History Literature / RascalDoesNotDreamOfBunnyGirlSenpai

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[-[[caption-width-right:350:[[BestKnownForTheFanservice An]] {{ecchi}} about a [[PlayboyBunny bunny girl]]? No, it's NotWhatItLooksLike...]]-]

* DeadpanSnarker: Sakuta, Mai and Rio. Rio is the most deadpan one, even to the point that she appears emotionless. Mai, on the other hand, leans definitely more towards the snarker side, being the more visibly emotional example.

** Saki Kamisato, Yuuma's girlfriend, is always hostile and dismissive of Sakuta because of his reputation without really knowing him. Luckily, Sakuta either ignores her complaints or answers with his trademark snark and verbal harassment. That said, as of episode 7, she is the reason why Sakuta finds out about [[spoiler:Futaba's secret Twitter account, where she anonymously posts lewd pictures of herself while wearing her high school uniform]]. While it could just be that she's protecting Yuuma's reputation, she doesn't mention or allude to him. She even asks Sakuta, "Isn't that girl doing something risky?" which sounds like genuine concern at the end of the day. Saki also ends up making notice Sakuta what it's like to live in the shadow of her older sister, helping him with this in Nodoka's arc.

* NiceGuy: Actually all the main characters fit, being overall pleasant and kind-hearted. Sakuta, Mai and especially Rio, of course, do have a snarky and witty streak, which just makes them more entertaining.

At the end of a screening of the 3rd movie sequel, an anime adaptation of the 'University Arc' portion of the light novels (Volume 10-13) was announced.

At Aniplex Online Fest September 2022, a new anime adaptation that will cover the events of Volumes 8 (''Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out'') and 9 (''Rascal Does Not Dream of a Knapsack Girl'') was announced. It was later confirmed to be a pair of anime movies releasing in Japanese theaters on June 23, 2023, and December 1st, 2023, respectively. They will also get an American release to theaters on March 24-25, 2004, with the 24th featuring English subs and the 25th featuring dubbed versions (the first two properties to get an English dub).

* FriendInThePress: : Sakuta has a press contact, Fumika Nanjou, who is researching Adolescence Syndrome and came into contact with him after the incidents involving himself and his sister Kaede. While he stonewalls her on giving her any specifics (she's especially interested in the scar on his chest), he does use her as a source of information, first in volume 1 on Mai's hiatus from acting, then in volume 3 on why his friend Futaba might have posted erotic selfies on the Internet (in each case seemingly the inciting incident for the girls' Adolescence Syndrome).

* JerkJock: Yosuke Maezawa is a good-looking, {{hunk}}y basketball player who is also quite jerkish, slanders his ex girlfriends, and spreads rumors about Tomoe being a slut as she rejected him, being interested in Sakuta. The exact opposite of Yuuma Kunimi, Sakuta's best friend, who is instead a kind, honest LovableJock.

* NoAntagonist: The only antagonistic character at first - [[SmallRoleBigImpact responsible for Mai's hiatus, isolation and emotional issues]] is Mai's mother, though she isn't really evil as she's instead self-serving and greedy. Though as Mai forgives her, and in later volumes, she's firmly just a neutral character who's on civil terms with the others.

* UnderstandingBoyfriend: Gender flipped: Having been on the receiving end of his help at the start of the story, Mai is understanding when Sakuta hares off to the rescue of the next girl with Adolescence Syndrome. He gets caught up in a few harem protagonist shenanigans, like the above-mentioned SuggestiveCollision, but only needs proper explanation from her boyfriend to understand what's going on and, in the case of the latter, proceeds to live with them for the duration of the problem to prevent misunderstandings. It even gets lampshaded in the final episode, when Nodoka points out that Mai trusts Sakuta way too much to get angry at him for [[spoiler:meeting Shoko again without telling her, and that she's clearly mad at herself for not being there, at least physically, in his time of need to the point another girl had to pick up the slack.]]

At Aniplex Online Fest September 2022, a new anime adaptation that will cover the events of Volumes 8 (''Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out'') and 9 (''Rascal Does Not Dream of a Knapsack Girl'') was announced. It was later confirmed to be a pair of anime movies releasing in Japanese theaters on June 23, 2023, and December 1st, 2023, respectively.

* ArtifactTitle: Mai, the titular Bunny Girl Senpai, gets less attention after her arc resolves, although never going completely OutOfFocus. The titles for each volume of the light novels actually change to fit the girl of interest in each arc.

* CaffeineFailure: PlayedForDrama during episode 3, where [[spoiler:after Mai's adolescence syndrome starts advancing as people fall asleep, to the point even Futaba and Yuuma can't see her anymore, Sakuta uses copious amounts of caffeine in an effort to stay awake and not forget Mai, in spite of Mai's concern and his incoming exams. Inevitably this fails and Sakuta collapses from sleep deprivation, also helped by Mai herself who [[spoiler:finally allows him to sleep with pills in his glass of water]]. He, however, slowly starts to remember her which leads to his AnguishedDeclarationOfLove.]]

