Wish-fulfillment here is true both in a per se sense and in a meta sense. For example, a common wish in anime is “I want to grow up” and usually that particular wish is portrayed as a form of wishful thinking that gets undermined in terms of the story–it’s better to be yourself, for example, so we see the little kid who is now an adult screw things up and things don’t go the way he initially imagined.

The same thing does not quite happen, for example, in SAO. In fact it’s pretty much the story of some kid who wanted to grow up (except in this case, kick ass and chew gum in an online game), did so magically, and actually got an adult experience in the process. That’s just per se wish fulfillment. There’s a great hook in terms of how people in SAO can live and die by the game and have this massive conspiracy to provide medical care for the players over the duration that they’re trying to beat the game.

I think if you want to look closer at how SAO is chuu2 in a way that is kind of bad, and how some other stuff isn’t, a good comparison is Cathrine (the game). There are a lot of similarities in the plot hooks between the two, but one is clearly grounded in some more mature and uniform perspective on how life and relationships work versus something that’s so fantastic that it’s hard to buy in.

For that matter, wth is middle-school self-delusion anyway? Kids play-acting Jedi? Are vampire goths in HS and occult maniacs being Chuu2 (which I hear is basically the premise of the new KyoAni joint).

If possible, could you enlighten me re: this in the context of Accel World, which you (and some others) remarked as being “way too chuu2″? I haven’t seen SAO or Hyouka.

1) An author self-insert
2) A reader self-insert
3) An annoyingly perfect character
4) A character that negatively warps the story around their presence
5) A female character that someone hates because misogyny

Chuunibyou stuff can be eyerolling because of being silly or immature, but I think it only gets really annoying in an instance like Sword Art Online where there’s a great hook for the story but instead all we ever get is how AW3S0M3 the main character’s +37 swords are.

Then compare that to something like DRRRRRR where the story is free-flowing and enjoyable enough that there isn’t really a reason to start contemplating the hows and whys of all the chuunibyou aspects of the main trio.