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.
Rascal Does Not Dream (Japanese: 青春ブタ野郎, Seishun Buta Yarō) is a light novel series written by Hajime Kamoshida and illustrated by Keiji Mizoguchi. It began publication by ASCII Media Works under their Dengeki Bunko imprint in April 2014 and has spawned 13 volumes as of July 2023. An Animated Adaptation by CloverWorks premiered on October 4, 2018, under the name of the first volume, Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, and adapts the first five volumes. The sequel film, Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl, which adapts the sixth and seventh volumes, 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. Yen Press 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.
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, 2024, with the 24th featuring English subs and the 25th featuring dubbed versions (the first two properties to get an English dub).
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. Also, in April 2024, the end of the Light Novel series with the release of Volumes 14 and 15 was announced.
A seinen manga adaptation by Tsugumi Nanamiya ran in Dengeki G's Comic since 8 October 2016. It was published in English by Yen Press in two-volume omnibus editions beginning in August 2020.
Rascal Does Not Dream provides examples of:
- All-Loving Hero: Despite their reserved nature and essentially being social outcasts, both Sakuta and Mai qualify. They're both very kind and selfless individuals with a big heart, ready to help anyone in need, and they respectively show it in the anime series and in the movie for the most part.
- All Periods Are PMS: When Saki tells Sakuta not to ever talk to Yuuma again, Sakuta asks the girl if she's on her period. Her response is to insult him and storm off.
- Almost Kiss: Mai gives Sakuta permission to kiss her in episode 7. Unfortunately, they bump their foreheads before their lips meet.
- Happens a couple more times, but usually broken off by Mai as a way to tease Sakuta.
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Of the dark-haired girls, Rio Futaba plays the trope quite straight as she's pretty much The Stoic Deadpan Snarker, and the most melancholic, aloof and serious one. Mai and Shoko are very downplayed examples, as they are composed and polite but not exactly aloof. Mai is very professional, quite reserved and acts as a bit of a tsundere type B around Sakuta, but she's nonetheless a very friendly and affable person; Shoko as a child is pretty shy and reserved, but, while still composed, she's also become more extroverted and cheerful, being pretty much an aversion of the trope.
- Always Lawful Good: While not necessarily lawful, here is definitely a series with the majority of the cast being genuinely kind and good-hearted people. The only morally ambiguous (but not outright malevolent) character is Mai's mother.
- Always Someone Better: The source of Mai and her half-sister Nodoka's tension. Mai's mother forced her to take up modeling to spite her ex-husband. Meanwhile, her father's new wife forced Nodoka to likewise become a celebrity, and always criticized her whenever Mai got a job they were both competing for. She also hates that she got her start in an idol group while Mai was taking a break from working, and immediately stole her spotlight again the moment she started modeling again.
- Alternate Timeline:
- The car accident in volume 7 could result to three different timelines: Sakuta dies, and his heart is donated to Shoko; Mai dies, sacrificing herself to save him and have her heart donated to Shoko and eventually, Sakuta and Shoko got married as Mai's dying wish; or nobody dies in the accident but Shoko dies instead. Sakuta and Mai resorted to creating a fourth timeline which rewriting the past and give awareness about Shoko's heart condition, but not without risk.
- Sakuta experienced his own Adolescence Syndrome which caused him to go to alternate timelines which a past even altered in volume 9.
- Ambiguous Situation: Sakuta's first love is a girl named Shoko Makinohara, a high school girl who encouraged him when Kaede's bullying problem was at its peak. However, his attempts to find her showed that there didn't seem to be any such person at the school she supposedly went to. Later, he runs into a Shoko Makinohara that looks identical apart from being about six years younger. The relationship between the two is never made clear in the anime, whether the older girl was ever real, whether it's another case of Puberty Syndrome or something even weirder. The sequel film, Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl, reveals that Shoko was having her own Adolescent Syndrome moment, and came from a future where Sakuta's heart is used to save her life. She travels back in time to talk him.
- Anguished Declaration of Love:
- Sakuta does this in episode 3 upon finally remembering Mai's name and face after a case of Caffeine Failure. 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.
- The climax of episode 6, and of Tomoe's arc, has Tomoe making one of these to Sakuta, knowing full well that she'll be rejected. This allows Tomoe to move on and end her time loops, while also giving her the courage to properly reject her own unwanted suitor from Episode 4.