* AlwaysLawfulGood: While not necessarily lawful, here is definitely a series with the majority of the cast being genuinely [[NiceGuy kind and good-hearted people]]. The only [[AntiVillain morally ambiguous (if not evil)]] character is Mai's mother.

* CaffeineFailure: PlayedForDrama during episode 3, where [[spoiler:after Mai's adolescence syndrome starts advancing as people fall asleep, to the point even Futaba and Yuuma can't see her anymore, Sakuta uses copious amounts of caffeine in an effort to stay awake and not forget Mai, in spite of Mai's concert and his incoming exams. Inevitably this fails and Sakuta collapses from sleep deprivation. He, however, slowly starts to remember her which leads to his AnguishedDeclarationOfLove.]]

* IfYouEverDoAnythingToHurtHer: If Sakuta ever makes Mai cry, her sister would be mad, as she threats him in TheMovie.
* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Well, this ''is'' a rather idealistic series, and pretty much every character is a genuinely NiceGuy. However, while you don't see many characters often enough, you can say Sakuta, Mai and Shoko qualify. No matter what happens, they're always compassionate and will always do the right thing and help others (even at the cost of life, as [[spoiler:Mai tragically did]]).
** Shoko even has a little bit more kindness as her everyday goal!

* LovableJock: Yuuma, Sakuta's sole male friend in the series. He's a member of the basketball team and fairly popular with his classmates but despite that, he's also close friends with both Sakuta and Rio despite the two being outcasts. He's also insanely nice and, in a cast full of teenagers with baggage leading to them suffering "Adolescence Syndrome", he seems to be the [[OnlySaneMan only character without it.]]

** Then, the movie shows the full extent of the kindness of Sakuta, Mai and Shoko, since they're all ready to make a HeroicSacrifice for each other.

** Sakuta does this in episode 3 [[spoiler:after finally remembering Mai's name and face. He yells in front of the entire school until his voice strains, which is enough to get everyone's attention. This brings her back to everyone's memory]].

At the end of a screening of the 3rd movie sequel, an anime adaptation of the 'University Arc' portion of the light novels (Volume 10-14) was announced.

* ContractualPurity: [[invoked]]{{Defied}} when a {{paparazzi}} photographer catches Mai and Sakuta together. Knowing that, given Japanese celebrity culture, this could easily turn into a scandal that could jeopardize Mai's ongoing CareerResurrection, she and her agent quickly move to get ahead of it: they hold a press conference to announce that, yes, she has a boyfriend, and (paraphrased) he's a normal boy from school so would you please all behave like reasonable human beings and leave him the hell alone. Somewhat surprisingly, this actually works and there's no further trouble.

* FourTemperamentEnsemble: [[DeadpanSnarker Snarky]] and [[TheStoic calm]] NiceGuy Sakuta is phlegmatic, [[note]]though he can be a bit melancholic at times[[/note]] (and kind, compassionate and quiet Shoko is phlegmatic as well); levelheaded and [[TheTease witty]] yet [[NiceGirl kind]] Mai is eclectic (mostly blends sanguine and melancholic, as she's playful but also sensitive and sometimes pessimistic); [[TheStoic calm]] and [[TheSpock rational]] but [[DCupDistress secretly troubled]] scientist Rio is melancholic, and outgoing, [[IJustWantToHaveFriends too much people-oriented]] Tomoe is sanguine. Saki Kamisato, who isn't one of the main characters, is choleric.

''Rascal Does Not Dream'' (Japanese: 青春ブタ野郎, ''Seishun Buta Yarō'') is a light novel series written by Creator/HajimeKamoshida and illustrated by Creator/KeijiMizoguchi. It began publication by ASCII Media Works under their Creator/DengekiBunko imprint in April 2014 and has spawned 13 volumes as of July 2023. An AnimatedAdaptation by [[Creator/{{Aniplex}} CloverWorks]] premiered on October 4, 2018, under the name of the first volume, ''Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai''. The sequel film, ''Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl'', which focuses on Shoko Makinohara, premiered in Japan on June 15th, 2019 and premiered in the US at Anime Expo on July 7th while Aniplus Asia will be screening the movie in Southeast Asia. Creator/YenPress also announced at Anime Expo that the light novels had gotten licensed for release starting in 2020. The Blu-Ray and DVD for the film released in Japan on November 27th.

''Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai'' (Japanese: 青春ブタ野郎, ''Seishun Buta Yarō wa Bunny Girl-senpai no Yume wo Minai'') is a light novel series written by Creator/HajimeKamoshida and illustrated by Creator/KeijiMizoguchi. It began publication by ASCII Media Works under their Creator/DengekiBunko imprint in April 2014 and has spawned 10 volumes so far. An AnimatedAdaptation by [[Creator/{{Aniplex}} CloverWorks]] premiered on October 4, 2018. The sequel film, ''Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl'', which focuses on Shoko Makinohara, premiered in Japan on June 15th, 2019 and premiered in the US at Anime Expo on July 7th while Aniplus Asia will be screening the movie in Southeast Asia. Creator/YenPress also announced at Anime Expo that the light novels had gotten licensed for release starting in 2020. The Blu-Ray and DVD for the film released in Japan on November 27th.

