English Dub Review: Chaos;Child “Betrayal”

Well, that escalated quickly…

Spoilers Below

The episode begins in an autopsy room on October 24th, which is the day after the events of episode 6. Detective Shinjou shows up to identify a corpse. We the audience are told that the victim is female and “somewhere between her teens and thirties”. As he opens the blue cover to examine the corpse, it’s of a pink-haired woman that looks burned, naked and has what looks like a construction rebar sticking out of her mouth with a grotesque implication that she was skewered and the pathologist tells Shinjou that the rebar was reported stolen 10 days ago from a nearby construction site and the corpse has yet to be identified. Shinjou deduces that her name could’ve been “Riko Haida” and suddenly gets a report from a third individual about camera footage that caught the victim’s face which turns out to be the pink-haired half-burned faced firestarter chick from the two previous episodes and she has an intense look of being terrified while holding the Rebar like a walking stick and the two assume she could’ve been impaled by it later on.

The next day at the clinic/foster home where Takuru is interacting with Serika and Uki in the background asking about Yui’s well being after being scared shitless last episode, Takuru assures her she’ll be fine and Hinea shows up saying she’s going back home now but before doing so, she tells the two that she needs to privately speak to Takuru. After they both leave, Hinae tells Takuru that Detective Shinjou wants them to run by something right away via Hinae’s smartphone which shows the same footage we saw earlier with Shinjou of the firestarter chick crawling in pain and Takuru deduces that it could actually be Senri. They both decide to identify her as Senri to Shinjou but wonders where this came from and Hinae says it came from an apartment she lived in which shocks Takuru that they even found her address but it’s reason enough for HInea to go home now that there’s no impending threat since she’ dead and to break the news gently to Nono since they had a history together saying this stuff is “beyond her”. As Yuii and Nono comfort each other

As Yui and Nono comfort each other Takuru in comes in and Yui explains that Yuuto is staying with their foster dad since he’s too embarrassed to be in the same room with her crush I know none of these kids are blood-related in any way but the fact some of these adoptive siblings have crushes on each other is pretty damn creepy. Takuru breaks the news to Nono about Senri’s death assuring her they should be ok but understandably Nono is quietly sad about this. The next day, we are at an apartment with Mio & Detective Shinjo investigating the place that Senri supposedly lived but Shinjou is unsure if her death was a murder or suicide given that she was found impaled on a rebar.

When Shinjou asks what could possibly kill a “Gigalomaniac” Mio thinks it could be someone looking through the window given that the apartment was locked from the outside but Shinjou points out that Senri showed up at the clinic on the 23rd during the events of episode 6 but was later found burned to death on the 24th leaving him and by extension the audience to assume she died at some point in the interim between the 23rd and 24th and says there’s a “24 hour gap” between the last time she was spotted and the last time her body was found leaving us wondering what the fuck happened during those 24 hours? Shinjou even points out that the security footage on the 24th which leaves Mio wondering how the hell did she die in her apartment? Mio decides to figure this out.

The next day at the journalism club in school where Shinji asks if Takuru should take down the board knowing that the killer is supposedly killed. When he walks towards the board he thinks to himself that the 6th & 7th murders didn’t happen yet and they supposedly happened on “October 28th and November 4th”.

Takuru is told that today is the 28th of October but wonders if the case is truly closed given that the exact dates of the murders from 6 years ago feel incomplete because there are two more events that happened. Logically Shinji points out there’s not point of keeping that board up given that the killer is gone and that the 28th should be “ruled out as a possibility” telling them to quit with Serika taking his side. Takuru finally agrees to remove the board with Serika suggesting they look for another case. Later, Takuru is seen reading a book about “french kissing” with Serika appearing out of nowhere which shocks him a bit, but his phone begins to buzz and we find out Shinji is trying to contact Takuru while running in terror.

Shinji tells him to go change the message board tied with the “New Generation Madness” case. There are leaked police reports that say Senri’s alias was “Riko Haida” and that Nono visited the apartment without checking the facts. Much to his anger & frustration, Takuru tells Shinji she’s gonna try to call Nono (who is now innocent) but Shinji tells him that she turned off her phone and he knows this because he tried to talk to her himself and says to Takuru that he’s going to visit them and to rendezvous at Nono’s location. Takuru leaves but tells Serika to watch the place in his absence but Serika decides to tag along anyway since Nono could potentially be in danger. The story cuts to night time with Journalists and

Takuru shows up to Nono’s house which is teaming with reporters and is told by their foster dad that Nono is understandably upset by all this as Yui, Yuuto and Uki are there to comfort her. The dad suggests that he and Serika should go check on her and when they enter the kitchen, they tell her Shinji is on his way here too. They decide to take a seat and warn Nono that the website was full of idiots with short attention spans and estimates these jerks will stop after the month is over but the best thing to do is wait it out. Nono notes that while she isn’t bothered by what people say about her, it’s another thing that her friends and family are being mixed up into this and won’t stand for it. Takuru calls Shinjou wondering where these leaks are coming from and Shinjou says to him that the “Cyber Crimes” branch is investigating as they speak to figure out where the leaks are coming from and gives Takuru a serious tidbit of info… Senri wasn’t the Firestarter but someone named “Riko Haida”! As it turns out, it’s really two separate people and not an alias based on a thorough investigation Shinjou did ranging from dental records to finding the permanent address of her parents confirming she was a real person further cementing that Senri and Riko aren’t the same person.

