This Anime is centered around chuunibyou victim Andou Jurai, or as he calls himself, Guiltia Sin Jurai. He runs his high school's literature club along with four other girls; Chifuyu, Matoko, Tomoyo, and Sayumi. One day while doing a farm of live action roleplaying in the club, Andou awakens some sort of power within all of his friends. The each are given a different power. Chifuyu, the youngest of the group, is able to create materials and pocket dimensions out of nowhere. Matoko is given the powerful ability to manipulate and materialize any of the elements. Tomoyo is able to stop, slow, or manipulate time. Sayumi can "return everything to it's original state". This includes everything from healing to destroying. Andou finds the seemingly useless power of creating a small purple flame in his right palm. Andou creates names for each of the powers in his infamous notebook called "Bloody Vivre". This also becomes a running gag, as his notebook of nicknames was supposed to be named "Bloody Bible", but Sayumi told him how to spell bible wrong.
The characters progress exceptionally, and their personalities become more and more complex. Andou becomes much more serious towards the end, where as he started out the happy-go-luck geek of the group. Matoko begins as the shy but kawaii cook, but evolves into this amazingly bitchy badass. The amazing part is, she stays kawaii the whole time. Tomoyo is revealed to be a hardcore otaku mid-season. Sayumi is counseled into pursuing Andou romantically by his rival chuuni. I'll cover this subplot more in Relationships. Sayumi definitely has the most growth out of all the starting characters.
Andou ends up naming their powers as follows: Closed Clock for Tomoyo, Over Element for Matoko, Route of Origin for Sayumi, World Create for Chifuyu, and finally, Dark and Dark for his own. He goes on to meet fellow chuunibyou, Kiryu Hajime. Kiryu introduces himself as Hellkaiser Luci First, which Andou takes as a joke. It is later revealed that Kiryu is actually the leader of a strike team within the secret super-powered war known as the "Fairy War". This will be explained in depth in Story. We briefly get to meet Kiryu's strike team, but they are never dwelled upon.
Plot:
For a large portion of the series, we see numerous examples of the literature club using their powers for recreation. We are also exposed to many examples of their powers interfering with everyday life. For instance, Chifuyu's friend picks up on the fact that she has a secret in the first couple episodes. To save their secret, Andou tells Chifuyu's friend that he is in fact a lolicon (pedophile, pervert). This becomes a running gag for the duration of the series.
Towards the very end we are introduced to the aforementioned "Fairy War". This is the idea that there is an ancient war going on between different teams of super-powered people. This is showed when there is a whole episode from Kiryu Hajime's perspective. We see his team and their endeavors to destroy all opposition. This becomes a relatively boring part of the overall story, since none of the main characters are referenced. There is some crossover between the fairy war subplot and the main story on the final episodes, although it is not clear enough to be interesting.
Relationships:
This anime promotes the side effects of breaking the shoujo relationship mold. A love hexagon is featured for the duration of the anime, between the 4 literature club girls, a 5th girl, and Andou Jurai. This is a little hard to keep up with, but very worth it since it's so entertaining. Personally, I loved the way that the love connections never got resolved, although that may have bugged some people.
The characters interact with each other very realistically, which adds a sense of depth to the series. The girls had conversations and exchanges with one another that were really interesting and incredibly fun to watch. I was very surprised by how compelling the relationships in this show were. I would highly recommend it to anyone.
Andou's relationship with Chifuyu is really something to look at. He acts as her big brother, whereas she has a huge crush on him. This is hilarious to watch play out, as her friend, Kuki Madoka, is very protective her. I loved seeing this storyline, and how it wrapped up was incredibly cute. I will not spoil it, since this is something you need to see to appreciate.
Verdict:
This is a must watch for fans of shoujo and shounen alike. I loved the way the story progressed and the characters developed. I would watch this multiple times if I had the time. It's a masterpiece to say the least, and a cult classic for sure. The whole thing is great, although the ending definitely could have been more meaningful.
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