Love, Chunibyu & Other Delusions is an anime currently airing on Netflix. It revolves around a cast of characters, but centers mostly on the awkward romantic scenarios the main leads find themselves in. The anime is based on a light novel of the same name.

I believe there are two ways to resonate with this anime. The first is by connecting with the male lead, Yuuta Togashi. Togashi falls under the subcategory of a Chunibyo. I’ll leave it up to Wikipedia to define this one. “Chūnibyō (中二病) is a colloquial Japanese term typically used to describe early teens who had grandiose delusions, who desperately wants to stand out they convinced themselves with hidden knowledge or secret powers” (Straight from our overlord Wikipedia.) Read the article here.

He was the amazing Dark Flame Master in middle school. Of course, this was a persona conjured up in his head. During his younger years, this altered identity served as a way to stand out. It was a form of self expression. By all accounts, middle school was my least favorite stent in school (of elementary, middle, and high school in the States). I certainly could relate to feeling isolated in middle school. It is just an awkward phase for most of us. As Yuuta ages and matures, he begins high school. He throws away all his drawings, clothes, and equipment of his alter ego, the Dark Flame Master. He starts high school with a new outlook on life. He is tired of being nerdy, lame, and just generally uncool. He even goes as far as to join a high school with no students from his middle school. Again, I think most people see high school, or any change of scenery, as a shot to reinvent themselves. We will continue talking about Yuuta soon. But for now, let’s look at the same story through Takanashi’s eyes.

Rikka Takanashi is the other lead. She also was a chunibyo in her middle school years. However, as she transitioned to high school she did not want to change. She wanted to live in this fantasy world that the kids created. As the story progresses Togashi constantly questions why she refuses to grow up and why she is so immature. As we learn more about Takanashi, we see that her dad died a short while ago. This personally stunted her. As her made up persona, a servant of the Tyrant’s eye, she seeks out the Dark Flame Master in her search for her dead father.
Takanashi is extremely relatable in her own way. Sure, not everyone has lost their parent or even a loved one. But, still, we all cling to things that make us happy or give us hope. We’ve all liked something that was embarrassing (i.e. a guilty pleasure). And for those of you that have lost someone, I am sure this anime hits home on a different level.

I love the juxtaposition of how simple the problems seem on the surface, but how complex they are on a deeper level. When I was first watching this anime, I thought it was a cute, light hearted, funny yet kind of weird anime. As it developed, I found it to be light hearted and fun at times, but serious and thought provoking when it needed to be.

The main conflict of the anime is that Takanashi refuses to let Yuuta leave his past behind. She constantly addresses him as the Dark Flame Master and gets him tangled up in her fights with her older sister and rival girls.

Another wonderful aspect of the anime is the fight scenes. Yes, you heard that right. A slice of life, coming of age, rom-com has massive, over the top, imaginative fight scenes. Remember, all the characters are chunibyos. They all have magical powered personas. This allows them to use completely crazy and vicious attacks on one another. Just check this out.

As you can see they are fighting with umbrellas and spoon ladles in a park. There’s plenty more scenes like this. As a result, I think this could be a good segue anime for viewers that prefer more Shonen animes or just your typical fighting style animes. The anime will constantly blur the lines between genres. Some episodes will start out as a slice of life schoolyard anime. Ten minutes later it is a supernatural magic thriller. That’s an aspect of the anime I really appreciate.

With that in mind, I really enjoyed this anime. I highly recommend this anime to most people. It teeters the line of a cutesy waifu anime and a deep psychological action anime. The romance between Togashi and Takanashi is really interesting. I never found myself rooting for them but they do almost complete each other in a way. Give this anime a chance and see what you think.

It felt good to make a blog post again. I can’t promise uploads at normal pace right now, but as always, I am working towards that goal. Thank you anyone who read this. Feel free to follow the blog and keep an eye out for some of the things we have going on very soon!

Thanks again for reading! Have a great day!