Here’s a basic summary of the plot before we get into the nitty gritty:
Yūta Togashi is a boy who, during junior high school, suffered from “chūnibyō”, believing that he possesses supernatural powers and dubbing himself the “Dark Flame Master”, therefore alienating himself from his classmates. Finding his past embarrassing, Yūta attempts to start off high school where he does not know anyone, free from his old delusions. This proves to be difficult, however, as a chunibyo girl in his class, Rikka Takanashi, learns of Yūta’s past and becomes interested in him. Eventually they end up starting a club, and some new characters are introduced there.
When I watched the first two episodes, I was rather unimpressed. It seemed to me to be a generic rom-com, with clear-cut characterizations, and it would continue on being a light-hearted humorous show, which didn’t really work considering how I found most of the humor in this show to be a miss.
I put it on hold but picked it up later when I was in the mood for a relaxing, yet not necessarily good show. It improved, and I was somewhat enjoying it. Then I got to episodes 7 and 8. This is the show’s peak. I think it was handled brilliantly, and if more of the show had been on this level, I would’ve rated it significantly higher. I can’t properly describe what makes it so great without delving into spoiler territory, but I’ll do my best.
Essentially, there’s more to Rika than meets the eye. The show actually gives a very legitimate and realistic explanation to her becoming a chunibyo. I understood her. And even through this, her catchphrase gains a deeper meaning. Episode 7 and 8 are pure brilliance, with multiple scenes giving me the chills. It’s all so satisfying. It subtly builds up this romance, that of course, is fairly obvious from the get-go, as romances tend to be, but then a massive stream of romantic development comes in and hits you like a train.
To be honest, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the pairing at the start, but as they developed these characters, and grew their relationship to become more than a Boke-Tsukkomi relationship, and gave Rikka’s childlike behavior a more mature underlining, showing her personality is indeed multi-faceted, I began to really root for it. Their relationship with each other is legitimately enjoyable to watch, and Yuta seems to know Rikka’s limits, never pushing her too far, but never outright giving in to her fantasies. But that is just episodes 7 and 8.
I went into this show expecting more, and was disappointed initially. But when I reached this point in the show, it exceeded the aforementioned expectations. How does it continue? By disappointing.
From here progresses in the manner that most romances would, accompanied by these odd and unfitting dashes of the earlier episode’s wackyness. It can’t seem to decide whether it wants to be the dramatic romance of episodes 7 and 8, or the lighthearted humor of the earlier episodes, and sits kind of awkwardly between them. At least, that’s how I felt. The show really came to a screeching halt and putters out, particularly in the last 3 episodes. GRArkada’s common phrase is that “The ending is paramount”. Endings have to satisfy the viewer, even if they leave unanswered questions, the overwhelming feeling must be a positive one. This show fails to do just that.
If it had ended at the end of episode 8, 9, maybe even 10, I would rate it higher, but as the show continues after it’s peak, it gradually regresses and gets worse and worse. It became legitimately boring, and the resolution was far from satisfying. I was considering rating it higher, but honestly when I think about this, my memories of pretty much all the episodes excluding 7 and 8, the few that I have, are not positive. It had it’s moments, but the feeling like the show was moving backwards made me feel like my time was completely wasted.
As far as the characters go, they range from good to downright horrid. There’s a clear focus on Rikka and Yuta, and the rest of the cast are more on the undeveloped side. Nibutani kind of embodies the nice girl who actually has a harsh personality but actually actually has a nice side, but I felt it was handled much better in Toradora with Ami. She’s kind of uncharacterized, and while she does get somewhat a sense of development, earlier on she was a little too over-the-top, and her character would have improved with some more depth. Rikka’s sister Tooka similarly needed more screen time, as her relationship with Rikka was interesting but lacking and I feel it could’ve been developed into a really good short arc. Isshiki, Yuta’s friend, and Kumin, a sleepy club member, are simply nice but nothing more. They’re both pretty undeveloped, and generally serve just to provide some humor. I do have to give props for making Isshiki a actually really respectable character, though.
And then there’s Dekomori. Oh goodness. Yeah, I really hated this character. Her voice was annoying, her character was annoying. She’s got no depth or development, and she’s just downright whiny and irritating. Even when the other characters are enjoying a quieter, more touching moment, she has to butt in and ruin it. And honestly, the plot really wouldn’t change at all without her, and if it did, it would be for the better. There was even a completely unnecessary and strange plot point pertaining to her that was brought up, but it was never even hinted at earlier on, at least from what I picked up, and just further contributed unnecessarily to the story. She did improve a little bit from it, but it was still pretty pointless.
After those bad memories, let’s talk about something a little more positive, shall we? The Animation is done by Kyoto Animation, and it shows. Overall it was quite good, being really smooth and pleasant on the eyes, but not exactly the exceptional level of something like Nagi no Asakura or Hanasaku Iroha that P.A. Works puts out. Along with this, as KyoAni tends to, this very consistent and mostly fluid animation is sprinkled with moments of pure brilliance, where the animation gets spectacular. Generally the animation just looks nice, and I really like the design and coloration of the characters.
The backgrounds were pretty solid, but when they were making use of lighting effects, particularly during the night scenes, they were downright beautiful. A minor complaint of mine would be that this generally consistent animation occasionally has times where it’s more on the choppy side, but these were very few and far between. It’s good, but not exceptionally memorable.
I’ll briefly mention that the music was nice as well, the OP and ED were both enjoyable, and the OST contributed nicely to the show, along with some standout scenes. But still, wasn’t particularly memorable either.
I give Love, Chunibyo, & Other Delusions a 6/10. It’s a decent show, with somewhat nice yet heavily underdeveloped characters, a plot that fluctuates in quality and leaves you dissatisfied but not really wanting more. It’s not very memorable at all, and ultimately felt like a waste of time. My suggestion: don’t bother. There’s tons of rom-com anime miles better than this out there, I wouldn’t waste my time on it. It had it’s moments, but in the end I don’t think it was worth it.
(Originally Written October 24th, 2014)
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