Chunnibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Series Review

An unexpected one, I’ll give it that

Suprise Suprise, this was one of the series I dropped waaay back when the season started and I stated that the character of the chunnibyou itself irritates the crap out of me personally so I didn’t want to watch it. Mostly this personal vendetta I had was because I hate people who overreact in general and also because I, myself was never a chunnibyou. Many people praised it because it was basically their delusional (with all due respect not to insult anybody) youth in animated form. Even if it didn’t reflect my childhood, the later episodes where it dealt with Rikka’s transformation was worth seeing. So let’s get to it

Real Quick summary: Togashi Yuuta is a recovering student who suffered chunnibyou syndrome (8th grade/middle schooler syndrome). His regret over his middle school years prompts him to switch highschools and start anew with a peaceful life. That dream is completely shattered when a girl moves in with her sister a floor above Yuuta and she happens to be a chunnibyou as well, only she hasn’t moved past it. Thus begins Yuuta’s days with a chunnibyou stalking him while gathering more of her kind (and a few regulars) to his strange but rather “unique” group of friends.

Characters as always, and then right on to my pure thoughts

• Yuuta: I felt bad for this guy, he’s trying to live his life anew yet a few people can’t seem to understand that his change was for the better….of course that’s what I thought until the finale came in and when he pulled his old self back for a rather noble cause. He was a good main, and that’s saying a lot coming from me. Props also to the epic voice actor too (DAAKU FURAIMU MASUTAAAA)
• Rikka was cute when she is temporarily out of her tranced chunnibyou mode but that really didn’t make up for how annoying she was for me to tolerate during more than half of the series. That is of course, we went toward the ending of the series and Rikka’s rather unique situation of her past COMPLETELY made up for her annoying performance, but of course, it’s understandable now
• Shinka: Shinka was cliche reason #1 to come back to a series, AKA, the attractive girl reason. She didn’t last long as she just remained a support character through the rest of the series. She has a rivalry with Dekomori who, similar to Rikka and Yuuta’s connection, reminds herself of her middle school years when SHE was a chunnnibyou as well. 
• Kumin: Kumin apparently was an anime only character, not too suprising as she played a support role, but remarkable as she proves herself “support” worthy when she takes Rikka’s job in the chunnibyou spot to get Yuuta to understand what he did wrong. She reminds me of me because my new found hobby is taking naps.
• Dekomori: Dekomori is the other chunnibyou that gets attracted to Rikka’s delusional spree and just synthesizes with Rikka’s own delusions and make quite a pair. Predictabley, I didn’t like at too much until she gets talked out of the delusion and turned out be a completely adorable without her weaponized hair.
• Isshiki: Isshiki is Yuuta’s first friend after his transfer to his current school. Isshiki acts as support once again and tries to gain Kumin’s affections. He’s a novel character going for an anime original, how does that turn out?
• Toka: Toka is probably the most significant anime-only character in the series. Other than being a good cook and being able to contort (stop it head, stop thinking like that!), she plays the pivotal role of Rikka’s older sister who is constantly antagonized by her. Toka wants Rikka to stop her delusions as much as Yuuta wants her too. She leaves Rikka in Yuuta’s care when she leaves to become a professional cook and that leads to conclusion of the series.

  Like I mentioned above, I didn’t have any sort of nostalgia from this series. I didn’t really find it too entertaining, the only reason I kept with it was…well, I needed something to watch. Eye candy wasn’t too plentiful, but that kind of was a good thing seeing as though this isn’t that kind of series: I was glad it didn’t try to impose anything. The looks are extremely smooth and the general bland backdrop is sometimes changed to match what the chunnibyous think. Scenes shift from normal to overhyped up imaginations and so do the voices, especially on Yuuta. I mentioned a lot about how the last few episodes made the series very well done, so allow me to talk about the end without butchering it too much.

The end reveals what and why Rikka’s delusions are being done for. The death of her father and her indfiference/denial over it doesn’t help her relationship with her family. Rikka saw what Yuuta did and found his “fantasy” world as a nice form of escapism. Seeing how Yuuta acted prompted her to assume that visage of a “cool” person who didn’t care of what anyone else thought of oneself. When Yuuta, her role model told her to stop acting like she did, she felt betrayed but understood that she really needed to grow up.

Of course, the series presents that a lot more wonderfully than I just did. I forgot to put what Shinka added on but hey, you might as well find out.

To those who haven’t watched it, I’d give it a go.

and now an obligatory fanservice picture (something that I haven’t done in a while)

Touka ❤