- Actually ends up getting Subverted with Rio. Her arc was building up in such a way that it seemed like she was going to make one to Yuuma but come episode 8, it's actually a rather subdued confession because by that point she had finally made peace with the fact that her crush was unrequited.
- Anti-Villain: Mai's mother is the closest thing to a villain the series has. Though she's rather amoral and overly materialistic and greedy instead of being really evil, and despite having betrayed her, she cries a lot when Mai dies in the hospital after she sacrificed herself to save Sakuta, hit by a car, showing Even Evil Has Loved Ones.
- Apocalyptic Log: The tear-jerker that is Kaede's diary, full of chronicles of her happy life with Sakuta, thoughts of the future, and ponderings about what's going to happen to her when one's dissociative disorder is cured. The last part becomes more and more prevalent as the diary goes on, as she knows finally getting out of their home and going to school would probably cause the old Kaede to return, until she makes her list of goals that she wants to fulfill so her brother won't have any regrets once she's gone. The diary ends on a cheerful "I'll go to school for real tomorrow", the last thing she wrote before disappearing.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Being the only member of their school's science club, Rio dismisses Adolescence Syndrome as a myth or urban legend which has no factual basis, though she does explain various pseudo-sciences behind the cases Sakuta personally comes across that often point him in the right direction. Come episode 7, she's forced to concede that the phenomenon exists when a duplicate of her appears.
- Arc Words: "Nothing less from you, Azusagawa. What a young rascal." Also doubles as the show's "On the Next Episode of..." Catch-Phrase.
- Artifact Title: Mai, the titular Bunny Girl Senpai, gets less attention after her arc is resolved, although never going completely Out of Focus. The titles for each volume of the light novels actually change to fit the girl of interest in each arc.
- Be Careful What You Wish For:
- Mai got tired of being recognized by everyone as a famous child actor whenever she went out. Then her Adolescence Syndrome made her completely invisible to an ever-increasing number of people. This means she can't do simple but necessary stuff like buying food in an area that keeps getting larger. Becomes even more chilling when people start forgetting her existence as well, including her own mother.
- More than one instance of Adolescence Syndrome seems to manifest in this way. Such as Nodoka admitting that she wanted to be like her half-sister and accidentally becomes Mai.
- Betty and Veronica: Consider Mai and Tomoe, as Sakuta is their love interest. Seems like short-haired and down to earth Insecure Love Interest Tomoe is the Betty, while sexier and teasing Mai is the Veronica, right? Deconstructed. Mai actually represents Undying Loyalty, and while she teases Sakuta, it's clear that she deeply loves him, and, as he does, she would do anything for him (she even dies to save him). Tomoe, on the other hand, has rather selfish feelings for Sakuta. May be justified, as she's still very young, but remember her Laplace's demon role: in her arc, she had no qualms about Sakuta and Mai's feelings towards each other, and always reset the day to advance her own personal gain in some way. Ultimately, she has to accept that Sakuta never saw her as a love interest in the first place.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Dear God, Mai's mother. Where to start with? While she's very beautiful and appears to be very polite, in truth she's a selfish, amoral Gold Digger, who has no qualms betraying her family for money. She is only interested in pursuing her desires and is an emotionally Abusive Parent towards Mai because of this, as she had no qualms using Mai to make money, making the poor girl feel very embarrassed and stop working as an actress. Fortunately, Mai being the morally upstanding, selfless and ''genuinely'' kind and polite person she is, is her opposite.
- Birds of a Feather: Sakuta and Mai are really among the anime couples with one being the Spear Counterpart of the other. Let's see what they have in common: mostly isolated from the society surrounding them (though for different reasons), sarcastic and witty sense of humor, and, for all the bitterness that life can give them, above all they're kind and selfless, with an immensely good heart and willingness to help anyone in need, even sacrificing themselves.
- Blackmail: Futaba's erotic pictures of herself causes someone to send her a text wanting to meet her after he figures out which high school she goes to. He then threatens to leak her pictures and inform the school if she refuses to meet. Fortunately, Sakuta was around when she first saw the messages, and tells her to reply that she was going to report the stalker to the police.
- Bland-Name Product: In episode 5, Sakuta brings Tomoe a tin of Fole-brand mandarin oranges. And of course, there's his recurring part-time job at family restaurant "Benny's". And an energy drink called Blue Bull.
- Byronic Hero: Sakuta and Mai are this to an extent, as well as rare heroic Nice Guy examples.
