#Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out

[bwuniko]

ೀ ⋆𓂃  Mai Sakurajima

[senjo]

[cute-girls-from-vns-anime-manga]

Skeb依頼イラスト by 遠州しょんないウォーカー

[gabbyp09]

[animepopheart]

★ 【TEDDY】 「 rascal does not dream... 」 ☆ ✔ republished w/permission ⊳ ⊳ read our review of ...sister venturing out

[hopeymchope]

"Rascal Does Not Dream" Double Feature review-ish thoughts

I attended the North American "Rascal Does Not Dream" double feature (subtitled edition) yesterday on March 24th. This was one of those Fathom Event things, and it served as the official North American premiere for both Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out and Rascal Does Not Dream of a Knapsack Kid. At 73 minutes apiece, they're pretty damn short for movies... but I've seen even shorter in the anime world, weirdly enough. These would be the second and third movies after the "Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai" 12-episode series and its first movie sequel, 2019's Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl.

If you're completely unaware of this series, I implore you to ignore its admittedly awful titling convention. This is all based on a set of Japanese novels revolving around teenage (ofc) protagonists Sakuta Azusagawa and Mai Sakurajima as they contend with the bizare phenomenon that's come to be called "Puberty Syndrome" (sometimes called "Adolescence Syndrome"), in which the emotions of teenagers/pre-teens/young adults are able to somehow affect reality via quirks of theoretical quantum physics. So in this world, if someone wishes they could redo a bad experience? They might start looping said experience ala Groundhog Day. If someone feels two sides of their personality are diametrically opposed? They could literally split into two separate versions of themselves. Only somehow resolving the underlying issue can fix these bizarre sci-fi events.

The first four arcs of the TV series could be described as "A boy is made to understand and empathize with how hard it is to grow up female." After that, starting with the final arc of the TV series and up through these movies, you could describe the story as "A boy is made to understand and empathize with people who struggle with disabilities." I have tons of respect for how the series is basically all about trying to provide deeper understanding/sympathy for everyone around us.

I'm an anime-only plebe who hasn't read the books these are based on or the manga adaption, so that obviously will affect my view of the story. With that said...

Sister Venturing Out is basically the emotional sequel to the TV series' final arc, the "Sister Home Alone" story. That one contains an emotional sequence that has made me cry on MULTIPLE viewings, which I consider to be some of the highest possible praise. I have to say that Sister Venturing Out has a similarly devastating scene that flips the script on what was so painful in "Sister Home Alone" and effectively shows the pain of the OPPOSITE side of the relationship. So: major props. It's a slow-build sort of tale without the tension inherent to some of the franchise's arcs — the central gimmick of "Puberty Syndrome" barely plays a role here — but it works well at delivering on emotional payoffs and character moments. I previously felt that "Sister Home Alone" was the most emotionally intense story in the series, but Sister Venturing Out is an easy rival to it.

Knapsack Kid, on the other hand, is all about Puberty Syndrome business and the suspense of how to resolve it. Unfortunately, I don't think it works nearly as well as Sister Venturing Out because it's so clearly in need of a longer runtime to flesh out its ideas. As the story stands here, the existence of the titular "Knapsack Kid" is never even remotely explained! Series fans know that we usually expect Rio Futaba to provide some kind of quantum theory that suits the weirdness occuring, but Rio only shows up long enough to vaguely hand-wave the reality-warping shenanigans at play. Nobody ever provides any justification for why Sakuta is being guided by an all-knowing childhood version of his girlfriend. How does she know so much about what's happening? How can she jump between... realities or timelines or whatever she's doing? Why her, and more importantly, why her as a child? Shouldn’t the CHILD version of Mai know LESS about this stuff? Normally, the series would have fun explaining this; here, they want us to stop thinking and just feel it. And admittedly, the emotional moments are still pretty strong. I just think I would've felt them harder if I understood more about how and why this was all happening.

Although the series has always had its emotional moments in each story arc, the fact that these two stories have so little room to breathe means we lose out on a lot of the humor and witty dialogue that the TV series managed. There's still some of it in here; it's just not as common because we don't really have much time to spare onn comedy.

