Ever since Sakuta met Mai Sakurajima, his life’s become
about two things: helping people with Puberty Syndrome and winning the heart of
the unwinnable girl. Two new Puberty
Syndrome events appear, both hitting close to home for Sakuta and Mai. For Sakuta, he must discover why there’s a
doppelganger of his best friend, Rio Futaba, running around and starting a lewd
social media account that could ruin her image.
For Mai, a sudden body swap finds her in the body of her younger half
sister, Nodoka Toyohama. And what about
Sakuta’s first love, Shoko Makinohara, who has suddenly reappeared but hasn’t
aged since Sakuta last saw her?
Everytime I sit down to watch a new episode of this
series, I’m always surprised.
I’m
surprised how deep they delve into life dilemmas with a supernatural/scifi
spin.
I’m surprised how easy it is to
relate to just about every character.
I’m surprised how I can actually like Sakuta while still cringing over
his honest reveals of his lewd fantasies for just about every girl he meets.
I’m not surprised how easy it is to fall for
Mai Sakurajima episode after episode, even the ones shes hardly in.
Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai is
one giant pleasant surprise and the goodness just kept coming with two new
mysteries while one big twist sat things out for now.
I talked a bit about Futaba last time and how she’s my
second favorite girl on the show.
Her
cute nerdy look and her strange way of making the most incomprehensible
explanations of Puberty Syndrome understandable make her an easy MVP for Bunny
Girl Senpai.
I never expected Futuba
herself to be at the center of a Puberty Syndrome case (is that what I’m going
to call them now) but it was welcome and I came out loving her more by the end
of her tale.
I will admit that Futuba trying
to explain how there can be two versions of her via quantum teleportation was
the first time her explanations lost me.
I could listen to her talk science all day and mostly come out with a
dummies understanding at best but this time, even a scifi nerd like myself
wasn’t top of the class.
The rest of the
mystery worked a lot better and Futuba’s two central dilemmas were both good
stuff: both hating and loving how her body had developed and her unrequited
feelings for Kunimi.
Bunny Girl Senpai
actually touched on a very scary topic with how some girls like to post lewds
on social media and then suddenly find themselves hounded by stalker requests
to see them.
The look of shock on
Futaba’s face when she got that message on her account was downright chilling
because how close to a real world issue it feels…then again every Puberty
Syndrome case is very much that, a real world thing.
As for her feelings for Kunimi, I’m guessing
Futuba did tell him during the fireworks show and theyre ok with things being
as they are…though if you ask me, I don’t see what Kunimi sees in his high
maintenance girlfriend and should totally hook up with Futaba at the earliest
chance.
For Futaba, it was all about
learning to love herself and love what she has in life: genuine friends who
care about her so much that they’ll come running to her in the middle of the
night if she’s in trouble.
We’ll come
back to that.
Onto Nodoka, we got a bit of a Freaky Friday situation in
our Bunny Girl Senpai.
Poor Sakuta found
himself playing Messenger Owl between the two sisters who refused to budge and
sort their stuff out.
This also brought
Mai’s popularity as a Model and Actress back to the forefront and Nodoka got to
experience what we kind of already knew by now: Mai’s mega popular and in
demand and that isn’t an easy life to live.
I’m glad Nodoka’s panic attack ended up not being serious but man that
was tough to watch her collapse during that commercial shoot.
Little Sisters being compared to their Big
Sisters is nothing new in Anime, you get this subplot in 1/5 shows.
However, this is Bunny Girl Senpai and even
the oldest of Anime tropes can feel fresh and new again.
This is helped by how well Nodoka was written
and how well she played off of Sakuta and Mai.
Her final reconciliation with Mai was beautiful and showed Nodoka she
didn’t need to be Mai to succeed in life, just do whatever made her happy and
what she felt would make her mother happy.
Also, had a total “WHAT?” moment when Mai and Nodoka’s appearances
literally switched between them with a cringy “CRUNCH” sound when their Puberty
Syndrome case was broken.
Mai’s own
continued support of Nodoka and her career and Sakuta’s pledge to keep her
little sister safe was equally touching and the more time she and Sakuta spend
together, the more I do love them as a couple.
Back to Sakuta, both of these cases helped show why he is
an endearing lead and, at times, still a despicable letch.
I think my problem is with how monotone and
almost deadpan his deliveries are when it comes to his honesty about lewd
fantasies involving most girls he sees, especially Mai.
They just sound so creepy and
disturbing.
Looking past that, Sakuta’s
good heart showed in both of these incidents.
His loyalty to Futaba was never in doubt with me but Sakuta put in the
extra effort by calling Kunimi to their aid.
We’ve seen these three together several times in the series but here was
when I truly felt that they have been friends for a long time and are destined
to remain this way for a long time, Sakuta even promised this to Futaba
herself.
As for Nodoka, Sakuta kept a
watchful eye on her at all times.
Probably the darkest moment of the series so far was Sakuta’s brightest:
him rushing into the ocean to save Nodoka from killing herself.
His bold declaration that he was saving her
not because he wants to be Mai’s boyfriend but because Mai would be sad in
general was good stuff.
Sakuta is a good
kid and a good lead…he just needs to sound less creepy talking about how he wants
Mai to step on him that’s all.
There was one odd creative decision in this set of
episodes and that was putting the Shoko cliffhanger on the back burner.
I’m guessing they might be saving her mystery
for either the final stretch of the series or in the follow up movie that I
might have to work on tracking down now.
Shoko wasn’t totally absent from this set of episodes as we saw her
hanging around Sakuta’s place and interacting with Mai and Kaede at various
points.
It’s just weird they’d throw in
a big plot twist like bringing back Sakuta’s first love exactly as when her
first saw her (she should be older than him at this point) and then doing
nothing with it.
I cant complain too
much because the Futaba and Nodoka plots were both engrossing and had my full
attention.
In my opinion though, setting
up such a twist and then doing nothing with it right away feels unnecessary and
maybe could’ve been saved for another time?
And there’s not a lot of time left either, which means
it’s highly likely I’ll have to find a copy of Rascal Does Not Dream of a
Dreaming Girl when I’m done with the finale next time.
How many more Puberty Syndrome mysteries will
Mai and Sakuta have to solve in the last three episodes…and could one of those
be Sakuta’s own unresolved case?
We’ll
find out next time as we check out the Series Finale of Rascal Does Not Dream
of Bunny Girl Senpai right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.
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