- Sakuta, a Hero with Bad Publicity and a Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold, is mostly a loner who rejects social conventions, very intelligent, perceptive and introspective, has his brooding moments and a somewhat Dark and Troubled Past. He is also The Atoner to an extent, as he regrets very much it was too late when he discovered his little sister was cyberbullied - to the point he even threw his mobile phone away because of this.
- Mai is extremely intelligent and multitalented, easily the most conflicted character in the series, and the one who has more of a Dark and Troubled Past, betrayed by her mother and living on her own, neither having her family on her side, nor having any friends before meeting Sakuta. She's still an incredibly good and selfless person at heart and never loses her morals, always doing the right thing, just like Sakuta: indeed, then it overlaps with Tragic Heroine as when she's finally with him on her side, she ends up dying to save both Sakuta and ill Shoko, until this is subverted as he gets back in time to save her.
- Caffeine Failure: Played for Drama during episode 3, where 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 Anguished Declaration of Love.
- Cheeky Mouth: While sometimes the animation draws mouths moving properly and showing the background behind them, other times the mouth seems to just migrate to the side of the face instead. Mysterious. Perhaps another case of Puberty Syndrome that has gone unacknowledged.
- Combat Pragmatist: How Sakuta wins a fight against a bully picking on Tomoe. He takes up a boxing stance, ducks and weaves a bit, and then... kicks the guy hard in the shin.
- The Confidant: Rio serves as this for Sakuta, usually telling her opinion on how to deal with the Puberty Syndrome despite the fact that she believes it to be a myth. Sakuta is also Rio's confidant, keeping her crush on Yuuma a secret.
- Contemplate Our Navels: Sakuta frequently engages in inner monologues of this nature, regarding Mai's Adolescence Syndrome.
- Continuity Nod: During the Dreaming Girl arc, Sakuta ends up at one point invisible to everyone, and settles on wearing a bunny suit (though in his case it's a mascot costume) to try to catch people's attention. Despite the circumstances being fairly dire, he does not fail to note the hilarity of the situation.
- Contractual Purity: Discussed In-Universe. Mai is a child actress who, following the events of volume 1, has come back from a break in her career and is transitioning to adult roles, and she and Sakuta have to spend a fair amount of effort navigating the purity standards of Japanese celebrity culture. After Mai accidentally lets slip to her manager that they're in a relationship in volume 3, they're told to hold off on dating to avoid endangering her Career Resurrection (which might cause her Adolescence Syndrome to relapse). However, after they're photographed together by a paparazzi in volume 5, she and said manager quickly move to get in front of it by holding a press conference to announce that, yes, she has a boyfriend, and (paraphrased) he's a civilian so would you all please behave like reasonable human beings and leave him the hell alone. Surprisingly, this works, and they have no further problems.
- Covers Always Lie: The title and initial previews would give any newcomer an impression that it's going to be an ecchi harem light novel adaptation. However, Mai only wears the Playboy Bunny suit for a few minutes of the first episode, and any expected ecchi elements become absent afterward, or at least extremely downplayed.
- Credits Running Sequence: Sakuta does this twice in the opening credits.
- Disappeared Dad: Mai's father left her mother, then married Nodoka's mother. Although both mothers appeared in their respective daughters' arcs, their father never appears in the anime.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: The ending theme is sung by the voice actresses of the main female characters, each one taking turns as they enter the spotlight.
- Evolving Credits: The ending credits has a song sung by the girl featured in the arc as she walks along the beach, usually meeting Sakuta at the end.
- Episode 2 and 3 had Mai, turning at the end to find Sakuta behind her.
- Episode 4 and 5 changed this to Tomoe.
- Episode 7 and 8 has Rio walking along the beach, and both Yuuma and Sakuta are waiting at the end.
- Episode 9 and 10 had Nodoka on the beach meeting Mai at the end.
- Episode 11 and 12 has Kaede walking the beach in a school uniform.
- Episode 13 plays over the end events so no one is walking on the beach, but it has all the girls singing in turn.
- First Girl Wins: Not that it's a competition, but Mai was the first girl to be cured of her Adolescence Syndrome. Part of it might relate back to him curing it by loudly confessing his love to the entire school.
- First-Name Basis: Within days of getting to know each other, Sakuta and Mai establish this early on. Mai quickly admits that she finds being called "senpai" by Sakuta tiring, and as both of them have long last names, she proposes that they default to this trope.
