The Death of Childhood in Love, Chunibyo, and Other Delusions
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
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I have just finished watching both seasons of this and enjoyed both seasons. I was wondering why than I found the video where you explained it. I wish I could point out that in the last episode Rikka did start acting out her delusions again. It doesn’t at all undermine the first season and focuses on what a relationship means. None of the characters were fully cured. But I did like your opinion in this video but I totally disagree with your opinion on season 2.
dude i though you were dead or done with youtube don't scare us like that
Can confirm. Had the bell ring but still did not pop up in any of my feeds until now :(
Hey so considering it's been 4 years... SAO abridged has had some more episodes. Do you think there is some good stuff to talk about or is it still waiting time? Also love the vids bro
@@EvilPoke5 his Chanel just came back from the dead it needs time to rebuild and get with the new youtube overlord
C.S. Lewis put it best and I couldn't agree more: *“Critics who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”*
I agree this whole heartedly, the lack of imagination and trying to appease others is not that of the adult but that of a child who wishes to seem so. To be adult is to enjoy the things you do and to do them despite knowing that others might think less of you for it
Lao'tzu said something like "Seek the approval of others, and you will be their prisoner", and I think it touches the same idea
exactly
Wait, that is the full “When I became a man I put away childish things“ quote? That is the exact opposite of what i thought it said.
@@madsliNo, the full quote is a Bible verse. It's basically talking about how you grow in your Christian life, as an adult Christian it's not good enough to act like a "young Christian", you're supposed to know right from wrong and you're supposed to know good doctrine and serve others etc.
The illustration used is milk vs meat, milk is great for babies, but as the young Christian grows, he needs to move onto meat.
This will probably get buried, but I'm glad you're okay. With the state of the world right now, it's really easy to wonder if, when someone "disappears", if they're even still alive. I'm glad to know you are, even if you hadn't made a cool and fun video!
But seriously, the video was great and your editing style makes me laugh super hard. Glad you're back, Brian! :)
Don't worry. Growing up does suck but at some point they'll become old enough not to care anymore and form a DnD group to relive those feelings of fantasy and wonder. Or write light novels. Or become animators. Basically any creative pursuit.
The true path to adulthood is realizing no one actually cares what you like or do. So go nuts. Form a LARP group and have some fun.
I wholly agree on the D&D point. It was such bliss to find a way to be engaged with my friends like that again when I discovered D&D in college.
I'm honestly really happy to hear that.
I would low-key love to see a psudo-follow up vid for this one where EP just chats about Larping.
As long as you have a way to keep yourself alive without being a burden on others.
Yeah, but that's because we're not in Japan. You don't have time to have fun in Japan. That time is for going drinking with your work friends.
This only further solidifies my decision to pursue the arts as a career as an adult. The boring conformist reality of adulthood needs some relief for many people and I want to help be a part of that relief.
Good luck!
Well I hate to be that guy, but the boring adults who write scientific papers have shown that's probably a wasted effort. People become happier the older they become. 40s and 50s are the happiest times of people's lives. After that your friends start dying so that's why it goes down. But late teens into your 20s yeah that time sucks.
@@myself2noone I'm gonna be that guy so who cares? I wanna see some cool art!
When the world needed him most he returned
Pretty much
The avatar Aang
Hell yeah
yup
I was kind of on both ends of this, I always loved making up stories and I managed to get my friends into playing pretend with me, but we were all bullied for it so they slowly stopped, I still had my sister though and she loved my stories almost as much as I did, but she's a few years younger than me + our mom was scared I was putting delusions into her head (even though I'm positive that was never the case) so eventually I stopped playing with her and that kind of caused us to drift apart and now we don't really spend time together. Now that I look back at it the worst thing is that I literally didn't care when I realized I'm not as interested in pretending to be a witch anymore. I learned how to actually write so I didn't see the point in acting out the stories I could be writing instead. But now I kinda miss it, not childhood as a whole since mine kinda sucked anyway but this aspect of it. I'm still writing my stories, I'm not afraid to be cringe or anything, but it's just not the same
Funny enough, I'm in the same boat. I didn't even realize I had chunibyo vibes when I was younger (even though I always knew it was fake) but now I realize that was just me acting out the stories I wanted to write. Even now when I'm thinking of how I want characters to talk or how should this fight scene go, I act it out. I talk to myself daily thinking of how this can work and where this goes. I guess the big difference is this is what I want to do with my life and it can be a benefit to society.
Same here, me and my friends always pretended we were anime characters who were fighting each other to the death. Who of us has the best moves, strategies, tactics etc. I did not mind the bullying, cause mainly, if someone made fun of us, I fought back. Little did I know that my friends were feeling it so much. I feel guilty for bringing them to my delusions and making them a target of adulthood.
once in my childhood, i swear on myself to not abandon my childhood. I still have some left, and i hold it dearly.
9:18 this hit me like a truck, IDK why it did but I seriously had to pause the video and lay down thinking for a bit about people like that with fantasy, youth and just pure upbeat energy eventually get turned into boring businessmen by this shitty society we live in, it's an absolute shame and I am determined to not end up like that. I'm currently 22 and finishing up my bachelor's degree, I'm gonna take a year off and truly do what I've always wanted to do, be a kid again.
Heck yeah my dude, you gotta life a reason that you want to thrive
I mean this in a genuinely curious sense, if you even get back to this anyway, how's it treating you?
