a young man is killing time at the
library when suddenly out of the corner
of his eye he spots a beautiful girl
wandering through the reference section
wearing a skimpy bunny girl costume not
just any girl
though it's my Sakurajima a famous
teenage actress and model who happens to
be his senpai in high school and to make
matters stranger it seems like he's the
only person who can see her to everyone
else she's apparently invisible if
you've seen anime before this set up and
the title of rascal does not dream a
bunny girl senpai are probably going to
get the gears in your brain turning
creating expectations of supernatural
encounters a chi indulgences and as the
opening credits introduce yet more girls
harem shenanigans on the horizon and
those expectations wouldn't be wrong per
se this is a series with a lot of
palpable sexual tension where the
protagonist Sakata has multiple love
interests whom he helps deal with
supernatural phenomena but it's also a
series written by Hajime kimochi de the
mind behind the pet girl of Sakura so
and last year's brilliant coming-of-age
drama Dee just because camel cheetahs a
fantastic writer with a real talent for
crafting characters who look quirky and
outlandish on paper yet feel remarkably
three-dimensional and down-to-earth on
screen and he's got a real knack for
paying off what he sets up in ways that
you might not expect but that still feel
fundamentally satisfying and well-earned
bunny girl senpai is not what it first
appears to be if you go in expecting a
monogatari s cavalcade of weird anime
girls with weirder problems or a
metatextual dive into otaku 'dom a la
half of all the light novels ever well
you won't be disappointed but that's not
really what you're going to get instead
bunny girl senpai uses its surreal
elements to magnify and explore the
trials and tribulations of daily life
for a modern teenager and it's fantastic
it feels more real more authentic to my
own experience as a high schooler and
the digitally connected age then the
vast majority of high school around
comms in anime even with it's
supernatural elements actually they kind
of play a big role in making the more
realistic elements of the story work as
well as they do the unique
of bunny-girl senpai is puberty syndrome
a supernatural affliction that causes
strange phenomena to happen to and
around certain kids and teenagers in the
show's world usually when they're under
some kind of stress in universe the
causes of this syndrome remain unknown
but from an audience perspective it's
clear that each characters unique
symptoms correlate in some way to
whatever mundane issues they're dealing
with in real life for instance before
the start of the series sakata's younger
sister was being bullied by her
classmates and suddenly cuts started
appearing on her body out of nowhere the
emotional pain that she was feeling
manifested as direct physical harm
meanwhile my senpai who's gone on an
indefinite hiatus as an actress and
generally keeps to herself at school in
order to stay out of the public eye
begins to literally fade from the public
eye as people become incapable of seeing
her on its own this is kind of a
brilliant writing trick for getting us
to care about the petty high school
drama that dominates these kids lives
and much of the story the mysteries of
the supernatural occurrences that follow
each of the show's girls serve as the
core of their respective arcs storylines
wanting to uncover answers drives the
audience to keep watching and since each
strange phenomena is tied to each girl's
character arc as more of that mystery is
revealed we naturally learn more about
them as people as well that's not to say
that the series needs the mystery
elements to keep the rom-com stuff
engaging the dialogue and character
riding his plenty strong on its own
across the board
socata is a charmingly quick-witted
brash and smooth protagonist in a field
mostly populated by doormats and idiots
while my hides a wickedly sharp tongue
and playful sense of humor under her
prim and proper outward demeanour put
them together and they've got
spellbinding romantic chemistry that
makes every scene there in a delight but
even the best written rom-coms can have
difficulty keeping the flirting fun and
light while creating sustained dramatic
tension and a story needs tension to
keep readers turning pages or keep
viewers tuning in week to week that's
what makes us eager to see what will
happen next the looming question of
what's causing each case of puberty
syndrome keeps the audience guessing and
keeps them focused on the characters
without having to resort to the
five misunderstandings that drive many
of its romantic contemporaries puberty
syndrome is more than just a clever way
of externalizing the caste teen angst
than using it to drive the plot though
we've already seen a few hints at the
broader cause of the syndrome and I'm
not talking about the pseudo-scientific
misquoting of famously weird thought
pieces courtesy of Futaba know the real
reason that all these strange things are
happening in my opinion is because of a
concept that comes up toward the end of
the first arc kooky guy Yom and I often
abbreviated as KY is a common Japanese
put-down that roughly translates to you
can't read the atmosphere there's no
exact equivalent of this idea in English
but essentially the atmosphere is the
general mood of a group area or
situation people who don't intuitively
grasp this tend to go against the flow
of conversation have trouble taking
hints and do unintentionally awkward
things without realizing it this is far
from an exclusively Japanese phenomenon
obviously but it's a much more
significant transgression over there
than it is in the West if you could call
it a transgression here at all
Japan is a very non-confrontational
society where people generally don't
like saying no to one another so when
someone can't tell that they're being
awkward they put others in an
uncomfortable blind do they put up with
the awkwardness or make themselves even
more uncomfortable by confronting it
neither is a good option so people who
can't read the atmosphere tend to be
looked down upon and even made fun of
which is pretty damn unfair for people
who have difficulty picking up on social
cues and fitting in and we'll just be
further found upon if they ask what
they're doing wrong this invisible
social pressure is something that a lot
of Japanese media has taken to
challenging lately
early on in mob cycle 100 for instance
mob ends up flying into a 100% rage when
dimple tells him to read the atmosphere
translated as get a clue in the official
subs a phrase that's been used to
belittle him all his life and as the
series progresses mobs refusal or
inability as the case may be to act as
situations dictate he should serves as
both a source of comedy and a surprising
solution to many of his biggest problems
the show ends up critiquing this idea
