hard to adapt because the different routes in the story and the amount of detail included in the story. While there are some good ones like the Fate series, most VN adaptations end up being rushed and sloppy.
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