We do, however, seem to have time to spare on setting up future stories! Two plot threads are set up that do not pay off in these films but instead are events for the upcoming "University Arc." A little tease at the end of the second movie (after the post-credits scene; don't miss out on that) says that "Animation Production is Confirmed" for the University Arc — whatever the hell that means. A new TV season? There are four books so far in the "University Arc," so that seems possible. A bunch more movies? It definitely implies something longer than just one additional film. Whatever this turns out to be, I look forward to it.

[thefigureresource]

Kaede Azusagawa [Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out] 1/7 scale from Aniplex coming September 2024.

[ydotome]

Seishun Buta Yarou wa Odekake Sister no Yume wo Minai

[weatherman667]

Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out

One of the most emotionally evocative moments in the entire history of motion pictures is...

Kaede trying to do her best.

The entire series is basically a lesson in writing a story, as they have nothing. They have 5 or 6 characters, a drop of mystery and drama, and manages to be more powerful than almost anything else.

After *SPOILERS* we get to see Kaede trying to... live her life. There's no secrets, (even if there's a bit of mystery). There is no false front to peer behind, you secret twist of a twist of a twist ending.

Just Kaede trying to do her best.

---

Okay, yes, there is a twist ending, but it's not really part of this story, just setting up the next Rascal story.

---

The only actual criticism I can make of it is not the anime itself, but the atrocious Funimation dub.

I turned it off after I think 15 minutes.

I honestly cannot remember the last time I've turned off an anime dub. Kanokon? For what it's worth, the original Japanese VO for Kanokon is almost as bad as the dub, while Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out is just as fantastic as the rest of the series has been.

[j0hb0y]

Hiya Papaya! 👋

I watched the movie adaptation of Rascal does not dream of a sister venturing out!

I totally forgot how much i missed seeing all the characters. Hear their voices and expressions. I love them all so much!

Compared to the anime and the previous move (dreaming girl) it's way calmer, and yet it's the breather we need. I gotta say though, that one infirmary scene hit way harder!

Another thing that i like is the combination of the light novel and anime. Watching the anime makes me feel like an outside spectator, not knowing what's going on in their mind. Reading the light novel gives me a peek at Sakutas thoughts, but it's bound to his perception. Both of them complement each other. I can only recommend reading it! (I talked a little bit about the light novel in another post)

I'm gonna put a cut here because i want to briefly talk about a thing that wasn't in the move.

Warning: This cut contains a major spoiler!!

Sakuta and Shouko met at the ending of this volume, when Sakuta was working a shift. They talked about that Shouko'll move to Okinawa the next day.

However, she also said something about that one musician Touko Kirishima.

In her words "None of my future memories had Touko Kirishima videos in them."

This scene is really important since that person plays a major role in the college/university arc.

Anyways, i hope they show that scene somewhere in the next movie (that was released last december and i haven't seen yet)

[regarding-stories]

Didn't expect that: "Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai"

There are shows on Netflix that I notice, then don't watch at first, remain confused by their descriptive text, then watch after all. It kind of was like this with the amazing Romantic Killer, and it was definitely like this with the Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai.

I somehow stumbled about some online comments disliking the series, and let it sit for a while. But somewhere down the line I was casting about for something to watch, and frankly, it completely surprised me.

(I will do some spoilers, but I try to keep it light. Also, looking for an article I wrote about Romantic Killer I found I haven't written one - talk about being backlogged!)

My Little Science Mystery

At its heart, the show looks at consciousness and self partially from a perspective of quantum physics and mathematics, focusing on aspects like attention, observation, strong wishes, parallel selves, and branching timelines. To get such topics into the story it invented "Puberty Syndrome / Adolescence Syndrome," a mysterious condition most people believe to be an internet urban legend. Except that almost everyone that loner and high school 2nd year Sakuta knows or ends up knowing will end up having it - if they're girls, that is. Or himself.

