First Impression: Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Claus

Sakura’s freshman year at college appears to be as normal as any other: He makes friends, attends classes, and goes to mixers where he meets girls. Of course, Sakuta is not normal—he’s the boyfriend of Mai Sakurajima, one of the most beloved celebrities in Japan, and he and his loved ones have experienced Puberty Syndrome, supernatural occurrences that make people swap bodies, divide into two, repeat time, and all manner of other troublesome scenarios. But now that Sakuta is a university student, that should be behind him, right? Right? Maybe not—new friends and a potentially big issue in Nadoka’s idol group, Sweet Bullet, may be leading to another case.

OK

Welcome to the college arc! Wait, how did we get here again? It’s been a while since we’ve had a Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai season, so you might be confused. Since that initial season, three movies have come out. Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl was received to great acclaim and can be streamed on Crunchyroll, but the two movies after that—Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out and Rascal Does Not Dream of a Knapsack Kid—went under the radar and are not available for streaming (at least as I can find). Do you need to have watched these three movies to understand and enjoy this season? Well, if it’s to understand it, you’ll need to at least watch Dreaming Girl, which is really what the entire series up that point builds toward; the other movies continue to move the character arcs forward, but mostly they need to be watched because otherwise, you won’t know some of the vital characters in this new arc, particularly Nodoka’s idol group partner, Uzuki, who may be the person experiencing Puberty Syndrome this time around.

The episode opens with a transition from the last film

But to enjoy the series? I’m not sure it really matters if you’ve watched the previous movies. I’ve been critical of the light novels and eventually dropped them in large part because there are so very many contrivances. They drive me crazy. But they’re less obvious in anime, and because of them, strangely enough, you can kind of tune in and piece things together without worry since nothing makes total sense in the Aobuta world in the first place. And in fact, I encourage you to watch Rascal rather than read it because of how much better it flows on the screen. This season should be fun as well, though the other reason that I ended up dropping the LN series is on display in episode one: There are too many characters. Besides Uzuki and others introduced in the previous movies, like mysterious singer Touko Kirishima and Sakuta’s students, new ones are already being brought into fold, like Miori Mito and…Santa Claus? There are just too many characters now, and I don’t especially like the college ones—at least not as much as the OG gang. You might feel differently, though, and you’ll certainly want to know if Kirishima is someone we already know and who this cute Santa is.

Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Claus streams on Crunchyroll.

Twwk
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