- Foreshadowing:
- Mai seems surprised when Kaede does not know who she is despite being a well-known child actress. Sakuta explains it as her not watching much TV. This is a super-early foreshadowing of Kaede's memory loss, since she does watch TV very frequently.
- Back in Episode 11, Mai said to Sakuta that she loves him more than he thinks. This foreshadowing takes a dark turn in the movie when Mai sacrificed herself to save Sakuta.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Snarky and calm Nice Guy Sakuta is phlegmatic, note (and kind, compassionate and quiet Shoko is phlegmatic as well especially her slightly shy young version; older Shoko mixes it with sanguine as she's more outgoing); levelheaded and witty yet kind Mai is eclecticnote ; calm and rational but secretly troubled scientist Rio is melancholic, and outgoing, too much people-oriented Tomoe is sanguine. Saki Kamisato, who isn't one of the main characters, is choleric.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: The fourth arc, starting with episode 9, features one between Mai and her younger half-sister, Nodoka. This case of Adolescence Syndrome was spurred by their buried resentment towards one another.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The title in the opening credits shifts around before settling on the anime's full title. In between, the shifting tiles reflect the titles of each of the first few light novels.
- Friendless Background: Mai fits the trope to a T. Sakuta is a downplayed example as his only friends at the beginning of the story are Rio and Yuuma.
- Friend in the Press: 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).
- Friend to All Children: Sakuta and Mai both seem to be fond of children, and they're very helpful towards younger people. Best seen when Sakuta meets a little girl who got lost and when Mai interacts with Kaede.
- Gallows Humor: Sakuta relies on this kind of humor to lighten the mood when his friends are in distress, often making inappropriate or flirty quips.
- Gentleman Snarker: Sakuta, Mai and Rio all qualify. Rio especially is the Deadpan Snarker, 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. They are, however, very kind people with a Nice Guy nature.
- Good Is Not Soft: As to be expected from The Hero. Sakuta has an immensely good heart, and is a genuinely Nice Guy, but his fight against Tomoe's suitor Yousuke proves he can be pretty harsh when needed.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: Sakuta winds up dealing with one in episode 4 thanks to Tomoe, the newest victim of Adolescence Syndrome. She cannot bring herself to reject a varsity basketball player confessing to her for fear that it will cause her to lose face with her friends. She and Sakuta are later mistaken for a couple when they realize that they are the only two people trapped in one, but while this does cause the loop to snap, it causes Mai's relationship with him to temporarily sour when he and Tomoe pretend to date for the time being.
- Episode 6 features another one on the last day Sakuta and Tomoe agree to end their relationship, caused again by the latter. Although Tomoe feigns ignorance, she is forced to come clean on the fourth loop and admits that she had developed genuine feelings for Sakuta over the month they spent together; she refused to let them part while she still had them, especially knowing that he had feelings for Mai in turn and that she wanted to be his friend at the very least. Sakuta is able to talk some sense into Tomoe by convincing her that they would remain close no matter what.
- In the end, the loops were completely reset; Sakuta and Tomoe's agreement to remain Platonic Life-Partners resets them back to what was originally the first day of the loop, where Tomoe manages to push through with her original rejection while she and Sakuta affirm their friendship with each other. Aside from him managing to confirm a relationship with Mai and the lack of a fake relationship to uphold, the rest of the loop's original events - such as Tomoe becoming Sakuta's co-worker - play as they did. Sakuta believes that the previous loops were all just a simulation of the future they went through together, while Rio hypothesizes that their initial butt-kicking escapade caused them to be the only two aware of the time loops to begin with.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Shoko's arc is a big mess of these. Sakuta and Shoko both try to give up their life for the sake of the other; the conflict is only resolved when Mai gets killed saving Sakuta from his own attempted sacrifice, leaving him to realize that he wants to be with her too much to let himself die. Cue more Time Travel, eventually culminating in Sakuta pulling a Diving Save to save himself. It is later revealed that Mai had planned to sacrifice herself from the beginning.
- Hunk: The basketball team members are attractive, well-built and quite manly-looking guys.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The light novel's volumes always follow the "Rascal Does Not Dream of X" naming scheme, with a different girl each time. The "Bunny Girl Senpai" title used for the anime is actually the title of the first volume, though the opening sequence does briefly flash the titles of the books adapted into the show: Rascal Does Not Dream of Petit Devil Kouhai (Tomoe's arc), Rascal Does Not Dream of Logical Witch (Rio's), Rascal Does Not Dream of Siscon Idol (Nodoka's) and Rascal Does Not Dream of House-sitting Sister (Kaede's).
