Anime Recommendation: Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai

More than just a girl in a bunny costume.

It's probably been said hundreds of times already, but 2018 was a great year for anime and Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai supports that statement. I remember going through the lineup for the last Fall season and not feeling excited about any of the anime that were coming out. But I did notice Bunny Girl Senpai and was planning to watch it, expecting something ecchi. Instead, the anime had almost nothing to do with a bunny girl and had a lot to say about growing up and adolescence.

Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai is about Sakuta Azusagawa and the girls that he meets, helping them solve their very strange predicaments. Each of the girls is struggling with some issue that manifests itself as some kind of theoretical phenomena, referred to as "Adolescence Syndrome", and until they confront the issue, the girl and Sakuta have to deal with the repercussions. 

The first girl that Sakuta meets is Mai Sakurajima, a child star who happens to go the same high school as him. Mai has abandoned the glamour of being a celebrity but has also vanished from existence. When she's not at school, Mai is invisible to everyone except for Sakuta. That is why, when they first meet, Mai is dressed in a bunny girl outfit to see if she can get anyone's attention. So that's how the couple first meet and a romance sparks between them as Sakuta helps Mai solve her problem.

The romance is not really the focus of Bunny Girl Senpai, except for maybe the first story arc, but their relationship definitely makes the series a fun watch. The witty banter between Sakuta and Mai can be hilarious and almost always entertaining. I don't think they have the best love story, but they are relationship goals. They are always communicating with each other and helping the other with whatever they need to deal with in an episode.

Each of the girls that Sakuta comes across suffers from another form of Adolescence Syndrome and it usually takes about three episodes for the story arc to come to a conclusion. Some of the characters are more interesting than others and some of the story arcs have some more satisfying conclusions than others. The reason that I bring this up is just so no one goes into this anime expecting perfection and doesn't think that a weak arc is representative of Bunny Girl Senpai. 

This was an anime that was not an absolute favorite for me and it's never at the front of my mind when I'm talking about anime. But I will say that every time I watched an episode of Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, I was never disappointed. I recommend this anime to anyone looking for stories about dealing with social issues and growing up while putting an interesting spin on those situations. If you're looking for some feels, this anime has a few. And if you're not looking for anything especially deep, Bunny Girl Senpai has plenty of candidates for best girl to fall in love with and appreciate.

If you've already seen Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, let me know what you thought and which character was your favorite. I hear that Monogatari and Oregairu are similar anime, but I've never watched either, so let me know if those would be good anime to follow up Bunny Girl Senpai.