Literature / Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!

The series is nothing like this.

"Reality, be bent! Synapse, break! Vanishment, this world!"

When entering the final years of middle school, kids have a tendency to develop hyperactive imaginations, grandiose delusions, and begin believing they have special powers — a condition humorously known as Chuunibyou. Yuuta Togashi, aka "Dark Flame Master", was no exception. After becoming a social pariah for his strange behavior, Yuuta now cringes at any reminder of those days, and seeks a normal, peaceful, friend-filled life as he starts his first year of high school.

After entering a high school where nobody knows him and his past, his plans to return to normalcy get abruptly smashed to pieces by a cute classmate and new next-door neighbour of his — a bandaged, eyepatched girl in a gothic lolita outfit named Rikka Takanashi. Still consumed by chuunibyou, Rikka embraces Yuuta's past and tightly bonds to him — pulling him back into the fantasy world while he pulls her into the real world. Along with Rikka's best friend and underclassman Sanae Dekomori, the napping-obsessed upperclassman Kumin Tsuyuri, and former chuunibyou class representative Shinka Nibutani, the five form The Far East Magical Napping Society of Summer — a place where they can hang out and become closer to each other while wrapped in the magic of chuunibyou.

Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions (Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai!, literally "Want to Love Despite Chuunibyou!") is a Light Novel series written by Torako and illustrated by Nozomi Ousaka, which was published by Kyoto Animation from 2011 to 2017 for four volumes (no mistake here, this is the first (not anime original) property that the company owns full rights for). Kyoto Animation also produced two anime adaptations for the Fall 2012 lineup. The show was directed by Tatsuya Ishihara and written by Jukki Hanada, with Kazumi Ikeda serving as character designer and chief animation director. It is a 12-Episode Anime series which adapts and heavily expands the first volume of the light novel, with a series of accompanying 5-minute shorts Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai! Lite! found on the studio's YouTube channel. It is licensed in North America by Sentai Filmworks.

A second season was released in January 2014 under the subtitle - Heart Throb - (English) and Ren (Japanese), which is again accompanied by Lighter and Softer shorts called Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai! Ren - Lite. There's also a movie called Takanashi Rikka Kai: Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Movie that premiered on September 2013: the movie retells the events of the first season but from Rikka's perspective, and adds new scenes. A second movie, Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai! ~Take on Me~, was released in 2018 and concludes the storyline.

The Anime Network simulcasted the anime under the titles Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! and Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions -Heart Throb-. Both seasons can also be found on Crunchyroll and Hulu for the US and Canada. Madman Entertainment is streaming for Australia and New Zealand.

If you were looking for the trope, see Chuunibyou.

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Tropes:

