My review of Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! (Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!)

My review of Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! (Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!)

My critical review of Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai (or as I will further refer to as Chuunibyou). First of all I would like to get it out the way and state that I think this anime is a strong 8 out of 10.

Spoiler

This anime was at first one that made me laugh and warm my heart up [slightly] however as I further dove into the story I felt it developed into a message that we can all take from into our daily lives. The message was to accept your emotions. It had a slight irony to the whole story with the end meaning being one that is hard for an eight-grader to understand, while being about ‘eight-grader syndrome’ but also talking about the controversial subject of accepting yourself and others. As I looked at this anime I came to realize that the whole show was an oxymoron in itself. From the ‘comic relief’ of things that seem abnormal to ‘normal’ people like when they ‘break the normal realm’ to fight, and when they show that people have different ways to deal with issues. The show also looked at grief and how it can be dealt with. Some people like Rikka find that they don't have the strength to accept reality, and this is their way of dealing with the pain. Whereas others can accept these events and live on with their lives. Everyone wants to escape a desperately normal and cold world where they are unimaginably insignificant because that what the objective harsh reality is. However what this show made apparent is that individuals may feel insignificant compared to the whole world but are immensely important to those around them.

This show on the surface was about the problems with being a ‘chuunibyou’ or having ‘eighth-grader syndrome’ but in depth was about accepting and understanding your own feelings. In the anime it showed characters like Shinka and Yuuta feeling that their ‘syndromes’ as embarrassments, showing us that they were not mature enough to understand themselves. Finding a job? Bad grades? It has nothing to do with the syndrome shown. As Sanea is at the top of her class with this same syndrome. This syndrome doesn't change anything about you, it is simply you. By denying that you, you are causing cognitive dissonance to yourself. As we then see the main characters finally accepting themselves and being able to understand, this then results in them being less embarrassed and eventually embracing their emotions. Shown when Yuuta finally accepts his self and realizes that he resonates his emotions stronger at the ‘DARK FLAME MASTER’.

Rikka's chuunibyou syndrome was something she created to deal with the Horizon (the reality of her father's death), but it didn't mean that her imaginary isn't herself. It was something that she thought to be cool and take as her identity. What she needed wasn't someone who'd rip off her syndrome (which, if actually did happen, would have killed her. As shown how depressed she was once that happened but did it out of love for Yuuta. Because, explained in the end, humans have the syndrome, because they understand themselves, who they are and what they really want), but someone who'd help her say goodbye to her father and rebuild her chuuni syndrome again in this case, the someone was THE DARK FLAME MASTER (Yuuta).


STORY: 10

Chuunibyou blends comedy and drama into a nostalgic exploration of adolescence and acceptance of yourself. I found myself laughing, cringing, and crying multiple times throughout. It thrust many emotions, but unlike others it remains bitter-sweet without being too depressing or too ‘lovey-dovey’.

What's deep about this show is that we don't know why exactly we were born, why we have to die and just how much of our lives is governed by fate. We're pulled to fantasy because as humans there's a lot we don't know about what it means to live. This anime really did make me think about whether it was brave, stupid or our duty to be a realist and keep accepting emotionally what the world throws at us, irrespective of the personal cost. And for that, the story is a solid 10 for meaning much more than a lot of other anime.




ART: 8.6

I have to say that the colors and tone of the whole anime is great like most. Obviously it won’t be as good at some on the top end anime like ‘Fate/Night’ or ‘Kimi no na wa’ due to money but it manages to amplify the meaning of every scene with the right balance of realism and fantasy.

A high-ish 8 for this.




SOUND: 7.3

OST was ok. Didn’t really stay with me much, just did its job of not making things awkward and giving things greater power. OP and ED we not to bad either but more often I was watching the animation of them rather than listening to the songs.

Low 7.




CHARACTERS: 7.9

With the look of all the characters, I have to say that mostly every character was ‘cute’ beyond belief and made me admire this medium even more. That aside, every character's motivations are believable. Their interactions are dynamic and the source of both silly comedy and powerful drama. It's also nice to see an MC who isn't completely clueless when it comes to romance. That said, he still isn't an expert as for most MC’s in anime. It was also nice to see different sides to each character; Yuuta’s boring and ‘normal’ self vs his INSAINE POWER AS THE DARK FLAME MASTER HIM SELF, even Kumin’s caring and more mature side at the end where she helps Yuuta realize what he needs to do and slap him back into the DARK FLAME MASTER. There were major sides to each character and it was nice to see this also on many side characters like the older sister and the teacher.

High 7.




ENJOYMENT: 9.3

This is an amazing piece of work. It emotionally hurts like Makoto Shinkai’s work with 5cm per second, makes me laugh like Suzumiya Haruhi. Makes me cringe like with Inou-Battle. Its bitter-sweet and packs a punch of meaning. Just a shame it didn’t have more development with the relationship (this seems way to common with romance anime).

Low 9.



OVERALL: 8.62

The average score overall. And very similar to the 8 I mentally gave it when I finished the anime.

TL: DR:

Was good, you should watch. Only 12 ep. I gave it a 8.6 so high in my rankings (my average score around 5, which makes sense as that is an average rating)


And finally,

This is the power of darkness, Blast reality. Burst it into shreds. BANISHMENT… THIS WORLD!!!!
THE DARK FLAME MASTER SIGNING OUT.

 

I rate 0/10 anime lul

 

tldr, good work tho

 

Josh. Josh... Josh, I am disappointed.