Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Ren Episode 1 [First Impression]

Impression

It’s happening – welcome back to Chu2koi! I must admit, the events of the previous season (and this series in general) were rather foggy in my mind when this sequel was announced, even though it’s only been about a year since that aired. I’d even forgotten how cute Rikka was! What I did remember, though, was that this is a damn good show – and in light of this premiere, I stand strongly by my opinion. Chu2koi is rather odd in the sense that KyoAni took a light novel premise and decided to extrapolate it into a series primarily filled with anime-original content – while usually it’s not a great idea to deviate wildly from the source material, I felt they did a great job with it! And if the result was an anime more solid than the three KyoAni shows succeeding it (Tamako Market, Free!, Kyoukai no Kanata) then who am I to complain?

Right, let’s talk about the episode! Firstly, WHAT DID THEY DO TO MORI SUMMER?! HOW COULD THEY ;_; WHY IS SHE BLUE?!

rocks back and forth in fetal position

Her wonderful hair… sobs I was definitely not prepared for that at all. I’d heard some rumours about a change made to Nibutani, but I suppose it was partially my own fault for not watching any of the PVs before the season started – I ended up taking the full shock first-hand. It’ll certainly take some time to get used to – my only salvation is that her hair’s still orange-brown within the chuuni fantasy world, which gives me hope she’ll eventually change it back. Don’t discard your former self, Mori Summer! I mean, she’s still great as a polite dark-haired beauty, but it’s not the same, you know? Thank goodness Dekomori’s “other” appearance wasn’t permanent. I almost thought she’d decided to reinvent herself and start fresh in high school… then I remembered this was Dekomori we’re talking about 😀

It’s full steam ahead for the Yuuta x Rikka ship – although a shared domestic lifestyle wasn’t exactly how I imagined them going forward with their romance. I suppose it’s inevitable that things would be convoluted – with a chuuni girlfriend as a starting point, how exactly does one go about engaging with a relationship? Of course, Rikka wouldn’t be the same without her chuuni side (as we clearly saw last season) but it’s awfully difficult to set the mood while acting as the Dark Flame Master. At the moment, their domestic lifestyle is exactly what it says on the tin – it feels more like Yuuta’s taking care of Rikka as an older brother instead of a boyfriend, and Rikka herself noted his resemblance to Touka. There are definitely upsides to living together though – he gets to wake her up everyday, cook for her and just generally bask in her cuteness (auu~!) on a daily basis! Granted, he pretty much does that regularly anyway.

I’m sure we were all waiting for the obligatory chuuni fight scene, which was just as awesome as ever (if unfortunately short). I love how literally everyone decided to pitch in and avenge the casualty they suffered in Kumin-senpai – Rikka and Dekomori are veteran participants, but seeing Yuuta join in (and get oven-baked along with Rikka) was definitely a laugh. And although she tried so hard to avoid the crowd she wanted to avoid, even Mori Summer joined in!

There’s nothing on Satone yet (the advertised childhood friend) but a picture fell out of Yuuta’s old notebook, and I’ll bet one of Dekomori’s twintail ball things that a picture of Satone is in there. It’s also likely that she’s the new occupant of Rikka’s old apartment, and an ardent chuunibyou sufferer – which means that she could pose a very real threat to Yuuta and Rikka’s current relationship. Although she might even be into yuri instead (if the promo adverts are to be taken literally). I’m fine with that too!

Possibility of Watching: Guaranteed
Possibility of Blogging: Guaranteed

Sidekick’s First Impression

Chuunibyou has always been my definition of light-hearted fun – the first season was hilarious and while I wasn’t a huge fan of the shift into drama they pulled it off pretty well. Season 1 also had a very well-done conclusion so seeing the announcement for season 2 got me kind of on the fence for it. If it ended well, best to leave it alone, but now that it’s out, how did it fare?

This was a solid episode to re-introduce the whole cast and the new setup (by that I mean Rikka and Yuuta living together!), and I thoroughly enjoyed how they spiced up some of the characters to keep things interesting – Nibutani and her next futile attempt to discard her Mori Summer self (which reminds me, Isshiki and Nibutani both didn’t get good responses for their makeovers) while the Kyoani team seem to actually want to try and make Kumin-senpai and actual proper member of the cast now, instead of a sleeping lump. She was a cute lump though.

The production team seem a lot more confident this time, there are slightly lesser jokes this time round (comedic timing still great, and lots of little throwaway jokes), but they added lots of visual flair to keep me happy. The battle scenes were well-done (not well choreographed as I hoped, but whatever) and the backgrounds were pretty, there’s really nothing much to complain about here. I also enjoyed the short black and white segments where Yuuta explains what happens on screen, and the cute’ detective effect’ thing they had going on while Yuuta and Rikka watch Rikka get evicted. It’s small details like this that keep me happy.

The new OP and ED weren’t as good as I hoped though, I prefer the ones from the first season, but I enjoyed the animation sequence tremendously (and looking at the OP I hope this means Nibutani will get her hair back), and the music for the rest of the episode was alright too, although it’s still nothing memorable.

What worries me the most is the introduction of Yuuta’s chuuni childhood friend, but she hasn’t made her appearance yet (next episode I suspect, I also believe she’s probably going to stay in Rikka’s former place). There’s hope that she wouldn’t ruin my adorable couple Yuuta/Rikka. That would be unforgivable NO MATTER HOW MOE.

Well, that’s that! A very solid episode overall that’s lots of fun just like Season 1. Season 1 ended well, but if we can still have fun on Season 2 like I did watching this episode then more is good.

Possibility of Watching: High (3-episode rule won’t apply unless the new girl is horrible)

Possibility of Blogging: Nope!