中二病でも恋がしたい！/ Chu-2 byo demo KOI ga shitai! LITE

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Episode 1: Rikka finds herself at a disadvantage when playing volleyball for PE due to her eye patch, so she has Yuuta help train her to overcome this weakness. Unfortunately, the PE class switches to basketball.

Episode 2: Rikka is in middle school, where she first exhibited her chuunibyou behavior, starting with the sealing of an evil denizen in her arm. However, with each passing day, the number of bandages and such that she wears increases until it looks like she was hit by a truck. After being talked to by a teacher, she limited things to just her one arm and an eye patch.

Episode 3: Yuuta is in middle school, confusing his mother and sister with his Dark Flame Master routine, when one evening, his mother wants him to escort his younger sister Kuzuha to get stationary. On the way there, Kuzuha meets one of her friends, who thinks that Yuuta is cool. Kuzuha wonders about this until Yuuta hides his gear when a cop passes by.

Episode 4: Yuuta’s youngest sister gets Rikka to take her shopping in order to learn to cook and be a good wife. Rikka decides to make nikujaga with unusual ingredients since she sees many items as magical potions and the like.

Episode 5: TSUYURI Kurin describes a routine morning for her nap club (Oriental Magic Napping Club in Summer), introducing all of the club members and giving her thoughts about them all.

Episode 6: Sanae ambushes Nibutani outside of a classroom. Since Nibutani is with another, female classmate, she keeps her goodie persona up, even as Sanae pelts her with bands. However, as soon as the classmate is gone, it is war, though Sanae is armed with water balloons, nailing Nibutani. Nibutani manages to catch the next one and throw it back, only to have it bounce off Sanae’s head and hit Nibutani. The chase is on and Sanae thinks she’s escaped, but Nibutani has a giant water balloon to drop down on Sanae from the 2nd floor. Sanae catches it, but Nibutani uses a blow dart to make sure she gets soaked. When the two start sneezing, they head to a public bath, where a new battle begins.

Thoughts/Review:

I find it somewhat amusing that the OP/ED for these shorts take up more time than the actual content. The ED of this promo series reminded me of Binchou-tan‘s ED theme.

As to the episodes themselves, episode 6 was the funniest to me. That’s because Nibutani’s and Sanae’s rivalry is just hilarious to me. Sanae knows how to push Nibutani’s buttons, and Nibutani cannot resit. Both got in their licks here, which helped with the humor.

I liked seeing how Rikka started her whole chuunibyou routine.  It was funny seeing how overboard she went with the whole bandage thing.

I found it interesting that Yuuta’s youngest sister addresses Rikka so informally. I thought for sure she’d address Rikka with an “oneechan” moniker, or even “Rikka-neechan.”

Of course, Yuuta’s youngest sister is used to oddness, considering how Yuuta used to be the Dark Flame Master, as seen in the 3rd episode. It was amusing that Yuuta’s other sister briefly wondered if Yuuta was cool or not when her friend went gaga over him, but how quickly that passed, eh? I guess that even during this whole chuunibyou phase, Yuuta was not completely deluding himself, as seen when he became normal when the cop passed by.

Kurin’s observations about Yuuta in episode 5 were interesting, especially since she felt that deep down, Yuuta did want to participate in Rikka’s and Sanae’s chuunibyou fantasy.

Finally, the story of Yuuta training Rikka to play volleyball, only to find out that they were switching to basketball was amusing and nice. Depth perception is key to playing sports.

I liked these little shorts, and find them to be icing on the cake for the main series.