The autopsy report determined that Riko’s Death was between “early morning and the afternoon of the 23rd” which doesn’t make sense given due to her actually being in front of the door of the Clinic’s house on episode 6, Theoretically, she’d still be dead. The Detective says that Mio theorizes that it wasn’t Senri who attacked them but a psychic supposedly showed them a “delusion of her” during that Silent Hill moment last episode and says that just like the other murder victims, her brain showed signs of enlargement indicating that she could’ve been “mind controlled into skewing and burning herself” and that this exact “M-O” matches the other murders as well. Shinjou warns Takuru to be careful over the phone and says one of them could be the next target, make sure they’re not alone and is on his way to the school Dorm with the intent of picking up Hinae first before picking up Takuru and everyone else within his circle.

Takuru thanks him and after hanging up goes to Nono & Serika to get everyone together while the foster dad is fighting with the media outside for trying to take pictures through the windows. Takuru then wonders where the hell is Yui since everyone else is gathered but Uki tells him that Yui was on her way to see him with Shinji, so Takuru decides to call Shinji and who says to him they’re at the convenience store together. Takuru starts to hear Yui’s screams in the background and Shinji says “I guess a convenience store knife wouldn’t be sharp enough” and Takuru tells him to stop joking around but suddenly Shinji says to get help feeling bad for Yui leaving Takuru and the audience to assume that the psychic is using their mind control powers to make Shinji do something bad.

Takuru is horrified and decides to run out of the clinic to find Yui who’s facing imminent danger. He goes to ask around random street-goers if they saw the two and one of them points the way where they last saw them and suddenly the color suddenly changes to black & white with Takuru running towards them but slips when he runs down some concrete steps and suddenly the color restores itself. Takuru gets up wondering if he’s lost or not and starts to hear voices in his head of Yui which point him do her direction and we start to see blood on the ground with three large kitchen knives covered leading a trail for Takuru to follow. Takuru doesn’t exactly have a strong stomach as he accidently steps on a blood puddle and the trail leads to large puddle with gift boxes shaped like a small person and blood begins to drip on the puddle with the camera panning to Shinji holding a 4th knife indicating that Shinji under psychic control, straight-up murdered Yui!

Takuru confronts the mind-controlled Shinji for his actions, and it turns out his eyes are bleeding like they were in Episode 6 and answers Takuru with a series of questions like, “Why didn’t you save her back then? Why did you abandon her? ” When Takuru asks what the fuck he’s talking Shinji proceeds to scream in his own words that Takuru “left Senri to die!”

The killer possessing Shiji declares victory that his/her revenge is complete and suddenly asks while pointing a knife at Takuru asking if he brought a scalpel and anesthetic because if he didn’t he’ll go through a world of pain just like Yui!

Shinji attempts to strike at him with the bloodied 4th knife but suddenly Nono jumps in stopping him though quickly trips near Yui’s corpse. Shinji brags about his work in displaying her as art while saying this was all Takuru’s fault and proclaims that his actions were out for vengeance because Takuru “let Senri die years ago”. Shinji claims Yui was a mercy killing. Takuru is left in sheer terror but everything displayed before him in gory fashion before Shinji begins to nonsensically act all gleeful in his atrocious actions and Takuru proceeds to tackle him but as Shinji attempts to stab his back, but he’s unable to due to some sort of invisible shield protecting Takuru.

When they both hit the ground, they proceed to struggle with Nono stopping Shinji before he can reach the knife. Nono proclaims that she won’t let him kill Takuru but mind-controlled Shinji responds back declaring that he was the mastermind behind all the killings with the intent of driving Takuru into a corner. Nono further points out how bullshit his words seemingly are but is fully aware that someone is controlling Shinji because there’s no way Shinji could’ve known who Senri was because Senri didn’t even know Shinji existed.

Shinji rolls his body off Takuru’s submission hold begins to contort himself in disturbing ways followed by his eyes bleeding out and his mouth foaming up like a rabid dog along with his body starting to shake from intense pain and begins to headbutt the street before Takuru attempts to stop him but he quickly gets up saying he won’t forgive Takuru for “leaving Senri to die” but suddenly his personality begins to shift mid-coversation between Shinji being horrified by what he did while he was posessed and the killer saying this murder was all Takuru’s fault.

When Shinji laughs manically before he falls immediately falls dead with Nono trying to comprehend everything that just happened while experiencing intense grief of the death of a small child while Takuru does his best to hold and comfort her. Seconds before the episode ends, Yui’s voice mentions to Takuru that Nono is really still a kid inside and that he should be more supportive to her.

Overview.

Uh… Wow! So much happened in this episode so where do I begin? The 2nd half was rather twisted, near the end of the episode I had to pause for couple mins to understand what the fuck I just watched. The way the scene began at first threw my attention elsewhere because the way the boxes layed out in the pool of blood lead me to wonder she was dead there, but then the episode’s story-structure felt the need to focus on the splits between the boxes and the dripping blood, which made me think that the boxes were just meant to look human but once Takuru and by extension the audience saw Shinji covered in blood… and a close-up of Yui’s head in one of the boxes that’s when I had to take a small break from the horrific Se7en-style imagery I just witnessed before resuming the review.

As of right now, the killer could either be someone within Takuru’s circle, or Takuru himself since he isn’t really in control with his powers. Based on observation, everything seems to randomly happen around Takuru and the fact he goes into a “trance” whenever a specific incident occurs. Now the million dollar question is who’s mastermind behind it all? Especially if Senri is indeed dead as mind-controlled Shinji mentioned and we know the killers motivation is revenge for something Takuru possiby did, I get that death seems to be the side-effect to those under mind-control which explains Shinji’s demise but Yui’s brutal death felts like the writers went out way to gratuitiously Joss Whedon our asses.