Tropes Shared by the Anime and Light Novel

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The super soak... uh, nameless plastic water cannon in the second episode. Kind of a weird case, because the gun barely moves, so it would have been easy to animate without CG; on top of that, an image from a magazine article appears to show a hand-drawn version.
• Ambiguous Syntax: The Japanese title translates as something like "Want to Love Despite Chuunibyou!", with it being ambiguous who wants love and whether it's their own Chuunibyou that's the issue or someone else's. Another possible interpretation is that the speaker sees their love itself as a kind of Chuunibyou, but wants it anyway.
• Bland-Name Product: Yuuta and Rikka's e-mail address^note Since Japan has commercialized mobile Internet in early 2000s, Japanese have not been using SMS ("texting") to communicate between cell phones but use email instead. domain is "siftbank.ne.jp".
• Break the Cutie:
  • The second part of Episode 10 seems to be this for Rikka. Everything is going right for her, she's confessed to Yuuta and had her feelings returned, she's going to perform as the Tyrant's Eye against Yuuta as the Dark Flame Master, and she has a few good friends supporting her. Then her one pillar of support crumbles right before the big show when Yuuta snaps...
  • Rikka's family in general seem to invoke this on her a lot. Although they mean well, in nearly every appearance they've had, they've emotionally hurt her.
  • Episode 11 brings a striking example of this trope with Yuuta's tirade towards Dekomori, which forces her to admit that none of her fantasies are real and breaks her spirit for the first and only time in the series.
• Central Theme:
  • Running away from and facing our problems.
  • Also, the challenges of having to grow up.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Happens in different ways.
  • The anime gradually becomes more serious as Rikka's past comes into play and her family begins pressing her into accepting the reality of her father's death and putting a load of the responsibility of that on Yuuta.
  • The first volume of the light novel is pretty lighthearted, but the second starts becoming more serious when Rikka accuses Yuuta of being unfaithful and forgetting their contract, before running off. Then she gets kidnapped, and the kidnapper makes Yuuta play a game with Rikka at stake.
• Chuunibyou: Even when the term was first mentioned in 1999 in a radio program and later in the Turn of the Millennium, is with this series (mostly the anime adaptation) this Japanese-only term became worldwide, even mistakenly known by many as the Trope Namer.
• Class Representative: Shinka Nibutani.
• Cringe Comedy: At least half of this is due to it hitting too close to home.
• Death by Origin Story: Rikka's father in both the anime and light novels died years before the story takes place, and is a motivating factor for Rikka to take up the Wicked Eye and search for the Unseen Horizon.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Yuuta, when he realizes that Rikka wasn't coming back to the apartments, decides to go to her grandparent's house to help her resolve her issues and bring her back into his life.
• Foreshadowing: Done in different ways in both Light Novel and the Anime:
  • Anime: The night after hot girl Shinka said she wants to visit him, Yuuta plays a Dating Sim suspiciously like Love Plus. In the game, his Relationship Values with the girl suddenly rose to a But Thou Must! "Let's go home together!" stage with no action on his own. Yuuta suspected that implies he'd be "in for a Bad End"... It turns out Shinka is coming to his home to destroy the Mabinogion. Also, one of the first conversations that Yuuta has with Ishiki is about Ishiki's desire to establish a ranking of the girls in class by their appearance. Yuuta warns him that the girls will hate it if they find out about it. It turns out this isn't just idle chatter.
  • Light Novel: The same girl that Nibutani brags about knowing Yuuta's past from was actually the cause of Nibutani becoming chuuni.
• Gut Punch: The revelation of why Rikka is a chuuni delivers one that would make Dio himself jealous, and from that point on the series becomes considerably less lighthearted in tone.
• Hot Teacher: Another element influenced by Key/Visual Arts; Yuuta's young and gorgeous homeroom teacher Nanase Tsukumo, appropriately played by Kikuko Inoue.
• Hypocritical Humor: The light novel and the anime have different examples of this trope.
  • Light Novel: Ishiki. As a member of the Disciplinary Committee, it's his responsibility to make sure his schoolmates practice proper decorum... But Ishiki himself is an unrepentant pervert, whose favorite topic of conversation is anything and everything about their cute female peers. Yuuta even comments on how strange and disturbing this is.
  • Anime: Shinka. In the light novels she's a completely recovered chuunibyou, so her dislike to chuunibyou can be justified. Yet, in the anime, a glimpse into her room in Episode 9, complete with a Suspiciously Specific Denial, would show she's still a chuunibyou. Furthermore, her extreme attempts to reinvent herself for popularity's sake comes off as just a different kind of chuunibyou in of itself.
• Jade-Colored Glasses: Most cured chuunis wear some type of these, though they can differ. Some grow out of it on their own, while others have a pair beaten onto them by their family and friends.
• Large Ham: Comes with Chuunibyou.
• Light Is Not Good: A main motif surrounding the Chuunibyou world. Darkness is good, lightness is bad. Especially true in the later contrast between "dark" Rikka and "light" Satone.
• Longing for Fictionland: Pretty much the definition of chuunibyou given to the audience, with the infected person being unsatisfied with reality and immersing themself within a world of fantasy. In both the anime and the light novels, Rikka plays this the straightest out of the cast.
• Love Epiphany: Happens at different times by different characters depending on whether you're watching the anime or reading the light novel.
  • In the light novel, Togashi gets one and talks to Isshiki about it, who helps him understand his feelings with a bit of invoked Green-Eyed Epiphany.
  • In the anime, Rikka gets hers after episode 8 and is helped along by Nibutani to really understand what she's feeling.
• Love Triangle: Subverted. In episode 6 of Ren, some of Shinka's classmates told Shinka they thought there was one between Shinka, Yuuta and Rikka "last year" (Season 1). However, even Yuuta did have a bit of crush on Shinka in the beginning of the first season, nothing gone further than that especially after episode 4, with the two being just close friends and Shinka being the biggest Shipper on Deck for Yuuta and Rikka.
• Sensei-chan: Nanase "Nana-chan" Tsukumo. Exemplified best in the novel where, when the class goes on a field trip, it was easy to mistake her for being yet another student.
• Stalker without a Crush: Used the same way in both, with only a few differences.
  • Light novel: Rikka follows Yuuta around for a bit where she overhears him letting out his inner chuuni after he lends her his umbrella. This ends up putting them down the path to hitching up when she decides to make a contract with him.
  • Anime: Rikka follows Yuuta around during the time that she's living with Touka right after her father dies but before they move into their grandparent's house, admiring him while he screws around in his Dark Flame Master persona. It's more ambiguous whether she had a crush on him or not.
• Unbuilt Trope: While the term Chuunibyou and its examples have existed long before this work, few people have heard about the term before the work debuted, to the point that it's frequently mistaken as being the Trope Namer as it popularized the trope. The series also deconstructed the archetype. Rikka Takanashi became a chuunibyou as a coping mechanism for her father's death, and her chuunibyou behavior became problematic for her and her family. When Rikka renounces her chuunibyou self due to pressure from Yuuta, she is left unable to deal with all the changes happening around her, such as her mother returning to her life and her sister moving to Italy.