- If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: If Sakuta ever makes Mai cry and doesn't protect her, her sister Nodoka would be mad at him, and she threatens him in the first movie. He sadly makes Mai cry and tragically doesn't protect her from death, but only because he doesn't know about her plan to sacrifice herself for him and Shoko.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Well, this is a rather idealistic series, and pretty much every character is a genuinely Nice Guy. 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 Mai tragically did, though she's saved by Sakuta thanks to time travel).
- Sakuta is undoubtedly a kind, altruistic guy you can constantly count on to do the right thing and help others in the best way he can.
- Shoko even has a little bit more kindness as her everyday goal! And being a little bit kinder every day is exactly what she's always taught Sakuta.
- If you think of Mai, she wasn't corrupted by money at all, and she still forgives her mother for all she did. Neither did she do any bad deed when she was invisible and able to do anything she wanted without being seen; the only thing she did was helping Sakuta with his test. Even when she throws pills in Sakuta's glass, she does it out of pure altruism, as she doesn't want him to lose his sleep for her, saying she's ultimately always been a loner.
- The Insomniac: Sakuta inflicts this on himself when a conversation with Rio makes him realize that falling asleep could cause him to also forget who Mai is. He goes on for roughly 3 days without sleep by forcing himself to drink energy drinks and the like to stay awake. Ultimately, Mai herself is the one who puts him to sleep by drugging him with sleeping pills under the pretense of tutoring him, knowing full well that he is suffering because of her.
- In Spite of a Nail: The Dreaming Girl arc and movie essentially ends like this. The cast go through with curing Shoko's Syndrome, even knowing that it would leave Sakuta without the inciting incident that brought him to his school and let him meet his friends and the love of his life. In the end, thanks to the series's Time Travel rules leaving residual memories of pre-change events as dreams, the new Sakuta ends up mostly in the exact same place as before. Though he and Mai are now a lot more sensitive about giving to heart-related charities.
- Internet Safety Aesop: Rio Futaba is shown to have been posting increasingly sexually suggestive selfies online as a way of coping with body image issues. She's undergoing a Literal Split Personality due to Puberty Syndrome at the time, and the "other" Futaba is opposed to it. She never shows her face, but when she gets a text from a cyberstalker who managed to identify her anyway and attempts Sexual Extortion, she has Sakuta delete the social media account in question.
- It Always Rains at Funerals: Mai's funeral after her Heroic Sacrifice is held under rain that had been falling since early afternoon.
- Jerk Jock: Yosuke Maezawa is a good-looking, hunky 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 Lovable Jock and, needless to say, a Nice Guy who would do anything for his friends.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- Saki Kamisato, Yuuma's girlfriend, is always hostile and dismissive of Sakuta at first 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 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.
- Minor example, but Nodoka had a bit of this attitude due to her initial mutual hostility towards Mai, and her getting annoyed and whimsical at Sakuta's snark. However, later on she becomes a genuinely Nice Girl and gets very close to her sister, as well as becoming good friends with Sakuta and Kaede.
- Lampshade Hanging: When Futaba states her mother and father are always both away on business trips, Sakuta lampshades her status as a Lonely Rich Kid saying her life is like a TV drama.
- Laser-Guided Karma: In episode 11, Kaede's childhood friend tells Sakuta that the girls who bullied and harassed Kaede ended up being bullied themselves (directly as a result of their treatment of Kaede, no less) and had to transfer schools because of it.
- Leg Focus: Sakuta seems to be something of a legs man, since he openly checks out Tomoe and Mai's nicely shaped legs, even when they tell him to cut it out.
- Literal Ass-Kicking: Tomoe has Sakuta do this to her to get even with her after she mistakenly thinks he's a pedophile and slaps him (or in the anime, had kicked his butt first). They're subsequently caught by a passing adult and given a strongly-worded lecture.
- Literally Loving Thy Neighbor: Mai lives in the apartment building that is right next door to the complex Sakuta lives in. Ironically, despite their close proximity, one of Sakuta's complaints about their relationship is that they don't get to spend much time with each other thanks to Mai's career as an actress constantly having her traveling across Japan. Though, things change later on and they manage to spend more time together and enjoy their days.
- Lovable Jock: Yuuma, Sakuta's sole male friend in the series. He's a member of the basketball team, handsome and 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 only character without it.
