chuunibyou demo koi ga shitai 3, 4
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“I have filled this text [post] with all the magic I could muster. LOVE YOU FOREVER.”
Wait, what? She’s wearing sunglasses beneath her lovely eyepatch? Madness.
(I just got back into town, and I’m hoping for a more normal posting schedule before the holidays hit and I enter a semi-permanent turkey coma. Weekly, I’ve been following Little Busters, Chu-2, Robotics;Notes, Sword Art Online, Space Bros, New World, and Property Brothers. That’s a lot for me these days. I hope to get to Jojo, Tempest, Hayate, Psycho-Pass, and other shows in the future. Heck, I still have Minami-ke to watch…)
Chu-2 continues to impress. The animation is excellent, the stories make me want more, and the mini-vignettes are even better than the episodes. The DARK FLAME MASTER! one cracked me up… until I saw the beef stew one. My gosh. It’s like Kyoto decided to mix heroin, meth, Strauss soft serve ice cream, and puppycats into a single drug. Sparkling Daydream may have given me epilepsy, but I don’t care. When I found out that this show would only go twelve episodes, I was like… “Noooooo!” like Nibutani after she finds out that Sanae has unlimited blog works power. Nevertheless, what I enjoy most is probably the cast:
Rikka is excellent. As I mentioned before, she’s the opposite of Haruhi as she thinks she has powers yet has none while the other thinks she has no powers yet has plenty. She’s also constantly doing awesome Tyrant Eye things (to the point where I think I’m watching Getbackers again), and she generates so much comedy for someone who acts so seriously all the time. Magic is serious business. That makes her the perfect foil for Togashi as he’s constantly worrying, sighing, and facepalming when she’s around. In that respect, he’s the opposite of Kyon, who thinks of emotional things to say to Haruhi but never does and instead tries to act rationally (well, maybe not in Disappearance), and Togashi just lets his emotions hang out with Rikka. Kyon only thinks of telling Haruhi to shut up. Togashi does it and might lock her into a locker.
Furthermore, Rikka is completely engrossed into her character. She never steps out of who she pretends to be to the point that we have no choice to believe that it is her. She’s not delusional– we’re delusional to think otherwise. Even if she is delusional, she stays true to her core beliefs. She’s a reasonable person (to a degree), she helps her friends (like any and all anime haremettes), and she’ll never give you up, never let you down. She also has her own style that fits and defines her. And almost every scene she is in, Togashi is making a face.
(Flip phone… why, Japan, why? This story was written in 2011. I fully expect Rikka to have a Windows Phone 7 since that’s the official app phone of delusionists.)
Sanae is an amalgamation of the tomboy one, the cool one, and the tiny one. She’s like every Rie Kumgimiya character mixed in with Fuko-chan, Ayu-chan, and Ritsu-chan. I like her just because she’s been that perfect enabler for Rikka… kinda like the Paul Ryan to Rikka’s Milt Romney.
(One thing I don’t understand is why Sanae in the delusions and naps club. Isn’t she in the middle school? Why isn’t it weird that she’s in a high school club? How is this allowed?)
(I just wish Sanae would stop it with the “desu“. She’s no Desu.)
Tsuyuri is the stereotypical sleepyhead. She’s probably my least favorite character as she’s shown zero personality outside of stereotypical dreaming of food jokes. Really? “Does it taste good?” That’s only been done like 15,532 times in anime. I do hope more is done with her, but she might up being the Mayaka or Yukine of this series. Since everyone else in the club has delusions, I guess someone has to be a “normal” delusion-free character.
Getting to Nibutani, she reminds me of something Shigeto Koyama said at Fanime this year. He mentioned that successful character design has a rule in anime where the neater the hair, the more “peaceful” the character is… except if the character has a hair clip, then that’s a metaphor for restraint. For example, Anemone from Eureka Seven is calm until psycho mode. And she has two hair clips. Needless to say, I was expecting the other shoe to drop with Nibutani… at first glance, she seems like Mikuru Prime in Mikuru’s body. Then we find out she’s actually Mikuru Prime’s evil twin trapped inside Mikuru’s body. Though I will accept comparisons to Toradora‘s Ami-chan.
(Threesome with Mikuru Prime and Mikuru Prime’s Evil Twin? Huh? Did I just zone out for five minutes there?)
