Love,Chunibyo & Other Delusions (中二病でも恋がしたい! Chūnibyō Demo Koi ga Shitai!?, Even With Eighth Grader Syndrome, I Want to Be in Love), also known as
Chū-2 for short, is a Japanese
light novel series written by Torako, with illustrations provided by Nozomi Ōsaka. The work won an honorable mention in the
Kyoto Animation Award competition in 2010, leading the company to assume its publication and release two volumes in 2011. A 12-episode
anime adaptation by Kyoto Animation aired in Japan between October 4 and December 19, 2012, with six six-minute
Lite episodes streamed on
YouTube. The anime is licensed by
Sentai Filmworks
for release in North America. An animated film was released in
September 2013 and a second television season will begin airing in
January 2014.
Characters
- Yūta Togashi (富樫 勇太 Togashi Yūta?)
- Voiced by: Jun Fukuyama
- Yūta is the male protagonist of the story, a high-school freshman
who used to be delusional, believing himself to be the "Dark Flame
Master" and becoming alienated from everyone as a result. Finding this
to be embarrassing, he attempts to erase this past from existence, even
choosing to go to a separate high school from all of his
junior-high-school classmates. However, after encountering Rikka, his
past delusions come back to haunt him.
- Rikka Takanashi (小鳥遊 六花 Takanashi Rikka?)
- Voiced by: Maaya Uchida
- Rikka is the female protagonist of the story, a girl in the same
class as Yūta who moved in with her older sister who lives above Yūta's
apartment. She is an intensely delusional girl who believes herself to
possess a "Wicked Eye" (邪王真眼 Jaō Shingan?, lit. True Eye of the Evil King)
and as such always wears a medical eye patch and bandages around her
left arm, though she has no injuries. Despite being quite attached to
Yūta, she is cautious of strangers and adopts a battle pose whenever she
meets someone for the first time. Her fantasy weapon of choice is a
frilly parasol which she wields as a sword. For her delusional
operations, she often dresses in a mostly-black gothic dress and hose.
She is also rather clumsy, often tripping over and forgetting things.
The origin of her delusions came from Yūta himself, without his
knowledge.
- Satone Shichimiya (七宮 智音 Shichimiya Satone?)
- Voiced by: Juri Nagatsuma
- Satone was Yūta's middle school classmate. Although she considered
Yūta to be her only true friend, she ended up transferring schools
without saying goodbye during their second middle school year. She
suffers from delusions and calls herself "Sophia Ring SP Saturn VII" (ソフィアリング・SP・サターン7世?) and addresses Yūta with the nickname "Yūsha" (勇者?, lit. "Hero").
Satone is a character from the second light novel and appears in the
final scene of the anime film and the second season of the television
series.
- Shinka Nibutani (丹生谷 森夏 Nibutani Shinka?)
- Voiced by: Chinatsu Akasaki
- Shinka is Yūta's classmate and class representative, who is also a
cheerleader. One of the most popular girls in the class due to her
looks, she is generally thought of a kind and gentle girl. The truth,
however is that, much like Yūta, she was also a delusional teen who
called herself Mori Summer and has also chosen a different high school
from her previous classmates to escape her past. When she learns Sanae
is in possession of the last evidence of her delusional phase, Shinka
joins Rikka's school club in order to try and retrieve it. When out of
the public eye, Shinka shows her true nature to be bit more bitter and
easily irritable, particularly when dealing with Sanae. While Yūta
initially admired her or even had a crush on her, after seeing her true
colors, he is disillusioned and becomes friends with Shinka instead.
- Kumin Tsuyuri (五月七日 くみん Tsuyuri Kumin?)
- Voiced by: Azumi Asakura
- An anime original character, Kumin is a carefree girl who is a year
above Yūta and the others. She loves sleeping and often carrying around a
pillow (or many) with her wherever she goes. In one extreme case, she
is even shown sleeping in a full futon on school grounds. Having been
home-schooled before high school, she is very sheltered and
conservative, lending her an old-fashioned ladylike demeanor which
Makoto finds attractive. Her own "Nap Club" is integrated into Rikka's
social group for lack of members. Out of respect for Rikka and Sanae,
she earnestly attempts to understand their delusional fantasies. She is
also quite fond of cats.
