Reminiscences… of Paradise Lost (Episode 7):
Its summer vacation time and Yuuta and the rest have agreed to join Rikka on her trip to visit her grandparents. During the course of the trip, Yuuta notices that Rikka has been acting quite out of the ordinary, being far quieter than usual. It is not long until Yuuta learns of Rikka’s life in her past home, including her grandfather disapproval of her Chynebu tendencies and of how her father succumb to illness three years prior.
The episode very briefly dips into a typical beach episode but thankfully regains its focus relatively quickly. We learn that Rikka has denied the fact of her fathers passing and refuses to go to his gravesite. In an attempt to help her, Yuuta assists Rikka in escaping from her grandparent’s house and fleeing to her old house where she lived with her parents.
It takes some time but the pair eventually reaches Rikka’s old house, only to discover that the house was demolished and the lot now stands empty. It is not long, however, until Toka catches up to the pair determined to get Rikka to realise the reality of their situation.
This is the episode where this show gets serious, really delving into the trauma that leads to Rikka developing her chunibyo personality. This adds a great deal to Rikkas character and allows us the viewer to have a much deeper understanding of her personality, especially the nature of her home life and how her family views her.
Exiled… Just the Two of Them (Episode 8):
Continuing right after the events of the previous episode Toka is trying her best to force Rikka to come to terms with the fact that their old house is gone and their father is dead. At this point Rikka runs away again, meaning that Yuuta must chase her down. He runs all over the area searching both the grandparent’s house and the beach (where he finds his friends lighting of sprinklers).
In a last-ditch effort, Yuuta runs to the trains satiation where he finds Rikka on the train headed home, Just making it aboard in time to get to RIkka. The two decide to stay on the homeward bound train, along the way Yuuta describes what resulted in him developing his chunibyo personality.
After arriving home Rikka discovers that she has forgotten the key to her apartment, so Yuuta offers her to stay at his for the night. He soon discovers that his own family is away for the night, so we all know what that means. The two decide to go to the convenience store to buy some food, as the night passes Yuuta feels himself falling for Rikka, but while he tries to ignore those feelings, it seems Rikka may be feeling the same way about him.
Much like the last episode, there is a great deal of character development but this time there is much more of a focus on the growing bonds between Yuuta and Rikka. I thought that the time spent eating food was a particularly endearing scene, Not to mention the connection established during their train ride back to the city. Knowing whats soon to happen, It’s easy to say that this is clearly the calm before the storm.
Thanks for reading!
H
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Rikka suggests that if the club were to clean the school’s pool perhaps there would be reason enough to not disband the group, however, in typical fashion the club members spend the whole time playing around rather than cleaning. For some reason, I just can’t shake the feeling that this scene may have been for the purposes of fan service rather than plot, but hey who am I to say.
After the test, Rikka ends up scoring quite poorly, fortunately for her, however, so does the entire class, lowering the needed average and therefore allowing the FEMS club to stay together.
This episode takes time away from Rikka and her shenanigans to focus more on Yutta and his other friend, Makoto Isshiki, the wannabe lady killer. Makoto receives what he assumes is a love note and thinking that is might be from Shinka, decides that it would be best if he talked to Yuuta.
It is not long before the notebook is discovered and the entire class goes into interrogation mode, grilling all the boys in an attempt to find the culprit. In an effort to save the other boys from punishment Makoto claims ownership of the notebook, naming himself as the sole culprit. Mistakenly offering to shave his head as penance for his crime, but it’s too little too late as Makoto is reluctantly forced to shave all his hair off.
Time is passing and Yuuta and Rikka continue to grow as friends. But now the time has come to chose a club for school activities, because what sort of anime high school would this be without a club. 
This episode is also when we are introduced to Sanae Dekomori, Rikka’s underling and fellow delusional. She doesn’t play much of a role in the events, merely serving a supporter for Rikka, although she has more character than Kumin and does add to the humour of the show so I’m not too miffed.
Yuuta finds himself pondering why Shinka, one of the most popular girls in the school would want to join the “Far Eastern Magic Society”, especially when she is already part of the cheerleading club. She asks Yuuta if she can visit his house for some unexplained reason, so naturally, Yuuta agrees and comes up with a plan to keep Rikka and Sanae off his back for some time.
This is a turning point for this character, much like Kumin, Shinka goes from being a nice, friendly person to an outright jerk. Thus cementing her personality for the rest of the series and quickly becoming a very unlikeable character. However, I do have to admit that I like the dynamic of her being an Ex-Chunibyo like Yuuta, adding just that bit more diversity to the cast.
Episode one opens with a brief introduction of Chunibyo, describing it as a state of mind in which an individual believes themselves beholden to magical powers as a result of a distortion of their sense of reality. This is when we are introduced to our first main character Yuuta Togashi, who was, up till recently, one such individual afflicted by Chunibyo, Dubbing himself “Dark Flame Master”.
ue to one poorly timed exclamation she learns of Yuuta’s affiliations with his old name and swiftly proceeds to attempt to rope him into “joining forces with her”, he then swiftly declines her offer, overcome by the embarrassment. However, it is not long until Yuuta is forced to forgo his plans of making new friends in exchange for taking Rikka home as a result of her losing her wallet.
Later on that day Yuuta finds himself counting equipment with Shinka Nibutani a girl whos had Yuuta’s eye since the day they started school. At which point the pair is interrupted by Rikka, maker her miraculous appearance from behind a plastic model. Rikka and Yuuta then set about trying to find the owner of the cat from the night before. This is when Kumin Tsuyuri is introduced, she claims that the cat’s description matches up with the likeness of her own presently missing cat.
Kumin then travels back to Rikka’s house to meet the cat and see if it is hers. As luck would have it however, the cat is not so its back to square one. At that moment, Rikka’s older sister Tooka Takanashi makes an appearance (she also just so happens to be allergic to cats). And so a battle ensues between the two sisters. Tooka then asks Yuuta to take the cat, threatening that if he does not she will publish a recording of him in the middle of his act as the “Dark Flame Master”. After this a fight ensues once again between the sisters, resulting in Rikka’s loss.
My Review: With a title such as is has I can’t rightly say what I was expecting from Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! I was hoping for something great, but my recent slump into rather mediocre animes I was tentative, to say the least. Well, I am pleased to say that this show had me within minutes. The intriguing concept of a Chunibyo is ripe with ideas and the opening narration does an excellent job of establishing what Chunibyo is. One way I found this was used effectively in the show to use was during the fights scene at the end of episode 2, in where the fight is displayed from both the perspective of the individual as an over the top fight with lots of big explosions and from the perspective of the onlookers as a girls waving her umbrella around. Both of the main characters are very endearing and both have an excellent chemistry, in the way of Yuuta seeing himself in Rikkas eccentricity. I’m loving this series so far and looking forward to episode three and four.
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