中二病でも恋がしたい！/ Chu-2 byo demo KOI ga shitai!
Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai! Episode 07

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

The members of the Oriental Magic Napping Club in Summer along with Makoto gather at the train station for a summer vacation trip to Rikka’s and Tōka’s grandparent’s place in a small, country town. Sanae struggles with motion sickness, so Nibutani is reluctantly forced to help her. She drags Makoto with her to stop him from ogling the sleeping Kurin in her sundress, but gets more than she bargained for when Sanae’s vomiting causes him to vomit as well.  Yuuta attempts to engage Rikka in conversation, but she is withdrawn and appears depressed. When they arrive at the train station, Rikka distances herself from the group, only reacting in a defensive manner when her sister, the “Priestess,” arrives to pick them up.

At Rikka’s and Tōka’s grandparent’s place, Nibutani takes front and center to perform the required polite greetings. Rikka’s grandfather is not happy that Rikka is still engaged in flights of fantasy. Rikka has retreated to her old room, so Tōka sends Yuuta after her. He finds her there, scanning on a shortwave radio, which she had found when she lived with her grandparents, and which she claims can allow her to communicate with the Unseen Horizon. As Rikka continues to speak, Yuuta begins to realize that something bad happened to her in the past, but doesn’t know what it was. Tōka knocks on the door, telling Rikka she hopes she comes this year and says that her friends want to go to the beach, thus she shouldn’t make them worry.

At the beach, Nibutani uses a squirt gun to stop Makoto from ogling Kurin while Rikka and Sanae bring in super soakers. Rikka takes advantage of Sanae and Nibutani battling to hand Yuuta a note and make a break for it. It tells him to meet her at a certain spot, which he does. She tells him they are going for the apparition point for the Unseen Horizon, but she then notices Tōka observing her.  Rikka flees, so Tōka takes Yuuta to a graveyard and their father’s grave. Tōka explains that since their father’s death three years ago, Rikka has not accepted it since she didn’t have the warning it was coming that the others had. To make matters worse, their mother abandoned them, leaving the sisters with their grandparents until Tōka came to the city for work purposes, giving Rikka a chance to move out as well.

That night, Tōka prepares a meal for everyone, impressing them with her chef skills. The sunburned Sanae is revolted by the tossed salad, which has cheese in it, but she eats it anyway after Tōka “tells” her to. Since Rikka didn’t come to dinner, Yuuta comes to get her, but she denies him entry to her room. However, when he uses his Dark Flame Master voice and promises to help her find the Unseen Horizon, she opens the door and the two get ready to leave. However, Tōka has trapped the roof outside Rikka’s window, so she is alerted when they attempt to escape and goes up. Rikka prepares for battle, but listens to Yuuta and they escape. Rikka gives Yuuta instructions to where she wants to go, a location 10KM away.

Back at the house, Kurin, Nibutani, and Sanae do the dishes and chat about Rikka and Yuuta. Nibutani makes a cryptic remark about relationships having obstacles and that it is only a manner of time. Meanwhile, as Yuuta and Rikka travel, she says that on the night her father died, she saw her father beyond the Horizon, thus she wants to get there to see him again. They arrive at their destination, which is her former home when her family was intact, but when she looks, the house is gone and the now vacant lot is for sale. Tōka was already waiting for them and emerges from her vehicle, telling Rikka she has to face the truth. Shedding a tear, Rikka brandishes her umbrella and faces her sister for battle as Tōka breaks out her ladle to do the same.

Thoughts/Review:

You know, Makoto should just become a member of the Oriental Magic Napping Club in Summer and be done with it. After all, he’s crushing pretty heavily on Kurin, so what better way of having an excuse to hang out with a cute sempai, eh? ^_^

Now that I have that out of the way, I see the series has now hit the melodramatic tropes. I had wondered what had happened with Rikka’s parents and I should have guessed that there would have been at least one death. However, I actually think it is worse that Rikka’s father died and that her mother abandoned her and Tōka.  So yeah, the episode went for the heartstrings, and with me, they succeeded in making me feel badly for Rikka.

That said, I now understand why Rikka has escaped into this fantasy land and continues to live there. She was shocked by the death of her Papa and when no one believed her story that she had seen him after he died, she obviously felt she had no other choice but to make up a whole fantasy situation to explain things.  It also gave her a purpose — to reach the Unseen Horizon and be reunited with her father.

Along those lines, when Yuuta offered to help her on her quest, her brief use of the term “oneechan” to refer to Tōka actually took me aback for a moment. It is ironic that in front of the “Dark Flame Master,” Rikka is able to be in reality, even if for only a moment.

Nibutani appears keenly aware of the growing closeness between Yuuta and Rikka, even if the two of them haven’t realized their feelings yet. I almost feel badly for Sanae, should Rikka ultimately accept reality and drop this chuunibyou activity.

Still, the way the episode ended, combined with Tōka’s unusually gifted athleticism and her constantly carrying around that ladle to battle Rikka with, I can’t help but want Rikka to suddenly have a supernatural ability and reveal that Tōka also has such abilities.  In having such thoughts, am I experiencing a form of chuunibyou? After all, assuming the series stays ground in reality, as I believe it will, Rikka will have a fantasy battle with her sister in her mind and will either confront reality or deny it, or possibly, she’ll believe she sees her father. So why do I sorta long for something supernatural?

On the humor front, the rivalry between Nibutani and Sanae continues to amuse. Sanae comes up on the short end of the stick for most of this episode, but she does get her licks in, so its all good. Plus, Nibutani did help Sanae when Sanae was suffering from motion sickness.

This really has been a surprising series so far. I really can’t wait for more.