Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Ren First Impressions--Vanishment This Engrish

I love it when I watch a sequel and all of my love for the original comes flooding back.

The first season of Chuunibyou was a pleasant surprise for me, since I was only expecting romantic comedy but also got a well-executed plot arc that dealt with loss and what it means to grow up. It wrapped itself up pretty well, which is why I was as confused as I was pleased when the second season was announced. Where could the story go from here? And how were they going to reconcile it with the previous season's ending?


The extra episode addressed that pretty well, so I do recommend watching that for more of a bridge from season one to season two. But the new episode does do a great job of reestablishing the status quo while still making it feel fresh and new. The plot of the episode deals with Yuuta and Rikka living together after both of their families move overseas and Rikka suddenly loses her apartment. Since this would lead to obvious misunderstandings, they try to keep their temporary living arrangements under wraps while still trying to get used to their new relationship status. In all honesty, this setup feels more like something out of a harem show and far too convenient--get rid of the families, nobody cares about them anyway!--but since it's more or less resolved at the end of the episode (read: Rikka's older sister is cool with it) it acts mostly as an excuse to round up all the characters to see how they've changed before the new school year.

Kumin likes puns now

Isshiki got rad hair

Dekomori proves she knows how to behave in the real world

And Nibutani...wait...

Nibutani's transformation is easily the biggest surprise of the episode. I'm not sure how long it's going to stick--some girls wondered if she had high school chuunibyou, which was the opposite of what she was going for--but I do expect her to go back to her usual look eventually. Unless KyoAni has a separate OP and ED waiting in the wings with her new appearance...


Aside from that, my personal highlight from the episode was the fantasy battle sequence, where everybody joined in. Just like last time, this is when KyoAni really gets to show off it's creativity in the animation. We've got Utena castles coming out of the sky, ridiculous outfit changes, impossibly huge weapons, and hilariously great attack names. Just like the sequences from the previous season, the whole scene was really exciting to watch, even though it was a fiction within a fiction.

Someone had fun coming up with that name

So while it wasn't the most substantial or original of episodes, it did do its job in getting me excited for the season. I'm looking forward to getting context for the pink haired girl and how she and Rikka treat each other. The OP portrayed them as rivals, so I'm expecting some solid romantic comedy. If you enjoyed the first season, there's no reason why you shouldn't be watching this.

Images from Crunchyroll.com.