Before I can really do this review, I feel like I need to explain Chuunibyou (or ‘Chuuni’) for anyone who might happen to be unaware of the topic. The term can be translated roughly as “Second year of middle school syndrome”. Despite that, no explanation I’ve heard has ever indicated that it’s really pathological. Rather, Chuunibyou involves a youngster who, for some reason or another, takes up a theatrical persona and lives it. You declare yourself the Dark Lord, cackle maniacally, and even though you know it’s not real, you act at all times as though it were real because doing any less would spoil the ‘game’. Sometimes it’s a coping mechanism, other times it just makes someone feel better to stand out in a world that otherwise desires conformity of you.
It’s a phenomenon that, despite the
name, is far from being limited to Japan. I… may have had my own
brush with the experience when I was in middle school, long before I
knew it had a name or was a cultural phenomenon in another country.
And I do think that informs my reaction to the show; if you were
Chuuni yourself, whether you knew that was a thing or what it was,
you’re probably going to have a stronger response here than if you
weren’t. That said, let’s dig in.
At its heart, this is a romance show.
Our main lead is Yuta Togashi, who starts the show by discarding his
Chuuni persona, “Dark Flame Master”, now feeling embarrassed
about the phase and hoping to make a good debut as a normal student.
His intent is complicated by his encounter with our main leading
lady, Rikka Takanashi – his new classmate, full-blown Chuuni,
upstairs neighbor, and a witness to the last moments of Yuta getting
“Dark Flame Master” out of his system. She’s already
incorporated Yuta into her own little alternate reality game, as her
soul mate decided on by the “Wicked Lord Shingan” (a fictional
entity that gives Rikka her equally fictional powers, living in the
eye she keeps covered with an eye patch and a colored contact in for
the sake of the illusion.)
It’s kind of a rocky start, all things
considered. Yuta is also kind of bothered by Rikka because he has
eyes for Shinka Nibutani, the pretty and normal-seeming class rep.
Nibutani, weirdly enough, ends up joining Rikka’s chuuni club (which
Yuta is also pushed into) which ends up revealing that she, like
Yuta, used to be a Chuuni and now despises that part of her past.
She joined up with Rikk, Yuta, and Rikka’s (equally chuuni) friend
Sanae Dekomori because she wanted a chance to recover and destroy
“The Mabinogion”, a notebook she wrote in her chuuni days when
she went by “Mori Summer”, a figure that was something of an idol
to Dekomori. However, Dekomori has made copies of the Mabinogion,
‘forcing’ Nibutani to stick around until she can finish collecting
and destroying the evidence of her embarrassing past.
This incident, among others, subtly sours Yuta’s opinion of Nibutani, who can be very harsh in her jaded ways, reminiscent of Ami Kawashima’s harsher side in Toradora!. On the other hand, Rikka, for all that she’s still ‘afflicted’ by the chuuni delusions that Yuta wants to leave behind and at least a little dorky besides, is both avid and kind. They bond steadily, leading up to Rikka’s older sister and caretaker inviting Yuta to come along on a brief summer vacation. This, however, ends up marking something of a turning point where the show actually starts to take on some serious themes rather than just silly chuuni antics.
Specifically, the day trip takes Rikka
close enough that she goes to see her childhood home, which it turns
out isn’t in the family any longer and hasn’t been since her father
passed three years before. This leads to Rikka having a “battle”
with her sister over Rikka’s inability to accept the reality of the
situation, at the end of which Rikka runs off, and Yuta follows.
This ends up seeing them both on a train back home to their
apartments. They have a quite heartfelt conversation, letting us see
more of their perspectives with their experience with Chuunibyou, and
as they have to deal with the fallout (and the fact that, Rikka
without her key, they’re stuck with a sleepover) they also start to
realize their feelings for each other, though neither of them says as
much and Yuta has trouble working out how he feels.
Both the budding feelings and the
concern about facing reality hang over the pair like a dark cloud.
Actually getting to the confession (Well before the end of the show!)
doesn’t help much, as it’s immediately followed by a revelation that,
with her sister being accepted to a fancy culinary school, Rikka’s
emotionally distant mother will be taking custody which (in her
sister’s mind) means she has to grow out of her chuuni phase, an
endeavor with which Yuta could help. He does, and actually gets
through with her, causing Rikka to give up her persona. This ends up
being a surprisingly tragic turn: Rikka’s social prospects at school
and relationship with her mover improve, and her sister’s worry is
dispelled… but Rikka has lost a lot of spark, struggling to adapt
to being normal as the club collapses around her, ultimately causing
Dekomori to shed her persona as well, miserable though she is.
At this point the only chuuni left is
one who didn’t even start that way, upperclassman Kumin who, having
spent most of the show’s early phase sleeping (she joined the club
solely to make it, partially, a ‘napping’ club), now emerges to act
as something of a conscience for the group. She (and some of Yuta’s
old effects) reveal that Rikka first took up her Chuuni ways because
she happened to see Yuta in his early phase and admired not so much
the disconnect from reality but the fearlessly outgoing side of his
chuuni performance. In the end, he ends up having to reach out for
Rikka, and they share a chuuni moment that enables her to actually
get some sort of closure with her father, even if it’s ‘all in her
head’, sort of bringing things around to the point where the show
seems to take the view that a little weirdness can be healthy and
helpful.
Which seems to be consistent
throughout, not just at the ending. The ex-chuuni characters in this
show, whether those that start that way or those that end up that
way, tend to be a lot less happy. They’re better connected and
better adjusted, but they’re also bitter, jaded, and sometimes
borderline miserable, especially the more strongly they reject their
past selves. On the other hand, there are also clear problems with a
“full blown” case covering for deeper psychological issues, as we
see in Rikka, leading to the fact that balance between a vivid
imagination and a healthy life is probably more what’s needed than
either madcap delusions or total disenchantment.
The romance is also decently handled.
It’s not one of my absolute favorite anime couples on display, but
Rikka and Yuta do have good chemistry, both in and out of persona,
and it’s nice to see them navigate a few serious hurdles,
essentially, as a couple rather than ending more or less when they
get together. Pulling the focus off of “will they or won’t they?”
is something that’s not done enough.
In the end, I think this is a B show,
but one I would recommend. It’s not groundbreaking, it’s not ‘new’
and it’s overall of a pretty level (if solid) quality, it’s just an
alright romance with a resonant theme. If you were a dreamer, in
drama, the kind of person who’d daydream fight scenes with everyone
around you as extras, or anything else that might be related to
“Chuunibyou”, check it out.