REALITY, BE RENT! SYNAPSE, BREAK! VANISHMENT, THIS, WORLD!!! If that doesn't give you an indication on what this review is about, I don't really know what will. Before we get into the actual review, I want to do a little vocabulary lesson just in case some people don't understand a phrase that will come up later. Unneedingly epic: When something or someone becomes extraordinary to that point that it is not necessary, other than to make the current idea or scene more impressive than it actually is. This review is about Takanashi Rikka Kai: Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Movie.A movie about a series, that I love so much for a strange reason. Let's begin.
Story: (6.92/10): Considering the fact that the previous statement above says that I love this series a lot, anyone would question why I put this story rating so low. To put it simply, the movie is basically all recap. Like many series' that get a movie dedicated to itself, Chuunibyou gets a recap movie rather than one that has an original plot or separate story to its parent story. Personally, I don't feel like that's bad, since they did show for the recap scenes, memorable Chuunibyou scenes that I remember fondly and loved, but seeing them again in a slideshow made me a little disappointed, considering the fact that the movie was from Rikka's POV, and it didn't seem that different from Yuuta's original POV in the actual series. It was all basically a bunch of scenes that focused on Rikka more, put together.
While it's true that the majority of the movie had just recap, there was a good chunk of the movie that was completely original, and that made it feel a little bit more worthwhile to watch. The first 10 minutes is a rather interesting and enjoyable wedding ceremony (you read that right), and the final couple scenes were transitional scenes to explain the (at the time of this review) airing second season, and what happened, so the story could start.
For these original scenes themselves, we get the basic Chuunibyou elements, which is: sweet, adorable character interactions, and the almighty unneedingly epic scenes that everyone enjoys, but questions, probably.
All in all, the story was decent enough for me to watch through the whole movie, and seeing some of the more heartfelt and genius moments of Chuunibyou made me smile and say, "OH! I remember that!"
Characters (7.11/10): There's no character development whatsoever. It's a recap movie, so they're pretty much the same, except for Satone, who gets a debut at the end. Sorry this section is so short. There's not really much to say since they're basically the same characters, and it's recap of already progressed developments.
Art and Sound (7.89/10): The art looks the same as it does in the series, as the actual scenes themselves were basically copy pasted, which is basically the nice light colored palette and jewel-like eyes that Kyoto-ani has perfected over the years.
The soundtrack for the movie has its own original OST and ED, which actually sound rather nice and perfect for the series. I don't believe it's as memorable as the OST of its predecessor, (since that one is still stuck in my head), but it's still nice to listen to nonetheless.
Personal Enjoyment (7.43/10): As I have stated before, I love Chuunibyou as a series. So when the movie was announced, I was ecstatic, seeing as how the series was going to be told from Rikka's POV, and there would be new scenes. I expected wayyyy too much. I though that the whole movie would be new content with a few recycled scenes added in. Turns out it was the other way around.
Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed the movie, since they put in basically all of the more memorable Chuunibyou scenes, as well as the unneedingly epic fight scenes that make this series what it is. But I felt like I wanted a little bit more, like the actual thing was lacking something. In the end, I was still able to watch a decent movie that I had anticipated for a while, and I felt kind of relieved to know exactly what happened between the first season and the second season, (since here in the U.S., the movie was released in subs halfway through the second season airing.) Well, that's all the time I have, the Phantom Avenger must now shed this otaku form, and wander in the darkness to reap souls for his POWER and MIGHT!! AHAHAHA!!! Yeah, I have Chuunibyou. Later.
Overall Score: (7.15/10)