Chaos; Head: The Complete Series Blu-ray Review

Posted December 1st, 2011 by Brandon A. DuHamel

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Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
Audio Codec: Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 Stereo, English Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Subtitles: English
Region: AB (No Region C)
Rating: TV-14
Run Time: 300 Mins.
Discs: 4 (2 x Blu-ray + 2 x DVD)
Studio: Funimation Entertainment
Blu-ray Release Date: November 29, 2011
List Price: $64.98

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Overall

The Series

Video Quality

Audio Quality

Supplemental Materials

Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures

(Screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG thus are meant as a general representation of the content and do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)

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The Series

Chaos; Head was originally a visual novel for the PC and Xbox 360 and turned into a manga.The story follows Takumi, an otaku shut-in more comfortable in front of his computer playing fantasy games and watching anime than engaging in the real world who is drawn into world of intrigue and mystery when he one night receives a gory image online from a person calling themselves the “General.” It drags Takumi into the investigation of the so-called “New Gen” murders and he soon finds himself surrounded by a group of girls with supernatural powers and the ability to wield powerful – and invisible – swords. But Takumi discovers he has powers too; his unusual delusional hallucinations begin to bleed into reality and it gives Takumi the ability to bend reality to his will, but things aren’t quite what they seem. Takumi isn’t quite what he seems.

Chaos; Head is fun and adventurous, bringing together action, sci-fi, and the paranormal. The story is a bit convoluted, however, and it is slow to develop. By the time it begins to come into focus, the series is coming to an end and the plot has already become even more confused, keeping this from being one of the absolute top tier series, but still enjoyable.

Video Quality

With this AVC/MPEG-4 1080p/24 transfer, Chaos; Head doesn’t look perfect by any means, but it looks very serviceable. There are some hints of aliasing around the line art, but otherwise the image looks rather clean and detailed with colorful fills and good extension into the background.

Audio Quality

The original Japanese track and the English dub are provided in lossless Dolby TrueHD. The Japanese is in 2.0 stereo and the English in 5.1. Either one provides clean dialogue that stays well above the sound effects with a good dynamic range and natural sounding high frequencies. Both have wide stereo panning across the front while the 5.1 mix offers a decent amount of atmospheric effects and mild use of discrete panning in the surrounds with slightly extended lows through use of the LFE.

Supplemental Materials

There’s nothing special offered up here except the usual clean opening and closing animation and additional Funimation trailers.:

Textless Opening Song – F.D.D.
Textless Closing Song – Super Special
Trailers

The Definitive Word

Overall:

An interesting plot that is weakened only by a somewhat confused script, Chaos; Head is an ultimately imperfect, but still enjoyable series on Blu-ray. The collection is lacking in extras making it best as a rental if one can find it.