@@bastardinian I've been happier than ever, Started streaming again with a very small but loyal audience, been delivering packages as a full-time job but loving life so far. Its so relaxed
It's always a pleasure to see you upload, my friend.
Nice to see you return. I relate a lot to the playing pretend. I played pretend until high school and then poof I knew I had to stop. No more playing pretend with my friends only talking and hanging out during breaks. It made me sad and unhappy for a while but I got used to it. Now dnd is in my life and man I missed stuff like it. It's not the same and the spark is dimmed but there is still a place to play and believe in magic if only for a little while.
I hope to get into dnd someday too, it sounds like fun even though I'd be terrible at it at first. I was probably one of the first people to grow up among the people I knew, so I never really got to enjoy those things for long (maybe a year or two at most, before my age even hit double digits). Maybe I'll be able to convince myself to play dnd eventually, but right now it just seems like a lot of work and I don't have the imagination for it, nor the friends who would be interested in trying it out.
Much like the difference between feeling like you’re there, and simply being a actor in the setting
thanks for giving my girl Dekomori the character analysis she deserves. i went into Chuunibyou under the impression that it was purely cute and fun shenanigans, so needless to say that the direction it ended up going in felt like a betrayal no one else understood. hearing that i wasn't alone in thinking that, and that in fact Dekomori's treatment in the show exemplifies that theme to a painful degree, is really cathartic.
best of luck with your meds btw, and know that we'll keep waiting for as long as you need.
The reason is because Dekomori was not a part of the original light novel itself and was an anime only character. She was just somehow fit along with the main group in anime as a comic relief.
@@Rikka_V1 oh, word?? that's really interesting, thanks for letting me know! i'll have to check out the light novel sometime :o
Wild, i remember reading the novel in middle school but i dont remember that dekomori wasn't there
I am happy to see you're back, and it's clear this topic is very close to your heart, but I think you projected so much of yourself in this series that you missed the point it was trying to make. For one, the series is never really about acknowledging reality. That's just what Yuuta (and us, through his protagonist POV) assume at first. However by the time Rika's backstory is revealed and the scene on the beach happens, it's clear she always understood her fantasies were just that: fantasies. It's just that she came to rely on them to be able to process her grief and communicate with others. Which is why she couldn't drop the act so easily. But as the first season's ending implies, the second's sets up and the movie's ultimately argues, a person is perfectly capable of retaining that childish spark into their adulthood while also being a functioning member of society, and there's nothing wrong with that. Throughout the movie Rika is shown subverting expectations and proving her self-dependence during her and Yuuta's elopement. It shows how much she's grown in ways such as how she's now able to drop the act when Yuuta starts getting exasperated with her. And she also ultimately chooses to retain her chuuni persona, confident that she can still build a life with Yuuta without letting it go. And with the movie clearly foreshadowing their eventual marriage and child in a positive light, that is clearly the message that is being sent.
So Chuunibyou is really a happy tale about the positive impact of retaining that childish sense of wonder and amazement with the world. Yes, it shows the potential pitfalls of relying on it too much and using it to avoid reality, but it also argues that you can engage with it in a healthy manner and that as long as you're able to handle your responsabilities, it's perfectly okay to not "grow out of it". Even if others think you're weird, you will eventually find people who will appreciate you for who you are and you will be okay.
At the end of it all, Rika is acknowledged to be responsible enough by her older sister that she's allowed to live on her own above Yuuta, yet she's still sporting that eyepatch and visiting him via rope in the middle of the night. She gets a happy ending without having to give up that aspect of herself, and I am certain the series is saying that the same can be true for others.
I hope this helps you in viewing the series through a different lens.
_man I really should have watch this anime huh_
True maturity is having the courage to stand up and be proud of yourself for the things you enjoy. No, none of us are perfect people, and we all have a lot of growth to do, but there's a difference between being a responsible person and forcing yourself to conform out of fear or shame. My imagination is the part of myself that I'm the most proud of, and I refuse to live a hollow existence by giving that up, no matter what anyone thinks or says. And I'm 29 already, they didn't break me 11 years ago and they won't do it now.
I never played pretend. When other kids played house, I played Risk. It led me to missing out on a lot of social connections I could have made, but it also let me practice my creativity in other ways. I was running a campaign for my sister before I even knew what D&D was. So even though I don't completely understand the sentiment behind this one, I can say with confidence that the fun doesn't have to end. There's someone out there who's into what you're into.
It doesn't happen to everyone but for the vast majority of adults we're told to grow up and have fun in more "mature" ways. We don't get to have the same reckless wonder we had as kids. We get thrown into a cold cruel unfortunate world and we get told to just deal with it. Not great but it happens
Same with me, but lots of random books instead of Risk. I feel like instead of a intense and short live Chunibyo phase, I got a mild but drawn out one that is still going. I love talking to people by using cool sounding words or quotes randomly, most people will just play along thinking it's a joke. It also helps me with work since it helps me come up with badass dialogue for the scripts I have to write.
Plus, those same people are usually in hobby were doing that is the norm not the exception and it would be weird not to participate. For example, my MTG play group loves to play pretend when a stupid play is about to happen. Its really fun to fuck around with people that have the same mindset.
Yup, I was the same way, more interested in math and knowledge than pretending. I used to think that it meant that I was better or smarter than my peers because of that, but now I know that I was simply different, and arguably a bit weird lol. Oh well, I'm happy with the person I am, and so are the people who know me. I guess that's what growing up was for me, learning to accept and value people who were very different from me.