Tropes Unique to the Anime

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The super soak... uh, nameless plastic water cannon in the second episode. Kind of a weird case, because the gun barely moves, so it would have been easy to animate without CG; on top of that, an image from a magazine article appears to show a hand-drawn version.
• Accidental Kiss: The climax of the Christmas OVA makes it seem like Rikka and Yuuta engaged in this. Turns out it was Sanae who accidentally smacked lips with Shinka. This ends up becoming a pivotal plot point in episode 8 of season 2 as well.
• Adaptation Expansion: Comes with a 12-Episode Anime being adapted from only one volume of light novel. The second season looks to be heading this way too.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • The third episode of Lite focuses on Kuzuha, back in the day when her big brother Yuuta was still deep in his Dark Flame Master delusion.
  • The fifth episode of Lite focuses on Kumin, mainly on her love of napping and the entire "The Summer of Far East Magic Nap Club" (see Start My Own below) in her own words.
  • While Season 2 still focuses a lot of Rikka and Yuuta, it also gives some of the other characters some screen time.
    • Episodes 4 & 8 spends a lot of time with Shinka and Sanae.
    • Episode 5 focuses a lot of Kumin and the napping competition they have with another school.
    • Episode 10 has it's perspective centered more around Shichimia than on the main couple.
• Alternate Character Reading: Ren actually is the same character as Koi, albeit written in an older form.
• Alternate Continuity: Virtually so, for the Light Novel.
• Arrow Catch: Rikka attempts to do this at the beginning of episode 3 with a piece of folded up paper shot by Yuuta with a response to her question on it. But she doesn't quite catch it in time, so the paper "arrow" flies in between her fingers, and smacks her in the face.
• Art Shift:
  • Yuuta, when Touka plays an audio clip of his Old Shame so deliberately loud that Kumin could hear.
  • A much more serious but subtle one is how in Episode 11, the colors are much less saturated, the lighting less bright, and the music is subued and downright dreary when it does appear; symbolizing the end of childhood-wonder as Rikka finally accepts reality.
• Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: Well, not really, but all the delusional fights take place in either different dimensions, or a type of Dark World.
• Babies Ever After: Rikka and Yuuta end the series as young but very happy parents to one child. At least, in a dream sequence.
• Barehanded Blade Block: Discussed and attempted in episode 9 of season 2. Rikka attempts to do it, but despite her best efforts, she fails. Made more hilarious by the fact that the wooden sword used was swung by a young girl who appeared to be about 7 years old. Sanae tries it later, but fails to stop it as well.
• Battle Cry: "VANISHMENT THIS WORLD" seems to the universal phrase to commence a delusion battle.
  • Rikka's invocation of this in Episode 7, however, is a Tear Jerker.
  • Leads to an amusing scene in episode 9 when Rikka is too distressed about Yuuta to concentrate on her delusions and fails to dive into her delusion world after stuttering out the invocation.
• Beach Episode: Episode 7 in season 1, and episode 9 in season 2.
• Beam-O-War: Dekomori and Shinka have one with a pair of water hoses.
• Beautiful All Along: Believe it or not, Sanae Dekomori when she lets her hair down out of those ridiculous pigtails.
• Bedmate Reveal: How Yuuta meets Sanae in episode 3.
• The Big Damn Kiss: Episode 12 of the second season averts it completely. Much to the audience's chagrin.
  • Played very, very straight in Take on Me, where Yuuta and Rikka share their first, onscreen kiss together after books, two seasons and two movies of shying away from it.
  • If there is such a thing as a Big Damn Hug, episode 9 would be the trope codifier. For Yuuta and Rikka, it's just as powerful.
• Bland-Name Product:
  • Averted in episode 2, when Yuuta wondered whether Shinka used Asience or Vidal Sassoon shampoo.
  • Played straight with Mr. Peter during the vending machine incident in episode 1.
  • Episode 10 has EcDonalds, with the golden arches turned 90 degrees clockwise.
• Book Ends: Both the beginning and end of the series has Rikka roping down to Yuuta's balcony and asking if he wants to see (her eye). In the same outfit, no less.
  • This also mirrors the scene with Rikka and Yuuta in the infirmary with her asking Yuuta if he wants to see her eye.
  • Each end also has a narrator telling the audience about the nature of chuunibyou.
• Boom, Headshot!: Poor Kumin-senpai, courtesy of Touka.
• Break Them by Talking: Yuuta gives one to Sanae at the end of episode 11 after she berates him for not supporting Rikka's delusions, forcing her to admit that for all her delusions, she's never been able to fight a monster or summon a weapon, and that delusions like that are pointless in the long run.
• Brick Joke: The twisted game of house that Touka and Yumeha were playing together where they are divorcees keeps popping up in random places.
  • It's first brought up in episode 5 after Yuuta comes back home after tutoring Rikka and sees them playing house in his room.
  • He finds them talking about it again when he comes back after he and Rikka confess to each other in episode 10.
  • The two of them talk about "being able to see the kids" in front of everyone in episode 11 before Touka leaves for her flight to Italy which surprises everyone but Yuuta.
  • In the OVA: "By the way, the world wasn't destroyed." (In 2012)
• Broad Strokes: While sharing the same general outline in terms of plot, the events in anime differs in many aspects from the light novel it's based on — for example, while Rikka and Yuuta live in the same apartment complex in the former, in the latter they live in opposite directions from the train station. The production team admitted this much before the show even began airing though (see Adaptation Expansion).
• Call-Back:
  • There are a bunch of things that happens in episode 11 that mirror things that happened in earlier episodes. They're mostly there to see how much Rikka has changed from the events of the previous episode, and how no one is really happy with the way things played out. The train station and drinks scene from episode 1, the convenience store food scene from episode 8 and the bridge lights scene from episode 9, as well as Yuuta putting away his chuuni related things from episode 1 are all mirrored to show how subdued Rikka has become without her delusions.
  • During Rikka's Stalker without a Crush phase two years before the present story, she has seen the entire scene in episode 3 of Lite when Yuuta carried a rifle to escort Kuzuha.
• Calling Your Attacks: Every chuuni, specially Rikka and Sanae, are prone to this. Almost always in a very hammy way, peppered with random mythological references and gratuitous foreign languages.
• Camping Episode: The fifth Ren Lite short has Yuta, still in his Dark Flame Master phase, camping with his family.
• Canon Foreigner: Many of the characters introduced, like Dekomori, Kumin-sempai, and even Rikka's sister Touka, are actually anime-only.
• Christmas Episode: The bonus OVA of Season 1, where the gang throws a Christmas party at Sanae's mansion.
• Class Trip: Episode 6 of Ren.
• Club Stub: A large part of the first series' plot is starting Rikka's "Far Eastern Magical Nap Association of Summer" and keeping it running.