(Yes, Koyama designed Anemone. He also mentioned part of good character design is making sure every character is recognizable by their silhouette, and pretty much all the characters for Chu-2 have been introduced by their silhouettes. And he said that certain studios do a really good job at this while other studios do a really terrible job. You can probably guess the studios that follow good character design and not…)
I like the pastel color scheme– quite springy. Kyoto has not lost track of their ability to draw normal clothes for characters… it’s almost like all other studios use school outfits as an excuse to not have to come up with alternate costumes whereas Kyoto tries their hardest to work in normal clothes. For example, the fantasy Nibutani outfit is not the same as the real Nibutani outfit. Also, all the outfits for Endless Eight… I’m never letting that go, am I? It’s going to be the Obama birth certificate to my Donald Trump.
But Tyrant Eye and Mjollnir Hammer (isn’t this a vehicle in Halo?) steal the show with their outfits. They remind me of the goth loli store in the New People building in Japantown. The cat wings, the umbrella (oh, sorry, Future Gadget 15,532), and the crown just bring this over the top. I just hope these two use these exact outfits for their OK Cupid profile pictures in a few years.
Any club that features a 4:1 female:male ratio, napping, and magic circles is one club that I would have wanted to join in high school. Science Olympiad was a bad choice.
That takedown was awesome. Kyoto can do action sequences really well, if, you know, they stop making anime about high school students in weird clubs. That’s basically Haruhi (SOS), Clannad (Drama LOL}, K-On! (rock band), Hyouka (classics), and this show (delusions and naps). Then again, this formula is working for them. Why change? Why ask Jackie Chan to join the cast of Downton Abbey? Why ask In and Out to start making chicken sandwiches? Why ask Intel to make an ARM-based processor?
One of my favorite moments in episode 3: I knew that was going to happen. Chu-2 is a predictable show, but it has enough trickery and magic up its sleeve.
“It’s easy for you to talk in English, right?”
Maybe my second favorite. That teacher is awesome.
One of my favorite moments in episode 4: Welcome lab member 00005! EL PSY CONGROO!
“Doing what [desu], Dark Flame Master [desu]?”
Maybe my second favorite.
Does Kyoto like cheerleaders more than meido? I feel like this is the type of investigative journalism people did before newspapers and anime blogs gave way to Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
(The funny part is Mori Summer had a magic blog popular enough that Sanae reads it religiously and kept copies of it. If Sanae accepted Nibutani as Mori Summer, do you think Sanae would have tried to hump Nibutani’s leg like a puppycat? Or do you think Sanae would have backstabbed Rikka and started calling Nibutani “Master”? Or was Sanae disgusted enough by Nibutani that the only possible outcome is pure hatred, like the kind between Finn and the Ice King or between Coke and Pepsi?)
That one second pause between, “I see!” and “What a loser.” makes this scene. Poor Dark Flame Master– you just knew love was not in the cards for him, at least not in episode 4– unless your name is “Ararararagi.”
I… I… pure awesome.
She looks so grumpy and fussy. I love it when an anime character shows their hidden side, and then they can’t seem to unhide it. I feel like the four characters need to embrace their roles as Dark Flame Master, Tyrant Eye, Mjollnir Hammer, and Mori Summer and form a super group (“Little Busters”? “Watchmen”? “Mahou Shoujo Tai“?). Then could they could go on tour with Houkago Tea Time.
I’m guessing they shop a lot in the lights section at Ikea.
It’s 2012. Can we finally please stop it with the naughty magazine under the bed gags? It’s time to come up with new shit. At least evolve the gag where the haremette is finding links to dirty sites in the browser history.
Dat face.
Final thought: What if we are the delusional ones? What if we’re the muggles living in the Wizard World?
13 Responses to “chuunibyou demo koi ga shitai 3, 4”
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We all live in a fantasy world called life Jason.
I don’t know any more if we’ve to be glad or sad that KyoAni dropped Little Busters to JC STAFF for Chu2, maybe one of the smartest moves in anime history. Never took my time to check if LB was a pantheon-level Key game alongside Air, Clannad or Kanon, if it is I’m sorry for the fans but Chu2 is the outcome of seven magnificent years for KyoAni and all the experience they’ve taken since Air. Some still hate them for Endless Eight (just know one person who loves it), yet everything else is top-notch. So I’m with you Jason, can’t believe we will only get 12 episodes of this series.
