Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Review

Leaving your childish tendencies can be hard, but its part of growing up. Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai revolves around "8th grade syndrome", a fake syndrome that happens to socially inadequate 8th graders who swim in their thoughts and never fully grow up to meet social standards. Our male lead, Togashi Yuuta suffered from such a syndrome but hopes to put that behind him now that he is in high school. He purposely goes to a different high school than everyone in his 8th grade class, and be rid of his "Dark Flame Master" memories. His first day at school seems normal but he meets Takanashi Rikka, a classic textbook case as calls it, of 8th grade syndrome. Rikka believes she is the wielder of the "Wicked Eye" which holds tremendous dark powers. She also believes Yuuta is her partner in crime from a previous life. As such, the crazy shenanigans brought forth by Rikka introduce us some more characters to the story such as Nibutani Shinka, another like Yuuta who once suffered from 8th grade syndrome, and the story itself unfolds and leads to some unprecedented situations and revelations. 

Going into the show I realized what kind of show this would be. Most times these shows end up being very easy to read, and this being an anime aimed at an "obvious" fan base, I was right on the mark most of the time. Regardless, the crazy action sequences and turns the story took were rather interesting and surprising. I have no doubt in my mind I enjoyed the show. My only concern was the way the ending took place. I feel its okay to let another indulge in their fantasies but in a typical story, you expect the person suffering from such delusions to finally grow up. I suppose in a way there was some of that, but the blatant relapse shown in the end was frustrating enough to lower my score on this anime. In the real world, you either deal with your problems, move on, grow up, or gtfo. The message the anime gave at the beginning was nice, I'm all for believing in my dreams and being somewhat of a child at heart. But as you grow up you can't continue believing in your childish delusions, that's just not the way the real world works, and its my main issue with the ending of this anime. 

Moving onto the artwork, it was top notch. The lighting, the colors, well, everything, was top notch and of obviously high production value. The show was visually stimulating, and I guess that was what the staff were going for to set the mood of the show. The OST was decent, this wasn't as heavily focused on as the artwork. The character development was well done but again, the ending killed it for me. This show was comical, I enjoyed the interactions between Nibutani and Dekomori (Rikka's "servant") as well as the interactions between Touka (Rikka's sister) and everyone she came across. I wish Touka had more screen time, her character was awesome!

Despite its flawed ending, I think this show should be watched. It does give a meaningful message for the first half of the show, and is overall entertaining to watch.

Score - 8/10 (Lenient)