So while others were chasing vain glory you were studying the Risk?
Oof, this hits a little close to home for me. I was playing pretend until my mid-teens and tbh, I only stopped because my best friend (who was the only friend I had who I could play pretend with by then) got invested in the pretend game she was doing with our other friend who was slightly younger and I wasn't really interested in it. I think I even got jealous about it, but that might've also been the crush I had on her that my stupid ass hadn't realized was there.
After that, we just kinda started drifting apart until we just kinda stopped talking altogether. I've tried looking for ways to contact her, but somehow I've never been able to find her on any social media. I still miss her a lot. I've got a lot of baggage and social anxiety now, so it's difficult to get into that headspace with anyone else. I still cherish the memories of us playing together, but I worry she might look back on it as "cringy" or something.
I disagree. Growing up doesn't mean putting away your toys; it means allowing your toys to grow with you. It means recognizing when it is and isn't time to play.
Like... Obviously, as you grow up, you get more responsibilities, and can't and shouldn't spend as much time playing as a child. But if you decide that just because you've been on the planet for an arbitrary number of laps around the sun that you're not allowed to do things that you enjoy anymore, of course you're going to be miserable.
The legend returns!!!
Personally I don't think childhood has any intrinsec property that makes it better than adulthood. If anything, any time I look back at my childhood all I can see is the disrespect adults had towards me just because I was a child, or how classmates would look down on me for being an autistic weirdo, or the complete lack of freedom I had, not being able to go where I wanted to go, say what I wanted to say, dress as I wanted to dress, so on and so forth.
Nowdays I have a good number of friends who like the way I am and are perfectly happy to play pretend with me, be it straight up roleplaying, writing and sharing our silly stories, or through talking endlessly about comics and books. As an adult I can be weird, truly and freely a silly weirdo, and as long as it doesn't damage my profesional life no one can force me to change anything about myself. Sure, I'm more stressed because I have more responsabilities, but the fact I'm capable of honding these responsabilities on the first place is kind of nice. I can carve a space for myself, insted of having no choice but to get dragged by the currents of the wind (The wind being the adults around me) like a child is. I have never, not even once, understood what people mean when they say children are happier, you couldn't pay me enough to be a child again!! being a kid is awful!!! Being an adult rules!!!! Sucks that people lose their sense of wonder at the world we live in. Glad it's not me!
The intrisec property that makes childhood better than adulthood are, actually, two:
1- No real responsability because of lack of recognized capacity for such.
2- Lack of development of the brain causing vivid allucinations more easy to reach. It's what people usually calls "children imagination", lack of knowledge coupled with biological incapacity to understand patters and reach a grounded solution leads to everything being more mystical and fantastic.
One of my core beliefs is that childhood is superior to adulthood (I'm now in my 30s) by quite a margin and here's why: for the average kid in the western world even in low income families they usually don't have the stress that adulthood brings which vastly makes for a happier mind and more carefree attitude. You don't have to worry about what food your going to eat and what to buy, how your going to support yourself. Yet at the same time most kids in the west enjoy many freedoms like access to info, the Internet (mainly, depends on how strict parents are with online usage), TV, hobbies. Childhood also means being naivete so many of the horrors of the world are still unknown meaning less cynicism. The magic of Christmas is still intact, I lost it around age 11. The perception of time is vastly slower which in turn goes back to my first point - less stress and worry. You can get away with not taking care of yourself but then once your an adult it seems you have to do all sorts of crap just to maintain the status quo health wise. I will concede one big thing kids can't do is travel abroad by themselves which is one of the most wonderful privileges that is now just being taken away due to tyranny/restrictions.
I sometimes think how awful it is not to have a good childhood. I haven't lost many of the positives in terms of thought-processes or the sense of wonder as I ask the why all the time. I still enjoy many of the things I did as a kid with adjustments. Anxiety and over-thinking have really screwed with me which I didn't have before being a teen.
@@tropicalsunset2546 Wonderful theory. It's been tested you're wrong. Science has repeatedly shown that your 40s and 50s are the happiest times of your life.
For me, I never stopped playing pretend with my imaginary characters, I just always imagined alone even at elementary school age. I rather play imagination with myself than the other kids and that's pretty much what I spent my recess on everyday. Now as an adult I still have the imaginations and do so everyday in my own room, I don't think it's necessary for everyone to grow out of having an imagination.
PREACH!!
A fascinating video! And truthfully, I find I disagree with at least this shows idea of adulthood. In fact, I would argue Deko is the Most Mature of the group, and it's the other children's perception of what adulthood Should Be that hurt her. I may be influenced by years of vlogbrothers videos insisting that A: adult life is pretty great even if you can't spend every waking free moment playing Dragon Dancers and B: it is still acceptable to Fully, Unironically enjoy the things in life you enjoy, But I think that mentality - and finding people who share it - has really helped me get to the age I am now. Because imagining adulthood as inescapable toil in matching Grey suits was not helping me accept that time passed, and that I had responsibilities. Even as you do get older and it's more a conscious choice to play pretend than truly believing the ribbons are magic, it's also important to recognize that you have a responsibility to yourself, and to your happiness, and if that means you dress up and draw circles and pretend that you're a wizard, That's Good! At least, It's better than shortening your life maximizing your misery because you're trying to be the kind of adult you saw as a child.
Well, something to keep in mind that the show's actually showing Japan's idea of adulthood. Which is... Just as toxic as shown in the show.
