I do enjoy reading this thread, even if I don't get to post an awful lot.
I got a bit curious about this weird eyepatch girl that kept showing up in pictures, so a few Google searches later, I ended up with Chuunibyou.
It hooked me from the first episode with the rapid-fire comedy. Of course,
it went all Cerebus and turned into a drama and love story, but that's okay, because I had started to care about the characters by that point.
The GoodEpisode 1.
The train door sequence. "Me?". The nurse's office and eye reveal. Konami Code. "Hah. Hah. Hah. Now do you see my power?". "It's (not) cool".Episode 2.
"Magic chamber pressure rising". Chimera. The wall walk.Episode 3.
Brooms clash.Episode 4. This start of this episode was just end-to-end awesomeness as the show mercilessly one-two punched me out of my chair in stitches with no time to recover between gags.
The ritual has to be one of my favourite anime sequences ever. Also, when the ribbon falls short and Sanae picks it up.The episode one reveal that Rikka's reality was delusional worked well.I liked how they handled Rikka's gradually changing feelings and how they fit in with her delusions- it didn't feel forced, and it was really sweet.The mirrored scene with the guys and girls when each talks about their feelings to their corresponding sympathetic ear, the head-drop, and then the two completely different reactions based on their gender were very clever.Sanae and theme music.... and it broke my heart to see what happened to her in the later episodes.I think it got a little dusty in my room when the full revelation of what Yuuta meant to Rikka came out, when her timidly following Yuuta around for the whole series takes on a whole new meaning. Considering this hit me right when I was busy being cynical about the cliche parents-moved-away subplot, it was well done.Too many other things to count.
The AverageThe decoy Aesop near the end got me. I watched the last few episodes with mounting frustration as the supposed moral of the story was that Rikka needed to be more normal, but to me it basically had Rikka gradually stripped of her identity and charm to become a dull-as-hell submissive "normal" girl. I realise it was probably necessary for some of the drama, but that bit seemed to drag on a bit too long. Of course, the last episode turned that on its head, and said "screw that, imagination is great", so that's all okay I guess.The BadDid they really have to sexualise the characters in the short flashes near the end of the outro?
I really didn't want to see Kumin fluff *those* pillows. Is there a less creepy interpretation?
Ditto the butt-shuffle in the intro. It's hard to show friends an anime and say "I like this series, sure, it's about teenaged girls, but there's nothing creepy about it" when the youngest-looking character shakes her butt at the viewer. Mind you, the intro sequence is still catchy as hell.
... and a
look-up-the-skirt-of-a-young-girl gag in the first two minutes. Mind you, it's all uphill from there.
Rikka's family move house all of a sudden and she can't bring herself to tell Yuuta. I swear I could hear the photocopier running in the background as they recycled that subplot.
Although the sequence at the end that took it all apart made it worth it....
Overall, I quite enjoyed it. I've rewatched it at least a couple of times now, and a couple of dozen times for episodes one and four.
All opinions IMHO.