For a couple months, I was pretty busy, and hence had to cut back a lot on anime shows. So I stalled this one, planning to eventually get back to it later. I just recently did.
I have to say - Episodes 4 through 10 were just full of great plot twists and surprises.
It's honestly amazing how dramatic and serious this show began. I recall a long time ago saying this show made me think a little of Key, but I never imagined it would be
this much like Key. The Rikka/Yuuta romance honestly makes me think of a very well-executed Key romance. And this show has this same transition from lighthearted slapstick comedy to (mostly) very serious and heartwarming show about family, friends, and romance.
Along the way some major reveals were made (I was pleasantly surprised by what they did with Shinka's character in Episode 4, the Makoto/Kumin romance was a nice secondary romance that fits pretty well, the core reason behind Rikka's chuunibyou was startling and just filled my heart with sympathy, Yuuta had a great transition moment in Episode 5 where he started to truly care about Rikka leaving his past overly insecure self behind, etc...). And Episodes 4 through 10 were certainly fun to marathon.
My only major criticism of the show is that there are some clunkier elements to the transitions made in this anime (though, in fairness, they were perhaps inevitable). 90% of the time it's easy to differentiate comedic scenes from serious/dramatic scenes, but sometimes you get disconcerting bleed-over. Generally, this isn't a
huge deal, but it can impact how you view the characters.
For example, "Mori Summer" is a true enigma to me now. In my view, her character did a major transition not once, but twice, and in only 10 episodes. She went from the perfectly sweet "everybody loves her and for good reason" school girl, to someone who's actually rather abrasive and puts on
quite a mask, to someone who deep down inside
really is kind of caring.
Given Shinka's Episode 4 through 8 characterization, I'm at a loss to understand why she'd even care about Rikka and Yuuta, let alone try to play matchmaker for them and provide them moral support.
But in fairness to Shinka's character, I think this largely comes down to that comedy to serious transition.
However, in the most important area - the Rikka/Yuuta dynamic - I think the anime handled the comedy to drama/romance transition as well as possible. It was honestly impressive. I can honestly say that, barring some last minute disaster, Rikka/Yuuta is one of the best anime romances of the year.