that people should all conform to the
expectations of those around them bunny
girl senpai takes an even more direct
approach to talking about this idea
puberty syndrome is a physical
manifestation of this atmosphere a
metaphor for the social pressures faced
by teens as they grow from kids to
adults and it becomes less and less
acceptable for them to act out teens and
money girls some PI's world come up
against this social pressure and are
supernaturally forced to conform to it
if I had to place a bet as to how this
is happening I guess it's the collective
subconscious of those around them
exerting some kind of psychokinetic
influence but the metaphysical mechanics
of puberty syndrome aren't nearly as
interesting to me at least as the
message behind it it's a very literal
demonstration of the negative effects
that society's invisible expectations
can have on people and through it
kimochi de makes a case for creating the
atmosphere you want rather than
accepting what's already there
socata describes himself as someone who
can read the atmosphere but chooses to
ignore it which makes him a bit of a
pariah his best friend Yuma's girlfriend
is constantly telling him to [ __ ] off
entirely because she worries that
associating with someone so prone to
making scenes is diminishing her and
Yuma's popularity she's kind of a huge
[ __ ] and she fails to see the upside of
this unconventional mindset socrata is
one of the only characters in anime or
fiction period who could turn yelling
I'm a virgin into a crowning moment of
badass and his willingness to buck norms
speak his mind and go against the grain
is what allows him to crack each case of
puberty syndrome as it pops up in my
Sakurajima z-- case the atmosphere in
the school is making everyone look the
other way and forget about her because
they think she wants to be left alone
and when that spreads to the general
population they start ignoring her as
well as she fades from her celebrity and
people begin forgetting about her in a
general sense it creates a feedback loop
in the atmosphere and they become
supernaturally incapable of remembering
her at all to the point that her entire
existence is threatened socata is only
able to reverse this when he loudly
declares his love for her in front of
the
higher school thrusting her back into
the spotlight and making it impossible
for his classmates to look away from her
in this moment he uses their tendency to
gossip to change the atmosphere to his
own ends this is not unlike the social
manipulation we see Hakeem on perform in
Oregon except that Sakata doesn't have a
ridiculous martyr complex so he's able
to twist the situation in a way that
lets him get what he wants a date with
my as well instead of just pulling the
very repetitive and obvious trick of
diffusing tension by giving everyone
else a common enemy in himself man I
could go off on a whole tangent about or
a guru and how this series improves on
the other light novels it borrows from
but let's save that for another video
the next puberty syndrome victim we meet
Tomo a Koga offers an interesting
insight into how the atmosphere can
affect people and an interesting point
of contrast to Sakata unlike him she
cares a lot about conforming to others
expectations to the point that when she
moved to Yokohama she reinvented her
entire look and personality in order to
fit in with the stylish popular girls in
the city and as is explained at the end
of episode 6 she's so attuned to the
atmosphere so good at understanding
exactly what every person around her is
thinking and wants all at once that she
can use it to accurately simulate the
future which lets her avoid any and all
possible outcomes that might interfere
with her place in the social hierarchy
and concoct some crazy convoluted plans
for controlling the conversation like
her whole fake relationship with sakata
which she has planned out down to the
break up the show makes it clear that
this isn't some cliched story of her
realizing that she's pretending to be
something she's not Koga is her city
girl persona she's worked hard to
cultivate that personality in public
image and she's rightly happy with it
that was something that she wanted and
worked to achieve but having achieved it
she now bases her every decision on what
others might think and lives her life to
evade any possibility of failure rather
than confront it which leaves her stuck
unable to move forward this is
represented somewhat literally by her
predictions creating a time
and Sakata is only able to break the
loop by prompting her to rock the boat a
little instead of endlessly
accommodating him and hoping he'll fall
for her eventually she confronts him
with her feelings head-on and she's
rejected but she put herself out there
and tried which is what really matters
and what she should be proud of when
time resets she's able to cleanly
rebuffed the douchenozzle who asked her
out in the first loop and accept the
possibility that it might put some
distance between her and her friends
she's empowered to do this in part
because she has socrata to fall back on
but mostly because through her ordeal
she's learned the value of speaking her
mind and pursuing what she really wants
instead of just going with the flow the
individual character arcs of bunny-girl
senpai each managed to be really
interesting in their own right and the
way that they tie into their respective
supernatural phenomena is well thought
out but I think the real beauty of the
show only becomes apparent when you look
at the bigger picture they paint and see
how they all connect with the story's
central themes when you do you see how
this cute fun love story sends a
powerful message about being your own
person and creating the world you want
to live in this was also one of the pet
girl of Sakura so spiggott strikes
kimochi des is able to make his
characters feel remarkably distinct and
fully realized without ever losing sight
of what he wants to say but Sakura sews
biggest weakness was a dull plot and
bunny girl senpai fixes that by
constructing a supernatural mystery that
naturally plays to those strengths the
result is fascinating to analyze in
terms of both writing technique and
symbolic meaning and endlessly
entertaining to watch
I'm excited both to meet the rest of
bunny girl SEM PI's cast and to see how
they affect the show's atmosphere and
you can rest assured that this video
will not be the last thing I have to say
about this series let me know in the
comments below whether you're rooting
for my or Koga or Kai day for all of you
sick [ __ ] who can't remember rule D and
while you're down there don't forget to
leave a like if you liked the video of
course and hit that subscribe button if
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June 27th June 27th June 27th and maybe
some other days if they ever happen I'm
Jeff through professional shitbags
signing out from my mother's base