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「君だけがいない世界」 (Kimi dake ga Inai Sekai)
“The World Without You”
To conclude Mai’s bout with Puberty Syndrome, Seishun Buta Yarou goes in for a strong finale that wraps up her arc with a tightly knit bow. While the story could have been longer, especially with how the much the manga had to work with when they adapted the first volume, it captures the emotional core of what Sakuta and Mai have to endure when the possibility of Sakuta losing his memories becomes a reality.
Futaba turned out to be the bearer of bad news as her lesson on Schrödinger’s cat comes right back around after finding out that Sakuta’s friend Kunimi forgot about Mai as soon as he woke up. With sleep being the catalyst for finding out whether he will remember Mai the day after, Sakuta’s mindset takes a darker turn as his resolve to keep Mai in his memories is to deprive himself of sleep throughout most of the exam week. It could take some time before the mechanics behind Puberty Syndrome are given full detail regarding how sleep plays a role in the atmosphere and effects that intensify the syndrome save for the cat theory, but it does make for more dramatic developments such as Sakuta willing to keep himself awake for days just so that he doesn’t forget Mai.
On that note, the 3rd episode’s biggest strength is how it executes emotional moments. The anime has done a great job at showing how isolated Mai feels from her syndrome as well as the foreboding atmosphere in Sakuta’s exile from his class, but this episode’s struggles were hard-hitting as Sakuta is aware that his memories of Mai are on borrowed time. Sakuta’s abuse of energy drinks and caffeine pills start to take a toll on him as Futaba, Kunimi, and even Mai start to notice how he hasn’t been getting any sleep for days. Mai spiking his drink with sleeping pills just to get him to rest was painful as the reality of the situation hits hard for the two. Sakuta knows that nodding off will mean he will forget about her while Mai knows that what she did will mean that the only person that gave the time to understand her is about to forget everything he has ever known about her.
The images that begin to trigger Sakuta’s latent memories of Mai hit directly at the series’ emotional core as his sudden realization gave him the motivation he needed to completely switch direction towards finding anyway he can to find her again. One way to get second-hand embarrassment is to watch the episode’s most powerful scene with Sakuta confessing his love for Mai in front of the whole school as he shouts his confession outside to anyone who can hear him from their classrooms. Students indeed all come out and hear him continue to shout about who the lucky girl is, but in Sakuta’s declaration, Mai not only shows up, but is visible to the entire student body, giving her the opportunity to pay things forward by shouting about Sakuta’s reputation.
In its essence, Sakuta’s experience with Mai ended up creating the key towards resolving Puberty Syndrome in the form of provoking the emotions and attention of their classmates. Where rather than avoiding the negative atmosphere to dwell in a world of invisibility, it was Sakuta actively gathering a crowd and bringing attention to himself and Mai that ended up resetting the school’s perception of Mai and possibly shifting how they feel about Sakuta. He still retains his dry humor and mentality, but it shows growth in his character regarding the hospitalization incident that he was able to come forward to his school and classmates, and tell them how he’s been feeling lately. By stepping out of his own comfort zone, he could fight against the atmosphere that left him weary, and decides to embrace the attention he receives instead of doing nothing to fight against his circumstances.
At this point in time, Seishun Buta Yarou is an exciting, fresh breath of air that tells a meaningful story within its first three episodes. There are some details that could have been improved such as showing a little more romance on Sakuta and Mai’s side, or retaining some of the dry humor that the series excels at. In light of Tomoe’s LN arc being the focus of the next episode, it would have been especially good to give us something more concrete with their relationship so that it doesn’t look like Sakuta would be moving on with whoever is the main star of the next upcoming arcs. But without a doubt, if they are still able to give us more interactions with Sakuta and Mai as they take on Tomoe’s issues, then it would be easy to say that Seishun Buta Yarou stands out as Fall’s best rom-com and possibly anime of the season. With how they nailed this episode’s deeper moments, it would be easy to see them continuing to top it as the series goes forward.
Preview
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….I couldn’t be the only one who thought of Persona 5 when Sakuta said all that philosophical stuff near the end, right?
The pseudoscience kills it and it’s fucking stupid!
So many obvious questions ignored, shallow conclusions and insights.
Oh, yeah, I already don’t like the next episode.
“Laplace Demon”? So next girl can somewhat predict/see the future? If so, why she thought Sakuta was a pedo in the previous episode?
Laplace’s Demon doesn’t necessitate a focus on precognition but could rather be a reference to determinism versus free will, if the Demon knows what will happen then does free will exist if ones actions have already been determined before they took them.
That or, you know, you could actually wait to watch an episode before you shit on it based on a few seconds of end of episode teaser.
You see, the problem is this charlatanism.
I can think about this in a less obvious way. This concept is really deterministic? Just by knowing another person’s future action this person doesn’t automatically lose her free will. Even if you know your future actions, does conscience really alters your free will? Makes your will deterministic? I don’t think necessarily so. Maybe is not that your conscience is “seeing the future”, maybe is just information about what HAPPENED (in the past tense) that is going back in time AFTER you exercised your free will). So… you see, my problem is that by throwing “pseudoscience” in the story this anime invites the viewer to think more logically and critically. All that pseudoscience did was turning the events least convincing.