To explain what that is, let's go with the opening scene. Future heroine Mai, an extremely good-looking third-year (and hence Sakuta's senpai in high school), walks around the library in a Playboy bunny costume, unnoticed by most everyone except our protagonist. This seemingly eccentric scene from the trailer has a serious background - an increasing number of people cannot see Mai anymore.

Sakuta teams up with Mai and his hot science geek friend Rio to solve the mystery, digging into the relationship between the observer and the observed from quantum mechanics - or rather the idea from philosophy: If a tree falls in the forest without anybody seeing it, has it indeed happened? (And what sound does it make?) This leads of course to also very practical problems: You need other people to observe you to interact in daily life. And it begs the question - if our reality is a consensus, do we need the acknowledgment of others just to exist...?

The show, behind its science-y techno babble, actually has a lot of heart. The problems all root in emotions, interpersonal problems, and their resolutions are often very dramatic and touching. This is true of Mai's story as of the other ones to follow.

Some things to note

First of all: the series name. Each book in the light novel series has a title starting with "Rascal Does Not Dream Of" - but somehow the anime series got named after the first installment. This is most apparent once the money-making train rolled out of the station - instead of continuing the apparently successful anime series, the very dramatic events of two volumes were packed into two animated movies (mo' money! kaching!) - Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl and Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out. I had not access to these so I read the books.

The books, in turn, are very readable, and given their content, these two movies are some heavy, dramatic shit, no doubt. The series heavily escalates its dramatic impact towards these two titles. In fact, you could say the books rolled into the anime series are actually a setup of characters and ideas that will culminate in these movies. (Which will also invest you into watching them. Well played, studio, well played indeed.) Sakuta's own Puberty Syndrome, that of his sister Kaede, the mystery stranger Shouko, all of that is set up long before you ever really pick up on it, revealing a series that had a long-term plan.

The books are good reads, solid prose, too. The pacing of these two particular books is kind of dragging, but the author really wanted to transmit the heavy emotions of the protagonist. They certainly had me near my limit! The story of Mai, Sakuta, and his first love Shouko is beautiful, sad, dramatic, and ultimately very, very satisfying - and I don't want to spoil it for you! Just know that if you only watch the anime and I guess the movies, you're probably in for feeling very rewarded and satisfied - after a certain amount of suffering. (Again, couldn't watch the movies, but the book version is already top.)

Having started with the anime, I can only guess that the term "rascal" is what they translated differently when Rio keeps calling him a "pig." Somehow she always insults Sakuta (throughout the anime series), and admittedly Sakuta has a pervy side - but unlike most protagonists he seems to be a bit of a happy masochist when it comes to his love interest.

Anyway, the show and books are well worth it, the cast of characters is built over time and well done, and innocuous background details presented in the start will be the seed of more stories to come. The series is going strong, there are still untranslated light novel volumes, and so I will keep on reading.

[bwuniko]

ೀ ⋆𓂃  Kaede Azusagawa

[senjo]

[gabbyp09]

[animepopheart]

★ 【赤薄 紅】 「 おでかけシスター 」 ☆ ⊳ kaede // rascal does not dream... ✔ republished w/permission ⊳ ⊳ our review of a sister venturing out

[hopeymchope]

Let's fucking GOOOOOOOOO

Rascal Does not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out AND Rascal Does Not Dream of a Knapsack Kid are getting a double-feature theatrical release in the U.S. at the end of March 2024! Tickets on sale in a few days from now!

One of the two nights it's showing will be fully dubbed in English?????? Does this mean a possible English dub is coming for the entire "Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai" franchise, including the preceding TV series and previous movie????

I haven't really talked much about this franchise on my Tumblr, but I definitely should. Ignore the awkward/dumb-sounding title(s) here; this is an intensely emotional and fascinating series.

You could describe in two ways, really:

Teenagers' emotions get intense enough to cause supernatural events, and they must overcome their struggles to solve the supernatural problem(s)

AND/OR

One dim guy is forced to learn just how difficult and horrible adolesence can be for girls.