Anime: Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!

Much more than a pseudo Isekai RomCom! A life lesson!

One of the best series I have seen in the comedy and romance genre (RomCom)!

"Chuunibyou" is a syndrome that leads young people to fantasize and strongly believe that the fantastic worlds they create and that their imaginary superpowers are real. Most series that deal with these themes, portray them as actually real, separate from reality or constituting a different reality in another world or another dimension (as in Isekai genre series). This series doesn't. This series makes the characters who suffer from this syndrome ("Chuunibyou") interact with the real-world, causing hilarious situations, as the rest of the people in the real-world find those fantastical behaviors strange, bizarre and ridiculous. It's in this balance between delirium and reality that the humor of this series is based on. And this is why some reviews I have read say that the series is based on awkward situations. I personally don't find them as awkward as much as I find them cute and beautiful, since they portray a wonderful phase of our life, full of faith and hope. This is, by the way, one of the lessons of the series: not to lose the childlike spirit and the child in us (I pass the cliché).

The love is introduced in the series through the relationship between a character who suffers from "Chuunibyou" and another who has suffered in the past, but is currently ashamed of that phase. But love also happens between the main characters' friendship relationships (the schoolmates) and even between the "Priestess" (Rikka's older sister - the main character), Rikka's family and Rikka herself.

Throughout the series, several scenes serve as a pretext for some deep reflections on life, on what it means to grow up and mature, as well as reflections on psychological realities present not only in young people but in all human beings.

The design and animation is excellent. Well-defined characters with consistent personalities, and good conceptual design with imaginative backdrops and backgrounds, make this series worth being watched.

Review
Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! (Chuunibyou) is a charming show about people with vivid imagination who think they have superpowers, live under conspiracies, have secret agendas, and so on. It claims this is something we all bring from childhood, thinking we are the center of the world, and sometimes it lingers for a few years into our teens, or at least for some people... but no. If you ever come across a teen who thinks he is the "Dark Lord of the Ancient Flames", call for aid. This is serious. Fuc*n serious. I understand this is an attempt to make a mundane problem become funny, but not here, not with a serious setting with school, adults, and the way everything is presented.

Schizophrenia, paranoia, depression, false beliefs, these are all severe symptons of/or mental disorders. If you have ever known someone who suffer from one of them, you certainly don't take them lightly. These issues can change lives, not only of those who suffer from them, but everyone in the family, friends, and colleagues. Although Chuunibyou is not exactly about these disorders, it comes really close when it exaggerates the symptoms of the vivid imagination of its cast.

This, however, is your typical KyoAni light romance picturing a boy named Yuuta, who overcame his "mental disorder" as he entered high school and now tries to leave his shameful past behind. Fate, however, has worked to put him in front of Rikka, a problematic girl who is still affected by chuunibyou (how the show calls this disorder) and also many other problems.

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1. The First Stumble
   It is very hard to accept Chuunibyou's premise without completely blanking your mind. It tackles mental disorders with the cuteness we all know KyoAni is capable, turning an issue with terrible symptons and consequences into just a "different type of happy adolescence". No my friend, you can't do that. I am all up for a drama dealing with this kind of stuff, but when you handle teenagers with delusions and paraonia as if they where only "playing" like 4-year old children things start to get wrong. This is probably the ultimate usage of retarded characters...
   
   Another problematic cast
   KyoAni already had shows with insane people like the girls from Clannad and Haruhi Suzumiya, but here it jumps into a territory of absurdity that must not be treaded lightly. A girl thinks she is the "Tyrant's Eye" and is pursuing a "Unseen Horizon" while escaping from a secret organization and no teacher ever talk with her parents? All her colleagues just smile and think nothing is happening? She builds a club about this, find a GROUP of people with the same mental disorder, and yet... they are just living normally as if no one in the world ever looked at them with disgust or with sincere concern? No. This can't be. It seems like Sword Art Online first season all over again. There is a HUGE area explore in this premise, a lot of serious issues to tackle...
   
