In the world of Japanese visual novels, there are few titles so popular as Steins;Gate. Its anime adaptation is wildly successful, and is often heralded as one of the greatest sci-fi anime ever, right up there with the likes of Cowboy Bebop, Code Geass, and others.
But this post isn’t about Steins;Gate. Actually, what is often forgotten about this story is that it’s the second in a series of loosely connected visual novels, titled Science Adventure. Thanks to its successful anime adaptation, Steins;Gate is surely the most popular entry of its relatives. But it wouldn’t exist without its sole predecessor, Chaos;Head.
Now, before I get into Chaos;Head, allow me to begin with a brief aside as to what visual novels actually are, at least in how said information pertains to this essay. Visual novels are a digital storytelling medium that makes use of prose text, character portraits, and music.
Also, while visual novels are “video games” in the loose sense that they are application programs, they can contain widely varying degrees of gameplay. There are visual novels with a great deal of gameplay, like Ace Attorney and Danganronpa, and visual novels with little to no interactivity at all, such as the When They Cry series.
What is more pertinent, though, is the fact that visual novel medium owes much of its existence to… pornography. Arguably the single most influential visual novel ever, YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World, contains erotic content, as do many other deeply influential visual novels, most notably Fate/stay night.
At least in regards to the medium’s history, the link between visual novels and pornography is inextricable. In Japan, games that contain erotic content are referred to as eroge (a portmanteau of erotic and game). Eroge make up a sizeable portion of the visual novel market, though as the medium seems to be taken more and more seriously, their prominence thankfully seems to be declining.
But what does all this have to do with Chaos;Head? To make one point perfectly clear, none of the entries in the Science Adventure series are eroge. While all mainline entries are unique in terms of their identity, their modus operandi is mostly the same. They’re all non-erotic visual novels, with minimal choice-based gameplay.
And yet, Chaos;Head‘s identity cannot be properly explored without the context of visual novels’ close ties to eroge. This is because, as suggested in the title, Chaos;Head is a direct subversion of eroge’s influence on visual novels. For even as a visual novel may try to keep its distance from eroge, its influence can still be felt in seemingly unrelated ways.
The most prominent lingering effect of eroge’s influence on visual novels pertains to the medium’s protagonists. In an eroge, the protagonist will often be as generic as possible, with little personality and no defining physical features, so that it’s as easy as possible for male readers to project themselves onto him.
And, to a degree, this has somewhat carried over to non-erotic visual novels, as well. At the very least, visual novel protagonists are often visually under-represented, and the idea that a visual novel must have engaging female side characters has become a bit of a given. In the worst cases, non-erotic visual novels will stylistically resemble eroge visual in almost every way.
Suffice to say, Chaos;Head is not one of these novels.
Now, what is Chaos;Head about, exactly? In short, it’s the story of a shut-in otaku named Takumi Nishijou, who is involuntarily dragged in to a series of abnormal serial killings when he stumbles upon one of the crime scenes. Takumi, being both cripplingly antisocial and having no sense of greater justice, wants positively nothing to do with these killings. But the bizarre circumstances surrounding them, and surrounding him, ensure that he is dragged to the center of the narrative, regardless.
To talk about it in a broader sense, Chaos;Head is a character study. It is the portrait of an antisocial boy who wants nothing at all to do with what is going on, but is nonetheless forced into the role of the story’s hero. In a sense, it has more in common with films like Taxi Driver and prose novels like The Catcher in the Rye than it does with most other visual novels.
And herein lies its true genius. Chaos;Head, in its way of paying tribute to those character studies that came before it, twists and subverts the very foundation it is built upon: the medium of visual novels. By placing Takumi unambiguously front and center, Chaos;Head fully defines itself in such a way that is ordinarily considered antithetical to what visual novels are supposed to be.
Now, this is not to say that no other visual novels had attempted to study their protagonists as deeply as Chaos;Head studies Takumi. Indeed, I had already mentioned Fate/stay night, which is known for crafting one of the most complex protagonists contemporary Japanese media has to offer. But Chaos;Head goes a step further than its predecessors, subverting visual novels’ eroge influence in other ways.
One such way is in its treatment of its side characters. Aside from Takumi, only the story’s deuteragonist gets a noteworthy degree of development. This sort of straightforward focus is uncommon in visual novels, as eroge’s influence ensures that the protagonist must spend most of his time with the (usually predominantly female) side cast. Instead, Takumi spends a great deal of the novel cooped up in his room, alone.
This also gives way to another key piece of Chaos;Head‘s anti-eroge identity, which is its self-awareness. Takumi often comments how novelesque his entire situation is, though never in a manner that calls too much attention to itself. Instead, what the narration is seeking to accomplish here runs much deeper than that.
Remember when I said that eroge protagonists are often be as generic as possible, so that it’s as easy as possible for male readers to project themselves onto him? Well, what if a novel went in the opposite direction?
This is precisely the true identity of Takumi Nishijou. He is a funhouse mirror held against the target audience of visual novels, particularly eroge.
Now, this certainly sounds like the novel is insulting the very audience it is attempting to capture, and in a way… it is. But it does so in an exaggerated way. Takumi is the worst that otaku have to offer, and in this sense, he serves as a warning for the audience. “Don’t obsess over fiction so much, or you run the risk of becoming as helplessly antisocial as Takumi.”
Regardless, we can herein see that all the ingredients that constitute Chaos;Head‘s anti-eroge identity all come from the same source, which is uncoincidentally the most central part of the story: its protagonist. Chaos;Head‘s status as a character study frames it as contrary to what visual novels are generally expected to be. Additionally, Takumi’s manner of reflecting the audience further solidifies the novel’s sense of self-awareness, allowing its anti-escapist commentary to function even more prominently.
It is for this reason that I hold Chaos;Head in such high regard. It is not necessarily a crown jewel of visual novels (that honor goes to its sequel), but it is truly one of a kind.
Ordinarily, I would say that those who are interested in the kinds of stories that visual novels can tell when they break free from their ties to eroge ought to look no further than Science Adventure. But Chaos;Head is a little different, as it doesn’t necessarily break free from its ties to eroge. Instead, it acknowledges and subverts them, to craft a fascinating character study where the medium truly is the message.
Thank you for reading.
Terrace Talks 