“I’m Mai Sakurajima. Sakurajima as in Mai Sakurajima, and Mai as in Mai Sakurajima.” -Mai Sakurajima (gotta love her)

Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl, the sequel movie that we all looked forward to releasing, hoping that it would bring the same beautiful emotions that we had felt before. Without a fresh rewatch or a sharp memory, you’re sure to instantly be lost in the storyline because it doesn’t wait for you to catch up. This film focuses on Shouko Makinohara, the girl that gave Sakuta the strength to push through a tough phase in his life and leave a lasting impression on him. Aside from the odd pacing of this movie, the story it tells is one that can have a great emotional impact. The message it carries of accepting fate and appreciating what you have can be clearly seen, but the way this movie executes it makes the task a very difficult one. All the emotion was definitely there for the taking, as long as you didn’t mind the faster pacing. But it may affect a lot of you who may feel like the story is being cut short, as if not enough attention is being given to the emotional moments. You’re not wrong in those feelings, this movie had to cram 2 volumes of content into just around an hour and a half. If I’m being honest, this film would’ve reached its full potential with an extra hour so they could take their time on the more emotional parts. Also, you’re more than likely gonna have to rewatch it in order to get the storyline straight, because a lot of the events occur back-to-back without any breathing room. Overall, I still really enjoyed what this film brought to the table. It had a more serious and dramatic mood to it than the anime, and this was due to the focus and development of Shouko. Without further ado, let’s get on with the scoring!

Art and Animation: 9.3/10

• The same beautiful art style was incorporated into this film, but with added benefits. With more attention being brought to the detail of background settings, the overall atmosphere felt much more authentic. The color palette had matched with the seasons, resulting in a realistic winter that contributed to the mood. When it came to the character designs and animations, nothing was especially lacking. The camera shots though, were at some places a bit excessive. This may be due to the quicker pace of the storyline though. I enjoyed the attention to animated details such as the snow or water, which added to the mood even more.

Storyline and Character Progression: 8.2/10

• While the storyline was deep and complex, it was just too much content to fit within an hour and a half. You could get easily lost in the plot, which means rewatching this movie isn’t a bad idea. The only main thing I didn’t care for was, again, the pacing of the storyline. The reason for this was because I felt like the emotional moments derived a lot more “screen time” than they got. I felt like some of the scenarios were just so natural, while others felt forced and rushed. There wasn’t too much character progression either, but that’s mainly because most of the focus is on Shouko. We did get to see a more unique side of Mai though as the storyline progressed, which added to the even more dramatic feel of the movie. This movie didn’t nearly have as many funny moments as the anime, but it was rather focused more on the drama aspect this time around. Without rewatching it, you may feel lost or even forget the significance that Shouko has in Sakutas life. So I highly recommend you do so before starting the movie, as this will increase your appreciation for the overall storyline. The character progression that Shouko did gain was somewhat average. There just wasn’t enough time to develop her fully with the complex plot at hand, since more time was put into trying to bring the storyline together and explain it along the way.

Soundtrack and Audio: 8.7/10

• Nothing too special here that stood out. The soundtrack wasn’t the main focus of the environment, but it played a role in giving certain moments the emotion it needed, I definitely wish that the overall musicality featured more content, but I’m glad nothing bad was present. After all, we still got to listen to that beautiful ED we’re all on love with. Audio was as good as always, and even though some emotional moments were rushed, the emotion itself was still authentic and honest. The voice actors had done their jobs very well to give as much emotion as they could to the scene.

Overall, I still really enjoyed watching another entry of this series. While the ending was a bit odd, I didn’t mind it too much. The quality of the art and audio was kept to either the same quality or higher, and remained consistent. With only an hour and a half to crunch over 2 volumes of character development and storyline, I don’t blame them for having to pick up the pace throughout the whole movie. I still just wish certain moments were given the time they deserved so that we could just emotionally accept the events taking place. If you don’t mind a quicker pacing, then you’ll have no problems at all with this movie. In fact, the pacing was just about the only thing that really held it back. That’s why I’m comfortable with giving it a 8.7/10. While it was pretty consent in keeping its quality, this movie is DEFINITELY a hit or miss due to how you may feel about the cut and rushed storyline. After giving the entire series a rewatch and then rewatching the movie, I was able to appreciate more the storyline and connect with it WAY more than my first watch. So I definitely encourage any of you to rewatch the series before continuing on to this movie. That’s all for now, thanks so much for reading this far. See you in the next one!