   But this is only yet another cute light romance with a visual fest
   Japanese media always considered most teenagers as saints, people who manage to "date" for one year with only holding hands and no one ever being concerned around them. Chuunibyou is that and a bit more, because these people are mentally uncommon, some of them face traumas not easily surpassed, but there you go: Cuteness Overload. KyoAni certainly knows how to overkill a show with insanely cute and vibrant girls, top-quality animation, and incredible consistency. The imaginary fights are awesomely animated, the special effects are superb. This is certainly one of the studio's best works ever.
   
   It should do more though
   However, for a show that mixes an imaginary world, there is very little to differentiate what is real and what is not, because everything is damn cute and bright like everything else in the industry. Some dose of reality, some girl who is not absurdly charming, some guy with muscles or fat, some old people who looks old, anything... You see, there is NOTHING of it in the entire show. Even Yuuta's mother is no different from the teenage girls... even the grandparents of Rikka are brimming with colors and brillant eyes.
   
   At the same time though...
   Although for most of the time I felt a lack of respect this tale had with its premise, there is also a degree of absurdity in it and an exageration of its characters that makes everything surprisingly... enjoyable. A quality comedy, the production value, the dumbness, the traumas of the late part. It can perfectly serve as a guilty pleasure for all things KyoAni for many. The cast does manage to be a bit funnier than your average as well, especially because they are all completely insane and manage to create some unbelievable situations which turns out to be refreshing from your standard love-comedy stuff. Because of that you may manage to see past the tremendous issue of mental disorders and cliche'd romance progression and watch this as just yet another cutie cutie animation with dumb characters and absurd situations. They, however, are sadly one-dimensional and suffer only temporary changes through the show, turning back to their original template as soon as an issue is resolved.
   
   In the end...
   
   
   Sadly, even after trying for twelve episodes to bring light in Rikka's life and narrating a tale of people who wish to surpass the chuunibyou, the show backpedals to its start with a stupid narrator saying as if "having paraonia and schizophrenia is normal, have one you too!". Seriously? Damn. After all that... we are told to think all these delusions are... ok? No. Definetely not. This was working as a decent comical coming of age, but with such ending there is no "coming" here at all.

   Show Spoiler

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Comments
KyoAni is a certainty of production values with skyhigh budget. Chuunibyou is no different. This is one of most charming and beautiful shows of its season, although it does gets annoying to see how the cuteness is the very same we see in every other work of the studio. Chuunibyou, however, tackled something truly serious... as if it was normally cute.

Much like how shows from studio A1-Pictures narrate sad events with a colorful and shining production, KyoAni did the same here. This is no Haruhi where time travel tackles in, this is no Kyoukai no Kanata with its youkais, this is a modern day tale of young people going through puberty and learning about the world, about first love, and other typical coming of age stuff. When you do that and mixes it with mental disorders of serious degree you must approach it in a manner where they do look like problems to be faced and not just "Aaaaw, she is so cute thinking she is a dark supernatural villain even though she is sixteen years old! I wanna hug her!".

This dumbness, however, has its charm. There are some comical scenes of great quality, the light drama by the end is good enough, and the constant, never-stopping cuteness is a feast to the eyes. If you liked Chitanda in Hyouka, well, be prepared to some serious competition with charming cute girls. In fact, if what you are looking for is just a show with cute girls, damn, forget my review and just watch it, you will certainly love everything.

What is considered normal? For instance, if your best friend in middle school started showing up with an eye patch and bandages, are they crazy? Apparently not, they just have a heavy case of chuunibyou- a "disease" that typically surfaces around eighth grade where one starts acting in a way which society in general may frown upon. This series explores a group of people who have gone through or are going through chuunibyou, and perhaps possible root causes of it. This is a unique, exploratory piece that fits quite closely with Denpa Onna, differing primarily in that there aren't any magical/supernatural elements (other than those in the head of chunnibyou sufferers). Chuunibyou doesn't go very far plot-wise, fitting as an interesting slice of life with both comedic and romantic elements interspersed in meaningful and entertaining ways. As others have noted, it's a great time killing series as it's not terribly serious most of the time yet entertaining enough to keep you watching. Overall, Chuunibyou was an unexpected surprise full of meaningful characters and exciting interactions.

