Feb 12, 2013
"Forced to combat either nature or society, you must make your choice between the man and the citizen, you cannot train both."
If you walked up to me on the street tomorrow and asked me what Chuunibyou was about, I'd probably answer something along the lines of "there's a weird girl who does cute things and my heart exploded". I'd just leave it at that, give it a ten, and recommend it to anyone who likes anything mentioned in the above, but it's not that simple. It never is.
I started the show pretty soon after it started airing; prior to this I didn't really
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care for anything Kyoto Animation had done (since I hadn't seen much of their work) but I kept an open mind. It was nice to see that it wasn't a waste, since everything in the show is great. The art and music are both outstanding, the characters are nice (for the most part), and the story kept me captivated until I got to the end of the last episode. Sounds good from here, right? This is actually where the problem starts.
That is, after the last episode, I thought about how good it was for about a day, and proceeded to forget about it entirely for the next two months. About two days ago, in the middle of a daydream, I suddenly remembered: "Oh yeah, Chuunibyou. That was really cool." and returned to tend to the other thoughts floating in my head. I didn't really take anything from it that's stayed with me since then. Everything I've given a ten to has stuck with me since I finished the show, and most likely before that. To put it another way, everything I have give a ten to has set a standard (in my mind) for something, and holds that position alone. Bakemonogatari set my standard for a male main character (and being artsy as possible), Gurren Lagann set my standard for over-the-top, hot-blooded action and testosterone poisoning, etc. I loved Chuunibyou, but it didn't do anything remotely close to that. It did mostly everything extremely well, but it's all been done better or equally well before. A strange girl who does cute things has been done by Denpa Onna, the cringe-factor brought up by the titular eighth-grade syndrome has been done by Watamote, and all the technical factors have already been superseded by other works. Nothing it did stood out as being the best example of something having been done.
I think some of this problem comes from the ending of the final episode, which suddenly, and in no way subtly, handed me the moral of the story: "Chuunibyou" is caused by us humans and our natural self-consciousness, and there is no reason to feel ashamed of having it or having had it, as it's only being true to one's self. This is a good lesson for anyone to learn, I agree, but it's a lesson that's wasted on me.
Now, I'm not trying to say that I didn't do stuff I regret as a kid. The moral's wasted because it's just redundant. The lesson to "be yourself" is one that everyone's heard a million times, and I happened to read something at about the same time that gave me a similar message that is both more inclusive and less subtle. I'm not gonna say what it was, but it basically said that it's ideal to live in a way that is neither dependent upon nor governed by other men, and it gave me a little bit of a push towards an individualist way of thinking. I suppose that would mean Chuunibyou just ended up unfortunate, but I don't quite think it's that, either. In any case, Chuunibyou's attempt to make a lasting impact didn't work at all.
Rikka's still plenty cute, though, and maybe you'll take more from it than I did. Now that I'm done tearing the moral and my perspective apart and looking at them up close, might as well get down to it: I'd recommend Chuunibyou to basically anyone, as it's very very good and I enjoyed it a lot. However, if you're looking for a contender as one of the best shows you'll ever see, it will probably slip under the radar. I hate to say it, as I truly feel that it should have earned a ten, but it's just not quite enough.
That said, after thinking through this review, it's starting to shine a little bit brighter. I never delved that deeply into the moral, and maybe it just got overshadowed by whatever shows I happened to pick up shortly after. I'll have to give it a rewatch one of these days.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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