Sakura Doujin

Sup gaiz, Foxxie here. Long time no post, but it is finally nearing the end of the season again. That would mean more reviews coming up! Might be more this season because of the amount of shows I’m watching, but mostly romance-slice of life types and not so much action-shounen type.

Let’s get on with the review! Today’s review will be about Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai, if you already didn’t guess from the title.

Quick synopsis: Togashi Yuuta is a regular freshman at a new highschool that is rather far from his house. He appears to be normal, until you take a look at his past. He was afflicted with the incredibly embarrassing eighth-grade-syndrome (Chuunibyou) which causes its sufferers to have a completely different perceptive of reality, believing themselves to be a hero and that the world around them was riddled with strife and chaos. However, he has since grown out of his character but meets someone in his new school that knows of his previous incarnation?!

Personal thoughts: The reason I picked it up is really because it’s by KyoAni. They’ve had a very good record of producing really cute yet story-driven anime, especially with last season’s Hyouka. At the start it reminded me a lot of Kore wa Zombie desu ka? because of the immense embarrassment that the main character goes through, but towards the end it becomes more heartwarming and romantic.

The Review:

Storyline & Plot: 9.5/10
To be honest, I really want to give this a perfect score, but there are some small inconsistencies, like how Nibutani suddenly changes from disliking the bunch to caring for them like a tsundere older sister. BUT ALL THAT ASIDE, this story was totally unexpected. I watched it at the start thinking that everything would just be laughs and giggles without thinking about the reason behind their chuunibyou, or how they were gonna be reformed. Definitely one of the better anime this season. Also: Wasn’t expecting romance, so this gets a huge +1 from me.

Art & Character Design: 9/10
KyoAni is famous for their art, and their references to real-life Japan. Their character designs have pretty much been set in stone ever since K-On’s moe-style drawings. It’s only been getting better and cuter, even the guys are getting infected. This anime is particularly impressive because they actually spent lots of effort on the details of the action sequences that wasn’t even happening in real life, just in the character’s mind, but even so, they spent so much effort! As a result, the scenes were incredible and the effects that went with it made it even cooler. Character development however is a little off. The twist at the end was a little weird for me. There wasn’t any reasons given but she suddenly just took on another role completely and it felt odd, despite being really good at it.

Entertainment & Execution: 9.5/10
Again, I wasn’t expecting a lot of things, but KyoAni has delivered once again. Romance? Check. Drama? Check. Comedy? Check. Action?! CHECK YO! There was a point somewhere in the middle where I actually thought that it could be better than Toradora, but was sorely disappointed when KyoAni omitted the scene. KYOANI Y U DO DIS TO ME!??! T_T

Music: 10/10
This one deserves nothing less than a perfect score. Addictive OP and ED aside, the OST of this series is simply INCREDIBLE! Have you actually paid any attention to the scenes that were dramatic? THE OST WAS AWESOME! Heck, even the 2 IN(Insert) songs were awesome! Everything about the music was awesome!

Overall: 9.5/10
This is probably one of the anime being overshadowed by Hype Art Online. Everyone’s going nuts over SAO that they’re completely ignoring the best romance of the season. Yes. Best romance of the season, I am not even kidding. Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun is pretty okay, but it’s not developing so much on the romance, but rather the relationship between the 2 main characters. This one, however, did a very good job on the romance development. It can possibly rival Toradora’s, but that’s for you to decide. Of course, if you’re a hater and dislike moe-shit and anime-type romances then you probably won’t enjoy this. If you watched SAO and think SAO is the best anime ever, then I also won’t suggest this to you. Why? Because SAO fandom is starting to become like NaruBleachPiece fandom: annoying and zombified. But I will leave that for another day.

Sweet, sweet vanilla <3