Rascal does not dream of Bunny Girl Sempai: My first 10 out of 10.

I picked up this anime as a lark. For one thing its not dubbed and that's something that has less appeal to me. For another thing, with a title this ridiculous I was expecting a low comedy with a probably perverted protagonist who would spend the entire season trying to grope girls while the plot happened around him.

Well none of that is the case and Bunny Girl Sempai is one of the best anime I've seen.

The story is a little hard to describe. It's usually referred to as a romantic comedy with scifi elements but I don't really think that's right. It's more of a character study with elements of romance and scifi.

The series is tough to talk about without getting into a little bit of Japanese culture, specifically manners and social behavior. Japan is traditionally a very non-confrontational place where people go out of their way to avoid actually saying 'no' to each other, often substituting phrases like "Perhaps" or "It is very difficult."

This leads to a concept in Japanese that can best be translated as "reading the room", in other words, since saying "no" to you can make me feel so uncomfortable try to be aware of what people are thinking so they don't HAVE to tell you "no."

The reason I bring this up is the series is based heavily on this element of Japanese culture and is trying to provide a fairly insightful piece of social commentary. While the series justifies its scifi concepts using things like Schroedenger's cat and quantum mechanics all of this is really an allegory for how the weight of public perception (and self-perception) can effect people.

There are several arcs in the series when Sakuta must find a way to fix or reverse the effects of these quantum/scifi effects on different people. He has no trouble believing people who tell him weird things are happening to them because he remembers a time when his own little sister Kaede experienced bleeding and bruising all over her body after an episode of cyber-bullying. In essence, her classmates' emotional abuse of her was manifested as physical harm.

One of the main characters in the series, Mai, the Bunny Girl titular, is disappearing. She was an up and coming actress who decided she needed a break from that life and became isolated. Now people are forgetting about her existence and even being unable to see her as a physical manifestation of her own inner conflict regarding what she loves and hates about being a television star.

Nobody can see her or notices when she does anything except Sakuta our main protagonist. Mai walks around the library in a Bunny costume, desperately trying to get someone to notice her, where she meets Sakuta.

Sakuta is a likeable and helpful if lazy protagonist who is talented at "reading the room." Interestingly, this is a trait he often uses to deliberately go against the flow and push people out of their comfort zones. He's not a troll or trying to be edgy, he just has a knack for realizing what people need and despite understanding what they want, he gives them what they need. He's very loyal to his few friends and they in turn are very dedicated to him but as a result of his behavior most people ignore or avoid him.

When Mai is about to completely disappear, Sakuta interrupts exams at their high school to run out on the nearby baseball field and scream to the entire school that he loves Mai. Mai then reappears because where before everyone was unconsciously ignoring her, Sakuta has made it utterly impossible to ignore her: she's a famous model and actress who has just had an embarrassing love confession from one of the biggest losers in school.

The romantic subplot is rarely the focus but it is handled quite well and the two leads have a nice amount of banter and romantic chemistry. Mai is clearly uncomfortable admitting how much she likes Sakuta but he often manages to nudge her into saying it by refusing to play the role expected of him as the social outcast dating a beautiful older student.

All the characters in the series are pretty great. Sakuta is loyal, helpful, and good humored. He genuinely wants to help people and expects nothing in return while being indifferent to how others view him. Best of all, he's the first anime protagonist I've seen in a while who's not offensively pervy. He's a teenage boy who can enjoy making girls feel awkward but he never actually crosses the line and becomes creepy or offensive.

Mai our romantic lead is a typical princess character who is forced to grow and mature simply due to her relationship with Sakuta who consistently refuses to read the lines provided to him by societal expectations.

Kaede, Sakuta's little sister, is absolutely adorable. The one-way crush she has on her older brother can be a little off putting but some of the best elements in the show are centered around Kaede.

After Kaede's body broke out in bruises during the cyber-bullying incident, the doctors thought she was self-harming. Kaede and Sakuta's parents couldn't deal with the stress and they left Sakuta to take care of Kaede on his own (this element does not get nearly the attention it needs. They have literally abandoned their children but the series just lets it pass).

Kaede has become introverted and agoraphobic and she can't leave the house to go to school, waiting for her brother to come home everyday. Kaede is actually the focal point for the final arc in the season and the way the show leaves it is so bittersweet it's almost heartbreaking.

Is the series worth watching? Absolutely.

Well what if I'm not very well versed in Japanese culture and I don't understand all this 'read the room' stuff? Watch it. The series focuses more on its own pseudo-science than explicitly telling you what it's an allegory for. The characters are all complex and three dimensional. The high school romance feels genuine and well paced with both characters slowly feeling each other out like a real high school romance.

What if I don't like subtitles? I don't want to read an anime.

I don't usually watch subbed anime but this one is absolutely worth breaking that habit for. The voice acting is great. Watch this anime. I can not recommend this series highly enough. I'm sitting here trying to decide what I can complain about because I don't give ten out of tens. Nothing is perfect and everything can always be improved, but I'm sitting here trying to throw stones at the series and the best I can come up with is I wish there was more of it. The characters are three dimension, the banter is engaging and the characters have real chemistry.

The best I can think of as far as a reason not to watch it is that the show is based on an unusual blend of romance, comedy, slice-of-life drama, and scifi concepts. If none of those appeal to you, you probably won't find the show that interesting.

I'm sorry but I have no choice. Watch this anime. Despite my best efforts to find criticism or something to nitpick, I can find no excuse not to give this anime a perfect score.

Final Score: 10/10