It's a fascinating divergence in cultures and horrifying example of an alternate path of societal growth. (Not that America is much better in many aspects.)
This comment is one of those random things that I come across every now and then that make me question my English competency. May I ask you to sum up your idea because I think you have an interesting opinion but I'm not sure if I understand it correctly?
@Yuşa Çetin Yeah! Essentially, this video explains that the show is sending the message that the characters see adulthood as giving up everything pretend and enjoyable. The characters that accomplish this are miserable. Even the characters who do NOT see adulthood this way - who can have fun playing pretend and still function well in society, and are therefor well adjusted and able to balance their work and leisure time - are hurt by this, as their friends take away the possibility of their games to "grow up." I personally think that is not the correct or healthiest idea of adulthood. It makes the inevitable fact of time passing feel unessesarily terrifying, because as an adult you can find imaginary worlds to enjoy and people to enjoy them with.
I love this video but I'm not sure I totally agree with the end. To the people out there who miss seeing an entire other world while running in the woods with your best friend, or who played with toys, or costumes, adventures and pretend games, if you think all that creativity and imagination has been crushed by adulthood; its not. It comes back. It's still you in there. You just need the inspiration again.
For me, I found it when I started playing & writing D&D, and all that excitement and ideas eventually came flooding back. (and my worldbuilding is way better than when I was 13 lol)
You can find it for yourself, the kid in you is not gone.
I mean, you can make space for these things even as an adult, tho it is true you cannot probably share them openly, you can build safe spaces and recruit likeminded people to share. Frankly I have been into vtubers for the last 2 years and thinking about it, it all feels like a collective game of pretend, and there is nothing wrong about that.
I'm 40 and still have fun pretending to cast magic summoning circles. It's called D&D! Or, LARP, if you're a theater kid 😁 Growing old and growing up doesn't mean tossing away everything you love; it just means figuring out how to fit it in between the other, more pressing, more boring stuff 😊
Exactly
PREACH!!
A true sign of adulthood is that you don't mind being childish.
I feel like an important addition to just really get through is that while you do have to accept reality, you can still LARP. Sure, you have to recognise objectivity but, as you said at the start, what are these childhood fantasies if not just LARPing with less steps
You're back! This is like finding out my favorite show hasn't actually been canceled!
To me you can grow up, and you can mature but you don't need to lose what made things fun as a kid. things like DnD, and other things like RPGs let's you 'play pretend' as an adult, or at least allow you to stretch your imagination.
HOLY SHIT HES NOT DEAD ❗️❗️❗️
I agree but also disagree. Yes, we can never go back to the old childhood whimsy we once knew, and yes, embracing and having to conform to the adult world is a soul crushing and dismal process. But there can be catharsis instead of despair. While the endless creativity and imagination found within our childhoods may pass, we can still experience the excitement and joys of the things that we enjoy. We all become adept at conforming and following the rules, and now that you have you can break them and reconnect with that inner kid you left behind so long ago
I was a bit of a social outcast in middle school, so I dwelled a lot in the world of imagination, but didn't really project it outwards. I did well in school, but I coped with loneliness by being an otherkin for a few years while talking to a few similar-minded online friends through a forum. I had many other fantasies/wishes as well related to things from Spyro, Pokemon, Digimon, Dragonball Z and such.
I somewhat grew out of it in high school, but some level has stayed through my hobby, building Bionicle-themed lego. I have a signature character of sorts who was initially a strong projection, but now 10+ years later... he still kind of is a lesser projection, and still important to me, but I rather use him as a conduit to invent stories in my head, as well as a way to mark my progress as a lego builder by upgrading him occasionally. He's had 12 versions over the years, and I'm currently building version 13.
I may be 27, but lego and Bionicle still rocks.
First of all, I'm so glad to see you're back. I was also a childish middle-schooler. By ninth grade I didn't have any friends because I was "immature". I eventually found friends that didn't mind my idiosyncrasies, but I still am a pretty immature person compared to others. Growing up can be hard but I still enjoy the things people may think of as weird and don't worry about it anymore.
Love the respect dubs get on this channel. Dekomori really felt like the standout performance of the show. Eager to hear the sub vs dub on Madoka, it’s one of the few shows where I am much more accustomed to the sub.
Creating stories is intrinsic to human experience
Dude you need some D&D in your life. It saved mine.
I might feel like maturity and time consumes the imagination and joy of the old.
But I've found it is the old story tellers who are here to show the young how to dream.
And we can only do that by never losing that spark.
Cool video, we're here for you.
I love your chaotic video editing
The saddest thing about this whole video to me is that there are people who genuinely think that the wonder of childhood has to come to an end. The death of wonder would essentially be the same as the death of growth and discovery neither of which end just because someone "grows up" and "becomes an adult."
35, decent job, proper family and taking care of all my responsibilities. And when all that's done and I find a couple of hours for myself, I'd play vidya, I'd watch anime, I'd fantasize about the games and movies I'd make if i ever got the money which i most certainly won't. But I never stopped being a kid, yall ain't tryin hard enough
No. You can pay taxes and take care of a family without taking your imagination out back, and putting a hole in the back of it's head. Rikka would be a wonderful addition to the manga industry or theaters. Dekumori would be great in the video game industry. Work for your bread at the office and build a pillow fort at home, for frick' sake!
