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「煌めきの… 聖爆誕祭（スラップスティック・ノエル）」 (Kirameki no…Surappusutikku Noeru)
“Glittering…Slapstick Noel”
I missed Rikka’s adorable “auu~”s so much, and it didn’t hurt that this episode had what was probably the single best gag of the entire series so far.
The Same Old Chu2koi
Its been a while since I thought about this series, so when I sat down to watch this OVA I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. This series lacked a bit of permanence – its serious plotlines didn’t match up to its comedic ones – but since this OVA was all about the funnies, it worked gloriously. I was reminded of how much I enjoyed the first half of the series. Of special note were the gags we hadn’t seen before, especially Dekomori in full dou-S ojou-sama mode, Shinka cowed, and Yuuta chased after by some drunk girls in the chu2 world. Really, Dekomori in particular made this episode, but I’ll get to that soon.
Drunk On Not-Booze
Minor qualm: why must so many anime pull their punches and have characters get drunk off of candies or cake? Okay, so they’re still young, but a little champagne or cider could do the job. All they would need to do is throw out a “Oh, a little won’t hurt!”, until it’s revealed that they’re super lightweights. If you’re going to do a characters-get-drunk plot, don’t pull your punches, people! Ahhh well, all the more credit goes to Remon-sempai for her Dynamite Drink. She’s truly a goddess among lesser lolis.
That aside, the ‘ol drunk girls gambit did the trick of ramping up the funnies before it pushed the rest of the plot (such as there was any) forward. Yuuta loses a few points for being too chickenshit to not invite Rikka to the sight-seeing ship beforehand, but it all worked out in the end. For some people, at least.
Epic Troll
I’ve always had a special fondness for Christmas in anime, so even as I write this in June I found myself enjoying the setup. Christmas and Valentine’s Day always provide nice exuses to push a relationship forward, and with not enough resolution given to either the Rikka x Yuuta or Isshiki x Kumin relationships during season 1, I was looking forward to getting at least a kiss out of this episode. And if any of you saw the preview before watching this (or paid attention to my excerpt pictures, ufufu~) then you probably thought the same thing I did – we’re finally getting that Rikka x Yuuta kiss!
WRONG! Everything they did during the episode – and everything they did before it – all prepared us for Rikka and Yuuta kissing, only for them to switch it up at the last second and go for Deko x Shinka instead!! Yuri implications aside (though they are both hot and adorable together), Rikka x Yuuta was foreshadowed and Isshiki x Kumin was at least desired by one of them, so having the dark horse “couple” be the only one that had any development was a stroke of comedic genius. KyoAni, and Chu2koi in particular, really is best when it’s being mundane or funny, and this was a twenty-minute setup to a joke that was worth every minute. It paid off in spades! And having Shinka and Deko-chan get mad at Isshiki’s flag comment in unison? Just icing on the cake. The delicious, scrumptious, alcohol-filled yuri cake.
Looking Ahead
Season 2, season 2! Okay, so its already been announced, and so has a movie as well. I don’t have a lot to say, other than I hope they put more emphasis on the comedy during next season, and when they have to get serious, I prefer they keep to the romance rather than the drama. The comedy has been the hilarious, and the romance has been anywhere from good-to-amazing (this episode being the amazing!). The drama? Coulda been better. Play to your strengths KyoAni. If you can do that, I’ll see you in season 2, auu~
tl;dr: @StiltsOutLoud – Epic troll. The single best gag in the series came in the OVA #chu2koi
Random thoughts:
- Why’d they go back to the old, alternating, super-seizure-inducing OP? Someone give me my meds! *herk*
- Great assist Touka-san, telling Shinka about Yuuta’s secret gym clothes fetish. Best. onee-chan. evar!
- A new Cereberus? I miss the old one though. We need both of them to meet in season 2, and chase Shinka together.
- Seriously though, how did they getting drunk on cake? And where can I get some?
