Spoilers are here in this review so if you have not yet watched the movie go do so then come back here and compare your review with mine!
Now before you just up and watch this I should tell you that this ties into the series (Rascal does not dream of bunny girl senpai) which we will also be reviewing later on. And yes I do recommend watching the series first because it will fill you in on a lot of information that you would not understand if you just dove into the movie first.
(Trailer)
It’s not very often that I watch a movie or anime that puts me through a complete rollercoaster of emotions, that being said this movie accomplished it very well! The movie opens up and immediately starts to clean up some of the left behind story from the series, that being that there are two Shokos. Obviously seeing that you quickly realize that Shoko will be the main focus of this movie which I was ok with because from what we learned in the series there wasn’t much info to go off of. We knew that she was who the main character first fell in love with when he met her and truly that about the series gave us of her up until nearing the end she pops back up, but even then we still don’t get very much info on her.
Opening up we learn of the two Shokos, one being the version he encountered when he was in middle school, and the younger one that is in middle school who does not remember Sakuts (seen in episode 6 of the series). In true Rascal fashion, the older Shoko Quickly shows up at Skokos place and weasels her way into staying there. Some guys just have all the luck and Skiko is no exception, think about all the girls he has been able to date or live with up to this point! Needless to say, Mai is truly not happy with this happening yet again and she really makes it known.
it becomes known that a choice will have to be made by Sakuta, that choice would not be an easy one because it’s between picking Shoko or Mai. This isn’t the typical choice of picking one girl and letting the other one go about her day kind of choice, this decision lays out like this. If he picks Mai then Shoko will die, if he picks Shoko then he will die leaving Mai all alone. Confusing right? Fear not because the movie does a great job of having you understand what exactly is going on. Because this film/series does such a great job of making you become invested in characters when the decision gets made…And it will get made, there is a moment where you will sit there with your mouth wide open like I did.
Personally, for me the way that Mai showed her affection in the series was very annoying, it seemed like she really wasn’t into the relationship but we all know that isn’t true. She just has a very strange way of showing her love. Here in the movie Sakutas and Mai’s relationship blossoms a little more than what we were left with at the end of the series. There is a moment in the film where you basically see Mai Begging Sakuta to choose her because she didn’t want to be without him. And again later in the movie when she sacrifices herself to save Sakuta, but that’s all I will tell you in terms of spoilers. I just thought it was a nice touch to add having been a fan that was very disappointed with the ending of the series and Sakuta not getting his kiss.. (Kidding obviously, but it did make me sad for him)
The plot of the movie does take a little while to really kick into gear id say you won’t really get fully sucked in until about midway. and towards the end, you will feel like it may have been rushed just a little bit… The ending really could have used a slow down for better explanations of what was all going on. Because there was truly a lot going on, that however is still not enough to make me budge off of the 10 I am giving this movie. Overall the story was awesome and had its moments where it had you wanting to cry, laughing, and sitting in utter shock with your jaw wide open. Learning about the mysterious character from the series was nice, and seeing just how strong Sakutas and Mais relationship is while also watching it blossom was wildly nice having just watched this after the series.
If you are looking for something to watch this is surely it, but like I said watch the series first it will clue you into some things that you’d need to know when watching the movie. It will also help with having you build an emotional connection to certain characters. I plan on writing a review for the series a little later on. I was going to review both the series and movie together, but the movie ended up being so good I thought it deserved its own article.