"Work for your bread at the office and build a pillow fort at home" is an excellent and very quotable line lol
@@TheTrueDiablix thanks
And THIS
Is why I'm now fully indulging in the things I was convinced were childish just a few years ago. Denying yourself harmless fun because you're "too old for it" is a sign of still being a child. You're still a kid pretending to be grown up, when being mature is understanding that sometimes you have to be all boring and stiff but not all the time. You can still have a favorite stuffed animal, you can still go out and LARP with your friends, you can still make crappy sculptures out of playdough!
Don't give up what you love just because the world tells you to. Love it even more now that you have boring adult responsibilities to fit in your schedule, too. ❤️
When you are in middle school, school itself is about 8 hours of talking to friends in class as you work through problems together. Then you meet up after school and hang out and do whatever.
As an adult, you spend about 8 hours with strangers doing work so you have a place to live and food to eat. Then you go home and do chores, pay bills, go shopping for groceries, then you are so tired you may only have 1-2 hours of free time before you go to bed so you can get up for work to repeat everything again and again.
So it’s more that the burden and exhaustion of taking on more and more responsibility is what turns life into a less fantastical, dull experience.
But it’s about learning to be grateful and enjoy the small things in life, and to spend the few hours of free time you do have on things that truly matter to you.
I was like you as a kid
I still fantasize. I imagine that I'm some goddess' chosen one and I love it.
I know it's not true, and I don't bring it to other people. I know these delusions will evade me one day, but while I still enjoy it, I'll keep playing.
Me too!!
Best...review...ever...as a 28 year old who never wanted to grow up, I'm glad that I didn't give up my imagination! Conformity is a spell weaved by the elders of life dude...they're using using that to make puppets out of everyone! (That's how I see it sometimes) Hey can ya blame me?
I do understand that growing up is something that happens to all of us eventually, but we don't have lose everything that we had in childhood. I would add this quote from the 4th Doctor:
"There is no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes."
ua-cam.com/video/868fv8-wRN0/v-deo.html
I remember when my friends didn't want to play make believe with me anymore. You've gotta respect their choice of course but, things felt empty to me without those games even if I was still drawing everything I imagined. So I turned to the internet and found people to roleplay with - I have so many fond memories. When I grew old enough, I eventually found my way into a DnD group with people who feel the same as me. I still draw everything too, I've gotten fairly good at it now that I'm in my mid twenties. Sure I know how to act the adult when I need to but, it doesn't feel like me and I struggle to connect to other people when I have to. So I don't intend on stopping anytime soon. Sure I guess that makes me childish but, fuck it, I'm having fun and I really don't care.
Your not being childish at all. Your being a mature adult, as per my quoting of Mr. C.S. Lewis.
I never stopped playing pretend, I just got better at hiding it or making it more mundane. I think that's why I have such a love for stories, and Dungeons and Dragons.
I was always told I was really mature for my age, having 3 older brothers 4 years up from you will do that. Pretend is really all I had when I was constantly left behind by them. I pretended to be more mature, pretended to be cool, pretended that I was just like them. I hid my action figures, but my mind would still wander to them. Now I write short stories, I'm a DM for a group of people who love my style, and I'm working on my first novel. While some of that spark has died, I'm proud to say that I'm still good at playing pretend. While adult life can suck, and I carefully juggle social norms and expectations with coworkers, I'll proudly keep my action figures on the shelf and my lightsaber displayed in my living room.
I recommend the book "Doll Bones" to this topic. Children facing the potentiality of having to grow up and lose that spark of imagination and creativity... go through a maturing misadventure where they have to make difficult and weird and upsetting decisions by themselves, facing a definitely haunted doll, end up in a place where they're more mature at the end, but didn't have to give up their imagination. They go back to their childhood game with new possibilities in mind and I can 100% see them becoming lifelong D&D friends.
I mean...
To say that adulthood is being in a loop of unhappiness and conforming to... Uh, "society's standards" I guess, is just being disingenuous and on itself still pretty immature... It lacks worldliness and perspective.
To be an adult is to finally realize that you're free to do as you want. Because growing up is also realizing that no one really cares about what you do with your own life. You're free to wreck yourself to build yourself up and have the agency and power to do so if that's how you desire. To be shackled by the opinions of others, by what people or this nebulous idea of a collective will possibly think of you, is still being a teen basically, the only validation you need to be happy is yours alone, no one else's because your life is not about them.
After you grow up, you realize that truly none of the worries that tormented you for years meant anything. And it's liberating.
So go fucking larp in the middle of the park with your friends, form a secret society on some server and talk about Vidya and anime analysis, draw all the OCs you had as a kid, fuck cringe, that shit is for 16 year olds, you're an adult dammit. If it makes you happy and you're not hurting anyone, no one should have the right to stop you.
Finally! I completely agree with you, although being an adult is not very great, is better than being a child. Although I feel nostalgia to some things I did as a child, but if someone asks me if I want to be one again, I would respond heck no.
@@schris3 to be a kid is, yes, to be free of responsibilities and in some aspects "carefree", blissfully ignorant,l of the world around you, but is also to be devoid of agency, is having to live at the whims of people older than you, virtually powerless as others make the moves and you just sit and watch.
When I was younger and dealing with my own baggage, I yearned to be a kid again, because yes, adulthood is hard and scary when you grow up alone and sheltered. I was having a really hard time adjusting to it all.
I didn't know what to do with myself, and I just wanted someone to take charge again and dissociate from my own life, like I did during all my childhood.
And now years later, after going through a whole process of dealing with my shit, I feel like I'm finally starting to get the hang of things and become truly happy.
