Chuunibyo! – Moeblob Battles Archnemesis

Second spectacle of Chuunibyo makes for a showcase like sudden fireworks – what may have been a dull highschool drama decides to capitalize on all the aspects admired, leaving behind the flaws in episode one.

Right from the start, the feeling of suspense is certainly as evident as there is a sun in the sky. Initiating in what seems to be the middle of the night, the series’ main moeblob is seen running in fear from an unfamiliar face – a ladle wielding bishoujo who looks so ridiculous, one indeed has the right to be afraid. Upon the moeblob finding refuge in a park, a neko is found – and after a minor exchange of words with said neko, our heroine is knocked out cold by the haunting stranger, the figure of whom was seen advancing ever so eerily.

The moment passes, and after the opening sequence, we arrive in a setting with more spice – finding our adolescent boy zero, and relevant female friend, in a pool. Taking note that the girl in this scene seems to be the busty one seen at the train station of the previous episode, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to see typical mizugi fanfare, amongst other devolutionary antics, unfold quite steadily. Yet after much idling on nonsense, it is revealed to be all but a dream – and our male lead is abruptly awakened by the “main attraction” of the series, his moeblob friend.

Each of the two seem familiar with one another by now – and it’s been the course of merely a week’s time. Rikka seems to tag along with the protagonist on whatever escapade he may embark, still obsessed and fascinated with the delusion that he is the “Dark Flame Master” – whatever that is.

And keeping the stream of insanity cycling on, the moeblob, true to her eccentric personality, takes every action to radical exaggeration. She creates mystical names for ordinary household items, and even goes as far as rescuing the mayoi neko from the previous night, only to sickeningly abuse it for her own fetishistic satisfaction – attaching to it some makeshift wings and deeming it a “familiar”.

Arriving at school, two more scoops of moe are piled atop this catastrophe in progress – yet the integration of the first acquaintance is well implemented. Yuuta, as it seems, has been chosen to become a class representative – however this doesn’t occur in thanks to his protagonist status, rather, it’s the same oppai equipped bishoujo who keeps recurring throughout the episode. Not wanting to mess up his chances of leading a normal life, our cardboard kid assists with cleaning the science room alongside the oppai service character.

After the overly pressured romance angle receives its fair share of camera time, the moeblob inevitably comes to interrupt – arriving only to spout gibberish recipes of unusual chemicals and mythological ingredients, perhaps confessing the items required to make a moeblob.

In the midst of the verbal calamity, something regarding a “chimera” is mentioned – and when our puzzled Shinka inquires about it, Male Protagonist A quickly counters that Moeblob is merely speaking of a lost neko-san that was found, to which our lovely class representative then redirects to another moeblob, who coincidentally, has happened to have lost their neko. That moeblob joins the crew – and a cat recovery unit is formed.

Making the matter of neko the most critical mission of their day, the trio of moeblob, protagonist, and catgirl head over to Rikka’s apartment, and this is where the show instantaneously picks up – the heroine’s room is covered floor to ceiling in what appears to be many antiques, weapons, oddities, and items one would find in a souvenir shop, if not a garbage dump.

Yuuta’s inner child rises to the surface once more – particularly when the Mauser pistol, seen only in assorted promotional clips thus far, is found. The fellow forgets his surroundings and is quick to embarrass himself by re-enacting a shootout till coming to the sudden realization of his lameness – although the violet-eyed neko owning moeblob seems to have seen straight through the foolish protagonist.

Moving along however, as it turns out, the neko is not the one sought by violet-eyes – prompting the students to prepare for departure before we’re interceded into the introduction of the third and final character of this episode. It looks like the moeblob heroine meets her arch nemesis and some kind of moe battle subsequently occurs – this crimson-eyed newcomer is apparently the sister of moeblob, well-acquainted with the disease inflicted upon her imouto.

A hurricane of impulse then follows, one shouldn’t make any effort to try to pull any deep meaning from the plot – because there frankly isn’t any, yet that certainly is not to say it’s not amusing to watch.

By now, it’s clear – the dark figure from the beginning of the episode was indeed the older sister of Rikka, and it looks that she’s readying to face off against her moeblob kin.

Our moeblob gathers her courage and extracts her combat parasol to duel versus her ladle wielding sister, and the wild imagination of Rikka comes out in full force. To Rikka, the battle is that of a video game – complete with blaring lights, heavy weaponry, and explosions which shatter all encompassing environmental elements. In reality, it merely looks like she is smacking her sister with an umbrella – yet the authority obviously wins, and with that, the episode comes to a close.

The episode evokes heavy feelings of nostalgia and stupidity alike. It puts to life what many gullible children do – create various scenarios to play in. Lacking any sort real powers or armaments, children are limited to their silly thoughts. From sneaking out to play at a city park at night, hiding from “the adults” with friends, and imagining a confrontation with authority to be a “boss battle”, Chuunibyo completely emphasizes what it is like to be a kid again, and holds true to its name.

When taking all of the listed points into consideration, Chuunibyou proves to us that this might not just be a pre-baked slab of “boy meets girl” – there are lesser aspects, although there’s rather intense moments as well, and the latter certainly have heavy impact. The single reason to be disappointed is why Kyoto Animation is capable of such marvelous action scenes as presented this episode – yet refraining from making anything other than moeblob based slice of life series. Although assuming one is liking Chuunibyo, then there’s little reason to complain.

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  “Chuunibyo!” Moeblob Makes It Awkward
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  “Chuunibyo!” Ep 8 PV – Alone With Moeblob
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  “Chuunibyo!” Ep 4 PV – Upclose With Moeblob
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  Chuunibyo – Moeblob Makes A Club