Great series – really look forward to each episode.
I really enjoy (what I consider) realistic dynamics between
the couple – it’s nice to see this in an Anime.
Having said that, it always bothers me when scenes like
are shown. Those were enough pills to kill a person.
Speed doesn’t keep you awake; if your body is over the limit,
you’ll shut down no matter what you take to try to stay awake.
(Sorry – know someone who passed w/caffeine pills.)
If Mai is Schrödinger’s Cat, she’s both dead and alive at the same time, the next girl know’s a person’s momentum, she is able to see the person’s past and future?
I’ve seen the term Laplace Demon being thrown too many times in anime that it got me curious to actually go and check it out.
From what Insee thus far, it seems that the happenings around the girls seems to be based on thought experiments or scientific philosophies. If so, can we pretty much predict the arcs just from the title or character interactions?
Back to Mai, I can’t help it but to also see some themes from Nier Automata present in it. Essence precedes existence or existence precedes essecne?
In Nier Automata, it was definitely essence precedes existence. The thing about Bunny Girl, though, is that it doesn’t make it obvious which one is the case here.
Ok….I only read the manga, and having the anime reached the point where the manga ended in just 3 episodes feels like that this first part was rushed. On the other hand, having it finish in 3 episodes means that there’s more material to bring out, so I’m looking forward to it….when I watch it on Crunchyroll.
It is way too melodramatic. This honestly reminds me of older animes in the late 2000s, and early 2010s. Not that to say that this show is bad.
https://randomc.net/image/Seishun%20Buta%20Yarou%20wa%20Bunny%20Girl%20Senpai%20no%20Yume%20wo%20Minai/Seishun%20Buta%20Yarou%20wa%20Bunny%20Girl%20Senpai%20no%20Yume%20wo%20Minai%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2023.jpg
https://randomc.net/image/Seishun%20Buta%20Yarou%20wa%20Bunny%20Girl%20Senpai%20no%20Yume%20wo%20Minai/Seishun%20Buta%20Yarou%20wa%20Bunny%20Girl%20Senpai%20no%20Yume%20wo%20Minai%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2025.jpg
I just found the shouting, crying, the main character forcing his beliefs(Mai’s existence) to his schoolmates to be really distasteful. It’s not like Mai’s schoolmates wanted her to disappear, it was Mai who originally wanted to disappear from everyone.
Also, it wasn’t convincing to me for the male main character to have an extremely deep connection to the female main character. It appeared to me that his main objective is to prevent the complete disappearance of Mai’s existence… and that’s it. It’s not like Mai changed his life like Miyagi did to Kusunoki in Jumyou wo Kaitotte Moratta. Ichinen ni Tsuki, Ichimanen de, or like Sakura did to Haruki in Kimi no Suizou wo Tabetai.
“Distasteful”? So you’d rather have her disappear, since saving Mai from rotting in traumatic isolation is “forcing your beliefs on others”?? What’s going on inside your head? 🙂
Yes, to do it was embarrassing as hell – that’s what the show made perfectly clear. But it was _necessary_ to save her.
And nowhere does the show pretend that Sakuta had an “extremely deep connection” to Mai – they’ve known each other for less than 2 weeks. It was however deep enough for him to go out on a limb and embarrass himself to the max in order to save her. Sakuta didn’t _need_ anyone to change his life. Mai did.
Your interpretation of my comment is incorrect.
Ah, I’ve got it. This is like a cross between Bakemonogatari and Key drama.
I’d say its a way more lighter version of Monogatari series
I signed up for the bunny girls and I’m sad that there’s been so few of them.
I can’t remember when the last time a romcom was the highest-rated new show on MAL, just behind Jojo 😉
Looking forward to more Sakuta/Mai antics, who are offering wonderful chemistry (especially Sakuta is such a breath of fresh air to the usual useless-guy-who-for-an-unknown-reason-gets-the-attention-of-countless-hotties formula.
This series could end here as far as I’m concerned. This 3-episode arc was so wonderful and such a thrilling and emotional ride, and I’m really glad it wasn’t just a fanservice bunny girl show. But I really hope it doesn’t turn into a Monogatari harem where Sakuta now just solves every new girl’s problem and they all fall in love with him and Mai is just sort of /there/. I know nothing about the manga/novels but I really hope their relationship continues to be prominent in all this, because honestly it’s my favorite part of the series. Their chemistry is extremely good and I don’t want to see it shoved completely down the drain for the sake of new Adolescent Syndrome sufferers.
https://randomc.net/image/Seishun%20Buta%20Yarou%20wa%20Bunny%20Girl%20Senpai%20no%20Yume%20wo%20Minai/Seishun%20Buta%20Yarou%20wa%20Bunny%20Girl%20Senpai%20no%20Yume%20wo%20Minai%20-%2003%20-%2031.jpg
Decided to watch this. Loving their relationship so far. Based on the preview, I think this will have harem elements.
