Seishun Buta Yarou wa Yumemiru Shoujo no Yume wo Minai

Six months ago, Sakuta Azusagawa had a chance encounter with a bunny girl in a library. Ever since then, he's been blissfully happy with his girlfriend: Mai Sakurajima, that same bunny girl. However, the reappearance of his mysterious first crush, the now-adult Shouko Makinohara, adds a new complication to his relationship with Mai. To make matters worse, he then encounters a middle school Shouko in the hospital, suffering from a grave illness. Mysteriously, his old scars begin throbbing whenever he's near her.

With Shouko's bizarre situation somehow revolving around him, Sakuta will need to come to terms with his own conflicting feelings, for better or worse. With a girl's life in his hands, just what can he do?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Sakurajima, Mai Main

Seto, Asami Japanese

Azusagawa, Sakuta Main

Ishikawa, Kaito Japanese

Makinohara, Shouko Main

Minase, Inori Japanese

Futaba, Rio Supporting

Tanezaki, Atsumi Japanese

Azusagawa, Kaede Supporting

Kubo, Yurika Japanese

Koga, Tomoe Supporting

Touyama, Nao Japanese

Toyohama, Nodoka Supporting

Uchida, Maaya Japanese

Kunimi, Yuuma Supporting

Uchida, Yuuma Japanese

Hanawa, Ryouko Supporting

Aikawa, Natsuki Japanese

Mai's Mother Supporting

Ohtsu, Airi Japanese

Kida, Kazuya Producer

Kurokawa, Yuuichirou Producer

Yokoyama, Shuko Producer

Masui, Souichi Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Oct 2, 2019

Krispier

Recommended

This movie is just as good as the first two arcs of the show. The show did get weaker in the later arcs, but this one didn't follow that. It has a lot of good moments and reveals, although it does get confusing. Very strong film, but the ending feels weak. Mai-san is as waifu as ever, and most of the other girls have solid moments. It's dialogue heavy, but it's worth it to pay attention. Still don't understand why this arc needed to be made into a movie, but the length feels about right. Overall, a good addition to the Bunny Girl Senpai story.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Dec 1, 2019

paradi_GM

Mixed Feelings

"Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl" is the sequel to the 13-episode anime series "Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai" that took the internet and otaku world by storm in the forth quarter of 2018 with its flabbergasting title and premise. Adapted from the light novel series with the same name, at first glance it seemed as if it would be another adaptation of an unreasonably long and clickbait title, however it turned out to actually have a beating heart and an interesting direction to take its viewers to. The chemistry between Azusagawa Sakuta and Sakurajima Mai was reminiscing of ... that of Araragi and Senjougahara from the "Monogatari Series " and the paranormal activities seemed to be inspired from "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya", however those would not be the only elements the series borrows from its predecessors, but I digress.

The movie-sequel aims to tackle the arc of Makinohara Shouko, an important character in the life of our bickering protagonist as she was his saviour in time of need during his early years, as well as the catalyst for Sakuta's chest scars to reopen. A truly enigmatic figure, as she was restricted to the sidelines in the main adaptation, given little to none importance until the end of the final arc, when she once again comes to the aid of Sakuta. Come this movie, Shoko is the one in need of assistance from our snarky protagonist as he tries unravel the truth behind her puberty syndrome and find an alternative path to the excruciating choice he's forced to make.

The opening shots send us back to when Shoko was in fourth grade and is shown having troubles completing a paper sheet with her plans and dreams for the future. It is established that her difficulty for filling in the sheet would play an important role as the movie progresses. The movie then cuts back to the present day and the problems arise.

Firstly, the pacing is all over the place as the days are skipped by in order for the movie to just arrive from point A to point B, without much reflection to the events that would unfold. This greatly hinders the emotional revelation during its climax as it leaves the viewer with a sense of "well that happened" instead of "this had an impact on me". It is to be mentioned that the pacing is not always poor, in fact, the beginning of the movie fits perfectly as it steadily builds towards the mid section of the movie. Unfortunately, it does not maintain the same steadiness as it advances and by the end of the movie it finishes in a satisfactory, if abrupt manner.

Secondly, the existence of this movie itself does not justify itself as it achieves nothing that cinematography does. The whole arc gives the impression of an overly extended episode of the original anime. The animation, while good, was nothing spectacular as it remained one the same level as the 13-episode anime series. The scene composition did not improve either and the use of realistic background elements, while it was a nice touch, it did not reach the same artistic expression as other films did. As it stands, "Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl" is a quick money grab designed to lure the fanbase into watching it under the guise of offering a cinematic experience, but delivering an OVA worth of excitement. At least that way it would have fixed the pacing issues.

The final problem with this movie is the convoluted story leading into a redundant conclusion. Throughout its runtime it is given extraordinary importance to the choice that Sakuta is forced to make and it is one that severely affects him when makes up his mind. However, this is immediately dismissed as he gets another chance and Shouko does what she could have done from the beginning, as the movie decides that all the drama the characters went through was all for naught. The story advances in an obvious way, but tries to hide it with empty misdirection so that when the twist happens, the viewer is caught off-guard leaving him in a state of fabricated sorrow thanks to the emotional manipulation of the movie. It tries to replicate what "Steins;Gate" or "The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya" did with its main lead, however it results in a watered down copy of the two.

This is not to say the film is just one giant mess. There are some good moments as well. The chemistry between the characters is back better than ever and the dialogues are just as entertaining and diverting. There is also a very heartfelt conversation between Sakuta and Futaba which proved more emotional than the main twist, thanks to how it was shot and the splendid work of the voice actors. Another upside is present on the audio front. The background music was perfectly fit throughout the film, especially at the end with the insertion of the ED song, as well as the magnificent work of the voice actors.

In conclusion, "Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl" is a heavily flawed movie which little to no reason for existing as it borrows elements from two other more critically acclaimed IPs, which ultimately fails to become its own thing. The film is not a must-watch unless you are a big fan of the original series and desperately want to see more content.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Dec 8, 2019

KurenaiK

Not Recommended

This movie insulted my intelligence.

I really enjoyed the anime series, so going into this movie I had some pretty high expectations. Well, it trampled over them and them set them on fire.

Instead of a nice sequel to the popular anime, what I got was a sentimental tear-jerker with no substance at all. None of the characters acted real - I won't go into detail to avoid spoilers but none of it made any sense.

And that's the worst thing about this movie - nothing is ever explained. They just throw some 2-seconds long scenes at you and expect you to cry about how deep ... it actually is, but it really is not.

If this was a standalone movie, I would give it around 5/10 I think. But because the tv series already established these characters, them acting so OOC made it 5x times worse. Really, if I could, I would never watch this shitty fanfiction again.

The music choices were terrible as well, but that was probably because there weren't really any happy scenes at all. There were literally 0 gags in a comedy anime, wow. The animation wasn't even anything special either, I would expect more from a MOVIE with such a high budget.

Overall, please, don't.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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