Real freedom feels scary at first, but once you get a taste of it, is difficult to want to go back.
damn, just found your channel and I have to say, it's a very well made video, you made proper points that I definitely related to, I also have a chuunibyou side, but I was more of a closet chuunibyou, never really showing it in public or in school cus I knew for a fact that I would've gotten bullied more that I already was, but whenever I got home, all I needed was a blanket and a plastic lightsaber and next thing you know, I'm a grey Jedi on the run from the Jedi council for I knew the flaws of its system, or I could get my kunai I bought from an anime store and suddenly I'm in the naruto universe honing and improving lighting techniques, it was all genuinely fun and I, to this day, still do that, and I have no shame in admitting that I do, it's something precious to me, and to those lurking in the shadows (yes ik what I'm doing lol) you can hide, you can conform, you can adapt to the stale and stark society we live in, but do not ever *ever* give up your imagination, even if someone tells you they're childish, pssh so what? it's that kind of imagination that makes you unique, so cherish it, and don't forget it. Thank you for coming to my TEDTalk :)
Fuck man,
This reminds me of how devastating it was for me to just one day pull out my bionicles from my drawer, look at them, and find their life gone from their eyes. It fucking stung, just looking at the entire universe I had made for them and finding it gone. I just couldn't find enjoyment in them anymore, and it just felt bad.
Omg you’re back! I was just thinking about how I used to love your old podcast a few days ago randomly and I thought about how I hoped you were doing well!
The legend has RETURNED. Welcome back EP, we missed you and your editing style dearly.
Bruh, 6:30 minutes in, and you have repeated all of these points "dekumori losses the most" "dekumori has a good life" "dekumori is happy", "decumori is sad". What is she really? (I'mma keep watching)
This is what I always found strange about the topic of “growing up” - sure you get more responsibilities as you grow up but that doesn’t mean you have to get rid of your hobbies or your toys!
People that think that just because you grew up you can’t enjoy life anymore are the dumbest assholes in the word! Not only they suffer themselves - they want you to suffer together with them!
I’ve always loved Lego, video games and tabletop games - and I will love them till I die! Sure I have less free time now to enjoy them but when I do - I do enjoy my time, I’m not stuck in this perpetual mood of “you’re an adult now - you can’t enjoy things!”
You can only have this interpretation of the story if you ignore season 2, the OVA and the movie
People don't need to "grow up" in the sense of throwing away everything they find fun. I'm in my 30s and haven't. You're making anime youtube videos so clearly haven't either. So it makes sense that Rika doesn't in season 2 etc.
I’ve never seen this anime, but I’m fuckin watching this masterpiece of a video anyways.
I wonder if my interest in fandom spaces is an adult version of playing pretend. Actually, it totally is. I really enjoyed this video, it's really making me think.
Exclamation Point lives! Vulcan lives! How the hell did you manage to make a very passing scene into a socraties level of profound quote
This anime just hammers home the fact that Japanese culture is aggressively conformist. It’s so bad that it’s against dress code for students to be born with brown hair.
Gen X and Boomers love to call Millennials and Gen Z childish due to our open love for videogames, comic books, and cartoons well into our adulthood. The problem is tv shows and movies constantly portray adulthood as “one-size-fits-all.” This is why, even in 2022, there are still people who get shammed for not being married with kids, and have a full time white collar job by the time they’re 30. It’s also ironic that an adult enjoying cartoons is considered childish, yet other adults have no problem using peer pressure to force others to conform. Unlike the previous two generations, Millennials and Gen Z have managed to find a balance. We understand that an adult can enjoy “childish” things without neglecting our adult responsibilities. Thanks to the internet, adults can make a living enjoying videogames, comic books, and cartoons. We can also connect to other people who also share those interests so we don’t have to rely on friends who live in the same area to indulge in our fantasies. Thanks to table top RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons, people of all ages can enjoy fantasy worlds and explore their creative sides in a more “socially acceptable” manner. Growing up doesn’t have to be miserable and boring.
"If you ignore the second season, which I will do..."
I let out an audible sigh of relief lol.
I’m an adult now, and growing up isn’t bad. I learned how to keep that connection to my love of fantasy as an adult. Dnd and creating my worlds helps with growing up. Being solitary in my pursuits (reading and writing) and having to grow up earlier forced me out of my ‘chunni’ phase. (My disability continues to really cut me off from others and that’s okay.) I still wax poetic about life and the things I love on the regular and I don’t think that spark ever truly left.
I never fit into the business suit so I can tear it off and still have fun. Be creative and love the things you love.
Growing old is mandatory
Growing up is optional.
And the older you grow, the more you realize that *most* of the BS of growing up is just that: BS. The parts that are good are doing what it takes to support one another in solidarity and friendship, but other than that? Be gay, do crime, and don't just exist in what you were told life was, *live* your life honestly and fearlessly.
So good to see you again.
+1 engagement
~♡
In my personal opinion, this is an absolute garbage take. The theme of the show is definitely not that everyone has to grow up eventually. In fact, it's the opposite of that: showing that not everyone has to fit into the norms of society to be happy. You say that "adulthood is inescapable and should be willingly accepted", but the entire point of the show is that this isn't the case at all.
Yuuta starts out just like everyone else, believing that Rikka's chuunibyo is just cringe and annoying and that she needs to grow out of it, but throughout the show, he realizes that she is happy the way that she is, and that not everyone can fit the same societal mold and still be who they are. This is clear in episode 9, where he talks to her about how he wouldn't be surprised if the Ethereal Horizon really did exist and that he understands why she does what she does.
