Forum - View topicRascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai (TV).
|
|
| Author | Message | ||
|---|---|---|---|
Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
|
||
Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai (TV) Genres: comedy, drama, psychological, romance Themes: school life, social psychology Plot Summary: There's a rumor about a mysterious phenomenon call "puberty syndrome." For example, Sakuta Azusagawa is a high school student who suddenly sees a bunny girl appear in front of him. The girl is Mai Sakurajima, Sakuta's upperclassman and also a famous actress who has gone on hiatus from the entertainment industry. For some reason, the people around Mai cannot see her bunny-girl figure. Sakuta sets out to solve this mystery, and as he spends time with Mai, he learns her secret feelings. Other heroines who have "puberty syndrome" start to appear in front of Sakuta. |
|||
|
|||
|
Stark700
Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
|
||
|
Episode 1
Hmm, the OP song is okay. Somewhat catchy enough. So we got a story about a normal guy who is affected by this syndrome. There's some awkward scenes but I think the main selling point of the show so far is the mixture of bizarness and normlacy. There's quite a bit of social commentary that I think is worth noting so far. Got some of the other characters introduced already from this episode. Definitely going to have to get used to the way Mai and her personality. I think this has potential. |
|||
|
|||
DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
|
||
|
It looks like this series' bit is on making physical the mental problems that are in adolescence. The pain of damage caused by cyber bullying to his sister, expressed itself in physical damage done to her body. For Mai, it brings into question a few possibilities without a proper explanation of why her existence seems to be forgotten and become invisible to others. The main one they put forward seems to be that she was so upset over people needlessly already knowing who she was as a celebrity, that she got gawked at everywhere, this after she may have wished for a normal teenage life. Although, if her loss of existence is meant to reflect trauma she is feeling, it may well go with what he said when noticing that she was annoyed at a movie poster, she may like being looked at and is starting to feel people no longer realize her existence, so it is literally happening. Not enough to go on whether which it could be, and it could be a mix or not quite either, since she seemed upset when he was saying she should return to showbiz.
Also questions about what Sakuta's one is, what problems could be reflected in him receiving the massive wound on his chest. And, is his journal telling him things ahead of time. He does seem kind of detached, that I wonder if it is pointing at him covering up something. The show so far has a bit of a My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU feel to it, and not yet like that one point classroom anime which was far more nihilistic. I will say that I liked the bit in the episode where he seemed to realise that it was not a case that Mai was not going to school, but perhaps her existence was so off that she may have been in trouble. |
|||
|
|||
|
Animegomaniac
Posts: 4159 |
|
||
|
Episode 1 + 2
What a curious blend of types of media tropes... I feel like I'm watching a mashup of a Light novel adaptation, a psychological urban fantasy, a dating sim and a visual novel. A bunny girl, an overall feeling of melancholy and an absolute abundance of navel gazing also reminds me of something else, something moe specific.... I intended to write "more" but that is just better. I like it but I don't know if it'll amount to anything. Not because of what it is but because everything it borrows from tend to flounder eventually. Also, it already has a sequel movie planned? And they're basing that move on the public reaction to the show's main bunny girl image? <looks> Ok, well played. GG. |
|||
|
|||
|
SomeHero
Posts: 53 |
|
||
|
hm, wonder if it turns out in an Harem... the, erm, Hero and mai would make an cute couple, but Karma kicked him already in the butt
Note on Story: would not be an bad Idea to bring her back on screen, so more People will recognize (and remember) her. Oh, the Art is dam fine, if you ask me. |
|||
|
|||
|
DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
|
||
|
I suppose I should mention the sort of things I have theorized about the show, which I did in a YouTube comment of anime analyser.
