Fall 2018 Anime Review : Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai

Teenage years. Yes, for me, my teenage years probably my best and worst years in my life. I was a very hyperactive and tomboy girl back then so I was very much have no sense of shame but because of those personalities, I developed a huge insecurity over those years just for my early adult years trying to fix them for me. Our social life were being judged by everyone back then with parents put their highest hope for us in those years. So, yeah... Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai or Bunny Girl Senpai for short is an anime revolving around Adolescence Syndrome that took the stress and insecurity of a teenager into reality, making this anime very intriguing and yet, relatable for us.

The concept of Adolescence Syndrome is actually pretty simple. Think of some teenage problem that would come out of your brain and try to convey it into reality. But what makes Bunny Girl Senpai special is this anime made the explanation of these Adolescence Syndrome occurrences with more scientific explanations and a certain depth of lore or history behind those. I don't know why but I love that concept which made the show smarter from a simple premise of teenage problems. And because they were teenagers, adults often said they were just a bigger version of kids so the adults sometimes would not believe what they said including the occurrences of Adolescence Syndrome. This made teenagers must deal with Adolescence Syndrome by their own and that's partly why Sakuta is a great character.

In my opinion, the center of great character development of this anime came out from Sakuta. While still being himself, The Rascal wants to help anyone who developed Adolescence Syndrome just like Shoko-san did to him. He was driven by kindness offered by someone who actually believed in him but still retained his basic personality trait that is a rascal. He spoke out his perverted thoughts or everything in his mind bluntly but that's why Sakuta becoming a lovable character. He seemed like not hiding anything and made everyone around him love to share their problem with him. He is the kind of guy I really want to share my thoughts with. And while he is dubbed as a rascal, he is actually have a huge commitment in relationship. He even turned a girl down properly because his feelings towards Mai-san won't change even after that painfully repeated days *a sudden memory of eight repeated episodes came in*. He is an embodiment of how a harem light novel protagonist should act while facing so many girls at the same time. His commitment is one of a kind and I love him for that.

Not just that, I would like to say that Sakuta and Mai-san's relationship development could be the cutest and most natural romance development in this season and probably in this year. They were actually acting step by step and in a perfect pace. Those made every moment of their relationship development cute and made me squirm every time they showed some kind of small development.

How about the animation? I really like this anime's animation as I could see how much the animator poured their love in animating into this anime. What I really love about their animation is how they animate the expression of each characters which could make my heart skip a beat every time Mai-san blushes. With the addition of beautiful landscapes for the background, this anime is certainly a very good looking anime. As the first solo start for now standalone studio, CloverWorks who previously a sub-studio of A-1 Pictures, they certainly wanted to make their portfolio as good as possible with a very great debut that is Bunny Girl Senpai. Looking by how beautiful their animation is, I really could trust Cloverworks for adapting more anime in the future and really look forward for their future projects. Truly, a great way to start a reputation.

Then, let's talk about this anime's music and soundtrack. This anime has a huge advantage with the catchiest opening of this season with the song "Kimi no Sei" performed by the peggies. The song is ultimately catchy that every time the song begin, I know that you can't stop singing "kimi no sei... kimi no sei... kimi no sei de... watashi... UUUHHH..." and I think most of you unconsciously read that line with the song played inside your head. I guarantee that you would not want to skip the opening of this anime every time you watch an episode as this opening begin to seep into your head and keep repeating inside your head.

Overall, this anime has won many hearts including mine. Maybe, since this anime is already prepping itself for a movie sequel, the ending felt a little bit off but that's okay! We know that the movie is already on production and I really can't wait for the movie to solve one big question that surfaced in the very end.

(This review was previously written in MAL : https://myanimelist.net/reviews.php?id=297051)