Recap: Rikka and Touka bring the club to their grandparents’ beach home for Summer break. While the rest of the group has fun at the beach, Rikka seems more distant and detached than usual. As Yuuta tries to figure out what’s wrong, he uncovers the Takanashi sisters’ painful past.

Jel’s Thoughts: If our peek into Rikka’s loneliness back in episode 5 was a small emotional sucker punch, this episode goes for a 10-hit combo with a suplex finisher. Yes, there was some comedy and some beach antics, but really they just amplified by contrast how lost and detached Rikka has become.

Back in my Tari Tari coverage I talked about how difficult it is to depict grief. It’s hard to understand how powerful it is unless you’re going through it, and everyone copes with it in different ways. So it’s easy to just tell your audience “this person is acting irrational because their (insert loved one) died, start crying NOW” and call it a day. In Chuuni’s case they channeled all that passion Rikka has shown throughout the series into her grief. So not only was the revelation of Rikka’s loss heartbreaking, discovering the real meaning behind all the supposed nonsense like the “ethereal horzion” was devastating. Yuuta really sums up the feeling when he says, “I couldn’t agree with that, but neither could I deny it.” – clearly Rikka needs to face reality but would you really want to be the one to take away her hope?

If I may digress a bit, I wanted to mention how much this episode felt like the Key visual novel adaptations Kyoto Animation has done in years past. There’s definitely a similar mix of comedy and tragedy, not to mention Chuuni is being handled by the same director as Kanon, Air and Clannad. It’s no secret Key reached out to KyoAni to handle Little Busters this season, but had to go with J.C. Staff after they declined. Seeing as the reception for Little Busters has been a bit lukewarm I don’t want to rub in too much, but I’m pretty sure the higher-ups at Key aren’t too pleased seeing the fantastic job KyoAni is doing with similar material. None of that information should affect your enjoyment of either series, but if you like to speculate about the behind the scenes aspects of anime it gives you some interesting food for thought. I still think it’s a sign that KyoAni is trying to distance itself from the visual novel industry, amongst other things, but now I’m getting WAY off track so…

BACK TO THE EPISODE! We’ve hit the point of no return and can no longer look at Rikka’s chuunibyou as just a silly phase she’s going through. Whether or not this new story direction (and possibly the entire series) succeeds or fails will very much depend on what happens next. No pressure, right? Obviously Rikka is going to have to accept reality somehow, but I have no clue how they get there. As it is I felt ending on Rikka getting ready for battle was starting to border on too silly, but I think Chuuni has been well written and executed enough to get the benefit of the doubt at this point. For example, the “For Sale” sign scene made me think back to Touka playing “Realistic House” two episodes ago. At the time it seemed like a random funny moment, but now it seems really poignant given their circumstances. Details like that have earned my trust, so bring on the next episode!

Dragonzigg’s Thoughts: Dissent time! Unlike Jel, I found this episode to be rather trite, predictable and unengaging. The intent is admirable but it’s a rare case of stumbling execution from KyoAni.  They say rape is the new dead parents, but really dead parents is the new dead parents and we’ve seen this plot line so, so many times it’s difficult for me to get that invested in it. Credit goes to Yuuta for reacting in a somewhat realistic manner to much of the craziness, but my sympathy for Rikka is tempered by the stupidity of her own personal crisis.  I don’t think the linking of her ‘Ethereal Horizon’ to her father’s death is heartbreaking, I think it’s sort of laughable to be honest.

Jel compares this episode to the works of Key, and I’m going to as well, but in a far less flattering way.  The uneasy balance between comedy and drama at the heart of those stories, and here as well, tends to lead to uneven, clashing experiences. It’s like Kyoani were afraid to actually make a straight dramatic episode, so they try and cushion the blow by sprinkling it with random goofy jokes, but the net effect is to weaken both elements. The jokes aren’t that funny because we’re in drama mode, and the drama is regularly undermined by the comedy. The episode whiplashes backwards and forwards between these extremes, never allowing itself to establish consistent tone or voice.

I understand the entire point of the exercise is to show how Rikka has used her fantasies to hide away from her real life problems, which is a well worn but strong and potentially engaging track to take. It’s the execution that I’m taking issue with here – Rikka is so incredibly immersed in her fantasy that she becomes difficult to empathise with, at least for me. I kept expecting a grand dramatic breakdown of her chuuni facade but instead she just keeps spinning her fantasies around her. It’s presumably meant to make us feel for how damaged she is, but instead I just thought ‘this girl is out of her goddamn mind’. When she pulled out her umbrella and mumbled her mantra at the end of this episode, the entire drama of the moment just dissolved into a cloud of bathos. It wasn’t touching, it wasn’t heartfelt, it was just kind of pathetic, and I don’t think it was pathetic in the way KyoAni might have wanted it to be.

I want to qualify what I’ve said with a few things. Firstly, I have a known aversion to ‘sad girl in snow’ stories, which is basically what this episode is (I’m pretty ‘eh’ on Clannad for example). And secondly, I don’t actually think this episode was bad – it’s still pretty amusing and does a lot to develop the characters. I just think that it fails at what it’s trying to do, which is elicit a powerful emotional reaction from us. Maybe I’ve just become too cynical, but I certainly felt more baffled and annoyed than sad. Chuunibyou continues to boast great strengths – it remains funny, looks incredibly gorgeous and has an interesting cast. I’m just a little worried it’s stumbled at one of the most important steps.