I see the comments mentioning similarities to the Monogatari series and find them amusing, since I dropped that show after 3 episodes, while I’m looking forward to Seishun Buta Yarou’s next episode.
Vols 6-7 of the Seishun Buta Yarou series, Dreaming Girl and First Love Girl, will be made into movies for 2019. Apparently both books will revolve around a one new girl.
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2018-09-15/seishun-buta-yaro-anime-gets-theatrical-film-project-in-2019/.136838
If so, would the anime series cover the 1st 5 Seishun LNs?
Yeah, 13 episodes to cover the first 5 LNs.
Feels like Amagami’s omnibus format or something; “reset” back to the beginning with each new “volume”.
https://randomc.net/image/Seishun%20Buta%20Yarou%20wa%20Bunny%20Girl%20Senpai%20no%20Yume%20wo%20Minai/Seishun%20Buta%20Yarou%20wa%20Bunny%20Girl%20Senpai%20no%20Yume%20wo%20Minai%20-%2003%20-%2022.jpg
Can’t say I understand how this character helped him remember Mai. I know it has something to do with the study session, but can’t really pinpoint the mechanics to it.
You don’t need to understand, it makes no sense.
If you can remember her indirectly via a secondary memory then couldn’t they make the people on the streets also remember her asking indirect questions? “Do you remember that brand, that made that commercial sometime ago, that went like that? And who was the actress by the way… yes, that one”. So many possibilities, so many unanswered questions…
Gotta love the “I didn’t grasp it, therefore ist must make no sense” wiseguys.
You may know that in Japanese, Kanji have different ways to be written, and depending on that, they have different connotations. The catch was that just the night before, Sakuta and Mai were playing around the meaning of “hoshou”, which depending on the way it’s written can either have “take responsibility for” or “assurance”. Mai was mildly dissing Sakuta with it, Sakuta was flirting with Mai by making innuendos about their happy lives together.
Now in the exam, the very same Kanji came up, and it triggered Sakuta’s memories with Mai from the night before, breaking through the still-active “atmosphere” autosuggestion effect. This is also why Sakuta rushed off so desperately, because he worried that it would reassert itself and supersede Sakuta’s still-fresh memories of Mai again. He had to act decisively and change the “atmosphere” before that happened.
All of this had _nothing_ to do with other people or “secondary memory”.
“All of this had _nothing_ to do with other people or “secondary memory”.”
How not?
You just explained how he remembered “something”. Couldn’t they not do the same with anyone else to the same effect the way I had explained above? It’s the same method. And personally I don’t buy this “it’s the school’s fault”.
No, obviously it couldn’t. Did you see Mai tutoring anyone else? Did you see anyone else caring for Mai remotely as much as Sakuta? First, something needs to be there to remember.
And no, it’s not “the school’s fault” in the first place. Looks like you understood literally nothing.
Neither you understood my point.
But like the protagonist of the second best Final Fantasy would say, whatever.
I totally didn’t see this coming, yet it’s humerous none the less.
https://randomc.net/image/Seishun%20Buta%20Yarou%20wa%20Bunny%20Girl%20Senpai%20no%20Yume%20wo%20Minai/Seishun%20Buta%20Yarou%20wa%20Bunny%20Girl%20Senpai%20no%20Yume%20wo%20Minai%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2028.jpg
*series shift focus to other girl*
that’s it folks, the series has ended
So the only thing stopping Mai from disappearing entirely is Sakuta staying awake? Damn. Also, it’s a miracle Sakuta didn’t collapse from sleep deprivation.
https://randomc.net/image/Seishun%20Buta%20Yarou%20wa%20Bunny%20Girl%20Senpai%20no%20Yume%20wo%20Minai/Seishun%20Buta%20Yarou%20wa%20Bunny%20Girl%20Senpai%20no%20Yume%20wo%20Minai%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2022.jpg
Thank goodness for this Chekhov’s gun. (Or should that be “Chekhov’s lecture”?)
https://randomc.net/image/Seishun%20Buta%20Yarou%20wa%20Bunny%20Girl%20Senpai%20no%20Yume%20wo%20Minai/Seishun%20Buta%20Yarou%20wa%20Bunny%20Girl%20Senpai%20no%20Yume%20wo%20Minai%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2025.jpg
Cringy AF making a love confession like that, but if that means Mai won’t disappear, I’m willing to cheer Sakuta on.
Skipped to the end of the two-volume manga and yes, similar ending to this episode. (Omitted details and other fluff aside.) Might do a proper read-through this time around.
At 3rd episode I get the “Girl who leapt through time” and Anohana feeling.
The missing/disappearance aspect reminds me of Bokumachi.
But its just the first arc.
Would be nice if the episode ends with an old song cover 😛
After the cat we have a demon?
Reminds me of Monogatari.