Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl

DISCLAIMER: I highly recommend that you watch Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai (which is a phenomenal anime that I would suggest anyone to watch especially fans of the rom-com genre) before watching this movie or reading the review since they will both contain a lot of spoilers from the show.

Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl is the sequel to the show, Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai (I will be referring to these titles as Dreaming Girl and Bunny Girl Senpai respectively from now on for the sake of simplicity), which explores arguably the biggest mysteries left after the conclusion of the show, Shouko Makinohara and her connection with Sakuta. While I believe that the main concepts surrounding Sakuta’s past as well as the themes of the movie were all handled relatively well, the ending (or more specifically the last two “chapters” of the story which I will be referring to only as the last chapter) is unfortunately the reason Dreaming Girl is only a good movie instead of an incredible one as it could have been. With only these last few minutes, the movie managed to completely revert Sakuta and Mai’s entire character arcs in the film as well as making the plot even more convoluted than before.

The Story section of this review will contain major SPOILERS, you can skip to the next section or read the summary of my thoughts at the end.

Story - 6/10
Bunny Girl Senpai has always been a character-driven show with its plot mainly used as a device to strengthen the character progressions, Dreaming Girl is no exception. Although the overarching plot is pretty average at best, Dreaming Girl still managed to keep the storyline relatively easy to follow throughout the majority of its runtime even when including the whole aspect of time travelling (which is always a dangerous plot device to use). However, as you might expect, the story gets a big reduction in its score due to the final chapter of the movie. While the plot of Dreaming Girl is supposed to be supporting the character arcs, this last chapter of the movie resulted in these arcs falling apart instead. The most prevalent issue with this ending chapter is the sudden shift in the tone from the central themes of the movie. As the story progresses, the viewers learn the truth about Shouko and the origins of Sakuta’s scar. On the day before Christmas, December 24th at 6pm, Sakuta will become victim to an accident and due to the injuries, his brain will cease to function. However, Sakuta’s heart will be donated to Shouko, a child with a heart disease that requires a replacement heart in order for her to survive, and as a result, Sakuta’s death will successfully save a child’s life and allow her to live her dream of having a normal life. The entire film focuses on the dilemma of this dreadful situation between Sakuta, his girlfriend, Mai, and Shouko where no matter what happens one of them will die, it’s only a matter of who. The theme of accepting being unable to save everyone as well as themes on the importance of those who are close to you are clearly shown after Sakuta experiences the aftermath of Mai’s death. However, in the final chapter, both Mai and Sakuta decide to somehow save Shouko by going back in time again (to be honest I still do not completely understand exactly how Shouko is saved) even though they may never meet as a result since the future version of Shouko, who is a major reason in Sakuta's eventual meeting with Mai, will never exist. The two MCs’ decision to believe in destiny for them to meet each other even without Shouko’s influences changes the theme of the story to that of hope. This final theme is too drastic of a change for it to be consistent with the rest of the story, and in return it only confuses the viewers and leaves them pondering on the point of the other themes shown throughout the majority of the movie.

