Love, Chunibyo, & Other Delusions: A Silly Yet Heartbreaking Story About the Power of Geekdom

Screencapped from AnimeLab

It’s a universal fact that everyone is at least a little bit embarrassed by what they did when they were thirteen. Was it a misguided and poetic emo phase? An overzealous leap into fandom, including indulgent fanfic or fanart? An all-consuming desire to be seen as mature in your tastes that ended up just making you look pretentious? Whatever it is, despite how much this passion consumed you at the time, you’d be happy if no one ever brought it up ever again—that’s how much it makes you cringe.

There’s a Japanese word for this: chunibyo, loosely translating to “eighth-grader syndrome”, the stage of life where a sense of self-importance and newfound independence combines with passion, imagination, and a desire to be seen as special, whether that manifests as a pretentious geek phase or believing you have magic powers. It’s this phenomenon that is the core of Love, Chunibyo, and Other Delusions—a show that begins as a wacky comedy about high school embarrassment and ends up punching you (or at least, this reviewer) in the gut with a poignant story about grief and growing up.

Minor spoilers after the jump!

Trailer Tuesdays: Koe no Katachi

In the summer of 2013, the first part of Koe no Katachi was released. Written by Yoshitoki Ooima, and based off a one-shot that was published earlier in 2011, the series quickly picked up a following in part, I think, due to its empathetic handling of its one Deaf protagonist. As a fan of the one-shot, I was ecstatic to find that the series found its way to the silver screen and that the people at KyoAni were going to be leading the helm in terms of animation because honestly, this story about growing, learning, and redemption deserves as much beauty as it can get.

Hear the Call of the Free!dom or Why Free! Makes Male Otaku Cry

The popularity of Swimming Anime means that nobody ever gets to complain about how women are depicted in anime compared to men ever again (x)

This Tumblr post is the post that finally made me watch Free!, previously known as Swimming Anime. If you recall, I did an article previously on the Swimming Anime phenomenon, stating that I’d remain skeptical on an actual release, but here I am months later with my foot firmly planted within my mouth. And as much as I was hoping that an anime would spring from the hype, with my dashboard being flooded with gifs of the well-toned boys ripping off their shirts and lingering camera shots on their torsos, I couldn’t really form an informed opinion about whether or not the aforementioned Tumblr post had any credibility.

After watching the first episode, I can safely say that that specific commenter suffers from a terrible bout of mantears and they need to sit the fuck down. Consider this my summary of not only the first episode, but also on why that person is wrong.

Free! Features a group of four friends—Haruka Nanase, Makoto Tachibana, Nagisa Hazuki, and Rin Matsuoka—who are all brought together by their love of swimming. In a flashback, we see that they won their junior high swimming championships by all swimming in a relay; however, most of them drifted away from each other afterwards. While Haruka and Makoto stayed together, no word was heard from Nagisa, and Rin traveled to Australia to become an Olympic swimmer.

After their first day back at high school together—suffering from ‘cool anime guy’ syndrome, Makoto skipped the first day—Makoto and Haruka discover that Nagisa is also a classmate. Nagisa brings with him some sad news: the old pool where the group won their championship is getting torn down. Along with losing something with such sentimental value, that pool is also where they buried their championship trophy (since they decided because it was a team effort, no one person should hold onto it).

In an effort to get that back, the three boys sneak into the abandoned (and potentially haunted) building to retrieve the trophy. It’s there that they meet back up with Rin, who seems to have turned into a grade-A asshole who only wants to compete with Haruka. As to be expected though, the old pool doesn’t have any water in it since it’s being torn down, so their showdown must wait.

Trailer Tuesdays: Ore to Omae no sa o Oshiete Yaru yo

You did it, guys. You climbed this whole mountain. …Almost.

This may look like a normal anime promo to the uninformed viewer, but what it is in actuality is an excellent example of how internet fans (and fans in general) can have a very large impact on the companies we thrive off of. A couple weeks ago, this trailer showed up seemingly out of nowhere with no information behind it and only the long winded title of Ore to Omae no sa o Oshiete Yaru yo (“I’ll Show You the Difference Between You and Me”), almost immediately affectionately nicknamed ‘Swimming Anime’. However, all was not as it seemed.