- Sanae Dekomori (凸守 早苗 Dekomori Sanae?)
- Voiced by: Sumire Uesaka
- An anime original character, Sanae is a second-year junior high
student who has very long blonde elastic twintails that often prove to
be more of a hindrance than a help. Like Rikka, she is extremely
delusional and often indulges in fantasy with her. However, unlike
Rikka, she is a superb student who is at the top of her class and has
already completed the entire junior-high mathematics curriculum. She
owns several copies of the magic-spells book which is the remaining
evidence of Shinka's delusional days. She is often at odds with Shinka,
who she does not believe to be the real Mori Summer. She often ends her
sentences with 'desu', emphasizing it to make it sound more like
'death'. She comes from a very rich family.
- Makoto Isshiki (一色 誠 Isshiki Makoto?)
- Voiced by: Sōichirō Hoshi
- Makoto is Yūta's classmate who sits behind him and often analyzes
the other girls in the class. He joins the Light Music Club so he could
be with girls and attract their attention by carrying about his guitar,
though he does not seem to have learned how to play it. Fond of his
thick hair after being forced to wear it short for sports activities for
the last three years, he is forced to have his head shaved once more
when his notebook containing the "Cutie Poll" of the girls in his class
is discovered. In the anime, he gets a crush on Kumin.
- Kazari Kannagi (巫部 風鈴 Kannagi Kazari?)
- Kazari is Yūta's classmate from the novels. She was in second place in the ranking of the most beautiful girls in his school.
- Kuzuha Togashi (富樫 樟葉 Togashi Kuzuha?)
- Voiced by: Kaori Fukuhara
- Kuzuha is Yūta's younger sister who is in the first year of junior high school.
- Yumeha Togashi (富樫 夢葉 Togashi Yumeha?)
- Voiced by: Mami Shitara
- Yumeha is Yūta's youngest sister, aged five. She finds Yūta's prior
fantasy antics intriguing, often refers to them as "cool" and admires or
idolizes Rikka.
- Nanase Tsukumo (九十九 七瀬 Tsukumo Nanase?)
- Voiced by: Kikuko Inoue
- Yūta and Rikka's homeroom teacher, who is often kind, if sometimes a
little sadistic in teasing her students, particularly Rikka. She is
called Nana-chan by Yūta and Rikka.
- Tōka Takanashi (小鳥遊 十花 Takanashi Tōka?)
- Voiced by: Eri Sendai
- An anime original character, Tōka is Rikka's older sister who
supports her by working as a chef at a fine restaurant. She often has to
put up with her younger sister's delusional antics, often punishing her
by whacking her with a ladle-- which, in her delusions, Rikka sees as
an extra-large and dangerous weapon. She is also seen to be extremely
acrobatic and flexible, which she attributes to being a rhythmic gymnast
when she herself was in high school. Rikka depicts her sister as a high
priestess of evil and accuses Tōka of restraining her from her quest to
reach the "Ethereal Horizon". She is sometimes seen playing house with
Yumeha but on a negative outlook where they are always divorcing.
Plot
Yūta Togashi is a boy who, during junior high school, had 'adolescent delusions' (中二病 chūnibyō?, lit. "junior high school second grade illness"),
believing that he possesses supernatural powers and dubbing himself the
'Dark Flame Master,' therefore alienating himself from his classmates.
Finding his past embarrassing, Yūta attempts to start off high school
where he does not know anyone, free from his old delusions. This proves
to be difficult, however, as a delusional girl in his class, Rikka
Takanashi, learns of Yūta's past and becomes interested in him.
As the plot progresses, Rikka becomes more attached to Yūta, who,
despite finding her delusions irritating and embarrassing, accepts her.
He helps Rikka with a number of things, including founding and
maintaining her club and tutoring her. When he joins her on her summer
vacation, Yūta learns that two years prior, Rikka's father, whom she was
very close to, died unexpectedly due to a terminal illness, causing her
to fall into her delusions. After Yūta agrees to help Rikka search for
the 'Ethereal Horizon' (不可視境界線 Fukashi Kyōkaisen?), which she believes will lead her to her father, she becomes romantically interested in him and vice versa.
