Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai

Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai (2018) 

So it does exist after all! An intelligent coming-of-age psychological drama and a funny romantic comedy with elements of magical realism. This is so despite its title and poster being severely misleading, as there is no superficial perverse rabbit ears bullshit to be found here. The greatest strength of this anime is undoubtedly in the characters, who all have soul, wit, brains and depth all rolled into one. This is all topped off by the main character, with his distinctive humor, and an excellent performance by voice actor Kaito Ishikawa, which I would not be afraid to point out as a lifetime achievement. I also appreciate that although the creators have in many ways set off skating on very thin ice, which in many other anime means a steep downhill slope towards being total excrement (the uptight little sister fixated on her brother, the conspicuous gathering of girls around the hero, moving into his home, the smart little scientist with glasses...), here they managed to dispel all my doubts incredibly ably and present an engaging, entertaining – and I will stress this again – intelligent anime. The only criticism perhaps, is of the episode with the step-sister, which, although it was also done well, seemed a bit unnecessary in the shadow of the other episodes, and for the purpose of merely dramatizing the story, but otherwise one cannot complain. It has been a long time since I have seen such a well-crafted adaptation, in which mistakes could only be found using a magnifying glass, and which gave me one pleasant surprise after another. The excellence of this anime is only underlined by the quality of the animation and the soundtrack, and I believe that, except for the movie, the creators should not work too hard to get a sequel, because it is best to stop on a high  – and that is now. Definitely full points for this. (25/10/2020)