中二病でも恋がしたい！/ Chu-2 byo demo KOI ga shitai!
Episode 10

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

That night as school festival preparations continue, Yuuta and Makoto chat about Yuuta’s feelings for Rikka while in the darkened club room, Rikka tells Sanae that she loves Yuuta. Makoto encourages Yuuta to confess, stating that he too will make a move (on Kumin). Sanae is not initially pleased with what she hears from Rikka, but eventually accepts it. Makoto asks Kumin out for the festival bonfire and she accepts. Nibutani is waiting for Rikka and Yuuta to arrive so they can rehearse the club’s planned event, but learns from Sanae that Rikka and Yuuta have already gone home together.

Rikka and Yuuta sit awkwardly at a train station and try to talk, but the rain falls and the two head to McDonald’s. The two tell each other they have important things to say to each other, but Yuuta doesn’t want to have this conversation in a crowded fast food joint. They walk in the rain half-under Rikka’s umbrella when she loses it as they walk across a bridge over a river. They race down under the bridge to retrieve the umbrella, where Rikka sees the lights of the city on the river and finds the courage to confess to Yuuta. Yuuta had wanted to go first, but for her, he adopts his Dark Flame Master persona and accepts, the two then connecting via their pinkies.

Yuuta comes home to find Tōka there playing with his youngest sister. She has something to talk about with Yuuta, so they head to a family restaurant since Tōka doesn’t want Rikka to hear. Tōka has an opportunity to head to Italy to continue her career as a chef. Since Rikka can’t live in the apartment alone, it has been decided that Tōka’s and Rikka’s mother will move in. Tōka is concerned about how Rikka will take this, so she humbly requests Yuuta talk to Rikka about it, stating that if Yuuta asks Rikka to face reality, she will. Yuuta thinks Rikka is simply holding onto something she doesn’t want to let go of. Tōka finds this foolish since Rikka will never see their father again.

The next day at the school festival, Nibutani is disgusted by the cheerleader’s booth when her old friends Satou and Suzuki show up, addressing her as Mori Summer and forcing her to turn the tables on them.  Yuuta and Rikka are dressed up for their performance, but Yuuta decides not to talk about what he wanted to discuss and Rikka touches pinkies with him before leaving. When Yuuta leaves the club room, he encounters Rikka’s mother, who has a bento made. That causes Yuuta to ponder under a tree as he holds the bento until the girls come to get him. He then decides to address the issue with Rikka. As a result, Sanae and Nibutani have to do the performance. That night at the bonfire, Rikka gets on stage and sings her father’s favorite song to Nibutani’s and Yuuta’s amazement. When she finishes, she removes her eye patch, revealing a normal eye.

Thoughts/Review:

Man, this anime series has been rather surprising to me in how it is has been going. I didn’t expect several fun episodes with no real direction, followed by a rapid but emotional advancement in plot.

The cute and awkward romance between Rikka and Yuuta is rather fun and pure vanilla goodness. Their both deciding to confess their feelings happened at nearly the same time, which was surprising in and of itself to me, was a nice moment. They may not be kissing, but turning pinkies touching or otherwise physically connecting via their pinkies into a romantic device was also surprising, and I loved it.

I wasn’t surprised by Tōka’s sudden transfer to Italy.  After all, once Rikka and Yuuta were a couple, it is a common writing technique to put our young couple into a situation where they are split up and that’s what I expected. However, the writers fooled me by bringing back Rikka’s and Tōka’s mother, whom is going to move into Tōka’s apartment.  I had a rather negative view of her after she abandoned Tōka and Rikka upon her husband’s death, but here she is back and apparently ready to be a mother again. I’m not sure what to think about that aspect.

Still, Tōka provided the means for Yuuta to speak with this girl he cares for a great deal to try to help her deal with the things she’s hiding from, or rather trying to desperately hold onto.  With Yuuta having confronted Rikka and then Rikka taking the very courageous step of getting on stage and singing, followed by revealing that she was no longer wearing the colored eye contact would appear to suggest that she’s starting to accept things. Then again, this may be one final, desperate chuunibyou moment. I guess I’ll find out soon enough.

I found it interesting that Sanae, who’s younger and even more into the whole chuunibyou thing, seemed more up on romance and love than Rikka has been to date. Up until now, Rikka was basically denying her actual feelings and instead was attributing them to her chuunibyou fantasy. However, when she had her chat with Sanae, Rikka finally accepted some reality, a concept that Sanae clearly understood even as she continued in the character she’d made for herself.

Sanae, who’s always been chiefly used for comic relief, continues that role in this episode, only this time, her wrath was not for her rival Nibutani, but for Yuuta, who’s captured Rikka’s heart (though Nibutani did take a comedic beating over that). I laughed out loud when Sanae installed mace heads at the end of her twin tails rather than the normal weighted ends.  I laughed again when she put even heavier “hammers” on her hair to try to attack Yuuta. We didn’t get to see her staged fight with Nibutani for the school festival, but maybe that will come out on the BD/DVD release (long shot, but one never knows).

Speaking of Nibutani, I got a laugh out of her former friends showing up, whom apparently also did the chuunibyou thing. Plus, there was Nibutani’s desire to best her former cheerleader comrades.  I swear, I would have enjoyed seeing how the cheerleaders reacted to Nibutani’s and Sanae’s performance.

Finally, poor Makoto got a win and a loss in his quest for the clueless Kumin. On the win side, she agreed to go with him to the bonfire. On the loss side, she took a nap there, thus he had no one to be with. *lol*  Makoto did get the biggest laugh of the episode, when he attempted to do to Yuuta what Sanae did to Rikka — put his head on Yuuta’s shoulder. Hey, that’s the difference between men and women, y’all. Guys don’t like any other guys invading their personal space while girls don’t have a problem with their female friends being inside their personal space. ^_~

So, one of the more surprising anime series I’ve seen in a while continues to surprise.  Can’t wait for more. ^_^