The pain of growing up – and how we hold onto childish things.
What They Say:
Yuta Togashi spent years living in a complete fantasy world, a real condition called chunibyo that affects thousands of Japanese students. However, with a lot of work and effort, he’s managed to regain his perspective to the point where he’s ready to go to high school as a normal kid. Unfortunately, the girl who lives above Yuta is deep into her own case of chuni, and in HER fantasy world, Yuta is her soul mate! How do you handle a relationship with a girl whose feelings may be based entirely on delusions? And what happens when Yuta’s FORMER “one true soul mate” returns with her own skewed version of reality? Modern relationships can often get a little weird, but Yuta’s life is about to get seriously wild and crazy in the ultimate collection of Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!
Contains:
Season 1 episodes 1-26 of Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!
Season 2 episodes 1-26 of Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! -Heart Throb-
Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions Rikka Version
Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions: Take on Me
The Review:
Audio:
The audio presentation for this release brings us the original Japanese language as well as the English language adaptation, both of which are encoded using the DTS-HD MA lossless codec. The show is essentially a high school series with a couple of fantastical elements thrown in for good measure that lets it go big a few times. But for the most part it’s all about the dialogue based aspects of it, which is handled well across the forward soundstage. With a decent little ensemble cast to work with, the series moves effortlessly between parties to provide a solid narrative that has some good placement and depth in numerous scenes to give it a little extra impact. When it does the bigger scenes, it definitely hits things better there, but since it’s all supposed to really stand out as it’s not exactly real, it achieves its goal well. Dialogue is clean and clear throughout and we didn’t have problems with dropouts or distortions during regular playback.
Video:
Originally beginning airing in 2012, the transfer for this TV series is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 in 1080p using the AVC codec. This expanded project is spread across six discs total with the two TV seasons working the first four discs while the two remaining projects get their own discs. With animation from Kyoto Animation, the series has a very strong visual design with some really beautifully animated sequences, great detail throughout and the kind of color layering to it that just elevates it to a whole other level that allows it to stand out. The transfer for this brings all of it to life with great pop and vibrancy, making it pretty much a joy to watch with smooth, clean colors with no breakup issues throughout it. The detail in the backgrounds and character designs is really nicely done as well and with the show pretty much free of problems, it makes for a great viewing experience.
Packaging:
The packaging for this release is a tight but weighty little packaging as we get a slightly thicker than standard sized Blu-ray case with hinges to hold most of the discs. The front cover is a good one as we get Rikka standing front and center while all of the things that make up her life and mission are laid out around her. It’s got a really neat feeling to it and I love the detail and even the light pink hue through which most of it is done. The logo is kept along the lower side, covering Rikka’s legs, and it sticks to the standard design nicely. The top has an added little block of black where they meld in the ultimate collection labeling in pink and white so that it’s not distracting or conflicting with the original logo. The back cover feels just like prior standard releases did with some white space with widget that shifts from blue to pink and a good key visual of the main cast of women in the show. The summary is simple but tight because it’s going with a small font while the extras breakout is nicely handled. The bottom portion is a little more problematic as a lot of the text is blue on black, making it near impossible to read, but the technical grid is done with white on black within pink grid-work, so it’s a lot easier to read and it breaks out the show accurately in how it’s put together. No show related inserts are included nor is there a reversible cover.
Extras:
The extras for this release replicate what we had with the prior releases kept to where they belong, which includes the various shorts for the seasons, episode previews, promos for each of the seasons and other projects, and the clean opening and closing sequences as appropriate. Everything is kept to where it needs to be and it’s welcome to have all of these baseline pieces included here to make it as complete as possible of a release.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Based on the light novel series written by Torako and illustrated by Nozomi Ōsaka, Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions ended up being a two-season project with two feature films and lots of little shorts. The original novel series was part of a competition back in 2010 that got an honorable mention before getting fully published and then worked into an anime series as well by Kyoto Animation. It ended up getting four volumes produced before wrapping up in 2017. The show is one that definitely fits into what you think of, for better or worse, when you think of a Kyoto Animation series in terms of story but also design and visuals. Which for me, is a good thing. Though they’ve had a few swings and misses, the misses still have an appeal just through their visual design. Luckily, Chunibyo is largely a hit for me with what it does, though not quite a home run.
The series is one that plays to familiar concepts and it’s very easy to just write it off as another high school light comedy/romance piece with freshmen characters that are trying to adjust to this part of their lives. We get the lead male in Yuta, a young man who has transferred from a school a good distance away in order to restart his life. We’ve got the class rep Nibutani that did the commencement for the freshmen class as well that is your proper young beauty with smarts, but without the wealthy superior aspect to her that’s a nice change of pace. Yuta makes a friend quickly with the kid at the desk behind his with Isshiki, who provides a chance for Yuta to be a part of the male social group that’s starting. We also get two anime original characters with a second-year named Kumin who simply loves napping all the time and a middle school student named Sanae who gets pretty involved with everyone.