Now I want to talk about how this ending chapter completely disregards Sakuta’s character arc in the movie. Sakuta is a complex character whose character arc (even in Bunny Girl Senpai) is written to be a tragic depiction of someone who has been through way too much. Sakuta lost his sister in the form of amnesia before the start of Bunny Girl Senpai due to the Puberty Syndrome caused by bullying. Then during the events in Bunny Girl Senpai, Sakuta encounters multiple problems related to Puberty Syndrome which he had to solve. When he was finally able to catch a break, his sister “died” again as her old memories came back but lost all of her memories during the period where she became a new person. Then quickly after experiencing the loss of his sister for the second time, Sakuta finds himself in the middle of the terrible dilemma during Dreaming Girl. However, Sakuta’s tragic past is also how he grows as a person as we find out in the movie that Sakuta’s decision to help people is because he wasn’t able to do anything to prevent his sister from suffering the effects of the Puberty Syndrome caused by bullying. Unfortunately for Sakuta, his desire to help others also made it much harder for him to make a decision in Dreaming Girl since unlike his sister, he has the ability to save young Shouko (someone who no doubt reminds him of his sister). Since he was unable to give up the opportunity he was given to help Shouko, the majority of first half of the movie shows Sakuta’s internal conflict as he tries to decide between breaking Mai as well as his friends’ hearts or to watch and do nothing while Shouko dies like his sister. However, after Mai saves him and dies in his stead, Sakuta realizes not only how she would feel if he died but also his true feelings which is to survive and be together with Mai. This is an essential part of Sakuta’s character growth because when he decides to save Mai by travelling back in time, he is finally able to gain acceptance for his inability to save everyone (his sister in the past and now Shouko) and that it isn’t his fault or his duty to sacrifice his own life or the lives of those close to him. In an attempt to give every character a happy ending, the movie took away Sakuta’s development as well as his entire character arc by making his painful experiences and decisions completely pointless by creating a cheap solution to save everyone with absolutely no compromises. By extending and making the ending chapter actually happen, Mai’s character also had to act completely out of character. Throughout the entire movie and even the show, Mai has always been shown to care deeply about her relationship with Sakuta which is obviously why she is strongly against his decision to sacrifice himself to save Shouko. The importance of this relationship to her is emphasized even more when, although Mai has always been a character with a strong exterior who does not easily show her true emotions, she completely breaks down in front of Sakuta at the thought of losing him. Not only does she break down but she actually sacrifices herself instead just so she doesn’t have to live without Sakuta. However, in the final chapter when Sakuta decides to travel back in time again with the slim chance of saving Shouko and the high probability of never meeting Mai or his friends, Mai allows him to do it and decides to leave their whole relationship to fate. This does not make any sense in terms of how she acted throughout the rest of the movie since it is very difficult for me to believe that someone who breaks down and practically sacrifices herself so she won’t have to live without her loved one could just completely change her point of view and trust in destiny to bring them together. The movie should have ended around 8 and a half minutes sonner at the scene shown in the picture above (and removing the scenes where they decide to go back again to save Shouko). This is pretty much the perfect spot to end this movie as right before this scene, both Sakuta and Mai said their last goodbyes to Shouko. And as they sat on the bench, Sakuta had a flashback of the events that happened in Bunny Girl Senpai, which to me, represents Sakuta’s entire character arc in Dreaming Girl summed up in a couple of seconds. When the flashback begins, it shows the events of the prequel as Sakuta reminisces about the past which is important to him because he was able to do everything he did back in the first season due to Shouko’s help. At this point in time, Sakuta is thinking about how Shouko made him into who he is today, however in the last few seconds, the flashback gradually turns to only the past events he spent with Mai which is Sakuta confirming for the last time the importance of Mai in his life and accepting his decision to survive. Although this is a rather bittersweet ending, it is more fitting regarding both the themes of this movie as well as the character arcs of both MCs.

Art - 9/10
The art in this movie is incredible just like its predecessor. The animation is smooth and the environments are all fantastic. My only complaint and the reason the score isn’t any higher is that there’s no real improvement from the prequel which I had hoped for.

Sound - 8/10
The sound design and music are both very solid but nothing really memorable. The voice actors all did a great job especially with conveying their emotions through their voices which is an extremely important part of an emotional story like this one.

Character - 8.5/10
The characters are the ones carrying the movie just as they did in the show. Since I have already included the character arcs and their scores in the story section, this section will be judging them more on their personalities and whether the characters are one-dimensional or not. Since most side characters have had their stories concluded in the prequel, the characters I will be talking about will be the main trio: Sakuta, Mai and Shouko. I want to point out that all the characters are written to be pretty consistent to their counterparts in the prequel for the most part, which is usually a pretty difficult thing to do in a sequel. The first main character is Sakuta who, in my opinion, is one of the best written teenage characters alongside Hachiman and Araragi. Although he is not the most relatable character, his backstory, including his character growth (especially in the first season) along with his incredibly witty personality surpasses many characters that I have seen, not just in anime. Mai is another character that is wonderfully written who shines even more when paired together with Sakuta. Their relationship together is probably one of the best in a rom-com as their personalities complement each other so well. Shouko is the last of the main cast and even though she is definitely the weakest character of the three, she still serves her purpose and the child version of Shouko has enough of a backstory and personality for the viewers to care about her

Spoiler, click to viewclick to hide

heart disease.

Enjoyment - 8.5/10
It’s probably not surprising that I enjoyed the movie quite a bit, likely due to the inclusion of some of my favorite characters. However despite the problems I have with the story and character arcs, I actually found the concept of the story to be an ideal follow up to the conclusion of the prequel and Sakuta’s character arc is also one of my favorite arcs (not including the last chapter of the movie obviously) in the entire franchise. I was also thankful that the movie did not have a generic love triangle plot that I feared it would have after reading the synopsis. The movie is quite a lot more depressing than its predecessor which is amplified when the emotional moments and the weight of the entire situation are both portrayed almost flawlessly on Sakuta along with the rest of the cast, which in turn, left an emotional impact on me.

Summary
In the end, Dreaming Girl could have been a top tier successor to one of the best rom-coms out there, but instead I was left feeling slightly disappointed at the end result of a story filled with so much potential. Even though I enjoyed watching the movie, it unfortunately left too big of a stain on its own themes and character arcs for me to ignore. If you liked Bunny Girl Senpai, then Dreaming Girl is definitely still a must watch, however if you were not a fan of the original then I cannot find any possible reason for you to enjoy this one.