• Colour Failure: In episode 2 of the second season, Yuuta has it after knowing Rikka pretty much used up all the money Touka gave her (in the area of 280,000 yen!) to fund her delusions.
• Comedic Spanking: Yuuta does this to Rikka in episode 2 of season 2 after finding out that the latter spent almost every bit of money her sister sent her as a living allowance on some night vision goggles.
• Contrived Coincidence: Touka confronting Yuuta about her job opportunity in Italy and pressuring him to make Rikka face reality the moment he gets home after he and Rikka confess to each other and the day before the school festival where they are supposed to perform as their chuuni personas.
• Covers Always Lie: The poster shown above makes the series look like a standard action fantasy anime, with Yuuta looking an awful lot like the Big Bad. The show itself is actually a grounded Slice of Life story, intertwined with some (imaginary) fantasy sequences.
• Crashing Dreams:
  • Rikka wakes Yuuta up from a dram by spraying water on him. The dream in question was about him fooling around a pool with Nibutani, who splashes him with water.
  • Sanae wakes up Yuuta from another dream by pushing her bolas up against his face.
  • Yuuta does it to himself in Ren episode 3.
• Critical Hit:
  • Called out by name by Rikka in episode 8 of Ren.
  • Also called by Rikka in Ren episode 4 when Nibutani rolls across the floor in embarrassment when Dekomori recites a chapter from the Mabinogion during her campaign speech.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Pretty much any "battle" Touka is involved in. And even when they go 5 on 1 against her in the first episode of season 2, she still "defeats" them.
• Date Peepers: Kumin, Shinka, and Sanae do this in episode 2 of season 2 when spying on Yuuta and Rikka living together.
• Disappeared Dad: Yuuta, Kuzuha and Yumeha's father is plainly off-screen because he was on an external assignment in Jakarta.
• Dope Slap: Yuuta uses this frequently on Rikka and Sanae to snap them out of their shenanigans.
• Dragged by the Collar: Played straight for drama in Episode 11.
• Drama Bomb:
  • Episode 7 starts off as your normal Beach Episode, but turns into this like WOAH. Not like this is uncommon in KyoAni works.
  • The end of episode 9 escalates quickly.
• Dynamic Entry: Sanae likes to use this on Shinka quite a bit, often in the form of a low attack to knock the latter off her feet. Sometimes used by the other girls as well.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Natsumi Tokugawa, the imposter Mori Summer, can be spotted in Episode 2 taking pictures of Dekomori from behind. She continues to appear in the background stalking the club until she's finally introduced in Episode 8.
• Embarrassingly Painful Sunburn: Dekomori gets one because she neglected to use sunscreen in the Beach Episode. By the next Beach Episode in Ren, she brings sunscreen to avert this.
• Expressive Hair: Rikka has a minor case with a strand of hair reacting to the emotional state, complete with audible effects.
• Eye Poke: Yuuta suffers this from Shinka in episode 11 of the second season after the latter gets upset at him for not figuring out Satone's feelings for him.
• Face Fault: Yuuta pulls off an epic one in the first episode that trashes the room.
• Fall-in Angel: Invoked by Rikka, who decided to meet Yuta by climbing down from her balcony to his.
• Fan Disservice: In episode 8 of Ren, the impostor Mori Summer getting frisky with Dekomori might have been titillating if not for the fact that she's a Psycho Lesbian Stalker with a Crush, the encounter is entirely non-consensual, and Dekomori is crying for help during it.
• Fantasy Sequence: This trope is what fuels the anime's Mundane Made Awesome. Every time the characters get into a "battle", the world around them changes into a fantasy arena where they duke it out with magical powers and oversized weapons. In reality, they're just whacking each other umbrellas, sticks, or other everyday objects.
• Fast-Roping:
  • Rikka uses this often to get down to Yuuta's balcony.
  • Satone meets Rikka this way as well.
• First Kiss: Played with in the bonus Christmas OVA. The whole episode plays up Rikka and Yuuta trying to progress to this. Shinka and Sanae end up accidentally kissing instead.
• Foreshadowing: In Ren. The first few episodes show that someone is following Rika's club around◊. Several episodes later, the said stalker is introduced as the one who started the Mori Summer love advice website.
• Four Is Death: Dekomori Sanae is the fourth person to join the Far Eastern Magical Nap Association, and her Verbal Tic is overusing the word "desu" because it sounds like "death" when pronounced in Japanese.
• Friendly Tickle Torture: Rikka does this to Dekomori in the extra episode of Depth of Field.
• Funny Background Event: While Nibutani talks to Rikka about love in episode 9, Chimera starts jumping at the butterflies forming a heart shape in the background.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Yuuta did that to Rikka in episode 10.
• Girl Next Door: Rikka, of an upstairs variant, towards Yuuta.
• Grand Finale: Take on Me serves as this for the anime continuity, resolving the main romance and revealing how everyone handled themselves after the story ended.
• Gratuitous English: A lot, including the Battle Cry "Vanishment, this world!" whenever chuuni sufferers "activate" their own world.
  • In fact, in the novels, English is the only subject Rikka is slightly good at as it's the only thing she can associate with her delusions. Her other subjects are simply abysmal there.
  • The last episode features a letter labeled "Flom Dark Flame Master".
  • Gratuitous English + Gratuitous French: "Black Raison d'Être", the mail address given to Rikka by Yuuta, and also the name of the group singing the ending credits song.
  • When Rikka tries to convince her teacher to let her start her club, she pretends to summon a "split personality" named Catherine from Victorian England, using a few English words in the process. However, this backfires, as, unlike Rikka, her teacher actually knows English, and so when she inquires "Catherine" in English, Rikka freezes up and says she's gone. In the English dub, this is changed to Gratuitous French, and "Catherine" is said to have moved from England to France.
• Ham-to-Ham Combat: The characters whenever they're fighting in their chuunibyo personas.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Rikka goes through one in episode 8 when Touka berates her for her delusions and living in the past and it's implied that she goes through another in episode 10 when Yuuta tries to make her see reality as well.
  • Sanae goes through one in episode 11 when Yuuta denies her delusions after he lets Rikka go see her father's grave with her mom.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Rikka found out about Yuuta's 'Dark Flame Master' persona after seeing him put on the act one last time before school. In his defense, he really wanted it out of his system and he thought no one was around to see.
  • Sanae got herself entangled on her very long hair after trying to use it like... bolas.
  • Sanae, in Ep 4, got dizzy after spinning around at an attempt to attack Shinka.
• Homeschooled Kids: Near the end of the series, when the characters are enjoying the holiday at Rikka's, Tsuyuri reveals to Shinka that she never had a boyfriend because she was homeschooled for the entirety of elementary and middle school. This may well explain her strangeness.
• Humongous Mecha: Show up in the DVD-only Depth of Field mini-episodes.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every episode title includes elipses save for the last two, where Rikka is forced to grow out of her chuunibyou delusions.