- They had a nice call-back to the whole Mayan apocalypse thing at the end. Remember the little things, that’s the KyoAni motto. Keep doing that and I’ll love you more. Like Deko-chan loves Mori Summer, ufufu~
Full-length images: 11.
For more from yours truly, check out my blog about writing, life, and making great art at stiltsoutloud.com.
A new (yuri)couple is born!
https://randomc.net/image/Chuunibyou%20Demo%20Koi%20ga%20Shitai/Chuunibyou%20Demo%20Koi%20ga%20Shitai%20-%20OVA%20-%20Large%2030.jpg
YYYOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
The True Christmas Miracle
Gad, I’ve missed this show! Kumin in the Santa outfit was adorable and all the other antics were soooo Chu2koi. I hope they can keep it going at this level for another season.
Season 2 man. Cant wait.
You kidding me Stilts? I loved having a seizure every episode before the pansies changed it. 😛
I’m not a yuri-bro, but since Yuuta’s already locked up for the long term I suppose DekoMoriSummer will have to suffice.
I suffered from petite mal seizures. This OP does nothing to me. Well, it annoys me mildly. People saying that is seizure inducing annoys me more. But petite mal seizures annoy me even more than that. But I cope.
I feel kind of obligated to respond to this.
First off, if I offended you in any way with that, I sincerely apologize. Seizures are obviously a very serious thing and obviously you don’t enjoy people making light of that.
However, I do hope you don’t expect people to walk on eggshells about such topics over the internet. You simply can’t control that and I personally find it to be rather unfair that you put me in a fairly awkward position.
Thank you very much oniichan Stilts. I expect you will publish about ova. I missed that you had not written about specials short “Chu2koi Depth of field”, but I understood that it must be difficult to write about specials under 3 minutes long, not much to say.
Speaking of something more fun, I can not describe how much fun it was to see this OVA. Lacking more comedy and fantasies overwhelmed. But it was great to prepare the ground for the movie and the second season. Youta and Rikka were adorables. Dekomori and Shinka killed me with laughters, they are the best. And we need more scenes of Kumin-sempai.
I want to see more, but I hope they keep the level of history. Chun2koi should maintain its great history and characters.
Curse you Dekomori!! I’m so jealous o┤*｀□´ *├o
Loved the episode, didn’t realized how much I missed this series. Was also glad to see some more adorable Kumin and Rikka.
The surprise troll yuri really caught me by surprise, many people seemed to see Deko x Shinka through yuri goggles it was funny to see it go cannon.
Speaking of isn’t this kyoani’s first explicit kiss? The only other one I can think of was the one in Haruhi and that was hidden.
It might be. They don’t go for them very often, that’s for sure.
Ohandalso, I agree – the fact that they went cannon with the yuri-shippers dreams just made it all the better. I never expected that from KyoAni!
There was one in Kanon from memory, and possibly one from one of the Clannad OVA. But yeah, this was probably the first time we get such a great shot at a kiss scene. Kyoani must be throwing out some Yuri vibes before Free comes out!
The Haruhi kiss was shown from a far shot, with the characters’ faces covered up.
The Kanon kiss only showed the characters bodies but not their faces while they’re at it.
The Clannad kiss was also done from a far shot, despite the characters’ faces not being covered up.
So this IS kind of a first for Kyo-Ani. 🙂
a new flag :3
That was one fabulous kiss.
Deko x Skinka ftw!
Of all the shows I thought could pander to my shipping it wouldn’t be this. DekoxShinka required heavy use of googlies and yet this master troll took it and went through with it. So thank you for that KyoAni.
“That’s not a flag!”. Poor naive girls, huge vehement denial IS a flag. Have they not watched any tsundere laden shows?
That’s a very easy question to answer. It’s ILLEGAL to show that on Japanese TV. Specifically, the censorship law states that a TV show cannot show any Minor(fictional or not)imbibe any form of alcoholic beverage. This is where the censorship gets weird, apparently the rule only covered the actual act of drinking alcohol but never stated that they could show a minor GETTING drunk. So Japanese TV shows exploit this bizarre loophole by having the character getting drunk on anything non-alcoholic. Apparently, they thought the loophole was funny because it became common enough to be a trope.