Animation:
At times overly plain, at others masterful, chuunibyou's animation can be a mixed ride. Most of the time, the quality is very good with adequate coloring and lighting. What really sets this series apart from others is its attention to details (character expressions and actions) and depiction of what one sees from a chuunibyou's point of view. The characters are all unique in their appearance and have some pretty interesting wardrobes. Siblings, even, look unique to the point that I question they share the same bloodline.

Action is surprisingly present in this seemingly plain series. To start, there are a lot of violent characters in this series. Many of the characters, including our protagonist Yuuta, will repeatedly hit other characters with attacks ranging from a light karate chop to rage-filled violent shaking. Then there are the imaginary battles where chunnibyou suffers wield giant human-sized weapons and attack each other with odd named attacks and energy projectiles. In the "real world", our Yuuta observes them attacking each other with brooms, umbrellas, etc... As all this action is mostly not "real", there isn't any gore/blood here. The series also introduces the outrageous notion that you can have a light series with some romance/drama without significant fan service.

Sound:
The show starts with a crisp, open song with electronic elements. The melody isn't too great and the singer sounds like she's hitting the limits of her abilities at times, but more importantly- you'll most likely end up skipping it as the OP sequence is headache-inducing with it's two-paneled animation approach. The ED, sung by the cast, is a more fitting piece with interesting personality and relevant lyrics. Unfortunately, the BGM is nowhere near as impressive as that in Denpa Onna. The series makes up a bit through strategic use of appropriate sound effects to give accent to particular humorous moments.

The voice acting cast is superb. Yes, everyone sounds silly taking in meaningless riddles that only they themselves can understand but the VAs really worked hard to ensure the lines didn't sound dry or generic. Maaya Uchida does a great job as Rikka coming off of a likewise great job as Sanka Rea. Relatively new Sumire Uesaka does a great job as well as Dekomori, who actually sounds like she has a light foreign accent on top of being under the spell of chuunibyou.

Story:
There are way too many school-based, slice of life series focusing on a particular group of friends. This is one of those few shows that reaffirms that this category isn't quite dead yet. It keeps itself from being binned as "just another" through clever character interactions and great execution mixing comedic and romantic elements just enough to keep the mood light. So our protagonist, Yuuta, is a freshman in high school. He purposely moved to a distant school to ensure that he would be able to put his chuunibyou memories behind him. Unfortunately for him, there is a girl named Rikka who still suffers from chuunibyou, and who quickly takes an interest in Yuuta. Much like in Haruhi, Yuuta and Rika form a club for doing chuunibyou-type activities. Are Yuuta's normal high school dreams now a distant memory?

Chuunibyou has a very simple, single plot line. The only thing distracting you from this is the well-executed humor and drama between the primary characters. The majority of the show is relatively light with lots of humorous moments but the last few episodes takes a more serious turn as the characters confront their chuunibyou syndrome, and why they're acting so differently than everyone else. Towards the end of the show, some characters themselves start getting philosophical and it brings up a good question- wouldn't you rather live true to yourself rather than live according to what society deems normal?

Yes, not much happens in this show. However, the execution and pacing are both outstanding, and given this genre's history for having to resort to sci-fi or other crazy elements just to keep things interesting, I applaud this series, its cleverness, and its simple message.

