Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Movie: Take On Me gives a us runaway eloping plotline as our main focus along with simultaneously focusing on Togashi and Rikka's growing romance in the process, along with the ride are Nibutani and Dekomori on their tails with Rikka's older sister Touka trying to get her back and to go to Italy.
On on the surface level, the plot seems very basic of Rikka not wanting to go to Italy and almost being forced by Touka thus causing the eloping but like the old saying goes, "it's not the destination but the journey" and Rikka and Togashi's eloping journey around Japan is ALL about the journey they go through.
See at best the eloping journey gives us much more interaction between Rikka and Togashi as well as BOTH of their delusions given (well Togashi mainly focusing on Rikka while Rikka is her typical delusions) and simultaneously giving us a good romantic angle to go by and the growing romance given making this eloping journey not of delinquency and adolescence decisions but on looking to their futures together what with how Togashi FINALLY takes the steps to do so. Their journey also somewhat tackles Rikka's chunni syndrome and to this end since Rikka's chunni's syndrome is intrinsically linked to her personality it gives Rikka a bit of an identity crisis if she falls in love, like will she erase her identity for love or will she keep her "powers" of the Tyrant Eye. To this it LA extremely hates the statement of "act your age" but age is NOT a personality nor does it give people leverage to make people act "normal" because they are past a certain age range not to mention being "normal" means being bland and like "everyone else". LA never nor LA will get that statement, LA KNOWS that the real world is one unforgiving place but to have to give your "identity up" just to be "normal" is even crueler for LA thus because of this LA can relate in some respects to Rikka's identity crisis later on in the movie. Just be yourself even if it's weird, if not your a fake and with that, Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Movie: Take On Me's tackles the subject matter of chunni syndrome as well as giving Rikka and Togashi a third option where everyone can be happy and sure happy ending is soooo cliche and whatever but for what it's worth for Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! as a series LA WANTED Rikka and Togashi to be together, so why not a happy ending?
On speaking of "fake", we can't forget the other main cast and sure they are essentially the allies and villains towards Rikka and Togashi's eloping but Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Movie: Take On Me's made well use of EVERY character in the series. Dekomori and Nibutani's main scthick in this movie is of them trying to capture Rikka and Togashi as Touka blackmailed both of them with incriminating photos, their typical hijinks ensues and their yuri undertones gets shot up an eleven in the process, but to be honest their comedic skits were AMAZINGLY funny. Shichimiya finally had a purpose besides being the third wheel in the second season of Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! but is more or less Rikka's mental mentor and helper in the movie when Rikka becomes confused on the situation given not to mention we FINALLY get shown a bit on Shichimiya and Togashi that was being extremely vague in the second season about, so yeah LA was surprised and thankful for Shichimiya's inclusion in this movie as yes it makes Ren (the second season) NOT reconned but still Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Movie: Take On Me made use of Shichimiya and made for a great contrast to Rikka in the process which she was SUPPOSE to be used for and to great effect in this movie. Kumin was a more or less satellite character in this movie mainly her satelliting towards Shichimiya but nonetheless she had "something to do" in the later of the movie. Makoto gets a cameo and FINALLY we get to see Rikka and Touka's mother someone who was mentioned but never shown fully but we finally get to see her as well as she becomes something of a goal for Togashi and Rikka in finding her. Still nonetheless Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Movie: Take On Me's entire cast was used well as much as RIkka and Togashi's setting constantly changed in the process and not everyone being in the same place.
The animation done once again by Kyoto Animation is at it's best, with intrinsic detail to it's character designs along with it's beautiful background work, seriously it's what LA expected from a Kyoto Ani movie what's better is how expressive they made their characters even more. So same praise with most Kyoto Ani's work?...yup YUP.
The voice acting was great with the rather exotic cast we already have but MAJOR PROPS to Maaya Uchida as the chunni Rikka and easily gets LA's MVP alongside Jun Fukuyama as Maaya Uchida's foil and straight man antics quips. Chinatasu Akasaki and Sumire Uesaka did great as Nibutani and Dekomori and this was quite obvious from both anime seasons but they had GREAT chemistry together with Chinatsu being the straight man to Sumire's chunni quips and teasing, see why LA loved their manzai antics in this movie, it's their delivery all the way. Voice acting was expectedly great what with all the voice cast reprised from the anime.
So was there ANYTHING LA hated about this movie as much praise LA had been giving this movie?, well no LA can't as this movie utterly broke and went beyond LA's expectations for this essential sequel to the Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! series, character development mostly romance FINALLY went that one step beyond and worked on Rikka's dilemma of her chunni syndrome, gave Togashi a push on the romance department, comedy was spot on with the other cast members as well as Rikka and Togashi adding to it with their interactions, animation was expectedly great coming from Kyoto Ani, voice cast was great as always and the movie moved and shifted the paradigm of the series as whole and the movie had a nice blend of both comedy and "serious" introspectiveness when it was needed to and Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Movie: Take On Me really did execute well with Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!'s typical personality which it kept intact even in the more serious moments.
Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Movie: Take On Me utterly blew LA's expectations and beyond that what else was there to say? Massive character and romance development, comedic skits were executed perfectly and add in themes of growing up or in this case "why do we NEED to grow up?" and throwing identity for being normal and we have not only a nice ending for the Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! series but a thoughtful, crazily funny eloping romance journey with our resident chunni Rikka.
What's up with Kyoto Ani anime movies redeeming and almost forgiving the sins of the father anime series, because keep doing whatever your doing because it's working!, from Kyoukai no Kanata to Tamako Market and now Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!...just LA?