• Improbable Weapon User: Touka is damn near deadly with a common kitchen ladle. And not in the imaginary world, in real life.
• Improbably Female Cast: Yuuta is the only male character of any significance, and even his male friends aren't that important to the narrative.
• Indirect Kiss: This.
• Insult Backfire: In episode 10 two Nibutani's former classmates appeared at the school festival and tried to gloat at her past as "Mori Summer", only for Shinka to remember their eight-grade obsessions.
• Intoxication Ensues: Rikka and Sanae in the bonus OVA after ingesting alcoholic Christmas cake.
• It Runs in the Family: It sounds like the females in the Takanashi household have the tendency to run away from reality. Rikka's mother ran away physically while Rikka herself does that mentally, and Touka pretended it never existed.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Shinka Nibutani, who starts out as a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing only to become the reverse: someone who usually acts bitchy but who also cares deeply for her friends.
• Just Train Wrong: Whenever characters are seen walking over a level crossing, they're hardly taller than the track gauge^* which is 1067 mm for regular lines in Japan, although it someties varies with region but it's never wider than standard gauge i.e. 1435 mm. One scene from the station, which the protagonist use on a daily basis, shows rather crooked rails next to perfectly straight platform.
• Karma Houdini: Touka, who gets her happy ending when Rikka is forced to get over her chuunibyou and goes to Italy to pursue her dream of becoming a master chef while everyone back in Japan angsts and struggles with the situation that she left behind.
• Konami Code: Rikka uses this code on a soda machine, with arm gestures. She gets a free drink.
  • 'B' is Banana and 'A' is apple.
• Large Ham: Several of the actors in episode 3, especially the one boasting that he has to be defeated to pass.
• Level Ate: The Chuunibyou battle in the Christmas OVA.
• Licked by the Dog: This literally happens to Shinka in both episode 7 and 8, much to her chagrin.
• Loony Friends Improve Your Personality: Yuuta to an extent. Shinka also shows more and more of her caring side as time passes outside of her Yamato Nadeshiko facade.
• Loophole Abuse: Used a couple of times in episode 3.
  • First, Rikka attempts to form her club, but doesn't have enough members, so she tries to claim her cat as a member, but Nanase won't allow it due to the cat not being a human. She then fakes a split personality to claim as the "fifth" member who speaks English, but Nanase plays along, and uses more English than Rikka knows. She then feigns a sickness, and then claims her personality is no longer there. Nanase then states that since they no longer have a "fifth" member present, she can't approve the club.
    • Despite the setbacks however, Nanase does allow a legitimate loophole for them. They can form a club, on the condition that they clean up an unused room first. While it takes a while due to the girls mostly goofing off rather than cleaning, they eventually do it, and Nanase allows them to form their club with only four members.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Despite the chuunibyou focus being the unreality of its fantasies, the series gets a genuinely ambiguous moment during the napping contest against the rival siesta club, featuring an Inception-esque dream battle in which the contestants actually wake up in pain as their chuuni avatars get killed in the dream. This obviously would not make sense at all if it were just a dream, and the club members are fast to comment the matter after the contest, though they look bizarrely okay with it.
• Midseason Upgrade: Yuuta gives Rikka a new umbrella for her birthday in episode 7 of season 2. He claims her old one was getting worn out, and she seems quite happy with it.
• Mistaken for Cheating: Happens several times in season 2 with Yuuta regarding his childhood friend Satone. Rikka becomes an Insecure Love Interest, and constantly thinks he's cheating on her anytime she sees him with Satone, who also plays The Tease towards him, especially in episode 7. However, Satone makes her peace with Rikka, claiming that she started losing interest the whole chuunibyou shtick in middle school, but also sensed she'd be a Hopeless Suitor towards him, especially since he forgot the meaning of that coin she gave him. She pulls an I Want My Beloved to Be Happy and says that Yuuta belongs to the latter, and she'll stay as Sophia instead. She then disappears after telling Yuuta to come to the harbor so they could be alone together for the rest of the day.
• Mood Whiplash: Happens a few times in the latter half of episode 7. Also, the episode itself relative to the previous ones.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Once an Episode there's a scene on how the chuunis see things through the filter of their delusions.
  • Starting with Season 1
    • Episode 01: Rikka trying to open a train door by Dramatic Wind and then walked in as if nothing happened.
    • Also in the episode: Rikka unseals her Magical Eye.
    • Episode 02: Rikka versus Touka — in an epic battle of umbrella versus ladle — through the former's vision.
    • Episode 03: Rikka and Sanae's broom fight through their chuuni vision.
    • Episode 04: Sanae's hair versus Shinka's pom poms.
    • Episode 05: Rikka's doing her math paper.
    • Episode 06: The various members of the club announcing themselves.
    • Episode 08: Rikka versus Touka again. Played for Drama this time.
    • Episode 09: Subverted with Rikka and Sanae versus Yuuta: Rikka is too distracted to properly activate her delusion filter and the "battle" is seen in normal vision.
    • Episode 11: Sanae versus Rikka. Dear god.
    • Episode 12: Yuuta becomes Dark Flame Master and invokes this, giving Rikka the chance to see the Ethereal Horizon and say goodbye to her father once and for all.
    • Episode 13 (OVA): A drunk Rikka and Dekomori vs Yuuta. The battle ends with the girls passing out.
  • The Depth of Field shorts take it up to eleven
  • Now for Season 2
    • Episode 01: The entire Far Eastern Magic Nap Society of Summer vs Touka. Even with a 5-1 disadvantage for Touka, she still easily curb-stomps all of them one-by-one.
    • Episode 03: Rikka vs Satone Shichimiya (a duel between the Tyrant's Eye and Sophia Ring Saturn SP VII).
    • Episode 04: Rikka and Dekomori vs Yuuta again. ^Context Nibutani is running for Student Council President and is about have the first-year students support her campaign. She pleads Yuuta (through Blackmail) to keep Dekomori away from her class so she doesn't get sabotaged. This leads to Yuuta indulging himself in Rikka and Dekomori's chuunibyou antics. Unfortunately, Dekomori walks out before anything can get started.
    • Episode 05: The napping contest between the Far Eastern Magic Nap Society of Summer and the Siesta Association.
    • Episode 08: Nibutani vs the Fake Mori Summer. Dekomori also gets in to protect Nibutani from an attack.
    • Episode 09: Rikka vs Shichimiya at the beach. This time around, Rikka is being tested as to whether she should give up Chuunibyou to be closer to Yuuta or remain a chuuni for life like Shichimiya.
    • Episode 11: Rikka and Yuuta summon the Dark Flame Dragon. Shichimiya then fights against it.
