VoxPhantom said:
Chuunibyou episode 11. Series is running out of steam and heading for a cliched ending. Togashi is suddenly acting like a dick after ten episodes of being a decent guy, and it feels like his views have done a total 180 compared to a couple of episodes back. Dekomori and Nibutani need their own spinoff show.
Clichèd ending is right...
This is a CP of a blog post I made on Tumblr after watching episode 11, which helps show my thoughts on Yuta etc (
Warning:Spoilers for those who haven't seen it):
Chūnibyō Episode 11 and Rikka thoughts
So, I just finished watching the eleventh (and penultimate episode) of Chunibyo Demo Koi ga Shitai! and wow…I can’t wait for the next episode. There was definitely a lot of build up in this episode that is sure to - I hope - explode in the finale. This show started off as a fantastic comedy before developing into a romance, but unlike other shows, this hasn’t been a sweet and happy romance - it’s actually really bittersweet. This makes it a heart-wrenching show to watch, but boy is it good.
I really want to just grab Rikka and give her a great big hug; holding her tight and never letting go. She’s broken, bless her. It’s become quite clear to me that the reason she became a chunibyo in the first place was the trauma brought on by the sudden news of her father’s death and the fact that his terminal illness being kept from her caused her to doubt what was really going on in the world behind her, so to shield her from that, her mind created the whole “Wicked Eye” thing (I think that was outright stated in the episode that covered her past, but it really resonated with me throughout, even before it was said). That was her safeguard, her solace and now it’s been taken away from her and what remains is a fragile young girl, so used to her time as a chunibyo that she’s almost forgotten how to communicate on a normal level.
I know a lot of people are blaming Yuta for this. However, as much as I adore Rikka, I can’t put any blame on his shoulders. He was acting in Rikka’s best interest and as episode 11 has shown, although he won’t say it, he’s regretting it. He’s seen the girl he loves change from a lively, bubbly girl to a frail flower petal who finds it hard to even face the sun. Yuta thought that he was doing the right thing, but there was one thing he probably failed to realise - his reason for becoming a chunibyo and hers are different. His was part of an identity crisis, a feeling of exclusion from his peers. It was brought on by a sense of seclusion, unlike Rikka’s which was bought on by the shock of tragedy. He made one of the most common mistakes in the book - he thought he knew what Rikka was going through. Sure, they shared the same symptoms, but the cause - the trigger of them, was different. He was naive, but he’s young. He’s slowly realising that he’s made a mistake and he has one episode to try and fix it. Do I mean that he should let Rikka return to being a chunibyo? No, I don’t. What I mean is, that he should let Rikka make the decision for herself and that she needs to be allowed to confront her issues in her own time, at a pace and in a way that she wants to. It appears that even Nibutani is regretting this - and she’d be the last person I would have pegged as caring. Her dragging Dekomori away, only to embrace her, was probably the most significant action her character has made to date. She knows that Rikka being this way has meant that Dekomori has pretty much lost the one person she was closest to.
For me, the most significant part of episode 11 was the small details. The body language between Rikka and Yuta has changed completely in the space of one episode. As Rikka started to realise her feelings for Yuta, you could feel the emptiness in her heart slowly filling up and her face gaining more colour. Now she’s like a blank slate and that’s not the girl Yuta fell in love with. They’ve become disconnected.
Another small detail that really stood out to me was when Rikka asked Yuta if she should go with her mother to visit her father’s grave and Yuta replied she should do it if that’s what she wanted. That small action, to me, was as loud as if she had shouted it out - she didn’t want to go. I think Dekomori was spot on during the train station scene - Rikka wanted Yuta to stop her.
I eagerly await the final episode, hoping that Yuta gets his head together and solves this intricate problem. As for how it can be solved? I’m fairly stumped on that one, but I don’t want to see Rikka limping along like an emotionally wounded animal. She needs to return to her bright, cute and cheery self and if that means returning to being a chunibyo until she is ready to confront her problems head on, by herself and in her own time, then so be it. Preferably, I’d like to see Rikka remaining as “normal”, but with the charm and spunk she had as a chunibyo, but I’m not sure how that could naturally be achieved in the space of a single episode. What I do know is, the Rikka we saw in episode 11 wasn’t the girl Yuta, or we, fell in love with and I want that girl to come back. I want this story to have a happy ending.