When Yuuta does tell her to "take off the eyepatch" and get real, the mood of the show becomes somber and uncomfortable, and something feels very wrong. Every time Rikka talks about staying that way during those episodes, she phrases it as "thats probably what everyone else would want, so I'm ok with it". She's clearly much more depressed than she was before, and so is everyone else. Even Nibutani asks Yuuta if he regrets what he did, even though she never liked Rikka's chuunibyo to begin. You say that Dekomori starts fitting into the base standard of a high schooler after Rikka stops, but under any analysis at all its very clear that it's just an act. She puts on a false confidence as to not lose face in front of Nibutani, but when Kumin starts pretending to be the Second Wicked Eye, Dekomori actually says that it's "pretty deathly cool", so clearly she is still thinking within her chuunibyo, it's just that now she has no one to share it with.
Eventually, Yuuta realizes that this isn't how it should be, and he goes to get her from her grandparents in episode 12. Which, by the way, you basically ignore the entirety of, despite saying that the show had a complete ending at the end of s1. The ending of the season is LITERALLY Yuuta rescuing Rikka from the flat, boring normalcy that he unrightfully forced her into and the two of them continuing to live in the way that makes them both happy: with Rikka as a chuuni teenager. Yuuta reveals the Ethereal Horizon on the beach and they ride home together with Rikka happy again, and back to her normal self. THAT'S the ending of the first season, not Rikka slipping away into the normalcy of adulthood never to do anything unique again.
Also, pretty much every other piece of content the show has to offer (second season, OVA's, movies, etc.) completely disproves your theories but I know you like to ignore those, so I won't mention them either.
Thanks to anyone who actually read this entire thing, hope it helped make sense of why this video gives an absolutely terrible take on the show.
God damn, why was this 15 minute talk about an anime I've never seen the most profound thing I've ever watched
I played pretend hard-core it was my escape from my parents fighting I will never forget the memories I had and made alone yeah I was bullied and called pathetic but it was more a home than my own
God that was bleak
Haven't even watched yet, just happy you're back
I find you either get dragged off to adulthood and rediscover childhood happiness. Or you get dragged off to adult and morph those childhood fun times with adult hood.
I remember being really into roleplay. Making up character finding icons and rping with other peoples characters. I stopped after i hit highschool, stopped playing video games as well. I thought it was about time i grew up. All my friends had left me for an art school and I was stuck trying to make new friends and adjust. Then out of the blue I contacted a friend from online I hadn't spoken to them in years. Not because we were on bad terms but because the cluster fuck of growing up took us out. She told me she was still rping and i fell right back into it. I fell into dnd as well and people who make it their job to play pretend. Fucking Vtubers became a thing- pretend to be a mega anime girl. Yet here I am still in adult hood working almost every single day for 8 to 9 hours. Holding on tight to those few thing that made child me happy. I refuses to let them go life to short to be miserable.
Yay! You're back!
I feel like we need to give all of them a D&D players handbook and a set of dice.
It's okay to keep playing pretend as an adult though.
YOU COME BACK AFTER 9 MONTHS AND MAKE ME CRY AND I THANK YOU FOR IT GODDAMIT
Wow unironically thought this dude died
I never played pretend with others as a child.
I made my own characters and interactions and relationships with toys. But always alone.
I've had a few encounters with people role-playing, but I was never able to understand them or rather how to engage. One kid would make up crazy stories and tell everyone, I wasn't fond of lies. But the stories brought others some entertainment and the person was friendly.
Another talked of magic on a bus ride, I was too slow to understand and keep the momentum.
I was just hopelessly confused with this new type of interaction, I'd read plenty of books so I was familiar with magic tropes, but to suddenly adlib/improvise/do improv was beyond my capabilities. It was cool, I asked questions, but I couldn't see what they saw (physically speaking).
And those are the only instances of role-playing I can remember from my childhood.
I've done two D&D sessions, but unfortunately others weren't interested enough to continue. And it was clear I was the only one somewhat ready and interested in role-playing.
I guess that's some kind of personal growth, being ready to role-playing with others. This is a rare realization for me. Thank you.
Do you like the final Chuunibiyou movie? I thought it was a pretty solid conclusion to the series.
Its a strange feeling that many of us faceless to you and the others commenting that I can understand the sadness of "growing up" and how the world around us demands a "normal person". However I think a part of that child of us all doesn't ever leave us.
Yes the child side has dimmed but sitting in my car at 24 waiting to go to work, I've remembered the times of playing magic at lunch and getting picked on or running around outside fighting with metal poles.
At least now I can still enjoy that in my new hobby of this year in Warhammer 40K. the great childhood dreams of killing monsters and saving the day now exists in each little mini i create and paint. Each of them in a story ive created in my head.
This video hits me personally, especially at the end, where you talked about how you clung on to childishness longer than others and then about your ADHD medication problems. I am basically going through the exact same and have been for years. We are even the same age, as it turns out.
F''k
God that was depressing. Glad to see you back tho!
What a depressing and disappointing conclusion.
This is honestly such a cynical and sad show, and practically acts as a self-fulfilling prophecy. By telling the audience, which would mainly include a number of children at around the age of the characters, that the only thing in life is misery and loneliness, it creates people who are all too willing to give up on even healthy forms of enjoyment which will ultimately stunt their emotional and social development through the years.
