Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl is a 2019 Japanese animatedsupernaturalromancedrama film based on the sixth and seventh volumes of the light novel series Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai written by Hajime Kamoshida and illustrated by Keeji Mizoguchi. The film was originally released on June 15, 2019 in Japan, and received limited theatrical releases in other regions in late 2019.
Plot
In Fujisawa, Sakuta Azusagawa is in his second year of high school. He greatly enjoys his days with Mai Sakurajima, who for the past 6 months has been both his girlfriend and senior. However, their peaceful lives are interrupted by the appearance of Sakuta's first love, Shoko Makinohara. With this Sakuta encounters two Shokos — one in middle school and the other an adult, the one who first helped him in his memories. Sakuta discovers that the middle school Shoko is suffering from a heart disease that urgently requires heart transplantation to save her life. When both Sakuta and Mai become concerned about the middle school Shoko's grave illness and think of ways to help her, Sakuta eventually figures out the link between his wounds and adult Shoko: adult Shoko comes from the future after a successful heart transplant operation. Shoko's heart donor is Sakuta himself — who Shoko reveals was declared brain dead after a fatal traffic accident on Christmas Eve. It turns out the reason Shoko came back is to save her dear Sakuta's life. Against Mai’s wishes, Sakuta decides to sacrifice himself so that Shoko can live. Sakuta nearly gets run over, but Mai pushes him aside at the last moment, and she gets hit by the car instead. As a result, the entire causality has changed — Sakuta lives, but Mai is killed and Shoko's heart transplant donor becomes Mai. Sakuta is in shock and devastated after Mai's death. Unable to bear seeing him like this, adult Shoko helps him one last time by telling him a secret: with her help, he can also return to the past to rewrite history; the ultimate implication being that the adult Shoko disappears forever. Sakuta makes a firm decision and returns to the past to save his love. Sakuta stops Mai from saving himself and prevents himself from being run over, but now Shoko doesn’t have a heart transplant from anyone and her illness remains uncured. However, Sakuta refuses to accept such an outcome and together with Mai, they agree to find a way to help the young Shoko who by now is close to death, knowing that saving her means risking the loss of everything that has happened up to then. Nevertheless, the couple vow to find each other and fall in love all over again. Sakuta visits young Shoko one last time, where she reveals that she now knows everything that has happened. She decides that she will create a future in which she never meets both Sakuta and Mai; thus saving them from the sadness of the situation. Time winds back to the past, when Shoko was in fourth grade. She bravely writes down her future hopes, but this means giving up the memory of meeting both Sakuta and Mai; and that they would likely never meet her. In the end, time returns to the present. New year comes, Sakuta and Mai visit the shrine and pass by a beach, where for the first time they encounter Shoko, now a healthy young girl. Thanks to memory pieces crossing different timelines, they eventually recognize each other.
Voice cast
Character
Japanese
Sakuta Azusagawa
Kaito Ishikawa
Mai Sakurajima
Asami Seto
Shoko Makinohara
Inori Minase
Tomoe Koga
Nao Tōyama
Rio Futaba
Atsumi Tanezaki
Nodoka Toyohama
Maaya Uchida
Kaede Azusagawa
Yurika Kubo
Production and release
The project was announced on February 9, 2019. It is a sequel to the anime television series Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, which originally aired in Japan between October and December 2018, and adapts the series' sixth and seventh volumes. The sequel film features a returning staff, including director Sōichi Masui, scriptwriter Masahiro Yokotani, character designer Satomi Tamura, and musical composer Fox Capture Plan. CloverWorks, which produced the 2018 television series, returns as the production studio, and all voice cast members reprised their roles from the anime. The film opened in theaters in Japan on June 15, 2019, distributed by Aniplex. The film earned a cumulative total of from 257,191 ticket sales in 24 days. The film has been promoted through merchandise based on characters from the series, including figures of Mai Sakurajima and Shoko Makinohara, which are scheduled for release by Aniplex in 2020. In the United States, Aniplex of America premiered the film at Anime Expo on July 7, 2019. Aniplex of America, in collaboration with Funimation Films, released the film in select theaters in the US on October 2 and 3, 2019, and in Canada on October 4 and 5, 2019. In Australia and New Zealand, Madman Entertainment premiered the film at Madman Anime Festival Melbourne on September 14, 2019, with a limited theatrical run from October 10, 2019.
Reception
Kim Morrissy of Anime News Network praised the film, describing it as "a real tearjerker" and that it was a "perfect encapsulation of what makes the Sakuta and Mai relationship so endearing," giving it an overall score of A−.