!!''Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai'' provides examples of:

Sakuta Azusagawa's life takes a turn for the unexpected when he meets teenage actress Mai Sakurajima after she wanders into a public library while dressed in a sexy bunny suit and realizes only he can see her. Mai admits she has taken a hiatus from her acting duties and has been attempting to live a normal life, but people are unable to see her, except for Sakuta, who is no stranger to this phenomenon, which he calls "Adolescence Syndrome". Sakuta decides to solve this mystery while continuing to get closer to Mai and meeting other girls who suffer "Adolescence Syndrome" as well.

* OfficialCouple: The main pairing for the story is Sakuta and Mai. It's made clear that no other girl will be able to interfere with this and even his first love wouldn't be able to get in the way of their relationship. At the very least, none of the other girls seem to pine for him much at all as a romantic partner. Kaede and Nodoka aren't going to complicate things for their older siblings, Rio engages in too much SnarkToSnarkCombat with Sakuta as part of their ThreeAmigos dynamic with Yuuma (the one friend she ''does'' pine for), and while Tomoe is the closest, her complicated feelings are sorted over by conversing with him directly, bringing them back to the close Senpai/Kohai dynamic they once shared.

* ThreeAmigos: TheHero Sakuta literally starts out with only two friends of different genders, Yuuma Kunimi and Rio Futaba. Sakuta is a calm StockLightNovelEveryman, while Yuuma is a textbook LovableJock and Rio is definitely TheSmartGirl.

At Aniplex Online Fest September 2022, a new anime adaptation that will cover the events of Volumes 8 (''Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out'') and 9 (''Rascal Does Not Dream of a Knapsack Girl'') was announced. It was later confirmed to be a pair of anime movies releasing in Japanese theaters on June 23, 2023, and late 2023, respectively.

* PandaingToTheAudience: Kaede loves pandas, usually wears a pajama design which is based on them and is happy when her brother visits the pandas in the zoo with her. [[spoiler:But when her memories come back at the end of the story, she isn't interested in these animals anymore.]]

* OfficialCouple: The main pairing for the story is Sakuta and Mai. It's made clear that no other girl will be able to interfere with this and even his first love wouldn't be able to get in the way of their relationship. At the very least, none of the other girls seem to pine for him much at all as a romantic partner. Kaede and Nodoka aren't going to complicate things for their older siblings, Rio engages in too much SnarkToSnarkCombat with Sakuta as part of their ThreeAmigos dynamic with Yuuma (the one friend she ''does'' pine for), and while Tomoe is the closest, her complicated feelings are sorted over by conversing with him directly, bringing them back to the close SenpaiKohai dynamic they once shared.

* UsefulNotes/SchroedingersCat: Invoked when Futaba uses this thought experiment to explain an Adolescence Syndrome case.
* SenpaiKohai: Mai is the senpai to Sakuta, who in turn is the senpai to Tomoe. Both address their seniors accordingly, but Mai later insists that she and Sakuta use their first names instead.

* [[UnderstandingBoyfriend Understanding Girlfriend]]: Having been on the receiving end of his help at the start of the story, Mai is understanding when Sakuta hares off to the rescue of the next girl with Adolescence Syndrome. He gets caught up in a few harem protagonist shenanigans, like the above-mentioned SuggestiveCollision, but only needs proper explanation from her boyfriend to understand what's going on and, in the case of the latter, proceeds to live with them for the duration of the problem to prevent misunderstandings. It even gets lampshaded in the final episode, when Nodoka points out that Mai trusts Sakuta way too much to get angry at him for [[spoiler:meeting Shoko again without telling her, and that she's clearly mad at herself for not being there, at least physically, in his time of need to the point another girl had to pick up the slack.]]

* WillTheyOrWontThey: Even after [[spoiler:Sakuta publicly declares his love for Mai - partially due to it being the key to restoring the world's memories of her]], they never formally become boyfriend and girlfriend. They come close when Sakuta manages to get Mai to agree on a proper date, but the time loops caused by Tomoe's Adolescence Syndrome complicates this. At the end of Tomoe's arc, Mai reaffirms her affection for Sakuta when he asks how she actually feels about him by tricking him into looking out the window so she can plant a long kiss on the cheek. She subsequently proves to be supportive in his efforts to help other girls suffering their own brands of the Syndrome, as listed in [[UnderstandingBoyfriend Understanding Girlfriend]] above. Later, Mai's manager wanting her to be single while she's acting adds an extra obstacle in their relationship. [[spoiler:Their relationship is solidified in Episode 11, when Mai holds a press conference over it.]]