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「覚めない夢の続きを生きている」 (Samenai Yume no Tsuzuki o Ikite Iru)
“Life Is a Never-Ending Dream”
For the 12th episode, the mysterious circumstances behind Kaede’s affliction and the lingering after-effects of her suffering have mostly been revealed. As we learn more about Kaede, the situation that she is stuck in becomes more and more complicated when it turns out that her encounter with the Adolescence Syndrome is has removed her memories of who she was before her bullying.
The most fascinating aspect of the depressing syndrome Kaede faces is how much of her personality was altered by her memory loss. After she lost a majority of her memories, her personality shifted into the imouto archetype character that we all know and love, revealing that much of what we enjoy about Kaede is brought out because she’s lost all of the cognitive abilities she had to behave as she usually did. Her third person speech pattern, her journal, her obsession with pandas, her interest in comically flirting with Sakuta; all of it was a construct. The revelation that she took on a second personality as a child-like imouto because she has no memories of the maturity she once had hits hard, and definitely works to have us think twice about everything we’ve known about Kaede until now considering that her Adolescence syndrome unwillingly trapped her in this role.
The consequences of Kaede’s syndrome are as depressing as her family and friends feel trapped in their inability to do anything more than observe her. Sakuta has the hardest time as he’s only recently been able to revert the syndrome in his acquaintances. With Kaede, he’s only been able to gradually help her make slow and steady steps towards tackling her anxiety with the hope that the next step could help her live as she used to. On top of this, his own affliction with the gash in his chest triggered through his experiences with Kaede have been shrugged off entirely. Their parents are given some redemption for having left Sakuta and Kaede to fend for themselves as their mom had developed an actual disorder from her daughter’s amnesia, resulting in Sakuta’s dad needing to live apart so that he can help his wife regain touch with reality. While Mai and Nodoka haven’t been directly affected by the syndrome, their roles as bystanders also have them feeling helpless to offer any help to Kaede when they’ve grown attached to who she and Sakuta are as loved ones.
The next episode is already set to be phenomenal, however, now that it’s been revealed that having Kaede check every goal off on her journal has caused her to revert back to her original personality. Upon waking up, she was confused by how much her room changed based on the newer Kaede’s love for pandas and cutesy designs in a completely different tone of voice and a lack of “Kaede” in her vocabulary. Sakuta is also taken aback as his shock could only have him question if she’s Kaede or “Kaede”. Her answer will absolutely set the tone for the next one as we may find out what her personality was like before she became the Kaede we’ve been following up til now.
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-%2012%20-%20Large%2008.jpg
While everyone is fighting over Mai to be their waifu, I will Shouko for myself thanks. ^_^
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-%2012%20-%20Large%2013.jpg
One thing is for sure, Mai is mad, frustrated, and jealous that Sakuta wasn’t able to open up to her about his circumstances regarding himself, his sister and his parents unlike he was with Shouko. Then again, she does understand that the circumstances are different back then compared to present day-good girl.
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-%2012%20-%20Large%2035.jpg
It is unfortunate that the ideal little sister persona is gone, but if this persona is her real one, isn’t that suppose to be a cause for jubilation for Sakuta? oh well.
isn’t that suppose to be a cause for jubilation for Sakuta?
it’s complicated you know…it’s not just her imouto persona that gone but all her memories on that mode too.
@souma
Nah, don’t over think it.
2-3 years “imouto” archetype Kaede < ~13 years original Kaede.
All her memory loss is the cause of the Azusagawas despair. It should be good that she has her memories back… probably.
Then gain, this anime is all about weeb/otaku pandering, and male wish fulfillment-hence, its popularity and acclaim, so an absolute happy is always preferred… bleh.
The episode also hinted that the siblings weren’t especially close before the memory loss, at least not as close as they are (were?) now. If we add the trauma of “my sister lost her memories and her personality overnight, which broke my family, and now I have to relive that AGAIN”, it’s no wonder Sakuta isn’t very enthusiastic at the end of the episode.
Especially since this isn’t a “Kaede got her memories back!” development. It’s a complete switch of her personality and memories, something that seems as unnatural and unnerving as her first memory loss. I believe things haven’t got back to normal yet.
@ronomic
haha i don’t think this is about which “kaede” is cuter or how long the relationship was….it’s because sakuta already view “alter(Lol) kaede” and “OG kaede” as a separate person, for him it’s like one of his twin sister has died.
@souma
Fair point. Now this episode reminds me of the Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan when a near-death experience changes Nagato’s persona.
When Nagato’s new persona is about to disappear-and she does disappear, Kyon is absolutely devastated… I was too.
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-%2012%20-%20Large%2007.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-%2012%20-%20Large%2008.jpg
(hands off!, ma waifu)
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-%2012%20-%20Large%2013.jpg
(you guys can have this one though)
I had a hard time enjoying the cute kaede moments. The feeling of impending personality switch distracted me alot.
I loved this episode, it had a lot that pulled me in. Kaede‘s cercumstances that lead her to cut off her memory of social media, Kaede’s amnesia, Sakuta trying his best to make Kaede feel comfortable, and a suffering mother from all of it. Mai doing her best to support Sakuta and Kaede, where is Futaba and Kunimi? Why aren’t they supporting too?
The funny thing is that Sakuta’s dad is the only one that didn’t suffer any debilitating illnesses.
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-%2012%20-%20Large%2035.jpg
As one Crunchyroll comment aptly put it, “Cute imoto Kaede > OG Kaede.” The episode nicely put up a life lesson of the necessity of growing up, but not too much so as to lose what makes you you. And then in comes in that ending, and I was like “**** that ending man!”
Kaede’s no longer a little sister, she’s just a sister now.
Hopefully the Kaedes fuse somehow, it’d be too sad to have one dead forever.
i feel like the “new” kaede seems the kaede sakuta knows in the past before that “little sister” kaede. but, damn. i want my REAL imouto back and not her.
I like my imouto independent and not interrupting my fun time with gf so I dont see any problems for sakuta really
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-%2012%20-%20Large%2035.jpg
I was hoping Kaede would be the breath of fresh air from the likes of (urgh) Kirino or Sagiri, and indeed, Kaede (or at least, Hiragana!Kaede) seemed like a better little sister than those two. (Heck, even had a laugh at this “Distracted Onii-san” meme pic over at r/Animemes.)
But with the twist at the end of this episode, I’m steeling myself for the possibility that Kaede’s original, pre-amnesia personality (a.k.a.: Kanji!Kaede) is actually similar to those two. (That being said, NOOO…GOD! NO, GOD PLEASE, NO! NO! NO! NOOO!!!)
At this point, the best scenario would be seeing both of Kaede’s personalities and memories reconcile and combine the best of both. Also, I do hope Kanji!Kaede is still kind to the pet cats (Nasuno and Hayate).
This is a seriously hard one. On one hand, this IS her original personality, so it’s a good thing that it’s back. This is the end goal.
On the other hand, imouto Kaede has existed for so long that she’s practically a person herself. There is no right answer here, even merging the two would not result in a person that was either. It’s a shitty situation with no right answer and I applaud the story for having the balls to go there.
Kaede will forever be the universal imouto tho.
Anyone get the feeling that old Kaede may not be such a great person?
Best case would be a merging of both personae, but you really have to ask how will that go? Will she be ambidextrous for example? They have qute a few differences with the only commonality would be a fear of social media. Assuming that Kaede (kanji) actually is traumatised be it.
A situation like Total Recall would be painful for either Sakuta or their mum. I’d be surprised if they go that route as I doubt it’ll be a satisfying resolution no matter who wins.