- Love Triangle: For the second arc, Koga likes Sakuta, who is all but officially in a relationship with Mai by this point. However, it's made very clear that there's no way for her to break into the relationship and win Sakuta for herself. The best she can do is get a direct rejection so that she can give up for real and move on.
- Minor Living Alone:
- Sakuta and his sister Kaede live together in an apartment, having moved out after Kaede's Adolescence Syndrome manifested. Later elaborated upon in that their mother had a mental breakdown from the stress of dealing with it, and their father couldn't take care of her and the kids at the same time.
- Mai has moved out on her own, living alone in her apartment. Her half-sister later moves in with her.
- After a second Rio Futaba starts existing, one of them doesn't feel comfortable going home and makes other arrangements, eventually settling for Sakuta's apartment. The other Rio lives in a large house usually by herself since her parents are often overseas for business.
- Miss Exposition: Futaba's main role in the show. When odd things start happening, Sakuta will often talk to her to get an idea of the latest incident of the Puberty Syndrome.
- Mistaken for Pedophile: When Sakuta is trying to help a little girl calm down and find her mother, Tomoe attacks him thinking he's a child molester and they end up getting taken in by the police.
- Never the Selves Shall Meet: In a sense. Futaba realizes that the scarring on Sakuta's chest only manifests when the mature Shoko is around. This is because Future Shoko has Sakuta's heart, and the two hearts being in the same place is causing problems for the first one.
- In a more general sense, the two versions of Futaba go out of their way to avoid interacting with each other, despite Sakuta complaining that there's actually nothing stopping them; it really boils down to Futaba's self-esteem issues. One version finally getting the courage to talk to the other leads to them reuniting as one person.
- Nice Guy: 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.
- Then, the movie shows the full extent of the kindness of Sakuta, Mai and Shoko, since they're all ready to make a Heroic Sacrifice for each other. And Rio herself helps them a lot thanks to her knowledge, making sure time traveling works when Sakuta and Mai, at the risk of sacrificing all their current memories, decide to get to the new timeline to allow Shoko to be healthy.
- No Antagonist: The only antagonistic character at first - responsible for Mai's hiatus, isolation and emotional issues is Mai's mother, though she isn't outright 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.
- "No Peeking!" Request: Mai and Sakuta decided to stay at a hotel in Ogaki. Mai goes for a shower and asks Sakuta not to peek. Being a Chivalrous Pervert, he replies that merely the sound of a girl showering would be "enough for him". She promptly gestures for him to get out of the room.
- Not Good with Rejection: Yosuke, a popular basketball player spreads a nasty rumor about Tomoe, a first-year girl he wanted to ask out, being a “whore” after finding her with Sakuta.
- Official Couple: 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 Snark-to-Snark Combat with Sakuta as part of their 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.
- Officially Shortened Title: In Japanese, the long title Seishun buta yaro wa bunny girl senpai no yume wo minai is commonly shortened as Aobuta.
- One-Steve Limit: When he was a middle school student and victim of Puberty Syndrome, Sakuta was helped by a senior at his future high school called Shoko Makinohara. After going to the school, he found that no such person existed, but later met a younger girl who had the same name and a near-identical face. It's repeatedly enforced that this girl is an only child. Ultimately revealed in "Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl" that both Shoko Makinoharas are indeed the same person. Young Shoko is fatally ill, yet she sometimes becomes a teenager for an unknown reason.
- Only Friend: Ever since the unexplained incident, Yuuma and Rio seem to be Sakuta's only friends. After sorting out her feelings for him, Tomoe becomes one.
- Parents as People: Sakuta and Kaede ended up suffering from Parental Abandonment due to the fact that Kaede's Adolescence Syndrome resulted in their mother getting hospitalized. When Nodoka asked Sakuta if he had any resentment towards his parents for abandoning the two, Sakuta responds that he has a lot of feelings towards his parents but that he still sees them as his parents. Later on, when Sakuta meets up with his father, it's shown that while there's definitely a lot of awkwardness between the two, it's also apparent that they care about one another. It's also apparent that his dad is still the one financially supporting Sakuta and Kaede since the two are living alone.
- An extremely flawed case is Mai's mother, who is amoral, greedy and materialistic. Despite being responsible for Mai's troubles, having betrayed her for money, she still sheds genuine tears in the movie, when Mai dies in the hospital after saving Sakuta from the car accident.
- P.O.V. Boy, Poster Girl: Sakuta is the main focal character, and the events through the story are seen from his point of view, but Mai is overall the best-known and most iconic character, as well as the image girl for most of the series' illustrations.