Fair enough, in which case the law is just f*ckin’ stupid. I did have a convo about this on twitter shortly after the post went up, and the way Ano Natsu got around it was by having a drink that was obviously alcohol but called “Dynamite Drink”. Same thing with Hayami’s (of Minami-ke) “juice”. They can dodge the censors all they want, but getting drunk off candy or cake is just fuckin’ stupid…it would have to be liquid for that to work!
No, I’d rather they drink “apple juice” (turns out to be cider) or “grape juice” (turns out to be wine) or “barley water” (okay, that’s just a straight euphemism for beer, so maybe not that one). If you’ve gotta get crap past the censors, make it a joke instead of a joke, if you catch my drift.
Also, thanks, now I’ve spent 30 minutes on TV Tropes. My free time!!
Probably first time I went aware of that law quirk was in Love Hina when Narusegawa went on to get drunk on… oolong tea? (served in beer mugs, to make things even more obvious…)
Haha,our beer-loving Stilts just had to bring that up!I’m personally into wine myself and I understand perfectly though 😛 Most of the adults in my country kind of admire teenagers that take a sip of alcohol,not to mention those that can hold their’s,even if they’ll be tsun-tsun about it and tell them that they shouldn’t be drinking.
Beer and whiskey loving Stilts. It is to my eternal pride that there are three people in this world who call me by the name Whiskey, one of whom doesn’t know my real name.
Actually, there are a number of cakes and candies that have a high alcohol content. Hyouka had Eru getting drunk on candies that she had been given. They actually exist. They’re a candy shell that’s filled with high proof brandy. Real rum cake or fruit cake (not the crap they sell in stores) can be very high in alcohol content.
Was glad to be reminded of chu2koi agn.
Indeed, with nothing different than before <3
Chu2 should have had more development on its side couples.
Message received.
https://randomc.net/image/Chuunibyou%20Demo%20Koi%20ga%20Shitai/Chuunibyou%20Demo%20Koi%20ga%20Shitai%20-%20OVA%20-%20Large%2030.jpg
When I watched this episode originally and remembered how Stilts reacted to Dekomori going Yuri for Rika for a moment way back, I thought about how he would react to what happened in this episode. I didn’t think he’d actually blog it, but I’m glad he did cause there’s even more to love in this ep.
Rika’s Chuunibyou now seems to be a device for dealing with her embarrassment, but it’s become less of a crutch and she doesn’t stay in it constantly like she did before so I’m glad they didn’t reset her character development. On the boat she was all Rika. Still, a kiss between our main couple would have been nice.
Nyahaha, I’m a bit bad about blogging OVAs since I never remember that they’re happening until a few days after the fact, but you can thank Croos for reminding me this was coming. Plus, I needed to get back into the swing of blogging episodically a bit…
What I want to know is, who does Nibutani like. She mentioned that she also found it hard to express her feelings when it was up to the girl to take the initiative in a relationship.
I hope to see something about this next season. She should not be the only one left behind if the others get together. (I’m not sure how I feel about the yuri thing)
I disagree. Not everyone needs to be neatly paired off – that doesn’t happen in real life, and certainly doesn’t happen in the short time frame of a year or two of high school. Given that such stories don’t usually give characters unimportant love interests (you know, those boyfriends or girlfriends that make up the majority of most of our dating lives) that they just date for a little while and break up with, any love interest for Shinka would assumedly be a serious one…which would then leave Dekomori out in the cold. So would she need a love interest too?
Better not to go down that route unless mining Deko-chan’s loneliness is what they want to go for. Which would be too drama-y for me.
I agree with you, but I just wanted to know if she has had/have a love interest. The kiss between those two is nice for comedic relief but it would be nice to know more about their past, etc.
