True to the Santa moniker, Touko claims that she’s given Puberty Syndrome to people as a way to make their wishes and dreams come true. Sakuta asks Touko to stop giving out “presents” and to his surprise, his request works, though only because Touko has seemingly run out of “presents” after giving them out to about ten million people (which isn’t alarming in the slightest). Pretty funny of Sakuta to point out that Santa shouldn’t be working outside of Christmas. I’m realizing now that this show airing in the Summer was a very intentional in-joke. Aside from Uzuki, Touko identifies Ikumi as another person she gave Puberty Syndrome to.
Some time later, Sakuta hangs out with Rio and Yūma (Yuma Uchida), who now works as a firefighter. I was wondering what Yūma was up to. He was notably absent when the show was reintroducing everyone. Not that I figure they drifted apart of anything but it is nice to learn that Sakuta, Yūma, and Rio are still friends. I really enjoyed their chemistry during Rio’s arc in Bunny Girl Senpai. After the hangout, Sakuta discusses with Rio about Touko, the two noting that concrete details surrounding the lady are hard to come to by due to the girl’s Puberty Syndrome allowing her to live as a ghost for two years. Sakuta agrees with Rio that it’s impossible to help all ten million people affected by Touko’s shenanigans but he admits that something is nagging him about Ikumi. Aside from Touko identifying her, Sakuta is still wondering about her appearance in the other timeline and he also reveals that he had a chance encounter with her at the start of the school year, where it seems like Ikumi wanted to tell him something.
The next day, Takumi invites Sakuta to join him at a mixer during Halloween with some girls who are studying nursing at the university. Understandably, Sakuta would rather not upset Mai but to his surprise, Mai gives him permission as Ikumi studies nursing and hanging around her peers might provide some clues. Sakuta joins Takumi to the mixer and as if his reservations wasn’t enough, he awkwardly reunites with Saki (Himika Akaneya), Yūma’s girlfriend. Turns out, Saki is studying nursing at the university. I don’t recall liking Saki all that much, mainly because of her rude and unreasonable request for Sakuta to cut ties with Yūma. Can’t say I’m thrilled to see her again though I did chuckle at Yūma deliberately keeping quiet about her attending the same university as Sakuta. Kind of silly that Saki still has a bone to pick with Sakuta when her and Yūma’s popularity aren’t a concern anymore but at least her grudge has mellowed more into indifference.
Sakuta hardly learns anything about Ikumi at the mixer though he does hear about another curiosity. Apparently, there’s a trend going on in social media where people post their dreams with “#dreaming” and anything with this hashtag will supposedly come true. This comes into play after the mixer, when Sakuta bumps into Ikumi, who runs off to save a little girl from a lantern that’s about to fall on her. The incident that would’ve happened bears an eerie resemblance to one of the #dreaming posts Sakuta’s peers showed him. The trend being as prophetic as people claim it to be is certainly peculiar and I wonder how Ikumi came to be aware of it in the first place (maybe this is the thing she wanted to tell Sakuta at the start of the school year). Another thing to note is the sudden reappearance of the alternate Mai from Knapsack Kid right before the incident occurs. Come to think of it, Knapsack Kid didn’t fully address what the deal is with this version of Mai so it was inevitable for her to show up again. Perhaps she has some sort of connection to the #dreaming thing.
Watch Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Claus on Crunchyroll
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