- Product Placement: "If you're lying to me, I'll make you eat Pocky through your nose."
- Quantum Mechanics Can Do Anything: Puberty Syndrome is basically magic, plot-wise.
- Shower Scene: Mai takes a shower at the hotel she's sharing with Sakuta, although only her Sexy Silhouette behind the curtain is seen.
- Single-Target Sexuality: Sakuta towards Mai. During Tomoe's arc, she kept inadvertently resetting his Love Confession to Mai, and then asked him to be her fake boyfriend to scare off a guy she had no interest in. Despite this, he continues to reaffirm his feelings for Mai to her, which she finally accepts after an Anguished Declaration of Love to him.
- Mai towards Sakuta as well. She never had a relationship before meeting Sakuta. While she's not opposed to guys finding her attractive, Mai herself has only expressed romantic interest in Sakuta, and is unwaveringly loyal to him.
- Sliding Scale of Cynicism Versus Idealism: This series is quite on the idealistic side, especially if compared to its rivals Bakemonogatari and Oregairu, which are rather cynical. Especially, the former has a surrealistic streak that often shows how flawed and often morally grey most humans are, while the latter is based on a pessimistic worldview and shows how often goodness and a nice attitude don't get along. On the other hand, in Bunny Girl Senpai most characters are pleasant and kind-hearted, and there's a more grounded, but also idealistic supernatural approach than in Bakemonogatari, especially in the movie: the main characters (namely Sakuta, Mai and Shoko) are purely heroic and just want to sacrifice themselves to save the other two, and it ends up with them traveling to another timeline where no one is going to die.
- Slut-Shaming: After his advances being refused, Tomoe's jerk suitor Yosuke becomes jealous, and starts spreading rumors about the girl being promiscuous. As Yuuma tells Sakuta, he's done similar things to other girls as well. However, not only Tomoe is a virgin, Sakuta is one as well.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Despite the appearance of Mai's mother only twice, the first time in an episode and the second after Mai's death in the movie, the poor girl develops Adolescence Syndrome just because of her.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: A good chunk of the dialogue consist of the characters throwing deadpan sarcastic comments at each other, especially Sakuta and Mai or Sakuta and Rio.
- Snow Means Death: The movie sequel took place during winter and has a major arc revolving around a Heroic Sacrifice. There's also Mai's death on the day before Christmas, even showing her blood pouring out amidst the snow.
- Sorry to Interrupt: In the 2nd movie sequel (A Sister Venturing Out), Sakuta and Mai are sharing a tender moment when she decided to touch his body. Just as she touched him, his little sister Kaede opens the door asking if he’s home. At the sight of her shirtless brother moaning over his girlfriend touching him, she simply remained silent and shut the door with Mai exclaiming that it’s Not What It Looks Like.
- Split Personality: Kaede has a form of this, although we don't learn about it until episode 12. One day, Kaede woke up with no memories of herself, and started acting in subtly different ways. She even refers to her pre-amnesia self, "Kaede-san", as a different person. At the end of episode 12 when Kaede's list of goals was finally completed, she woke up the next morning and recovered her childhood memories and original personality, but lost the last two years. Sakuta is devastated at having lost the 2nd version of his sister.
- Spotting the Thread: The key to ending the "Groundhog Day" Loop that Sakuta gets caught in—he has to spot anyone acting differently than the previous loop. In Episode 4, he realizes that Tomoe is the only person acting differently from before because she's hiding from the boy who asked her out. In Episode 6, Tomoe tries to pretend she isn't aware of a second loop, but her lie is revealed when she makes a subtle move that Sakuta notices.
- Stage Mom: A double whammy of them. After Mai's father divorced her mother for Nodoka's, the two women have been having a nasty proxy war with each other, using their daughters' careers as the battlefield. No one is happy about this: Mai went on hiatus despite loving the job after her mother tricked her into doing a swimsuit photoshoot that she absolutely refused to do, and the forced competition heavily strained Nodoka's relationship with not only her mother, but also with Mai. Though at the very least, Nodoka's mother is shown to have major regrets over what she did to her daughter.
- Suggestive Collision: While trying to hide from a guy repeatedly trying to make advances from her, Tomoe and Sakuta accidentally knock over a podium they were hiding in and wind up in this position. On one hand, the guy believes Tomoe was trying to make an advance on Sakuta, which breaks the "Groundhog Day" Loop that Sakuta and her had suffered through for three days. On the other hand, the next person to see the two is Mai...