Character:
It's been a while since I've seen characters as interesting and well rounded as those in Chuunibyou. From the fantasy dreams of Yuuta to the outlandish chuunibyou hallucinations, the series goes out of its way to give you a unique perspective of situations, rather than using generic narration. The primary characters mostly consist of chuunibyou victims and former victims. This is key as you have those currently experiencing the syndrome mixing with those desperate to rid themselves of their embarrassing past. Throw into this already interesting mixture an assortment of developing romantic interests and you've got yourself a very entertaining character picture. From the childish Dekomori to the surprising Nibutani, you won't be bored with this cast. Expect great character development, cool style, and significant romantic progression.

Value:
Chuunibyou will not be remembered for great music, awe-inspiring animation, or climactic plot line. However, it has a very real message buried underneath an entertaining presentation and very lively character set. I definitely recommend giving this series a try. Banishment, this world!

This show is about of a group of eccentric school kids who are either into occult, fantasy or whatnot and are kind of distanced from reality, as well as some of them who have realized how hard it is to be different in the Japanese society so they have changed schools in order to pretend to be "normal", yet all of them end up hanging out and making a club with new friends who share the same interests and are having a good time together, whether they realize it or not.

Art & animation: 9/10[/b]
As expected from KyoAni, the artistic values are high. The moe-blob style allows for minor slippages a lot by drawing roundish lines so it's probably easier for them to bulk produce anime like this, also, and you'll never have complaints about quality throughout the show.

On the contrary, it will sometimes be TOO WELL MADE. This is especially true for the imaginary battle scenes which probably took a lot of underpaid labor force to make compared to the rest of the show, and will thus earn a reduction in the total score for being such a waste.

No, let me explain. Remember how funny the early Haruhi OVA about their indie movie was? It was because of the scenes where characters tried to make it cool or serious but ended up being hilarious at their attempts of it, and the few scenes that were remotely funny in Chuuni (only amongst the first few episodes) were trying to do just that. However when you actually spend a huge budget on seriously animating the fantasy which is supposed to be how you're imagining the real life through pink glasses, it better be something friggin' worth it because once you start taking it seriously, stops being funny. Seriously, it looked like they tried to re-enact a CGI filled Hollywood blockbuster sequence while at it or something. WHY?!:neutral:

I would have preferred the kids just fighting with umbrellas and ladles all the way through. It would have been funny and heartwarming just for the clumsiness of it.

Sound: 7/10[/b]
Nothing especially notable, which is kind of a downer for KyoAni. Even the OP/ED songs were just okay-ish.

OP sequence: the visual part of it was unusually gif-able. It's as if the opening music was made specifically to complement the blinking slideshow of short animation loops that the devs laid out as baits for otakus to make tons of .gif images to post all around 2chan and 4chans on the first days of the show, and boy it sure did work as a marketing campaign.

ED sequence: something similar in style to K-On EDs. The mood was especially similar to that of the 2nd K-on!! ED. Not so stellar by itself as the 1st K-on! ED or the 2nd K-on!! ED, tho.

Well, maybe you'll think otherwise.

Story: 6/10[/b]
The story does have a consistency and all right pacing, there's a perfect balance between comedy and story flow so in terms of directing, it's pretty much perfect.

The other thing is the story itself, which is kind of implausible. Like okay, there's one guy who until recently was stuck in his childhood dreams and now wants to try and appear normal realizing how embarrassing acting like that was but what are the odds of almost each character having exactly the same syndrome? I mean, c'mon? The nice directing and animation is just glitter in your eyes trying to conceal this fact with.... BUDGET.
Another thing is that this anime tells you that you have to become "just like everyone else" if you're different. Like sure, in the case of Rikka she needed a brightslap the most but in case of cheerleader, she was just an active believer of occult and writing blogs about it while being a kid, what's so bad about that?
(By the way, here's an interesting thought - if Yuuta had started the same kind of odd club back at his old school, chances are he'd find plenty of friends with the same interests as him all the same and he wouldn't give a damn what everybody thinks.)

