English Dub Review: Chaos;Child “Gigolamaniacs”

We finally got the episode title right this time.

(Note: For those of you who read my previous review, I want to apologize for a large mishap I made where I mistakenly labeled episode 4’s title with episode 5 and I can assure the people who read our reviews & articles that we here at BubbleBlabber actually learn from our mistakes and will strive to keep improving ourselves at our jobs. Thank you again for your ongoing support.)

So, last week Takuru, Serika and Shinji from his journalism club infiltrated a hospital with a secret underground chamber along with Mio who just happened to be there which pretty much ended with the kidnapping of a small girl who willingly named Uki who doesn’t want to leave. She even wants to go back and is fully aware she was kidnapped but the Detective Shindou is trying to point out that the place they busted her out of were full of terrible people but she claims otherwise saying that her job was to calm the patients.

We then cut to the journalism club where Hinae shows up much to her annoyance that she won’t get something out of it but Mio starts to ask about the supposed “psychic powers” and the possibility on whether or not Takuru might have them as well. Hinae not only deduces that he does, but also reveals that she has psychic powers too but they function differently, For instance, Hinae asks Takuru if weird things happen whenever Takuru wanted something with the first episode being a call-back due to Takuru instantly opening a locked door without even using a key.

Mio determines it must be a different psychic power than most like “Telekinesis” or “Psychokinesis” while Hinae further demonstrates that her powers make her a human lie-detector and instantly detects lies from people. Their powers are sort of a means to turn the user’s delusions into reality. Of course, Takuru is in disbelief by this strange revelation saying her power makes both of them “Gigalomaniacs” as the episode’s title implies, however, these specific powers are limited to how negative his emotions get and how many people are within his vicinity.

Ten mins into the episode and we see Serika visiting Nono who seems to be doing well after episode 3 where she recovered from her shanking from episode 2’s ending which is followed by Serika going right to see Takuru since Nono told her some vital info in the form of a picture on his smartphone that she doesn’t exactly reveal to the audience since that is for Takuru to find out. Who knows if they’ll save that for a really big plot-twist.

We then cut to the rest of the interrogation scene with Uki where Mio tries to press more info out of her but Uki demands to be taken back so they decide to take her to a “care facility”.

We later see Takuru at his laptop who decides to see Nono through Serika’s encouragement, despite it being extremely late at night. With the possible revelation that he could have psychic powers, he proceeds to investigate a series of psychic murders that happen at night, why is he not worried about this fact?

On his way to the Dorm, he’s strangely surrounded by the “sumo stickers” which appear everywhere triggering random wtf imagery complete with the sound of crying babies juxtaposed to scenes of Hinae also going batshit from the sumo stickers too. Takuru encounters Hinae out of happenstance and suggests that maybe they should both go to where Nono is since it’s also a place they can rest and that is where Takuru just happens to be going.

As they go towards their destination,  music plays in the background and they slowly walk into an overpass encountering a pink haired woman with a scary intense look, a half-burned face and disheveled hair waiting for them. The two feel compelled and quake in fear at her presence and just when Takuru asks Hinae what her powers are, Hinae pushes him out of danger when she turns out to be a pyrokinetic.

This fight doesn’t really last long as the two learn to deflect her fire attacks with Hinae waving what looks like an invisible weapon, complete with Takuru doing it out of instinct when a fireball comes his way. And she runs off giving an intense scary look before leaving. The two struggle to move as they’re both pretty frozen with fear to the point that Hinae literally pissed herself from the near-death experience. (Ew!) Yet, they continue onwards to their destination.

We finally cut to them at Nono’s place with Nono expressing concern for their injuries and is now interested to be part of the case after Takuru tells them their encounter with the pink-haired firestarter.

Nono proceeds to reveal to Takuru, Hinae and by extension the audience what she’s already told Serika off camera earlier. The big reveal is that not only did she know about the hospital’s basement facility the whole time but she knows about a person named “Senri” who was the pink-haired pigtailed girl that was strapped up with a ball-gag in the random scenes of Episode 4.

Nono explains that Senri would regularly go to the hospital every Sunday but being that Nono was a small child at the time, she was unable to save her back then but has hardened her resolve to redeem herself which is why she decides to join Takuru in his quest for answers.

They proceed to tell Nono what they know because this knowledge is essential to Nono helping them given that she may know what they’re going through but Takuru is understandably apprehensive because he knows nothing about Hinae but for her word that nothing bad will happen to anyone he cares about because of her but Hinae assuring them they’re on the same side despite not being close or friendly with anyone because that’s part of Hinae’s nature.

And so the episode ends when Detective Shindou is now searching the hospital. Strangely compared to episode 4, it’s now abandoned and empty. No inmates, no mess, and nothing left behind. Shindou runs into a room after getting a call that the girl they kidnapped (Uki) went missing, and it ends with him finding Uki sitting down and crying about the place being empty.

Overview

This episode had the right amount of pacing & mystery without me feeling trolled about the plot-twist which is a good thing but it kinda went in the obvious direction of Takuru finding out about his powers. there just wasn’t much to show compared to other episodes, but it didn’t lose sight of what it has been setting out to accomplish.

One of the biggest plot-holes to me is why hasn’t anyone pointed out to Uki this isn’t natural or normal for a child her age to take care of patients despite having psychic powers. What was she getting out of it? We know nothing about Uki to make us give a shit regarding why she wanted to be back there so badly.

Also, why would the Detective be on Mio’s side for the kidnapping? Don’t you think he’d object to it or immediately send a Swat team to raid the fucking place?

My prediction is that the pink-haired Firestarter from earlier and Senri are the same person but at the time of this episode, It’s never explained what the incident was that made Nono feel guilty regarding what happened to Senri but given the consistent tone of this series, it has to be tragic as fuck.

I hope you give me more answers Episode 6!