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 06 anime review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

The night before the class trip, Rikka is enjoying her night vision goggles rather than packing. The next day after saying goodbye to Kumin and Sanae, Rikka and Yuuta get on the bus, though they don’t sit together. On the bullet train, they do sit together, where guys in their grade taking a picture of them seriously embarrasses Rikka. At their first destination (a European themed place – Huis Ten Bosch?), some girls with Nibutani want a picture of Rikka and Yuuta together, causing Rikka to panic. When a male classmate needs something from Yuuta, he takes advantage of the moment to get away. Back at school, Sanae is bored and nearly falls out of the clubroom window, so Kumin comes up with an idea for them to do.

On the class’s second stop (Yoshinogari Historical Park), Rikka is with Nibutani and the girls, but when one of them tries to summon Yuuta up, Rikka panics. Inside one of the buildings, Nibutani tries to talk to Rikka, who panics, then flees, chased by Nibutani as Yuuta watches. That evening, Kumin and Sanae have dinner with Kuzuha at her apartment. Meanwhile, the school group arrives in Kagoshima to spend the night, whereupon Makoto gets busted for trying to peep at the girls bathing in the large bath. The girls in Nibutani’s group want to know her dating status, stating that they had though she was in a love triangle with Yuuta and Rikka. Kazuri steps in, saying Nibutani is someone who looks like they’ve dated a lot, but in innocent.

The girls return to their room, thwarting the guys in Yuuta’s group’s peeping plans. The girls show a Mori Summers website to Nibutani and speak of the rumors about her being Mori Summers, which she denies. The boys start telling ghost stories as Rikka ends up outside their room, freaking them out due to her night vision goggles. Yuuta plays along and shields her from them, but when a teacher comes to check on them, she has to crash in his futon. Nibutani gets the teacher away, allowing Yuuta to sneak Rikka back. She tells him that the barrier that had been between them is now gone and agrees to spend the following day with him. Before going back to her room, she gives Yuuta a kiss on the cheek. The next day, as planned, the couple spend together.

Thoughts/Review:

I don’t care if this is a popular opinion or not, but I like this clean, vanilla romance anime. ^_^

The school trip is a classic element of high school based anime (and manga) series. I know they went to Kyushu, which is where the Yoshinogari Historical Park is as well as Kagoshima.  If they did go to Huis Ten Bosch, that’s also on the island of Kyushu, but I could not find the specific place the group visited in that theme park. If you guys know for sure where that place is, let me know.

I laughed as Sanae’s boredom now that her “oneechan” (Nibutani) is gone and Rikka isn’t there for chuunibyou fun. I thought it was nice that Sanae and Kumin visited Yuuta’s little sister (Kuzuha) for dinner. ^_^

Nibutani slipping into Mori Summer mode at Yoshinogari made me chuckle. The other girls in the class are putting two and two together. By the end of this series, Nibutani may end up ceasing to deny her link to Mori Summer. ^_^

As to this Mori Summer website, I have a wild theory. Blog commenter TreeBark pointed out a mysterious girl in the background of a couple of shots (here and here). I keep forgetting to look for her more, but assuming she’s in other background shots, she might be the one running the Mori Summer website since there’s no way Sanae would attempt to pretend to be Mori Summer. We’ll see though.  That might be what gets Nibutani to truly embrace her Mori Summer persona.

Now for the romance stuff.  Does Nibutani have any feelings for Yuuta after getting to know him and how he treats Rikka?  It seems like the stage may be being set for Nibutani to start seeing Yuuta in a new light.

Things have been a real struggle for Rikka (and Yuuta to a lesser extent) in terms of being in a romantic relationship. She has no problem hanging out with Yuuta, but when others mention her dating Yuuta, she freaks.

It was a big step for her to come back and kiss Yuuta on the cheek when being observed by one of the girls in her group as well as Nibutani (assuming she knew Nibutani was there).

The moment with Rikka hiding in Yuuta’s futon was also pretty cute and sweet. I’m glad that their romance is so vanilla and pure. ^_^

Someone pointed out that June 12th is Rikka’s birthday, so hopefully, Yuuta has something special planned for Rikka. Regardless, I’m looking forward to it. ^_^