It's funny how educated an anime fan can be, as watching entertainment from another culture is bound to provide insight that might not normally be part of an English-speaking viewer's everyday. For example, a handful of slang terms in Japan can be used in English, and their use in anime slowly makes it part of the common knowledge of the audience. This allows new words to a person's vocabulary such as "NEET" and "hikikomori," and stranger words made up on the English side such as "waifu" and "weeaboo." One such word is "Chunibyo" (also spelled "Chuunibyou" when translated from the original Japanese), a word that became more prominant when used in the title of the 2012 anime "Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!" Unlike many anime, this show had an English title that made grammatical sense apart from that one word, likely making audiences more eager to learn what it meant. The word today is generally used to describe someone with delusions of having special powers, like believing you are an alient or a superhero or a warrior from another dimension, traits that likely grew from a love for tv, films, books or games, but to such extremes that one would have trouble fitting in real world society. Like many Japanese terms used in anime, it is likely based on real cases (I vaguely remember having a mild case of this myself as a young child, which I eventually grew out of). After the release of this particular series, there were a handful of other anime (both tv and film) that also centered their plots around the concept, making it a trend of sorts roughly around 2012 and 2014. As such, one might want to seek out "Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!" purely for the historical context. Sentai Filmworks released the show in America, and their release was a partciularly clumsy one: a subtitled DVD release of the first season came in 2014, but was followed a few months later with a complete English dub and Bluray, both only available in a pricey premium edition boxset. Later, the second season was also released with a dub, but only on DVD, and when the Bluray release came, it was again exclusive to a premium-priced release. By 2017, a more appropriately-priced Bluray-only set with the English dub compiled those two seasons, but the staggered release dates and inconsistent features meant it was likely fans of the show will have bought multiple versions within a three-year period. There is also a compilation feature film, and a 2018 sequel film, and potentially more still to come... so if you ultimately like the show, there is plenty of content to look forward to. This particular review (as of writing in 2017) only covers the first season. I bought the premium Bluray set for it with the English dub, and ultimately thought it wasn't worth investing more money into the rest. I hadn't quite boarded the band wagon like the creators wanted me to.The plot has promise as a slice-of-life drama/comedy set in a high-school, a genre of anime of which there is no short supply. Yuta is the main character, a boy just starting his life at a new high-school. He's looking forward to it, since no one knows him at the new school, and he had a horrible case of "Chunibyo" at his previous school (complete with wearing a cape in class and using a dramatic voice), which he since has grew out of and became horribly embarressed from the ordeal. His hopes go astray when a unknown student at his new school (named Rikka) somehow recognizes him for his "Dark Flame Master" persona, and she herself shows signs of delusion, believing herself to be a magic user too. The comedy comes from Yuta trying to keep Rikka under control from ruining school life for both of them, while slowly helping her come back to reality.
Generally, the show is sort-of-funny, with some sort-of-dramatic moments between characters, and the plot goes exactly where you expect it would. Comedy is the main genre at play, but often feels mean-spirited, either from the viewer being expected to make fun of Rikka's ridiculous behavior or from Yuta's harassment against her (too often he hits or throws things at her, and while exaggerated for comedic effect, it still feels like unnecessary violence for each scene). Eventually Rikka does come to terms with her actions, and it is... satisfactory? A romance begins to bloom between Yuta and his upstairs apartment neighbor Rikka through their interactions, and while executed well, even that felt just "ok." I guess the problem was that I didn't particularly grow attached to any of the characters, and I impatiently kept watching just to get to the end of the series. Anime like this hinge almost entirely on the characters simply being likable, and as much as the studio tried, I didn't care what happened to them.And Kyoto Animation does try hard to make you like the characters, perhaps a little too hard. The character designs are super-cute, with girls like Rikka being drawn with a little chubbiness and small mouths and noses, which I didn't find particularly attractive to look at. The series is full of brief moments, be it from the show's opening or the physical comedy, that translates very well to Internet "memes" that were gaining popularity around this time (and in that way, the show was successful - to this day, many online users post gifs from the show). It's like they are trying TOO hard to make a commercial success, making it stand out more when I don't buy it. At least the animation is great: Kyoto Animation will produce a show every few years that seems to surpass competing television anime in terms of anime quality, and this is one of them, with many moments of fluid and dynamic character movement. I am tempted to give "Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!" another chance, but I am still confident that there exist better options to watch, even in the "Chunibyo" subgenre this show helped create. If you are tempted for a cute, gag-filled romantic comedy with high-production values, do consider this... but its own delusions of grandeur get in the way from it coming together as a whole.