English Dub Review: Chaos;Child Episode “Their Resistance”

Hinae does her best Jennifer Love Hewitt impression.

Spoilers Below

The opening starts at a local Clinic where they proceed to run some tests on the little girl that Mio & Takuru’s journalism club supposedly kidnapped from episode 4 who’s name is Uki. During this scene, we learn that Uki was once an old classmate to the Orphan Yui but had no memory of her past until she is shown a school photograph that helps slowly jumpstart her memories.

The doctor theorizes that Uki’s amnesia could’ve been caused by the infamous earthquake from 6 years ago in combination with some “PTSD” but what’s most bizarre about her rediscovered existence is that she still remains how she looked during that incident. She hasn’t aged in 6 years!

The doctor then asks if she was ever told that she had a “genetic disorder” which could explain why her body hasn’t grown beyond her pre-teen appearance but Uki responds that she doesn’t know saying that her body started to feel weird after the earthquake leading the doctor to believe that her symptoms similar to a disease called “Turner Syndrome”.

At this point, we’re left to assume a lot of time has passed because Uki has now adjusted to the outside world and is currently welcomed into Nono’s dorm with along with the clinic’s family of orphans. We then cut to Mio, who’s attempting to figure out the connection to all the murders with Detective Shinjou, while looking through medical records with what look like “MRI scans” and has expressed interest in looking into Takuru and Hinae’s brain using this technology.

Mio explains that Uki is their only evidence regarding the mysterious underground lab in that hospital but thinks Uki is quite powerful & dangerous but is determined to see how powerful she is thinking what if Uki’s Gigolamaniac powers created the illusion of a populated lab but the detective explains that it’s better if they wait for her to calm down before they get answers out of her.

We then cut to the school with Nono juxtaposed to the Takuru and the journalism club with their ongoing investigation this time to determine if the recent outbreak of fires are potentially connected to the pink-haired Firestarter, Nono’s long lost friend Senri and the Earthquake & Murders from 6 years ago.

Takuru says they received a phone call from Detective Shinjou about a police sighting that matches the firestarter’s description who attacked them. While the cops were unable to apprehend her, they find Senri’s ID Card! Shinji thinks they’re the same person but Takuru doesn’t think so due to the Image in the ID being six years old with even Hinae taking Shinji’s side on the matter.

Takuru remembers from the records they read in the Hospital they infiltrated that she was reported missing. Shinji questions Takuru why would Senri attack him & Hinae but even they don’t even know. Senri, if you remember Episode 5, was an old classmate of Nono’s and Nono was also fully aware of the experiments Senri was subjected to before mysteriously disappearing.

Takuru plans to share this theory to Nono once he gets back and predicts that if the string of killings are trying to follow the same pattern as the six-year-old incident then October 23rd will be when another killing will happen which is the “day of the 5th incident” warning everyone within his circle to be careful.

We then cut to Yui from the orphanage helping Ukset set up her new room with makeshift curtains which seems sweet enough but thankfully not too far into Diabeetus Blvd until Nono shows up to further help set up the curtain and start cooking.

We then cut to October 23rd which Takuru previously warned them about being careful due to a possible murder prediction but what do they do? Takaru’s club along with Nono casually meet up at a cafe despite knowing the potential danger they’re putting themselves! Afterward, the waitress wonders how long they’ll be staying here saying she’ll close up since there’s no other customers until Serika simple-mindedly asks for the menu again much to the waitress’s frustration.

When Serika accidently drops the menu, she picks it up and gives it Takuru who turns the pages until he starts to have another freak out at the mere sight of a sumo sticker somehow appearing on a random page and starts to see the world around him becoming empty, grainy, decrepit & Silent Hill-like.

