This was a really good and sweetly romantic episode; definitely one of the best so far. Following the emotional conclusion to the last episode, this one was terrific, as it felt appropriately restrained, extensively developing Rikka and her relationship with Yuuta. The emotions, in a slight contrast to the last episode, were of a thoroughly subdued nature, which superbly complemented the wistful atmosphere that accentuated their romantic development.
Though the first half was quite good, the latter half of the episode was fantastic, due completely to the heightened focus on a plethora of romantically meaningful moments. As such, Yuuta and Rikka's interactions throughout the latter half of the episode were exceptionally engaging and beautifully simplistic, especially the scene in which she forcefully stops Yuuta from leaving her towards the end, then proceeds to draw a symbolic mark on his hand, denoting the elevated level of their contractual connection, which alluded to the moment their eyes met through the reflection on the train window.
I loved the final sequence of scenes, in which Rikka realizes the extremely elevated beating of her heart and ponders the nature of her confused, blissful emotions, effectively noticing that her feelings are no longer derived solely from Yuuta's "Dark Flame Master" persona, which then leads into the terrific closing scene, as she quietly kneels beside Yuuta's bed and gently nudges the hair from his sleeping eyes. This was an excellently profound note of tranquility to conclude the episode on.
One of my favorite moments was the scene that involved Rikka briefly indulges her affections for Yuuta by smelling his shirt. Their conversation on the train was really significant, illustrating a transition into an evident sort of romantic connection between them, as it essentially propelled the mutual realizations of their feelings for one another, particularly Rikka. Also, the momentary flashback to Rikka's past was nice and quite insightful, as it potentially indicates that her attraction towards Yuuta unknowingly formed a barely perceptible spark in the earlier days of her seemingly forgotten youth.
Tooka's fight with Rikka greatly illuminated her own struggles in handling Rikka's delusional tendencies, which, up until this point, was an indistinct element to her characterization, since, due to her willingness to continually satiate that particular side of Rikka's personality, it wasn't entirely clear whether or not Tooka fully approved of these frequent excursions into fantasy. The visuals that accompanied this moment deftly illustrated Rikka's emotional, relatively traumatic complexities wonderfully, particularly with the highly effective use of minimalistic interiors within her former house, followed by the painfully gradual, corrosion of it's walls.
Although they were slightly less prevalent throughout this episode, Shinka and Sanae's noticeably developing dynamic is effortlessly enjoyable, rarely failing to deliver some of the best moments in each episode. As such, Shinka, though quite the mediocre character at the start of the story, has slowly developed into one of the best characters in the show, since the interesting aspects of her characterization are illuminated by her interactions with Sanae. I also really enjoy Kumin and Makoto's relationship, since it constantly teeters on the edge of their potentially mutual feelings being properly established. As such, it's a shame he didn't confess, but it definitely seems to be a foreshadowed occurrence in one of the future episodes.
The direction was solid, excelling in particular moments, such as the great bench scene, in which Rikka and Yuuta eat together, culminating with Yuuta feeding her a portion of his food. The framing of this sequence really lent emotional weight to these seemingly insignificant interactions. Although it wasn't quite as visually stunning as several of the earlier actions sequences, Tooka's fight with Rikka was exceptionally storyboarded and rather well-animated. The show's narrative is easily among the strongest, most consistently well-told this season, as it hasn't, as of yet, felt a misguided obligation to incessantly interrupt purely natural relationship development with a plethora of unnecessary diversions and tedious, contrived complications, such as the numerous love triangles that have unfortunately contaminated nearly every romantically-driven show that's currently airing. This considerably impressive narrative execution has allowed for an excellently nuanced, highly satisfying approach to storytelling.
All in all, Chuunibyou continues to impress, particularly excelling with it's rather intriguing story, extremely likable cast of characters and the gradually increasing focus on the development of Yuuta and Rikka's compelling relationship. Hopefully, though it remains rather unclear toward which direction the narrative will ultimately follow, it appears to be increasingly likely that Rikka will eventually be motivated by Yuuta to transition into a thoroughly self-aware maturity, finally relinquishing the naive, imaginative facade she's meticulously constructed around a refusal to let go of her well-worn adolescence. Perhaps that would be considered altogether too serious of an implication and an unnecessarily ambitious development for a show of this nature, but I'm quite confident that it would lead to the most satisfying result for Rikka's character development and, consequently, the narrative as a whole. |