    • Episode 13: Rikka and Dekomori vs Yuuta a third time. ^{Context this time} At the very beginning of the episode, Rikka witnesses Yuuta receiving a flash drive from Isshiki and suspects that something obscene is on that flash drive. The flash drive contains pictures of an idol Yuuta used to like, and Rikka requests that he give it back to Isshiki. When Yuuta tries to give it back, Isshiki lets him keep it secretly. During the following night, Rikka sneaks into Yuuta's room and steals his flash drive. She accidentally breaks it when sleeping, and Yuuta finds out. Rikka is still furious that Yuuta "broke their contract", and she and Dekomori engage an unwilling Yuuta in chuuni combat.
• My Girl Is Not a Slut: In episode 8 of Ren, what actually terminated Natsumi the Dekomori-Stalker's crush was the Accidental Kiss between Dekomori and Shinka.
• My God, What Have I Done?: While Yuuta is relieved in a way that he helped snap Rikka out of her chuunibyo phase, he also can't help but feel that she seems to be suffering from a lack of it as well, especially after she moves back into her grandparent's house. Sanae's What the Hell, Hero? rant towards him in episode 11 finally hits home once he realizes Rikka wasn't coming back, probably because he told her all that giving up all that stuff was for the best, not realizing that it also meant she wouldn't want to see him either due to him being a constant reminder of it. He rushes off to her grandparent's house on Isshiki's bike in the middle of the night.
• My Hero, Zero: In Episode 6, Rikka gives everyone in the club T-shirts with some symbol for zero on the back. Because it's the coolest number.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Rikka's family hiding her father's illness from her in order to protect her. Granted she was a child and probably would have had a hard time dealing with it. But his sudden death makes it very hard for her to accept it.
  • Yuuta's speech to Rikka about giving up her chuunibyo stuff. While it seems okay at first, Rikka seems very unhappy, and ultimately decides that it would be best to move away from him, so as not to be reminded of that stuff any longer.
• No Name Given: The fake Mori Summer. Her name is not mentioned in-episode, and instead is listed in the after-episode credits instead (where it's revealed that her name is Natsumi Tokugawa).
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Yuuta's expression when Touka shows him an audio clip of one of his "Dark Flame Master" delusions.
  • Rikka upon being told that The Far Eastern Magical Nap Association of Summer would be disbanded if she didn't improve in Math.
• Old School Building: Seemingly the location of the Far Eastern Magical Nap Association - after they provide free labour spring cleaning it.
• Once an Episode: Someone uses the Battle Cry.
• Orbital Kiss: Not so much as a kiss but in episode 9, after Yuta saves Rikka from falling off the school roof and Rikka confesses her feelings and begins to cry at the emotional gravity that comes with being in love for the first time (and you know, almost dying), the "camera" circles around them and back as Yuta comes to terms with his feelings for her and holds her in his arms.
• Pet the Dog: As motivation to do better on her upcoming math exam, Rikka asks Yuuta to come up with a better (read: more Chuuni) e-mail address to replace her strangely bland existing one. After doing ... well enough, Yuuta comes up with one that Rikka adores; he presents it to her in Dark Flame Master mode.
  • Shinka gets a few Pet the Dog moments in episode 9 when she's playing cupid for Rikka, showing that she does care about the other members of the club. She has an even bigger one toward the end of the first season, as she hugs and comforts her sobbing rival Sanae, right after seeming to act cold toward her in public, meaning her initial Bitch in Sheep's Clothing behavior has become inverted.
• Playing House: Yuuta walks into his room to find Touka and his little sister Yumeha in the middle of a divorce and custody agreement.
  • Again in episode 10, when they're in a divorce lawsuit.
  • Once more in episode 11 when Touka leaves and Yumeha asks if she'll be allowed to see the kids.
• Plot Allergy: Touka is allergic to cats, so when Rikka brings one home, she requests Yuuta to help her get rid of it. When Yuuta expresses reluctance, she presents him an audio clip of one of his rants as the "Dark Flame Master".
• Production Throwback:
  • In Take on Me, Dera, Ruru, Iwatobi-chan, and Yakiimo appear as plush toys in a prize grabber.
  • The credits have Rikka's walking animation reference Violet Evergarden's anime key visual.
• Psycho Lesbian: Natsumi Tokugawa, who's so obsessed with Dekomori that she follows her and her friends around town, poses as the real Mori Summer so she could steal her attention, takes several creepy pictures of her when she's not looking, and even molests her in private until Nibutani intervenes.
• Relationship Upgrade: Rikka and Yuuta confessing to each other in episode 10. Though with all the stuff that happened afterwards, they don't get much time to enjoy it...
• Ridiculous Procrastinator: Throughout episode 5, Rikka does anything to avoid studying for her math exam even when the club is at stake.
• Road Trip Plot: The plot of the second film, Take on Me, is a Type 2 example. Yuuta and Rikka embark on enormous journey across Japan to escape from Touka, who plans on taking her sister with her to live in Italy.
• Romantic Comedy:
  • The first half of Season 1. Then the second half kicks in. While there's still some comedy, it's downplayed in favor of the more serious dramatic and tearjerker moments.
  • Played more straight with Ren, which is generally more of a romcom, though there is still some drama present (especially starting with Episode 7).
• Rule of Symbolism: In the beginning of the first episode, Yuuta put his Chuunibyou-era props to the balcony, planning to trash his Old Shame altogether. At the end of the episode, he put them back into his closet, symbolizing he couldn't put away his chuunibyou past yet.
  • Rikka pulling off her eyepatch in front of everyone at the end of episode 10, revealing that she no longer has her Magical Eye.
  • Rikka's actions throughout episode 11, which rather disturbingly mirror Yuuta's actions in the beginning of episode 1.
  • Throughout Ren episode 10, Shichimiya's heart sticker repeatedly falls off when having any flashback of Yuuta. At the very end when Yuuta finds out of Shichimiya's regained love for him a little too late, the sticker comes off, and she runs off crying.
• School Clubs Are Serious Business:
  • Isshiki is of the opinion that these determine the school life one will lead, or at least factor heavily.
  • Rikka's wish to form a club as a means to find allies in search for the Ethereal Horizon isn't well received by Yuuta.
  • Only Kumin feels that there's a need for a "Nap Club."
• Serious Business: Napping. For Kumin in general, and for the entire club in Ren episode 5.
• Sexiness Score: In episode 6, Makoto ends up leaving behind his notebook at school one day, which contains a "cuteness ranking" of all the girls in the class, with the list being made in conjunction with most of the boys. Class Representative Shinka is furious about it, and Makoto decides to take the heat all alone and confesses, saying he did it all by himself and he ends up being punished by having to shave his head.
• Shipper on Deck: Practically the entire class ships Yuuta and Rikka.
  • This is especially noticeable at the start of episode 3, where the entire class gathers around and starts applauding at Yuuta's accidental Indirect Kiss.
