“There’s no Ethereal Horizon. Her father’s dead and buried! I can’t do anything about that! No matter how much she wishes I could. No matter what fantasy she invents for herself. No matter how much power she believes she has. If something’s not real, it’s not real!“
Impression
Oh god…my usually cold, unfeeling heart has been hacked apart this episode. Brutally. Just like how Yuuta is in regards to Rikka’s chuunibyou condition – firm and merciless, even though inside it’s not what he wants to say at all. It’s true that Touka is gone, and Rikka has the expectations and feelings of her mother to take into account, who is worried sick about her. After last episode, in which Yuuta managed to get Rikka out of her chuunibyou delusions, it seems that he’s still taking a firm stance on his views, that there should be a clear line between reality and fiction, and what’s not real just isn’t real at all. While I can’t really blame him for saying it so blatantly, sometimes we can’t help but wish that reality can be changed, and to me, if it makes them happy in doing so, then so be it.
Rikka’s whole concept behind the Ethereal Horizon was with the objective of locating and coming to terms with the loss of her father – and if she visits his grave, (something she’s never managed to do before) that will probably be the end of it, as it counts as acceptance of her situation in reality and her inability to do anything about it. I must admit that while it is nice seeing normal Rikka, I do miss her chuunibyou self. It’s clear that losing her eyepatch has made her more socially accessible to the rest of the class, however there’s something off about her acting like this, something which both Shinka and Kumin-senpai managed to notice. Rikka herself doesn’t seem too happy, though the last thing Yuuta can ask her is if she’s okay with it – because obviously, it was Yuuta that pushed her to accept reality, and it’s only Yuuta that she would listen to. Inside, Rikka is horribly confused, just like the state of her room – she doesn’t even know what she’s supposed to put away and what she’s not – referring to how she should act or how she should conduct herself, because she’s spent so long with her chuunibyou delusions that it’s hard interacting with others now. To what extent should she change and lose the personality that she had in the past?
Of course we’ll all agree that the person hit hardest was undoubtedly Dekomori. I’m not too much of a Dekomori fan, and I’ve been on the neutral side at best with her ever since she was introduced, but this was way, way too harsh for a junior who looks up to Rikka and sees her as a role model. Dekomori’s desperate attempts to convert Rikka back to the side of the Wicked Eye and the Ethereal Horizon was made even more painful with Rikka ignoring her and trying to disband their club, and ironically it was Shinka who brought comfort as an ex-chuunibyou herself. Despite Dekomori acting like a total and utter idiot for the vast majority of the series, she’s actually pretty deep inside – she knows that Rikka wants Yuuta to tell her to stay and return to her old self again. Most importantly, she knows that everything is just a fantasy – there is no Ethereal Horizon, she can’t materialize any weapon no matter how much power she believes she has – if it’s not real, it’s not real. But…is it so wrong to wish that it was?
It definitely doesn’t feel like it, but the next episode is actually the last, and we’ll be wrapping up the show very soon. I keep finding it hard to believe that this is actually all not an adaptation, and that a lot of the characters don’t actually exist. Even so, I care about them; we’ve had Yuuta x Rikka, but Isshiki x Kumin would be nice too, as well as conclusions for Shinka and Dekomori. Most of all, I want the show to have a happy ending – it’s the least it deserves.