With today’s episode the group is set, we knew something was off with Nibunati, with her the circle completes itself now. Two former Chu2 people who desperately try to bury their past and the other two who live it to the fullest. With all the colors clear now, what can we except? I don’t really care as long as the series doesn’t loss this feeling.
Well, now we’ve to wait for the Lite episode.
Jason, she’s not saying “Desu” she’s trying to say “Death”. She’s trying to replace her “Desu”s with “Death”s.
Erm, could anyone explain to me about the reference to “15,532”? I vaguely understand that it’s related to Haruhi series, but any detailed explanation, please? Thx.
Funny that Little Busters was brought up. Both it and Chuunibyou are about, at some level, not wanting to grow up. I think Kyoani would have done really well with it.
I also don’t think Endless Eight deserves all the flak it gets, but let’s save that for some other time.
Maybe Sanae is using the “Kobato-chan” clause of high school club membership.
I’m enjoying this show. It’s a wonderful balance of silliness, cringeworthiness and awesome action scenes. My one complaint is that I wish Shinka would keep something slightly closer to her normal voice when she goes off the rails. Also it seems Haruhi’s words of “If it doesn’t exist, I’ll make one myself” have been taken to heart by almost every subsequent generation of KyoAni heroines. They’ve rediscovered their love of winking girls too (I approve!)
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@Lone_Wanderer: It’s better that you don’t know. It’s better that you don’t know. It’s better that you don’t know. It’s better that you don’t know. It’s better that you don’t know. It’s better that you don’t know. It’s better that you don’t know. It’s better that you don’t know.
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PS: I can’t wait for Dark Flame Master’s “Banishment-o, zis-u waaldo!”
Mikuru Prime inside Mikuru’s body? I’m pretty sure I saw that doujinshi.
Can you really use a cat as a pillow? I would imagine one’s head to be pretty heavy for a cat and it would either be cracking ribs or claw your face to get you off.
I cannot take the whole chuunibyo as a delusion. I’ve spent time with delusional people; sometimes you just need a weekend away, to collect yourself, and you get to leave when they tell you it’s ok. People that have delusions have a few things in common: 1) lack of hygeine 2) cannot maintain their environment 3)you wouldn’t talk to them, much less let them in your house and talk to your imoutos.
I guess I can let it off the hook a bit, you wouldn’t have a KyoAni moe show if the heroin had horrible dandruff, roach killing halitosis, a Dark Side carboard box, and the capacity to talk to walls dandelion heads, and discarded cola bottles with the same vigor Donold Trump makes the news by being The Donald.
Nope, these are energetic young people that just refuse to grow up in the way everyone else says they have to. And they still want to love.
And I turned the comments into an After School Special.
Not the same without sound, but I could still watch it over and over again: http://i.imgur.com/mF6HK.gif
In general, this show just seems to be hitting all the right buttons for me, probably easily in my top for 2012. Your posts continue to highlight the reasons Chu2koi is still nailing it. I only wait now for an alternate world line where Rikka discovers the Steins;Gate.
This show cracks me up so much. Every joke, every thing the characters do, is, for me, laugh-out-loud great. It’s Nichijou quality for me. I’m just sad that it will be only 12 episodes.
Lone_Wanderer, it’s a reference to the second season, when they went through an endless summer that had repeated 15,532 times. It’s used as a joke because every episode that was a part of the second season was 90% the same animation. It was Kyoani’s greatest troll.
@skylion – I agree, Rikka isn’t delusional, she’s a talented and exuberant BS artist – on the same level as Nagi-sama. (“Hey, Rikka, what’s a ‘Stroganoff’?” “It’s an old Soviet weapon.”) But I do think there’s a reason she is acting so childishly, some hidden anger or trauma that’s making her react against her environment. I don’t get the feeling she lacks introspection about her behavior either — unlike Sanae who is, being two years younger, a cute, bratty 8th grader. Sanae acts silly because that’s what 8th graders do.
KyoAni has done a really nice, subtle job in conveying the age difference between Rikka and Sanae, despite the fact both are about the same size. Sanae seems to have a bit of baby fat and is a little incompletely formed, whereas Rikka always seems sharply in focus and fully defined.