Chuunibyou was popular
enough to warrant a continuation, but continuing a series that focuses on
romance is always difficult. From Da Capo to Clannad, second
seasons have often struggled to find a way to continue while keeping up
dramatic tension when a series has really revolved around which girl a central
male character will get with.
Comparatively, it was more
obvious who Yuuta would end up with in the original series, but where Chuunibyou
could go after its central couple got together was a tricky point, one explored
through these twelve episodes. And personally, though Chuunibyou Ren was
still pleasant to watch and likeable, I can’t think of many ways the series
could have continued its love story that I would have found more tedious.
There’s psychoanalysis to be
done with this, to be sure – about the otaku culture’s love for the pure,
unadulterated female character, who wants to be in a romance but finds it all
too embarrassing and hides away like a frightened mouse or, y’know, a
twelve-year-old girl who despite her canonical age she rather resembles in how
she’s drawn. The series begins to revolve around how despite having been in a
relationship for months, Yuuta and Rikka haven’t so much as held hands. She’s
too bashful to kiss, and right at the end of the series they build up to her
kissing Yuuta on the cheek. Sure, it’s all very adorable, except that I don’t
see it in terms of Rikka’s interesting character and neuroses as an individual,
but rather in terms of the male audience, the ‘male gaze’ as Tumblr types would
put it, and that Rikka isn’t behaving this way because yes, there are girls
that averse to intimacy and it’s interesting to consider it, but because (a)
the romance story will otherwise lose momentum, and (b) anime has inherited
from aidoru / wota culture absurd ideas of purity and innocence.
It all feels to me like a desire for an easily-controlled girlfriend with no
prior, threatening sexual experience, and rather makes me long for another
anime like REC. There’s coy, and then there’s annoying – and it all
takes me out of the story to think about the audience this targets.
Aside from this rather strained
central relationship, spiced up with the addition of a bland rival in love,
childhood admirer Satone, who fancies herself a magical girl and calls Yuuta ‘Yuusha’,
meaning ‘hero’. Conceptually this works as a foil but she never really develops
an interesting enough relationship with another character to fit into the fold.
What is really good about the
series, bizarrely enough, is its padding. Several episodes are devoted to the
minor characters, and in particular episodes about the rivalry / affection /
sexual tension between Dekomori and Mori Summer. These are rich and amusing
enough characters that, crucially, seeing them out of character is very
entertaining. The girl whose personality is defined by sleepiness and the
hapless boy courting her lose what charm they had in the first season, though,
and come over as very tiresome.
The times that the characters’
delusions are represented on-screen remain very entertaining parts. Visually they
are great fun and the ridiculous, huge weapons remain very funny. That the new
girl Satone brings more opportunities for this, as well as jokey transformation
sequences (in the Lite omake animations), which is one reason to be
somewhat pleased she exists. As usual, KyoAni provide some excellent animation
and pretty art, and the shots of the characters rotating in the intro are
technically pretty impressive.
There’s a lot going for Chuunibyou
and I actually wanted this second part to be good. The trouble is that the
romance part makes the whole thing seem stagnant, though, so all the well-done
peripheral parts feel like without something solid to lean on, they only fall
down. KyoAni seem to need to learn that sometimes, one season is just the right
amount. Just look at K-On!...and Haruhi...and, though this is
only a premonition, most likely Free as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment