If they had just cut the last 4 episodes together into a movie, it would be a 10/10 feature. That's not just a comment on the quality, there's not much we had to learn from the first 9 episodes either, resulting in the first 2/3 feeling mediocre and unnecessary.

I don't want to spoil anything, but this amazing shot of Magari's feet hints at how good it gets.

The core gimmick of this romancon is our MC Nakami and Magari have insomnia, so they sleep together at school during the day. They are able to explain this away almost perfectly in the end but until that happens, I just felt it was plain stupid. Firstly chronic insomnia is not romantic nor is it funny, this is a serious condition one should seek medical help for. Obviously the idea is they can sleep better together, but without the backstory it just isn't believable, there's no way high school boy and girl can get any rest cuddled together all by themselves, ok? Insomnia just seems like a cheap excuse for physical contact.

Another weird example of the show framing serious stuff as "romantic". Here Magari almost falls to her death, it's NOT funny, high school girls shouldn't do this! And no she's not suicidal or anything either, they clearly tried to present this as somehow romantic.

Speaking of sleeping together, yes they sleep together in the very first episode and that's just way too fast. Then in what feels like just a couple days later they're already embracing each other and listening to heartbeats. Ok I'm sure some exceptions exist where a couple would already be going to a love hotel at this point, but Nakami and Magari aren't shown to be that kind of a couple. They're supposed to be responsible people but this setting contradicts how quickly they start sleeping literally in the same bed.

Is this how kids today sleep with people they just met?

The poster gave the impression that this show will somehow be about science and astronomy, especially with the location of their secret sleeping session be at a school observatory with this really advanced telescope setup. It was all a ruse, the show has nothing to do with astronomy, instead it's astrophotography. However for a show that's so focused on astrophotography, they are quite sloppy at presenting the hobby, from camera gear to shooting techniques to the completed photos being shown, it all sucked.

Sorry to break this to you Senpai, but the moon has zero effect on the brightness of the night sky. Also 5000 is too high, this is the level of exposure where you start to see the milky way very clearly, but we don't see the milky way in any of the completed photos. This shot is meant to show the Senpai as being an avid astrophotographer, problems is none of these gear are of any use for astrophotography and they're expensive as shit, you're looking at no less than $10k worth of collector gear.

Even if you're not a camera guy like me and you don't know what the correct ISO should be, surely you can tell those cameras are badly drawn. This is why attention to detail matters in anime, since everything is hand drawn and intentional, it is very easy to tell when corners are being cut, even subconsciously. When what is supposed to be the same camera keep showing up with slightly different shape and size, it just breaks the immersion.

This photo is completely impossible to take without a highly complex professional lighting setup. The people should be completely black with just their silhouette against the background.

However all is forgiven considering that last 4 perfect episodes.

There are a couple emotional scenes in the first 9 episodes, I felt nothing watching them, I was not immersed in this relationship because it felt too fast, too artificial. But in just one similar scene in the last episode, I felt everything, it all came together and I was completely rooting for this relationship.

In fact I would recommend you start watching from 10-13, and then go back to 1-9, I feel like that would be the most enjoyable experience. Everything you need to know from previous will be mentioned as hints in someway so there should be no issue catching on to the story. And then once you're finished and understand the main couple, go back and watch the more slice of life stuff from 1-9.

Ending a short love story can be tricky, if you leave it hanging then it can feel unnecessary, like what was even the point if the couple won't get anything out of this. But if you do end with some kind of a confirmation that they got married, 12 episodes is not enough to get married is it? There should still be a long ways to go before that happens. Considering how little time is covered in this show, even including the first 9 episodes, I think it has the best ending for a short term romantic encounter.

Chuunibyou is evaluated on season 1 only Butterflies refers to that feeling of butterflies in your belly Ending assumes the story has ended even if there is more story in Manga I do not imply these categories have the same weight, so no "total score" can be derived from it.