Recap: Rikka attempts to act “normal” but is having trouble adjusting, especially with Dekomori trying desperately to stop her. As she prepares to visit her Father’s grave, Yuuta struggles to find the best way to support her.

Jel’s Thoughts: Some powerful scenes this week as Chuunibyou’s penultimate episode is the series most dramatic yet. It was pretty clear Rikka wasn’t just going to be “fixed” with the flip of a switch, but even still the writing and directing managed to make the whole affair appropriately unsettling.

It’s in Rikka’s attempt to make everyone happy that this episode finally summed up the point of all of this. The scene where she’s cleaning out her room and tells Yuuta she doesn’t know what to keep and what to throw away perfectly encapsulated Chuuni’s main conflict: she can’t keep hiding from reality behind her delusions but at what point is she getting rid of things she genuinely likes, the things that make her what she is? That particular scene was a great way to address the issue in the flow of the story, and really sets us up well for the final episode.

Perhaps the real highlight this week though was Dekomori. As far as we know she has no tragedy in her life she’s running from, she’s just acting out her chuunibyou because it’s fun and, more importantly, it has facilitated her close friendship with Rikka. So while her persistence may have seemed annoying at first, you can’t help but feel bad for her when you realize she’s just scared of losing her best friend. Yuuta’s crushing reprimand at the end was the most powerful scene we’ve had yet, marking the first time either of the girls openly acknowledged all their crazy talk is fake and actually meant it. The difference from Rikka though is Dekomori didn’t really have to, and it was pretty sad to see her end up as collateral damage in all of this.

While that scene might have hurt, it was a important piece of the puzzle as Yuuta continues to refine his point of view. There’s no doubt he did the right thing in trying to help get Rikka back in touch with reality, but the way he went about things only made her do it for him, not because she was ready. We will have to see if he’s figured out a solution in next week’s finale, or maybe he doesn’t even need to be the solution per se. Ultimately Rikka is the only one that can “fix” herself, all Yuuta and her friends can do is be there to encourage her. Does the writer of Chuunibyou see it that way? I can’t say for sure, but I feel like that’s the direction we’re moving in. I just hope they don’t totally backslide and say Yuuta was wrong all along. Whatever happens it will be happening soon, and I can’t wait to see how the story concludes.