Review: Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai (Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai)
Writing a review for this anime is hard. It’s hard to explain. I’ve never felt this indifferent to an anime that I thought was good before. Even with anime that I thought was bad, I’ve had strong emotions towards them at times. But for Bunny Girl-senpai, I can’t find them in me. That being said, I can’t fault the anime for evoking such emotions in me — that would be unfair.
Moving on to the anime itself, the plot is simple. Sakuta Azusagawa, the main character, ‘solves’ problems related to “puberty syndrome”. He doesn’t go out and look for the problems, they come to him. This journey (and the anime) starts out when he spots Mai Sakurajima, an upperclassman and TV star on hiatus, at the library wearing a bunny suit, invisible to everyone else but him. If I had to compare this anime to another one, it would be Haruhi. On Anilist, Bakemonogatari is the most compared to anime to this one, which I can see. It’s also compared to Oregairu, which I don’t see it being similar to, since Sakuta and Hachiman (Oregairu’s MC) are polar opposites personality-wise. I think one of the reasons why this anime doesn’t resonate with me as much as it probably should is due to me thinking of it in forms of lesser equivalents to others. Almost nothing about Bunny Girl-senpai is ‘store brand’, but it doesn’t stand out enough to be the one compared to. Maybe that just comes with time.
The thing that makes Bunny Girl-senpai an anime that will be remembered is its characters. Sakuta is one of the more ‘relatable’ MCs out there (to most), due to his tendency to speak his mind (and be openly horny). I don’t relate to him that much, but I respect his game. Many fans of the anime are mainly fans due to Mai, who’s the closest thing the anime has to a ‘main girl’. She’s by fair the most popular girl in the series. I mean, who wouldn’t want to have a girlfriend who’s a beautiful celebrity. (Side note, this series gets extra points for not making her perfect at everything.) Her, and her relationship with Sakuta, are the most rememberable things about the anime. For me, I’m more of a fan of Tomoe Koga, but that’s mostly due to me being a fan of her seiyuu.
The story is divided up into five main arcs — each one of them dealing with different forms of “Puberty Syndrome”. Without getting into it too deep, none of these stories really stood out to me. I can’t really put my finger on it — maybe it’s because the best arc was the first one. Maybe it was because this was my second watch, and I was already spoiled of any surprises that the anime had. Either way, I never got any real sense of fascination about the story or any of its characters while watching it. That doesn’t mean that the story is bad by any means. Although it can be confusing at parts, I still liked the story, it just isn’t something that I will be thinking about years from now. Looking at the high score on Anilist and MAL, I might be in the minority opinion on this. Oh well.
As you can probably tell, it’s very hard for me to write about Bunny Girl-senpai. Even though I liked the anime, I’m also very indifferent to it. I think this goes back to that I can’t really see this anime as something other than lesser forms of other anime. Even with all of that, I still like it more than Monogatari, even if some might call it the ‘Great Value’ version of it. The anime is barely a year and a half old at this point, so it still has time to grow and be the one being compared to, other than the other way around.