  • By episode 7, Nibutani makes it fairly clear that she believes Yuuta and Rikka are bound to be together eventually. Isshiki also takes a Yuuta/Rikka relationship as a given.
  • By episode 9, she's completely (and correctly) convinced and actively trying to get the two of them together.
  • In second episode of Ren, Kazari called back to this, saying everyone in class has been shipping Yuuta and Rikka when they were tenth graders.
• Spike Balls of Doom: Sanae substitutes the sand bags at the end of her pigtails with a couple of these for a few seconds to better attack Yuuta with.
• Spin-Off: The BD-packaged specials Chuunibyou Demo Koi Ga Shitai?: Depth of Field. It's Armored Core meets Chuunibyou, and it is EPIC.
• Spit Take: Sanae does this to Shinka accidentally in episode 5 when the latter goes looking for her missing pom-poms.
• Stalker with a Crush: The girl claiming to be the real Mori Summer in episode 8 of season 2. She can be seen stalking Sanae in earlier episodes as well, such as when Shinka has Sanae in a headlock during episode 4, or when Sanae, Shinka, and Kumin were watching Rikka and Yuuta shop.
• Start My Own: Like Haruhi Suzumiya before her, Rikka forms her own school club, the "Far Eastern Magical Nap Association", which is more or less a legalized excuse to let her delusions run amuck with Yuuta, Kumin and Sanae tagging along, willing or not. It becomes a full-fledged club once Shinka actually applies, hinting to her past life as a chuuni herself.
• Status Quo Is God:
  • In episode 4 of season 2, Shinka attempts to run for student council president. At first Sanae sabotages her efforts intentionally, but after Satone verifies Shinka as "Mori Summer", Sanae instead devotes herself to helping out Shinka instead. Things seem to go really well, and Shinka decides to don her chuunibyou ego for a moment to thank Sanae for all of her help. Sanae then accidentally blows Shinka's chances when she starts spouting off Mabinogion passages, causing Shinka to drop out of the race out of embarrassment which makes Sanae believe that she cant' be the real Mori Summer after all. They then go back to the old ways, being at each other's throat.
  • This is somewhat subverted later, as Shinka and Sanae's Vitriolic Best Friends relationship comes up again in episode 8 of season 2 when another girl claims to be Mori Summer. At first Shinka is glad to be rid of Sanae and her old shame. But some of the others don't feel right about the new girl claiming to be her, and with some Training from Hell by Satone, Shinka ends up battling the "fake" Mori Summer, partly to save Sanae from the Stalker with a Crush, but also because despite not wanting anything to do with it, she still feels Mori Summer was her creation. At the end of the episode, Shinka and Sanae's attempts to return to their normal dynamic is thrown off by blushing and obvious mutual feelings of affection.
• Stealth Clothes: In season 2, episode 6, the guys wear handkerchiefs when going to peek on the girls' bath.
• Stealth Hi/Bye:
  • Dekomori comes out of nowhere to slide tackle Shinka while the latter is sitting in art class, then runs back out the door. They aren't even in the same grade (Shinka is in high school while Dekomori is still in middle school).
  • Both Rikka and Touka appear from under Yuuta's bed at different times. In the case of the latter, he wonders how she managed to fit under there in the first place. She mentions she was a gymnast in high school, and also grabs a copy of his porn magazine.
• Stepford Smiler: Rikka, Yuuta, and Shinka in episode 11. Also Satone in episodes 10 and 11 of the second season.
• The Stinger:
  • At the end of episode 10 in season 1, Yuuta and Touka watch as Rikka sings a song that the latter mentions was special to her father. After the credits roll, one of the hosts asks if it had special meaning. Rikka then takes off her eyepatch, to reveal she doesn't have her gold contact lens on any longer.
  • In the first film, a post credits scene shows Satone Shichimiya arriving in the city, setting up her appearance in the second season.
  • Take on Me ends with Rikka once again climbing down to Yuuta's balcony to ask him, "Wanna see my eye?", mirroring their first encounter from the very first episode.
• Suntan Stencil: In the Beach Episode, Shinka and Sanae (who also suffered an Embarrassingly Painful Sunburn) do this on each others' backs with their knowing until the next episode.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Shinka to Kumin: First thing first: Fortune-telling has nothing to do with Chuunibyou.
• Technicolor Eyes: Touka. She has red◊ eyes. Tsuyuri has red eyes as well, but she averts the Red Eyes, Take Warning trope by being possibly the sweetest person in the show.
• This Is Reality: Yuuta broke both Rikka and Dekomori this way.
• Transformation Sequence: Parodied in episode 6, when Rikka requires members of the "Far Eastern Magical Nap Club of Summer" to introduce themselves in that way.
• 12-Episode Anime: Both seasons.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: "The Far Eastern Magical Nap Association."
• Wham Episode: Episode 7 of the first season. Where we find out the extent of Rikka's family issues and that her chuunibyou persona is likely a coping mechanism to deal with her father's death. Up until this point the series was a pretty straightforward comedy. Starting at this episode things got significantly more dramatic and serious.
• Wham Line:
  • In episode 11 of the first season, Rikka says she's going to disband the club.
  • In episode 9 of season 2, Touka shows back up in Japan with a little girl in tow. She claims that said girl is her daughter and everyone practically does a Face Fault. Then she subverts the trope by and says she was lying, and the little girl is the daughter of the chef training her in Italy, who requested Touka bring her along. But nobody laughs at it, much like Kumin's attempts at jokes.
• Wham Shot:
  • The Stinger of Episode 10, where Rikka takes off her eyepatch to reveal... a perfectly-normal blue eye.
  • The very end of Ren Episode 9 shows Shichimiya coming in close contact with Yuuta, regaining her interest in him.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Sanae gives a rather heartbreaking one to Yuuta after he lets Rikka leave to go see her father's grave in episode 11, telling him that Rikka had been waiting for him to call Rikka out on her total rejection of her chuuni persona and blaming him for her sudden change.
  • At the end of episode 10 in season 2, Satone tells Yuuta to go to Rikka after it starts to rain at the festival. She then jumps out into the rain in an attempt to bury her feelings for him once and for all, only to then get an emotional cheap shot when he returns a moment later and offers her an umbrella. She starts the waterworks and runs off due to not being able to hold in her feelings anymore.
• Would Hit a Girl: Yuuta will give whoever he thinks deserves it a whack on the head, regardless of their gender.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit:
  • Shinka does this in episode 12 to buy Yuuta and Rikka some time. She screams that there's a pervert trying to grope her, and tells Isshiki to play along. He confusedly does so, then runs away when the policeman who was observing Yuuta and Rikka then chases off after him. Several of the others hold off Rikka's grandfather so they can make their escape.
  • She does this again in episode 6 of season 2, claiming she heard some strange noises in order to distract the teacher so Yuuta could get Rikka safely out of his room and bring her back upstairs to the girl's hotel rooms.