Takuru proceeds to run out to the hallway and begins to see the pink-haired firestarter terrorizing him and he quickly runs to hide somewhere. In a well-paced suspenseful scene, Takuru hides in a bathroom stall hearing the steps of the Firestarter knocking random shit over and Takuru’s starts to breathe heavily and feeling cornered, Takuru out of desperation tackles his would-be attacker but quickly he snaps out of it and realizes he’s on top of Serika. After Takuru gets up from his Silent Hill-style delusion, Hinae makes a bad virginity joke about Taking Serika’s first time and Takuru’s eyes start bleeding with Nono being the first to notice.

The group returns to the clinic with Takuru getting a checkup from the doctor/foster-dad and asking if he can see fine and says his blood pressure seems normal. Hinae then questions what exactly happened to him and he says he got a chance to see the Firestarter which they think is Senri but understandably this makes Nono react uncomfortably at first but is determined to hear Takuru’s story.

After a brief scene of all the orphan kids telling their Foster Dad/doctor goodnight, Takuru shares his story with Hinae starts to remember how scared shitless she was in Episode 5 and is determined to face Senri and out of nowhere an invisible sword appears. Wait, Is that a Di-Sword? the one Mio mentioned from Episode 4? for some reason nobody but Takuru can see this weapon but we the audience know he can summon one as demonstrated in episode 5.

When Nono hears that Hinae is determined to kill Senri if necessary, it puts Nono in disbelief because she doesn’t think Senri is still alive claiming she witnessed Senri being crushed in rubble right in front of her during the earthquake but Hinae quickly detects her Bullshit believing Nono knows more than she’s telling them by claiming that even if Senri is alive, she was often “kind, cowardly and hated violence” and while Nono pleads her case, this is juxtaposed to Yui telling whoever is knocking on the door that the clinic is closed.

Nono wants to believe that Senri isn’t the killer but we then cut back to Yui’s words being ignored as whoever is knocking on the door isn’t stopping and as she looks close up to the window The Pink-haired Firestarter gives a psychotic smile infront of the door which causes Yui to scream. This scene had the appropriate amount of suspense & shock.

Nono runs to Yui who warns her a woman with a burned face was in front of the door and Hinae runs out screaming armed her weapon while calling out Senri with her own version of the “What are you waiting for?” speech akin to Jennifer Love Hewitt’s performance from “I know what you did last summer”.

The episode simply ends when Takuru calms Hinae down and Shinji shows them the date on his smartphone pointing out that they just survived the October 23rd.

Overview

It seems Nono really knows more than she’s letting them on and the fact she remembered Senri as a “coward”? If Senri & the Firestarter are the same person I wouldn’t be surprised It’s not impossible for people to change after disappearing for six fucking years.

The 6th episode raised a number of big questions for me so here’s what left me heavily puzzled:

1. With the exception of Uki, Detective Shinjou who found her at the end of the last episode in the now abandoned hospital pointed out to Mio that not only have the supposed “test subjects” from Episode 4 vanished but also no other evidence was recovered?

2. If people actually lived in that place with Uki, How is it impossible for them to not come across or find any kind of DNA, fluids for evidence? or that Giant fucking Computer that had the multiple screens? How were they able to cover their tracks that fucking fast?

3. If Mio’s theory that what happened in Episode 4 was all an illusion created by Uki’s Gigolamaniac powers, How was she able to survive for 6 years without food? or proper hygiene? She looks well groomed and her clothing is clean, so Mio’s theory alone kinda contradicts itself.

4. I’m wondering how and why the Sumo Stickers are fucking with Takuru’s mind now? Before, he was strangely unaffected as demonstrated in episode 2 but eversince episode 4, exposure to them makes Takuru go apeshit?

And finally 5. Who the fuck slapped a Sumo Sticker on the damn menu? Was it someone close within Takuru’s vicinity?

Despite this episode’s plot holes, It consistently kept me hooked. People forget that horror is a feeling, a sense of atmospheric panic-inducing danger and while nobody died in this episode, the terror that our protagonists genuinely felt in combination with Takuru’s breakdown, certainly felt earned.