It’s official – after two episodes I really like Chuubyou Gekihatsu Boy.  Is it Citizen Kane?  No, not remotely – but it’s fun.  A genuinely madcap and silly comedy with a deft touch, excellent comic timing and seemingly not a drop of malice in its body.  This style of humor works better when it’s not mean-spirited, and the vibe with Chuubyou is that it genuinely likes its characters – even the ones nominally set up as villains, like the budding stalker who features prominently in this episode, Sekiya.

Indeed, Sekiya is important because last week’s cliffhanger was a total fake-out (whether bogus cliffhangers featuring Tsukumo-kun are going to be a weekly running gag I don’t know).  It was Sekiya who was responsible for the “attacks” on Mizuki (though Nakamura-kun genuinely had it all wrong) but she’s not his real target.  That would be Watase Nanako, the amiable girl Mizuki is rather desperate to recruit into her circle of friends.  Mizuki was – and is – just collateral damage, though that doesn’t stop her from asking the Hero Club to put a stop to Sekiya’s antics.

It’s really Nakamura who’s the star of this episode though, just as Yamato was last week.  He’s totally ludicrous of course, but he’s committed to it and you know, there’s something almost admirable about that.  His mom still picks out his clothes, he’s writing a manga about his own fantasy life (and apparently it’s pretty good), and he’s a general popinjay.  But when it comes to selling a lie he’s quite the talent – and of course that’s exactly what’s called for here.  He’s the perfect candidate to act as Nanako’s beard.

As always with this kind of show, it comes down to the matter of fantasy and reality.  A healthy fantasy life is certainly not a bad thing, and it’s surely better to do something all-out than halfheartedly.  But again, a kid in high school probably shouldn’t be quite so divorced from reality as Nakamura-kun is.  Where that leaves Chuunbyou Gekihatsu Boy is still an open question, but so far it’s walking the tightrope between not judging its characters and not glossing over their sheer oddness quite deftly.  If it can do that for ten more episodes it will have ended up being a pretty good series.