Tropes Unique to the Light Novel

• Accidental Pervert: Yuuta gets a good look at Rikka's panties after he crashes into her after getting his math test back. She takes it surprisingly well, which is lampshaded by Yuuta.
• Berserk Button: Kazari doesn't like being called by the Alternate Character Reading Fuurin ("wind chimes").
• Betty and Veronica: Yuuta, Rikka, and Satone.
• Canon Immigrant: Kumin and Dekomori as of the third novel.
• Crash-Into Hello: After talking to Isshiki about Rikka, Yuuta accidentally crashes into her after spacing out while walking back to his seat after getting his math test back. Though technically it's not the first time that they've met.
• Lethal Chef: Subverted. Rikka somehow is able to make a delicious cake despite not knowing how to cook and using unorthodox ingredients.
• Red Herring: Early in the second novel, a random punk tries to hit on Rikka while Yuuta is getting something, and manages to get her name and school before Yuuta steps in. Near the end, Rikka gets kidnapped outside of the school and the kidnapper contacts Yuuta by phone and talks about taking Rikka for himself if Yuuta can't find her in time, with the voice distorted to the point that Yuuta wasn't able to recognize it at all. It turns out to be Satone, however, who actually wanted to break them up so that she could take Yuuta for herself.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Yuuta spends most of the first novel going through a lot just to help Rikka review for her remedial exam in Mathematics, only for her to fail spectacularly at the end of the book. By the start of the second novel, Rikka still hasn't gotten any better, with her highest exam score a pathetic 30 out of a hundred.

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"Blast reality. Burst it all into shreds. VANISHMENT... THIS WORLD!!!"

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