Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Sempai (actually he does) begins with second year high school student Sakuta in the library when he sees a girl in a bunny costume walk by. I don’t mean a bunny rabbit, but a bunny costume modeled after the ones from Playboy. The girl is third year student Mai, who is also a popular, well known actress. She is testing her surroundings because some people do not seem to notice her. Soon more and more people not only do not notice her, but they now never heard of her. Sakuta is there to help.
At the root cause of all this is something called “puberty syndrome.” It really doesn’t mean anything. I think the writers were just trying to come up with a term which would bring to mind teenage sexuality. But that’s not important. What is important is that this puberty syndrome is behind some strange occurances. Sakuta becomes locked into a time loop. Mai changes bodies with her younger half-sister. Rio, the brainy girl who advises Sakuta, becomes split into two different persons. And Sakuta’s little sister Kaede loses her memory and is afraid to leave the apartment. Somehow Sakuta has to figure things out and make them all better.
It’s a pretty good concept, and the storyline is well developed. The only problem I have is the dialog. There is a lot of it, and it goes by pretty quickly. As there is no English dub for this series, I had to rely on subtitles which at time could not keep up with the talking. Still I was able to follow the various story lines.
I liked the voice acting, even though I was depending on the subs. The artwork and animation hold up.
Based on a light novel, there is only one season to the series, although there is a follow-up movie. It would be interesting to see how the story continues. Meanwhile, I will just have to settle for that one season. Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Sempai is an entertaining watch.
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