To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up. - C.S. Lewis
Is... Really NOT about that.
Like, just want the anime and come to your own conclusion. This guy is just projecting his own baggage on it without looking at the whole picture.
What i do miss about my childhood is just how much energy to create i had, i would do these whole silly little comics just for myself, i knew exactly what would bring me satisfaction to draw. I truly made art for my own enjoyment before anything, and now i think i can never get that back
Can you talk about Kaitou Joker?
HE'S BACK HE'S FINALLY BACK
Nah man, I’m a 55th grader now. I ain’t ever leaving my fantasy behind… until my fucking arthritis stops me from standing on the classroom table anymore.
Grandpa, please put down the sword made of 8 dry erase markers stuck together. The 3 ring binder is not a shield.
I cried watching this
I this was like watching my middle school days though I have to say I stayed true to myself through it my sister did the thing that Deku did
And it wasn't a good time
Woahhh woahh he back he back boys
Not gonna lie, I feel.
As someone who is going through the exact same phase of life as Decomori right now, with all of my friends adapting to society and myself being unwilling to do so, it is lonely.
with everyone gradually leaving childish things such as being yourself behind and fitting into as you said "Boring gray 3 piece business suits" I feel scared.
I feel scared, that the kids I used to run around with in the forest, pretending to be whatever fantastical characters we feel like, are no longer and what is left in their place are the people I hate, the people that forced them to change.
anyway I got a show to watch so if you will excuse me I will be leaving now.
welcome back king 😳😳
Oh snap, my boy is back!
Good to have you back man
This video made me cry
Return of the King!
I'm reading the comments and either I misinterpreted or some people miss the point. Sure we can continue to do those childish things well into old age and it can still be enjoyable BUT at a certain point in time they no longer carry the magic and raw emotional joy it once did.
Like playing your favorite video game for the 1st time. Sure you can play it over and over again or play other games like it and its sequels but at the end of it all you will never feel that electric raw feeling of bliss for the 1st time ever again. Capturing that magic over again becomes an impossible quest that you just learn to accept and appreciate you got the chance to experience it in your lifetime.
Growing up is the same ,learning that what once was will never be and that's okay . You can still find joys in whom you are and what your about but its never gonna be exactly like how it was and you just gotta be okay with it
That's true, I have experienced this about the video game thing.
Earlier I used to play a game during my high school just because I discovered it and it felt like a new world, now I still play that very same game almost 6 years later but all I have in me is competition and the wish with destroy my opponents.
It's as if I don't fully enjoy the game anymore on it's own like before, I just want to see my opponents suffer. I want to keep winning and winning. Maybe it's the reality of life that turned me into this.
Well. Yeah... Because you're not on the correct mindspace to do so.
The damage we suffer along the way kills our innocence, our selfishness and our naivete.
Shame pushes us back and we grow up, we fundamentally change.
Time keeps going and we'll never get to return to what we were, ever. Everyone has to go through that.
But instead of thinking that's the saddest thing on earth to happen to you and sulk endlessly about how old times were definitely better, how about you just try new things that respark those feelings into you?
How about for a moment, experience emotions fully as you did, forgetting about shame?
I think the biggest factor that keeps us adults from being happy as we are, and accepting ourselves is either shame or guilt.
But is it really so bad to, for a moment, to become selfish again and just experience happiness as we used to?
Growing up to become a depressed adult sucks but seriously, the first step to start healing is to just stop living in the past, stop depending so much on nostalgia to carry on and accept yourself as you are in the present, allow yourself to experience happiness in new ways.
Shichimiya>>>>>>>>>>
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, and thought as a child. When I became a man I put childish things away… but I can still tap back into the joy and blissfulness of childhood when being a man is overwhelming. Growing up doesn’t mean never being able to go back to childish times, you can always revisit those feelings.
In video game terms if you reach lvl 100 most times there is nothing stopping you from revisiting the lvl 1 area, your experience will be different from when you first began, but whether that is good or bad depends on how you choose to see it.
I might have an idea for a new video topic🤔
I thought I grew up when I graduated business school. I had "mature" aspirations about wanting to get a good governement job, climb the ladder, then start up a private consulting firm to rake in the dough. Then I got sick, and the things that made me a functioning adult got slowly, painfully peeled off, until I could do hardly anything anymore but sleep and read. And it turns out that middle-school me was right all along! I still love all the things I loved back then! Money and success are not my passions! My new plan is to be self-employed in the arts, where the business degree can still come in handy.
I'm sure its been asked already, but any chance you have something to say about A silent voice?
I'd just love to hear your take on it.
Sounded to me like Deko was lashing out more than "adjusting". But either way, great to have you back! Become calm, entertained and remain fast, or else.
Ooof, I felt that bit about the ADHD med my dude
MADOKA MAGICA MADOKA MAGICA MADOKA MAGICA MADOKA MAGICA MADOKA MAGICA MADOKA MAGICA MADOKA MAGICA MADOKA MAGICA MADOKA YOU CAN
Yo I did not need this today. Just started my first full time office job….. and literally all of this has rushed through my head.. is there any anime that talks about finding new joy in adulthood?
None i know of. But keep sugary food by your desk. Idly eat an mnm or something just to keep your brain happy. Dont know you , but my mental state crashed hard in depression having to work overtime with no videogames or anime as a little dopamine burst.... So hope my personal tip helps!
Oh wait- Aggretsuko is an anime with mature office life, its hidden behind hello kitty animals but actually good.