Note: This post is considered an episode review and it dives into spoilers for the movie.
Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl is the movie follow-up to Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai. It released in 2019. It is now 2023 at the time of me writing this post. To say I’m late with this episode review would be an understatement. Not only have I been sleeping on this movie, the Rascal Does Not Dream series (it doesn’t make sense to keep the Bunny Girl Senpai part) now has a second movie for me to get to and a third one releasing in a couple of days. So in the interest of closing the gap, let’s talk about the first movie.
Dreaming Girl picks up right where Bunny Girl Senpai left off. Sakuta (Kaito Ishikawa) is visited once again by the older Shoko (Inori Minase), who takes refuge at his place for the time being. Being a Shoko-centric story, the movie addresses the one major loose end left in the series: the mysterious appearances of an older Shoko (Inori Minase). It was a given that Puberty Syndrome was at play. The question was how exactly it affects Shoko and why. As it turns out, there are two Shokos running around. You have the younger Shoko who is in middle school and the older Shoko who keeps appearing to give Sakuta (Kaito Ishikawa) a pep talk. This conundrum comes about because the younger Shoko has a heart condition. Without a transplant, she’s projected to die at some point during middle school. Torn between resigning to her fate and dreaming about her future, Shoko develops a case of Puberty Syndrome that then brings a version of herself from the future who received a heart transplant. Frankly, Shoko’s situation can feel confusing, partly because of the dialogue but also because this movie throws a lot at you. In spite of that, I find the long-awaited explanation to be pretty satisfying and interesting.
To be honest, I kind of figured that Sakuta wouldn’t choose Shoko over Mai (Asami Seto). Shoko is Sakuta’s first crush but with how content and dedicated Sakuta is with Mai, he seems to have moved on from those feelings. Plus, we the viewers have followed Sakuta and Mai’s romance since the beginning of the series. For Sakuta to pick Shoko now would be a massive mistake for the Rascal series to make. That said, I have to admit that Sakuta and Shoko do have a compelling and endearing relationship in their own right. Sakuta visits the younger Shoko in the hospital, helping her feel less alone and more hopeful but also causing her to develop feelings for him, which we then see expressed through the older Shoko. There are a couple of moments where the older Shoko makes her feelings clear to Sakuta and you get why she does that. The two of them are each other’s big what-if so the older Shoko can’t help but confess to Sakuta and flirt with him, even when a romantic relationship wouldn’t work because of the time traveling and Sakuta’s relationship with Mai.
Sakuta does eventually face a choice between Mai and Shoko though not in a romantic sense but rather a very dramatic one. The older Shoko hesitantly reveals to Saktua and Mai that while she did receive a heart transplant, her donor was actually Sakuta, as he will apparently die on Christmas Eve in a traffic accident. It’s because of the inevitable transplant that Sakuta has the scar on his chest. With this knowledge, Sakuta faces a dilemma. Option 1 is dying as schedule but leaving all of his friends and family, especially Mai, devastated. Option 2 is avoiding the accident to continue a life with Mai but at the cost of leaving Shoko to die. It’s an extremely tough and cruel crossroad and understandably, Sakuta goes back and forth on his decision. I didn’t expect to see something like this in Rascal but I ain’t complaining it either.
Oddly enough, both of the movie’s main girls lean towards Sakuta avoiding the accident. Mai knows it’d be cruel to let Shoko die but understandably, she doesn’t want Sakuta to die either and she’s okay with Sakuta hating her for it if it means that he’ll live. As for the older Shoko, she actually feels the same way as Mai. Even though her life is on the line, she’d rather see Sakuta live than die for her survival. Where the two deviate is how they try to take the matter into their own hands. Shoko tries to trick Sakuta into avoiding the place where the accident will occur but in a twist of irony, her actions end up leading Sakuta towards his fate. Mai is more successful though her plan is far from ideal – she opts to be the sacrifice in Sakuta’s place.
I highly doubted that the movie would keep Mai dead. I mean, she’s the main girl of the series. She kind of has to stick around. That said, the movie really did have me fooled for a bit. It spends a good amount of time playing it out, letting you think that she’s gone for good and empathize with Sakuta’s shock and grief. I do take slight issue with how the movie reverses course. Basically, Shoko uses the effects of her Puberty Syndrome to send Sakuta back to the past so that he can prevent Mai and his past self from dying. I know Puberty Syndrome is a vaguely defined phenomenon but even so, it feels like cheating that Shoko can pass the effects of her syndrome over to someone else. Then again, the movie wrote itself into a corner with Mai’s death so I’m willing to look the other way.
After that, Sakuta visits the younger Shoko at the hospital. Shoko reveals that she’s aware of what just happened and she deduces that her Puberty Syndrome/time traveling is still in effect. She then travels further into the past to create a new timeline where she didn’t doubt her future, didn’t develop Puberty Syndrome, and didn’t meet Sakuta and cause him a lot of trouble. It’s a wild scene but somehow, I buy into this more than Shoko sending Sakuta back in time. Plus, it makes for a really great climax for the movie.
In the new timeline, Shoko is somehow healthy. To be fair, I don’t need an explanation. After everything that’s happened in the movie and after taking responsibility for it all, Shoko deserves it. Another thing you’ll need to accept is Sakuta and Shoko retaining their memories of the old timeline and being able to recognize each other as a result. The movie establishes that can happen ahead of time but it does feel a bit far-fetched and convenient. That said, Sakuta wouldn’t be the man he is now if he didn’t meet Shoko or at least remembered meeting her so having him retain his memories serves to keep the canon in check. I’ll also accept it because boy did I get teary-eyed when these reunite. I can’t think of a better scene for the movie to end on.
Dreaming Girl is easily my favorite arc in Rascal Does Not Dream since the actual Bunny Girl Senpai part in Bunny Girl Senpai. Not only does it address the show’s one remaining loose end, it also provides one of the most dramatic and most emotional plots in the entire series so far. To anyone who is a fan of the show, don’t be like me and sleep on this movie. It is very much worth watching after you finish the show. There are two more movies after this one, possibly more given the series’ popularity, and I’m looking forward to seeing those. But if Rascal ended with this movie, I’d be more than okay with that.
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