中二病でも恋がしたい！戀/ Chu-2 byo demo KOI ga shitai! Ren
Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai! Ren 02 anime review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Nibutani, Kumin, and Sanae are sitting at the kotatsu in their clubroom as Nibutani expresses her extreme curiosity over Rikka’s and Yuuta’s relationship, especially since they are now living together. Kumin is curious too, and though Sanae claims to not be interested, she is. The three grab binoculars and head to the apartment complex, where they start spying on the couple. Inside, Yuuta and Kuzuha are doing the chores, which Rikka has been ditching. Yuuta discovers Rikka has a new pair of night vision goggles, which Yuuta thinks is cool, even doing some Ghostbusters play. Then he wonders how Rikka paid for this and discovers that Rikka blew almost all of her savings to buy these goggles, meaning she has to survive the month on almost nothing.

Not seeing anything different in Rikka’s and Yuuta’s behavior, Nibutani, Kumin, and Sanae trail the couple to the supermarket. Their behavior is pretty much normal, and on the way home, Rikka is enjoying the blue crystal she bought and gets permission to “investigate” things. She calls Sanae, who takes off. Nibutani and Kumin agree that Rikka and Yuuta aren’t acting like a couple despite going out for six months. As such, the next day at school, Nibutani, with Kumin there, tells Yuuta what they did the day before. She things they have relationship fatigue since they aren’t all lovey-dovey, but when she learns the truth that Yuuta and Rikka haven’t even properly held hands, she decides enough is enough and drags him off  for some expert help.

In the empty classroom, Nibutani introduces Yuuta to KANNAGI Kazari, the so-called relationship expert. She has a little fun with Yuuta by joking that she’s yuri and in love with Rikka.  Kazari gets Yuuta to give her his phone, whereupon she mails Rikka with an invitation for a date on Sunday, saying girls want guys to take the lead. Nibutani says that it may be harder for Rikka to express herself because of her chuunibyou tendencies. Yuuta gets a message back from Rikka saying she agrees, so Sunday, the two go on a date, Rikka wearing a cute dress. She uses her skate-shoes to tail behind Yuuta on his bicycle as he takes them to the aquarium. There, he makes the move to hold her hand, and she agrees.

At the dolphin show, Rikka gets picked to give the dolphin signals to do tricks, which pleases her to no end since it is as if she has supernatural powers of command. Late in the afternoon, Rikka sits at a bench near the river as Yuuta buys them drinks. They both agree they had fun and Yuuta is happy they held hands. Rikka opens up, expressing her confusion on how she’s supposed to behave now that they are a couple even though she’s very happy to be with Yuuta.  Indeed, though she doesn’t feel different being Yuuta’s girlfriend, going to the same home as him makes her very happy. That night, Yuuta calls Nibutani to report on the date and say they are doing things their own way. She warns him that this could lead to trouble. Meanwhile, as Rikka takes trash out to the balcony, a girl descends from Rikka’s old apartment as Rikka used to, whereupon she asks Rikka if Rikka wants to see her magic.

Thoughts/Review:

Ah, Rikka-chan. The best line of this episode came from you. “I’m so happy, I wonder if I’ve raised a death flag.” *lol* The Japanese and their dating sims. ^_~

I’ve got a weakness for sweet, wholesome, vanilla romance stories, and Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai! Ren has that element in droves with the romance between Yuuta and Rikka. I’m far too old to engage in their childish, chuunibyou fantasies, but I do appreciate that they have decided that they will be their own kind of couple, eschewing the normal conventions of what couples should do.

Nibutani’s warning certainly seems to be a flag being set, more so since mystery, new chuunibyou girl has arrived on the scene. I don’t know if she’s tied to the letter Rikka saw in the first episode, of if she’s the girl from the light novels, but I do figure she’s going to be the element that Nibutani warned about so that Yuuta is in a love triangle. We’ll see.

Speaking of Nibutani, the writers decided not to bother with explaining her decision to return to her former hair color and style (which looks far superior than the long, black hairstyle). It wouldn’t have taken that long. Makoto’s cameo with a shaved head was mentioned in the first episode as he was being forced to get a hair cut to remove his blonde, spiked hair.

I liked that Nibutani took the lead to try to push Rikka and Yuuta forward. I got the sense that she’s trying to live vicariously through them, which is why she not only pushed hard, but also brought in new character Kazari. She has no relationship experience, save for what she’s read, so she brings in the “expert” in their class.

Speaking of Kazari, boy was she a hoot. I wonder if we’ll see more of her since she’s somewhat of a mischief maker in how she teased Yuuta.  She could be a fun element to come in from time to time to stir the pot a bit.

On the chuunibyou front, I was glad to see we didn’t have a chuunibyou battle. When Touka was around, it made sense to have these since Rikka had long “battled” her sister in this way. Without Touka, there’s no reason for it, though I suspect that the new girl may be the excuse to bring back the chuunibyou fantasy fights.  So having Yuuta pretend to be a Ghostbuster or having Rikka shift to her “Tyrant Eye” character, or even Yuuta shifting to his “Dark Flame Master” character for a bit doesn’t bother me.

Anyway, this vanilla love series put another big smile on my face with this episode while making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I like it. ^_^