Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai is a light novel adaptation produced by Kyoto Animation with Ishihara Tatsuya as director. Its a new series on the block that comes to Yuuta Togashi is a boy who, during junior high school, had 'adolescent delusions' and believed that he possessed supernatural powers and dubbed himself the 'Dark Flame Master,' therefore alienating himself from his classmates. This proves to be difficult, however, as a delusional girl in his class, Rikka Takanashi, learns of Yuuta's past and becomes interested in him. Yuuta Togashi is a high school freshman and was once a "chūnibyō patient", precisely an overly self-conscious middle schooler (Evil Eye-Type). He used up most of his New Year’s savings on Dark Flame Master gear, chanted spells before meals, and meditated under fluorescent lights in the form of a pyramid at night. As Yuuta Togashi throws away his past delusions of grandeur in order to start high school with a clean slate, he encounters a curious girl climbing down his balcony. However, he is asked by the teacher to walk Rikka home, as she had only moved in with her older sister, Tōka Takanashi, who lives above Yuuta's apartment, the day before. Upon arriving home, Yuuta helps Rikka move her belongings into her apartment. Later, Rikka manages to convince Yuuta not to throw away his old belongings. The shows pacing is quite steady, it doesn't seem to be very action packed at first, being more of a character study overall. Rikka Takanashi is a "chūnibyō patient" who enrolls into the same high school as Yuuta Togashi. As shown when Yuuta convinced her to give up her chūnibyō behavior, the real reason for her chūnibyō was to "protect" herself from the reality of her father's death. Rikka Takanashi finds a stray cat, which she claims is a chimera, though she could not keep it in her apartment due to Touka Takanashi's allergy to cats, whilst Yuuta Togashi refuses to take it in himself. Meawhile, Yuuta finds himself nervous around the class president, Shinka Nibutani, which becomes more awkward when Rikka shows up. Both Yuuta and Kumin go to Rikka's apartment, filled with all sorts of oddities, though the cat turns out not to be Kumin's. Around this point we do get to know the characters quite well and they start to be come fleshed out. After Touka swiftly punishes Rikka for bringing the cat in, she asks Yuuta to get rid of it, threatening to expose Yuuta's chūnibyō behavior if he refuses. Additional plot points begin at this stage to keep us questioning the integrity of the series. As Rikka runs off with the cat, Yuuta runs off with the audio evidence and they both try to escape Touka, but are eventually caught. Afterwards, Yuuta agrees to take in the cat. As Yuuta becomes curious about what club to join, Rikka decides she wants to start her own 'Far Eastern Magic Society' club, roping both Yuuta and Kumin to join. After trying out a few other clubs, Rikka calls on her similarly delusional friend from the school's middle school department, Sanae Dekomori, to join as well. This is when the story truly begins to start picking up and the basis of fantasy elements begin to come into play. Despite lacking a fifth member, the teacher offers them a provisional clubroom on the condition that they clean it up and recommends them as a circle. As Yuuta denies wanting to join the club himself, his resolve soon falters when Shinka also decides to join the group. As Yuuta becomes curious about why Shinka would want to join the hobby group, she asks to go to his home on Sunday. We won't spoil anymore and leave it at there in terms of the magic elements . Yuuta attempts to get Rikka out of the way on that day by sending her and Sanae off on a wild goose chase. As Shinka arrives at Yuuta's home, she frantically ravishes his room searching for Sanae's book that Yuuta had in his room. Overall this series was highly entertaining and quite unusual in its overall premise. It is tightly paced and never drifts off with its story line, staying focused, engaging and overall intriguing. It has an array of colourful and liable characters and we found the series to be very entertaining. I found myself quite hooked as I had no idea where the series was turning next. Extras: Thankfully Madman do provide an array of tis bit interesting extras:
Overall: 4/5
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September 2016
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