There are several baking recipes for cakes that include alcohol, an example would be the tres leches recipe. I remember when I was learning how to bake I was shown that you only add a single shot worth of tequila to the mix to give it that special flavor, add too much and it’ll detract from the flavors, and way too much and Then You can get a cake to get drunk off. DekomorixNibutani OTP!!
At last, a proper explicit kiss by Kyo-Ani, albeit a same-sex one. Maybe they’re trying to prepare people for the inevitable in FREE!, catered to the fujoshi market? o.O
Anyway, congratulations to Nibutani x Dekomori ship setting sail, with official seal of approval.
I think I read about Chuu2koi’s second season being more hijinks-oriented. Can’t find it, but I hope it’s true; I agree that the comedy worked way better than the drama.
i missed this show so much and it makes me sooooo happy that the franchise is not done yet!
i missed stilts writing too!
Dahaha, domo domo *bows*
I didn’t even have any yuri goggles on and Nibutani/Dekomori still got to me.
Heck, I even remember thinking the Yuri shippers were being ridiculous. But I’m pleasantly surprised to be wrong.
“Why’d they go back to the old, alternating, super-seizure-inducing OP? Someone give me my meds! *herk*”
Erm, for information’s sake, all the BDs and DVDs came with both versions of the opening, so if you were watching a stream or download, it’s possible that the uploader decided to use the Director’s Cut opening instead.
*COUGH COUGH COUGH*
https://randomc.net/image/Chuunibyou%20Demo%20Koi%20ga%20Shitai/Chuunibyou%20Demo%20Koi%20ga%20Shitai%20-%20OVA%20-%20Large%2030.jpg
>They had a nice call-back to the whole Mayan apocalypse thing at the end. Remember the little things, that’s the KyoAni motto. Keep doing that and I’ll love you more.
Could you explain what’s up with that? I seriously don’t get what you mean, then again, I’m way too tired right now…
Basically throughout the series, there were little mentions and references to the occult rumor that the end of the world was predicted in the Mayan calendar. As Rikka and Yuuta obviously dabbled way too much in the occult for kicks, ending the OVA with Yuuta reciting to himself, “Wasn’t the world supposed to end?” is just another way KyoAni loves to highlight the little details.
Oh my. Hilarious right off the bat. God I missed these characters so much. The show may have ended at a very strange pace, but these are what I loved about the show. And this OVA delivers in spades as much entertaining stuff as possible!
why is everybody saying “Yuri goggles Yuri ship” it was just an accident have we become so delusional by anime that we can’t tell the difference a close friendship and a romantic relationship because that what Nibutani and Dekimori have a close friendship that borders on sisters. sigh Nobody was doing “Yuri ships” when Sailor moon was on. I don’t mind yoai or yuri I just get annoyed when people claim two members of the same sex are gay for each other just because of little mishaps.
Well, to me I see the “Yuri goggles Yuri ship” as just lighthearted fun among the comments. Besides, I think most of us do know the difference between a close friendship vs romantic relationship. I also agree with you that Nibutani and Dekomori really are more like sisters. The thing is, since mid-season 1 Nibutani and Dekomori interact with this sort of love/hate/tsundere/I-know-your-“dark”-past relationship such that if the same interaction happened happened between a girl and boy, it would raise “flags” for a romantic relationship. Add the trolling we got in this episode from KyoAni and it’s easy to see why Yuri goggles/ships abound. Anyway, just my two cents.
Btw, I just watched all of season 1 again (probably my 6th time around) thanks to this OVA…
*Patiently waiting for season 2*
I see thank you for the comment Have you noticed the lack of boy rivals recently in magical girl anime? I know creators are trying to reach a male audience but creators can do that without going do the icky route(and by icky I mean loli) Look at cardcaptor sakura all those characters behaved like typical kids at that age would have. I have nothing against kids characters as long as they act like kids like Anko from Tamako market or Momo from Vinved operation.
Just to comment:
Marathoned entire series, mixing it with reading commentary by Stilts here on RC. It was amazingly fun ride, and I thank for getting my sights on the series, even belatedly.
May the power of darkness keeps you from teh minions of the Bureau!