There are two shows that I think share a rather big similarity to this one, and may have a similar theme, and that is the Monogatari series and My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU. A mild spoiler for overall tones for those series, but not really story elements, is that the real problem the main character has, is a kind of hero complex, where they sacrifice themselves and their interests for others, to help other people. On the outside they may appear openly cynicle, perhaps being a bit awkward that they don't have much in the friends department, but are actually quite sensitive, and mainly good at pretending they don't need friends, while they might do anything to make one. Eventually problems may come up where they learn that if they keep acting as the big romantic hero to everyone, they are going to hurt those they care about. (Monogatari) spoiler[Koyomi faces that he could give into the desires of one of the girls by dating her, solving it in a clean way where he could be the hero, although he would sabotage his relationship with his girlfriend, and or stringing someone along. The right answer was that he had to be a bit of the bad guy, that he really had no responsibility to go along with it, and she had to sort her own problem.] (SNAFU) spoiler[Hachiman has to face that people do care about him, and his self sacrifice ways of solving social problems is hurting them because he is hurting himself. He has to face that there is nothing cool about putting himself as a sacrifice to solve problems that are really not his responsibility to do so.] What gets me still is that people seemed to totally misplace what SNAFU was saying, and glorifying the wrong thing. And I think that Sakuta is in the same vein. He is sacrificing himself to help others, and he is going to have learn that there is a limit, and it is not always right. At this point he has sacrificed things for his sister, which I think has been shown as mostly okay in accommodating her, but there I am going to explain more about it later. He was sacrificing his health and grades when he was keeping himself awake for Mai, to not forget her, which again I think is being put as mostly okay because he is totally crushing on her. But what he is doing for this kohai, pretending to date her, I think it is crossing the line, that although he is helping her, it is kind of needless, and he has no real important connection to her, except that he wants her to like him as a friend. What problem is likely going to come up is that he is doing too much, the sacrifice he is doing is likely going to make her fall in love with him, which is just going to complicate things for the relationship he really wants with his bunny girl senpai. What this leads to, is the explanation of how he is even ended up in the situation he is in, which is to explain he got bypassed the adolescent syndromes of the girls, and what his was. Truth is that he never actually got over his adolescent syndrome, because it is his self sacrificing hero complex, which has manifested in adopting elements of the adolescent syndrome of others, because his problem is taking on the problems of others. He repeated along with Kohai, he was among the last able to perceive senpai as to take in her isolation, and he got cut up like his sister, an act that took the attention away from his sister. He isn't seeing how selfless acts, are actually kind of selfish, he probably could use a smart phone, and he is taking advantage of feeling he built up for Mai, that I don't think he sees that he might lose her if he gives everything to help random kohai. Right now I think that she is giving some allowance, because she kind of fell for him in sacrificing for her but chances are that it is making her feel less special that he could put same level of energy into helping the next girl that shows up, and she might not like that. (Monogatari) spoiler[Hitagi kind of faces the same thing, where she gets jealous of some of the relationships that Koyomi has with others. In the end it looked like she solved it by putting herself involved, such as becoming Hanekawa's friend, and herself being the hero so that he doesn't do something stupid.] By the same metric, I think there was also a theme amongst the other two series, where I think the best girl can bring some selfishness, to show him that he does not need to take on everything that other put on him. That it can be a part of being a rounded person. It is a bit early to say for sure that this series is doing that, but I do already see what could be tracks leading to this, such as characters telling Sakuta that he does not actually have a personal reason that he is doing what he is for this random girl. |
|||
|
|||
|
SomeHero
Posts: 53 |
|
||
|
now that you mention those, i throw Clannad in the Ring, too.The whole Story about Nagisa was somewhat familiar.
|
|||
|
|||
|
DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
|
||
|
Episode 7
Haven't been posting here much, but it has been a pretty interesting series with each of its arcs. Now we are into a Futaba arc, where there seems to be two of her. They mostly seem identical, that picking one as a fake could be difficult, but there is a difference. One is mostly the same as always, yet feels isolated from her life from finding the copy, while the other one has decided to wear contacts and have her hair up in a ponytail. Reading between the lines as the syndromes reflecting teen troubles, it maybe goes along the lines that Futaba thinks there is two of herself, which has created two. The reveal at the end seems to have shown that she has uploaded risqué images of herself onto the net. This might have all come about from Futaba having grown frustrated from her lack of chance at her crush, which has led her to kind of do something along the lines of flaunt her sexuality. It is so against her normal character, that she has sort of internalised such a thing as an imposter of her person. So I am theorizing right now that she will have to accept parts of herself that are not so reserved, or something similar. |
|||
|
|||
|
Ahoshi
Posts: 4 |
|
||
|
Not to belabor the plot as so eloquently discussed above. So I'll get to point, this show is great in my humble opinion. I have watched many Animes (not as many as some but more than others), and there are few that have a good story line without everything being...overly sexual and dismissive about what we as human like about sexual attraction. It's the give and pull of the tension( no pun intended...well just a little bit!) But honestly I like the blossoming relationship between Sakata and Mai. I like that Sakata is not that tall and of average looks but its who he is that makes him so delicious a young man. You can tell that when he gets older he'll have those qualities and traits that real women want from a man. Now you may be wondering what has to do with anything so let me elucidate. As a woman who watches anime it gets tedious to watch the same sexual theme geared towards boys and men. I get it. Who does not like a crotch shot but uhhh whatever happened to foreplay? Women get turned on in the mind. Men get turned on visually. And that's what this anime is doing on one level. Its building the sexual tension between Sakata and Mai without making it cheesy at the same time as ( and I love this part) giving a new twist to adolescent problems and issues.
