

“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
Storyline and Character Progression: 8.2/10
Soundtrack and Audio: 8.7/10
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!
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