askchapo

Say, everyone: are you familiar with the term 'chunibyo'^[JP: {中二病|ちゅうにびょう} chūnibyō, lit. "middle school second-year syndrome"; also localized as "eighth-grader syndrome". Coined by comedian Hikaru Ijūin in 1999; since then sincerely studied by psychologists.]? They say it develops around the eighth grade at the cusp of puberty. It is a frightening disease of the adolescent mind: the line between childhood fantasy and a sense of self-awareness becomes blurred, resulting in some inexplicable behavior. For instance, a boy who up 'till yesterday only read weekly comics, develops a sudden interest in classic novels, and suddenly demands to drink his coffee black, despite the fact that he has never even drunk it before. Or a student who believes they possess some special power, dives head-first into the occult! Now take this young man, who in elementary school was the prime example of one suffering from chunibyo: he began calling himself the Dark Flame Master, and adopted the catchphrase, "Be enveloped by the flames of darkness and disappear!"

...[Chunibyo] is a sickness that feeds on embarrassment: recalling even the tiniest of details can result in crippling emotional pain...

—Opening narration of Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions (English dub)

If you'd like to know more, TV Tropes' page is a pretty good basic overview of what chunibyo is. But yeah, in short, I'm basically saying that I was literally acting like a cartoon archetype of a preteen or teenager who can't tell their elaborate fantasy world from reality: Sometimes a chunibyo wears an eyepatch and color contacts, and talks with full sincerity of possessing the secret magic powers of the Eye of the Wicked Lord... And sometimes a chunibyo proclaims herself the leader of a New Revolutionary Movement which will overthrow the shackles of the current order, and decorates her room (sorry, "base of operations") with flags made of colored pencil on A4 paper.