Well it's now 2:00 am and I need to wake up sooner than I'd like, but seeing how I've already stayed up this late to finish the novel, I may as well see it through to the end and leave a short little review. Also it's just sad to me that such a charming novel has no reviews yet : (

For starters, I thoroughly enjoyed this short story. Not once did I lose focus while binge reading it. Relative to most stories I've found on here, this one feels far... more>> more cohesive and complete than others. This is probably due to a combination of the original author's efforts, (the translator's time too of course) and the simple fact that shorter stories like this one tend to stick to and develop a small group of characters more than the longer novels I'm used to.

As the synopsis would have you guess, the main characters of the story are both chuunis (Japanese - middle schooler sickness. Basically obsessed with fantasy, reject reality, etc.) One is finally determined to accept reality, and even somewhat successfully settles into a "normal" life for a brief few days after entering junior high school. The other is a chuuni of the highest order. The top chuun, as it were.

The story itself is nothing complex, just a coming of age story of angsty teens from another country, but the storytelling can be very charming. As our MC is forced to befriend the top chuun, he finds himself dragged back into the fantasy world he oh-so-recently escaped from. The normal life he found for himself proves fragile in the face of the immense cruelty children can be capable of, and all but immediately falls apart following his public association with chuuni girl. (First few chapters)

From then on the story is mostly character development. There is a main plot that has a fairly well executed climax, but the real strong point of this novel is the relationships between all of the characters. The cast is small as I said before, but there are still enough characters that it's impressive how meaningful the author makes their interactions to their development.

At 48 chapters, the story doesn't drag. A couple hours is more than enough time to finish it, including time for a coffee break. If you enjoy romcoms, if you want a change of pace from long, serialized stories that just can't reel themselves in, or if you're looking to kill some time on a long commute or just in bed, this one is worth checking out.

P.S. There are surely many things that a review should have that I have left out here. There are also probably a few things that prove redundant or entirely unnecessary for a review that I have included. I meet any such protestations with a protestation of my own: I'm d*mn tired, leave me alone. Write your own review. <<less

The author only asks you to give this novel a little bit of your time, and in return, he offers a short and fun light novel.

There are no glaring plot holes, there are no convoluted storylines. There's only an entertaining romantic comedy that doesn't underestimate the reader, doesn't takes itself too seriously, and doesn't dwell on unnecessary drama.

It's not perfect, but just reading about the two main characters was so fun that I can comfortably recommend this with a 5-star rating.

I seriously hated everyone with a name, except the antagonists. I literally cannot relate to anyone, and when the author tried to make me care about the bullied characters, I could only find myself wishing they would all just get beaten up.

The MC is irrational, the teacher who kept blackmailing him is just an unfunny jerk I’ll ask you: is it fine for a nurse to threaten a patient to take care of another patient? the teacher wants MC to throw his social life away to help someone (which should... more>> be the teacher’s job), or his embarrassing past will be exposed. said embarrassing past got his brain scanned, eardrum punctured, family relations ruined, and bullied for three years. get this: a teacher is explicitly threatening to kill mc’s social life if MC doesn’t comply. what is the risk of complying? the death of mc’s social life. but the thing is: MC could’ve just explained his past away as an embarrassing childhood memory, and all would be fine. he doesn’t need to wrap himself up in ridiculous matters, and the teacher’s threats are basically on the level of a mosquito bite.

When the MC stepped in for heroine, that was when I stopped rooting for him. The author seems to want the MC to be a smart or at least logical person. He is not. All those inner monologues are just his insecure justifications for his actions, as if he’s indecisive about his stance and his alliance. If you want to do something, support someone, preserve yourself, then go all the way. He reasoned that if he could help heroine find whatever she was looking for faster, she would leave him alone quicker. so what does he do? nothing. During his second interaction with heroine, I get that under pressure, one’s head can go haywire. I don’t get how that could lead to him believing in science fiction, fantasy and the occult are real. at any point during the scene, he could’ve played everything off as a joke. he was even calm at the beginning of the scene, where he had plenty of time to plan an excuse.

”Oh! You’re the girl from last time. Here, I’ve kept your item.” OR “Haha! Little girl, are you lost?” OR “Sorry, stomach ache!”

I don’t know why heroine was so depressed, and I never bothered to find out. She is self centred. She is... uhhh... that’s it.

The heroine is a hypocrite. she claims the world is unfair and narrow minded. she herself is unwilling to to keep personal life and hobby separate, and wants to join them, then blaming society for looking at her weird. I literally have no idea what started her chuunibyou, and what started her depression, and if those two were started simultaneously. literally nothing is explained about her, maybe it is in the last chapters, but I just cannot stand reading anymore. I have forced myself for 40+ chapters. no more.

I don’t remember laughing at all, I felt no tears well up in my eyes, the only anger I felt was at everyone except the most rational: the bullies. I did not even yawn when reading, maybe because I was too bored to be engrossed that I could breath properly. <<less