Well, even not being a paranoid tin foil hatter you can see that this anime's plot might be a part of some government's plan to ask Japanese shut-ins to "face reality" (knowing that was actually the true message of Evangelion (although it just managed to create more anime fans than ever)), however for that goal they should have started with the rest of society by showing them that there's nothing wrong with being different, either, and learning to accept that, which would result in creating a more moderate society, not just the current division in the extreme groups of completely faceless clones and deviants Japan's plenty of. Or eliminating bullying in schools by telling what teachers should do in these scenarios. Or by liberalizing labor market so that you can also find a job when you're not exactly 25yo, and eliminating the difference between part time and full time labor rights and salaries. Fighting causes instead of consequences. Just sayin.

Character: 3/10[/b]
For once, the KyoAni's slice of life characterization qualities are lacking.

First of all, the show's cast is several girls and a generic brown-spiky-haired main character with his generic sidekick best buddy who is extrovert about dating girls but has no luck in it while the main chara who is nothing special on his own has girls flocking around him. How do we call this?
H
A
R
E
M
Okay, so.

I guess any further explanations of why it's 3/10 would not be needed once THAT is said but there is another reason to. And that is, asides the main char and the main girl of the cast, the other three girls do not get any characterization at all, and aren't really realistic characters on their own.

- First of all, we get a girl who falls asleep just about anywhere. That's it about her. No personality at all.

- Then there's a girl who has punching pillows tied to her comically long pigtails. She's a slapstick joke character. It's not a real person. How she met the main girl, or why does she like doing occult stuff, it's not properly explained.

- Then there's a third girl who is a female version of protagonist in terms of their problems, and is a bitch. Once her true nature is revealed, there's no further development about her, except becoming a slapstick comedy duo partner to the pigtails, and once they calm down, just a tertiary background character now giving out love advices. Nothing else about her.

And then there's the generic brown spiky haired protag and the main girl of the cast, Rikka, who do have their circumstances and whose actions throughout the show are mostly led by the events around them and which have okay development. However having the rest of the characters being such a lazy filler is more common to a long running ecchi show department where you got like 12 girls and where having a personality is just a formality when compared to correctly remembering them by hair color and breast size when it comes to drawing them.

...because the faces are all the same.

Value: 2/10[/b]
...............the gifs? Yeah...

Enjoyment: 3/10[/b]
The show became an enjoyable love story near the end excluding the last episode. This score signifies the number of episodes in this show I truly enjoyed.

...Just remember that Chuuni has 12 episodes, not 10.

NOTICE: This review covers both seasons.

VIVID IMAGINATION

This is yet another school comedy based on light novels, but with a twist. It’s about teenagers who suffer from chuunibyo, meaning a vivid imagination which makes them do weird stuff. I had no idea there was a term for such a condition; I assumed it was something all children go through for a couple of years before it goes away on its own. Apparently it sticks around to some people up until their adolescence and becomes a source a great embarrassment when you recollect all the stupid things you were doing during that time. This gimmick was more than enough to give an otherwise generic moeshit anime an identity of its own. It was full of imaginary superpower battles that made it stand out from others of its kind, and was also something everybody had experienced for a least a few months in their lives. But no matter how good the premise of a show sounds to be, it means nothing if they don’t do anything with it. And since this was made by Kyoani, guess what happened. Freaking nothing! It remained nothing more than a moeshit comedy.

SELF AWARENESS

If there was some credit to the show, it’s the initial attempt to be self aware, and in a superficial way to about anti-escapism. Since the protagonist was very ashamed of what he had done while he was role playing as Dark Flame Master, he was constantly trying to stay away from all that nonsense that was essentially empowerment fantasy. Later on he was also in a relationship, which made it seem like he was finally leaving behind his childhood and was moving towards becoming a far more serious and responsible adult. If the anime kept going with these themes, we would have a masterpiece of the likes of Welcome to the NHK. And we didn’t; because Kyoanus and light novel cancer.

