Recap: Rikka finds a cat and decides to adopt it as her familiar. This causes a serious conflict with her older sister, who is allergic to cats. Will Yuuta be able to defuse the situation before the two destroy each other?

Jel’s Thoughts: While I enjoyed the first episode of Chunibyo, this second episode really demonstrates what the show is capable of. Hefty doses of comedy, a dash of romantic tension, and one of the most ridiculous imaginary battles ever have me feeling a lot more positive about where the series is headed.

I find Yuuta to be a bit more interesting than your average Dull Male Protagonist. It was easy to peg him as the Kyon (or more recently, Houtarou) type in episode 1, but here we see he’s a lot more proactive. For one, he is actually voluntarily acting as the class rep. He’s also a lot more honest about his feelings towards Nibutani and girls in general. Of course he is also actively trying to make himself more bland, but you can tell deep down he’s still got a little chuuni in him. I can’t say he’s the most exciting character, but definitely a slight change of pace.

Speaking of Nibutani, it’s pretty obvious how they’re setting up the love interests to reflect Yuuta’s state of mind. Nibutani is the safe but boring pick, a symbol of “getting a life” as Yuuta himself notes in his rather hilarious inner monologue. Rikka, of course, is the exact opposite. Neither one seems to be quite right for him, at least from the audience’s perspective, so it’s a nice way of framing the show’s theme. As an added bonus, we also now know we can take the painfully long series title as completely literal.

Of course the part everyone will really remember is the ridiculous fight scene at the end. I’m really starting to buy into Chunibyo’s humor, which is mostly centered on Rikka’s absolute insanity. Seeing the camera pan out of her intense battle only to show a little girl flailing an umbrella was hilarious. I also continue to love the physical gags. I nearly did a spit take when Tsuyuri got clocked by a heat-seeking ladle. What can I say, I’m pretty easy to please when it comes to humor, and after this week’s episode I’m really looking forward to more.

Iro’s Thoughts:
In typical KyoAni fashion, the production values and direction are great – that fight scene was an incredible piece of work. The thing is that the main heroine being completely and utterly off her rocker (and this being presented mostly as fun and imaginative) just bothers me, as does straight-up blackmailing the protagonist. It’s all played for comedy, of course, but I suppose that’s not really my style. Chunibyo is clearly a quality show and all that, but I think  at this point most of my enjoyment would end up begrudging.

Dragonzigg’s Thoughts: Through the first part of this episode I was worried that the show might already be lapsing back into KyoAni’s safe slice of life routine, only this time with the added dash of one of my least favourite genres, the harem show. Fortunately, it just turned out to be some nice character building instead. As Jel noted, it’s interesting how despite the fact Yuuta is going out of his way to be bland, he’s actually a fair old bit more interesting than many blank male characters. His fear of being exposed provides some great laughs in this episode but it’s towards the end, when some of his old desires begin to seep through that we get a look at where he might be headed long term.  We see the same from charming newcomer Kumin, who is clearly a closet fan waiting to burst out.

The other thing about Chuunibyo which struck me anew with this episode was how utterly, unrepentantly a cartoon it can be.  Scenes like the truly amazing final battle, but also Yuuta’s comedy blackmail reactions and just Rikka’s ladle-wielding sister in general are so goofy as to seem quite weird sitting alongside the more traditional relationship drama that’s sprinkled throughout the story. At the moment this weirdness works to the show’s advantage, but it’ll be interesting to see how it’s handled as we move onwards.  I must also confess that I’m tiring a little already of Rikka’s non-stop schtick but it remains largely funny so all is forgiven. I hope that her character can be evolved a little as time goes by. In the end though, I still laughed an awful lot at this episode, and that’s what matters.