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Eventually, Mai and Sakuta's relationship is discovered and published in the tabloids. Even with his face blurred out, a former classmate of Kaede's is able to track him down through this photograph.
- Sustained Misunderstanding: The time loop in episode 4 is indirectly caused by the misunderstanding between Tomoe and a guy who is trying to ask her out. Rather than just turn the guy down, Tomoe keeps ignoring him and her chance meeting with Sakuta causes the guy to think Tomoe is already dating Sakuta. While this undoes the time loop, it causes trouble in Sakuta's relationship with Mai. By the next day, Tomoe starts working in the same restaurant as Sakuta and asks him to keep pretending to be her boyfriend so she can impress her friends. Sakuta, who understands Tomoe has the same problem as Kaede, reluctantly agrees.
- Mai cuts this trope off at the pass. After catching Sakuta on top of Tomoe in a suggestive fashion, the next time she is seen, she's approached Sakuta for an explanation since he doesn't come offer one himself. The whole situation is then explained by the start of the subsequent episode.
- She does this again when a paparazzi photo of her with Sakuta makes the rounds. She holds a press conference openly revealing her relationship, and more importantly, her decision to maintain it, convincing the press and public that Sakuta and her relationship with him are what gave her the strength to return to acting in the first place. She only asks that they not pry into his private life.
- Tempting Fate: Both positive and negative examples: In episode 4, Sakuta is looking for "the Demon of Laplace" (a person not affected by the "Groundhog Day" Loop), and wonders how he's going to find someone acting different, then immediately notices Tomoe is acting different. Then, after their Suggestive Collision, Sakuta doesn't worry because he thinks he can just redo the day. Cut to the next day.
- Time Skip: Volume 9 ends with Sakuta in college.
- Tsundere: Downplayed with Mai: she's definitely a nice person, but has shades of this towards Sakuta when she teases the guy, who teases her as well. Their playfulness and Snark-to-Snark Combat makes them funny to watch. When she gets jealous or feels hurt, she has shades of a type B.
- Mai's half-sister Nodoka is very much presented as one, being very competitive, slightly hostile towards both her sister and Sakuta, and clearly hiding a softer side behind that. Turns out the reason behind that is the nasty Stage Mom rivalry between Mai and Nodoka's mothers.
- Understanding Boyfriend: Gender flipped with Mai being a Totally Trusting Love Interest. 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 Suggestive Collision, 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 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.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Even after 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 Understanding Girlfriend above. Later, Mai's manager wanting her to be single while she's acting adds an extra obstacle in their relationship. Their relationship is solidified in Episode 11, when Mai holds a press conference over it.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Sakuta meets Mai because she's walking around in a bookstore wearing a bunny girl outfit. He later realized that no one else was reacting to this. Of course, he later learns this is because of her Adolescence Syndrome, and Mai being slowly forgotten by everyone.
- Wham Line:
- From the end of episode 11: "Kaede has no memories."
- Again, at the end of episode 12: "The zoo? I didn't go. Big Brother, what's wrong with you?" This all indicates that Kaede's reverted to her pre-Adolescence Syndrome self and likely lost all her bonds and memories from the past 11 episodes.
- White-and-Grey Morality: Again, as this series is on the idealistic side, this is understandable. At best, the characters are non-action Ideal Hero examples (Sakuta, Mai, Shoko) while at worst they are Anti Villains (Mai's mother, who is not evil, just greedy and selfish).
- Weirdness Censor: When Mai was slowly being forgotten and ignored by the world, people would also ignore inanimate objects she happens to be holding. It did not, however, apply to Sakuta when she held onto him.
- Yamato Nadeshiko:
- Mai is a rather sarcastic and witty example, but she perfectly fits nonetheless: a really kind and polite person, an excellent cook, beautiful with long black hair, very selfless and devoted to the guy she loves, sacrificing her life to save him.
- Shoko counts as well, for practically the same reasons. She even tries to be as kind as possible, every day a little more. Though she appears to be not as snarky as Mai is, however, she's shown to have a surprisingly gadflyish side around Sakuta and Mai in the 6th volume and in the movie, where Shoko picks up on how uncomfortable Mai is over how much Sakuta admires Shoko.
- Your Television Hates You: After Mai's Heroic Sacrifice in The Movie, Sakuta turns the TV on and they talk about this accident on every channel.