And we have Rikka, our other main freshman character who is one of the main catalysts for events here. Rikka is what they call a chunibyo, a teenager who hasn’t let go of their childhood in a way and envisions things in some grander way. Rikka envisions herself as vessel through which Wicked Lord Shingan operates, which is why she wears an eye-patch that protects her gold-colored eye. Rikka possesses these powers as she deals with her seemingly mortal enemy (that’s actually her sister) and has an immense amount of skill in combating her opponents in the world. Of course, all of this is actually in her head, though we see it from time to time in some really beautifully animated sequences. Rikka’s been like this throughout middle school and some time before that where she’s essentially envisioning this bigger and more important life for herself, which others in class kind of just acknowledge a little bit but don’t make a lot of fun of her.
For Yuta, he understands her because he was the same way, which is why he left his school after being the Dark Flame Master there for several years and really playing up that dark hero role. His intent in coming to this school where nobody knows him is his attempt at starting his life over in a better way, having a proper high school experience and putting those childish things away. Unfortunately, he has a hell of a time doing this since Rikka is living in the apartment above him and his family, and she sees him only as Dark Flame Master, a kindred spirit in this world. Yuta fights back against this for awhile, for most of the series, though he gives in from time to time. But his struggle is to let go of it because he wants to be normal is what drives him a lot of the time, even as he ends up a part of a club that Rikka forms that brings this unusual group together to become friends.
At the heart of this story, it’s about the way that Rikka and Yuta have to try and deal with this part of their lives. Yuta wants to let it go, though he still has a certain attraction to those parts of his past. But the real focus is on the way he interacts with Rikka as her reasons for being like this goes back to her elementary school days with the seemingly sudden death of her father, a moment that has left her with this particular kind of coping mechanism as she believes she can figure out how to deal with the invisible boundary she sees and to bring him back to this world. It’s all heartbreaking as we delve into the details of it, with Rikka’s sister explaining how it unfolded and what they did to try and help her, but also realizing that to really try and push Rikka to let go of it and accept the reality of the situation may end up breaking her all the more. Which is why, over time, they pin their hopes on Yuta to be the one to ease her out of it and into a more normal life.
The series leaves me of two minds about this aspect of it. Initially, we just get that she’s like Yuta in that they have some really vivid imaginations and escaped for some reason into these personas, either to exist and cope or just because it was more exciting than the lives they were leading. In that regard, it certainly makes sense and many people do it, and move past it as they get further into their teens as they grow and change themselves and deal with the world at hand. On the flip side, there’s real differences in what’s going on here with Rikka and Yuta. While there may be issues for him connected to his father, who works in Jakarta, Rikka herself is the product of some really serious problems that requires some real help. She gets help from the friends that begin to coalesce around her and Yuta, and the two of them begin to develop a relationship, but there’s something very serious about what Rikka is going through that is dealt with in different ways here. That it does try to deal with it is welcome, though it gets only so far, and you do find yourself conflicted about how much of these childish things one should give up as they get older.
What helps along the way is that the supporting cast really helps to flesh the show out and you can get invested in their stories. Nibutani ends up becoming a part of the group and club because she’s initially trying to deal with a book that Sanae has as it turns out that Nibutani lead some pretty interesting creative stories online that Sanae is living by, not realizing that Nibutani wrote them. Yuta is just shocked at her being in the group at first, since he quite fancies her, but when he learns of this other side of her and that she’s basically doing the same thing as him in restarting her life, the relationship between the two begins to ease into a friendship. Partially because you have to think that his interest in Rikka grows because she’s more honest about her fantastical side and imagination.
Nibutani and Sanae also end up developing a pretty fun adversarial friendship that makes for some good physical comedy and interactions, though Sanae’s slightly younger age at times becomes frustrating because they do play it mostly right and you realize that at this stage small differences in age can make a big difference. I also rather liked that Isshiki got more time to be developed as time went on, with him going through a couple of changes that alters the course of his school career a bit. While he’s hopeful of actually dating, he’s frustrated that it seems like Yuta starts dating first and his mysterious love letter admirer doesn’t follow through. But he ends up realizing his interest in Kumin along the way, who seems like she might share that interest, and we see some initial moments that could lead to something. But it’s unrealized at this point, which works because seeing the thought and hope for potential from Isshiki can remind you of your own early high school life and the way everything seemed like it could become something amazing.
