Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Sempai

 Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Sempai (青春ブタ野郎) or more simply Aobuta, is a psychological romance slice of life anime based on the light novel series of the same name by Kamoshida Hajime and Mizoguchi Keeji.  The anime aired 13 episodes on TV in the Fall of 2018.

     'Adolescence Syndrome' is a mysterious affliction that targets adolescent children when their mental health is heavily threatened by their environment.  Azusagawa Sakuta seems to attract those who are suffering from this affliction to himself.  Sakuta feels compelled to help anyone dealing with 'Adolescence Syndrome' due to his own experiences with it.  A few years prior to the story his younger sister suffered from the affliction due to social pressures at school.  Sakuta himself fell victim to it due to the impact of his sisters health.  An older girl he met while in the hospital helped him overcome his own hardships and instill in him the drive to make life better for others.

    Now, a few years later, with life more or less resuming its calm familiarity Sakuta becomes entangled in a number of his peers struggling with the syndrome.  Using his own experience with he and his sisters previous struggles he dives head first into trying to resolve the issues.  While paranormal in nature a close friend of his helps him to keep track of the issues and possible solutions by comparing them to well known quantum physics theories.  Sakuta, while not adept at science, uses everything he can to help those who suddenly find them in uncontrollable circumstances, for both their health and his own peace of mind.

     Immediately the series reminded me of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.  The main character narrates a lot of the story through internal dialogue and works on his own to control and reverse super natural events around him.  As the series progressed this similarity remained.  Particularly in a story arc that was similar to the infamous Endless Eight arc.  Through the course of the story a rogues gallery of characters are added to the cast, who continue to be involved in future arcs, building the circle of friends around the loner Sakuta.

    Aside from the similarity of Haruhi, Aobuta is an entertaining journey.  Sakuta is dry, crass and completely believable as a real person.  This is a strong point in the series, the realistic attitudes of the cast, not a sugar coated stylized version of high school students in modern Japan.  Even his sister and her blatant imouto stereotype is understandable and believable.  The idea of injecting theoretical physics into the series is also quite appealing to me. While some/most characters in the series appear to be empty tropes we are all familiar with, when you are able to peer into their actual thought processes and world views you realize they are not cut outs.  Aobuta is well written, engaging and delivered in a way that continues to build on it's self even as it moves through well defined story arcs.

    Aobuta was streamed on Crunchyroll but as of yet is not available regionally on disc in North America.  A movie was released in late 2019 that continued the story.