Let me say this...if you the audience haven't realized that Sakata's the man..then start over from the beginning and watch how he deftly maneuvered the mind field called High School. We are now on episode 7 and did anybody check out that this is another Harem Anime... And that's it. The factor right there. The writers of this show are so subtle with their rhythm that you don't you've been dancing until the music stops. |
|||
|
|||
|
DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
|
||
|
Episode 8
I am going to be forward, in saying that I quite like Futuba's character, and really enjoyed this arc, with bit of friendship that were really nice. The guys were ready to stand for Futuba, their friend, and it was funny when she made the comment that she wished that they were girls, because it says something about beings friends, pretty much in spite of gender. A hard distinction between the two Futaba could be a bit difficult to make, but there seemed to be little bits, although at the same time they were still two parts of the same person, not two different things that would need to be chosen either. Futaba had some self hate, so she needed that some people will not turn on her, regardless of the side she hates. Being put back together, she now has both memories of his sister and girlfriend with her at his place, and the fireworks at the beach. Also looked like she had some catharsis with a confession, and although tears of clearly be turned down, she could also support him with his girlfriend. Hopefully learned a little that she does not have to be defined by how people see her. |
|||
|
|||
|
Jord90
Posts: 1 |
|
||
|
Just started watching the show and caught up. I have to say I went in to this blind, It was not what I expected. The show feels like it’s taking care to address problems teenagers (although not just them) are going through. Kinda wish I had it as a teen. I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes.
|
|||
|
|||
|
DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
|
||
|
Episode 12
Could kind of feel how that was going to end, but it still hit hard. Hard because it got us to like Kaede so much with little bits, before revealing the reason behind her quirks like talking in the third person and such, before the return of Kaede-san. Would kind of hope the two could be together, somewhat interesting that she did not just lose memorise, but took on a different personality. This show does some great work at selling you the character during their arcs, so now I really liked Kaede. It was generally a good episode with all of its cuteness, and also a tackling of difficulty at trying to do what might seem easy to others, but can be a great accomplishment. Although, I wonder how it could end at this point. Is Kaede gone for good? |
|||
|
|||
|
DuskyPredator
Posts: 15576 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
|
||
|
Episode 13
Well this episode was a good catharsis of Sakuta shouting out and crying over the disappearance of his sister of two years, from the return of her previous personality. The reading the diary was a mix of feelings, but it did also seem to leave a impact on the current Kaede too, that she has a respect for her brother in looking after her other self. Wonder whether her comment at not being alone was about her brother, or about the other Kaede who did not want to have any regrets towards the end. The mysterious Shoko appeared again, helping Sakuta in his time of need. Mai was not too happy about that, not necessarily thinking anything happened, but someone helped him, and she did not get to be that person, but he made it up in the end. I acted as if this was a bit edge lord at the start, that it leant too hard on the faux philosophy stuff for teenagers to get into to feel smart, like a weaker version of the Monogatari series, or SNAFU. But I should have had more faith on how well it could use character and relationships. It got better as it went on, and although it had the attempts to connect to theoretical concepts like Schrodinger cat it was all about the people. Most of the concepts as it were came from Futaba, who really was new to the syndromes being real, and may have not fully knew how it worked. Mentioning Futaba, I get to mention how I liked how her arc in how it worked with a platonic relationship with guys and gals, which really feel like they work instead of feeling like choices of girls that just don't get to 'win'. It worked in nailing that even if the first arc had him getting a girlfriend out of it, it was not like it was all just trying to win affection, as per the visual novel sort of origin to this sort of series. It was a good show, one of the better of the season, worthy of quite a bit of analysis if anyone follows Nearly On Red. There are still some hanging threads, and from what I hear there is a movie coming out in 2019, so looking forward for that, possibly revealing the whole Shoko thing. But I did enjoy this season for what it was, and I give it a rating of Very good (8/10), don't miss it. Feels a little low for what I was saying might be one of the best of the season, but maybe separate from enjoyment, that rating kind of just feels right. |
|||
|
|||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group