IT LOOKS WRONG

Eventually the show betrays all its good aspects and crawls back into the mud hole that is defining modern anime. For a premise that is about anti-escapism, every girl in the show is super cute. And I mean every girl, from babies to milfs. And typical to Kyoani tradition, there is a lot of fan service to keep the audience drooling over animated cartoons. How can you take the theme seriously when it is presented in the exact opposite way of how it should? Where are some ugly, fat, deformed people to give us a sense of depowering reality? The real world looks as beautiful as the imaginary one. Where are people who are supposed to be annoyed by all these nonsense? If you notice, nobody besides Rikka gets scolded for the crazy stuff they constantly do. Friends and family around the major characters don’t care, they don’t even bother to laugh or shake their heads in contempt. They just look puzzled for a few seconds before going back to whatever they were doing, completely forgeting the whole thing. There is no reason to feel embarrassed if nobody cares. So where is this anti-escapism theme you kept yapping about, show? Nowhere!

IT BECOMES WHAT IT SCORNS

Some tried to excuse that as being part of the subversion the show was going for. It makes it seem like it’s moe, only to turn the tables later on, and surprise the audience by addressing the theme of anti-escapism. It would be excused and it would be an amazing twist, if the theme of anti-escapism was going somewhere. But it didn’t. Despite all the efforts of Yuuta to stay the hell away from all these stupid illusions, he spent the entire show being surrounded by cute moeblobs, doing non-stop silly things as a running joke, and at the end he even accepted to turn back into his Dark Flame Master persona that he despised so much, for the sake of a delusional chick. He joined the dark side, instead of bringing the girl to the light side. Thus the show embarrassed what it was shooing away at first.

IT REFUSES TO MOVE ON

Some tried to excuse him reverting to his chuunibyou period, as part of saving the girl he liked. Rikka, as the only person with people who gave a damn about her crazy antics, was escaping her cruel reality, and when she was forced to face it towards the end of the first season, it was too much for her. She was even about to commit suicide if Yuuta hadn’t calmed her down by pretending to believe all the nonsense she kept spouting all this time. Ok then, let’s roll with that. He saved her, became her boyfriend, gets the chance to understand her, and now we are promised with watching how a relationship plays out in anime. If you didn’t realize it yet, almost no anime that is about romance has established couples in it. Most of them fool around until they say I love you and then end without showing us anything. But not this show, it established a couple midway and had the whole second half to show us how Yuuta and Rikka become more responsible and mature by being in a relationship. And guess what, NOTHING HAPPENED.

IT ENDS AS A SHADOW OF WHAT IT WAS

Not only the relationship resets to zero, but typical to harem formulas they even add more girls, maintained the status quo intact, while not forgetting to throw in yuri shipping. And even during the finale when we would finally get at least a kiss, to believe these two are in a relationship, THEY CHICKEN OUT and we are left with blue balls. Thus the show ends by destroying the last thing that was good about it. Some say that it was never about the romantic relationships, as it was about identity. You need to love someone for who he is and even accept him the way he is. There is no need to change if there is nothing wrong with the way things are. And since their chuunibyou personas are essentially who they want to be, then you might as well accept their silly illusions. It’s a good theme alright, but again, they didn’t do anything with it, and thus it goes to waste.

PRETENTIOUSNESS

I bet there are still those who will say that the show was never trying to be a subversion. It was always a generic moeblob comedy with the themes being there simply as a joke generator and nothing more. I mean, it’s obvious, isn’t it? The cast is made up of one typical blunt dork protagonist, a dozen typically cute girls surrounding him in ways that feel like they dig him, and a minor male student who is there only to address the horny side of the protagonist. Those are traditional trademarks of harems; why would you assume there is more to it? I don’t know, why does most of the anime community still thinks SAO has an amazing romance and a realistic videogame world? Oh, I know, it’s because the show keeps telling us it is all that! It pretends to be things that it isn’t, and thus it makes complete sense that we will be looking forward to what we are promised and be very disappointed when we don’t get it. And the reason we never get it is simple. Because Kyoanus and light novel cancer.