Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Senpai Season 2 release date predictions amid wait for second movie

Aobuta Season 2
It’s likely that Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Senpai Season 2 will be announced during Aniplex Online Fest 2022. Pic credit: Studio CloverWorks

The Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Senpai Season 2 release date was just been pushed a little further over the horizon now that a 2nd movie was confirmed in 2022.

The Aobuta anime series hosted a live-streaming event on September 24, 2022, which happens to coincide with the aftermath of Aniplex Online Fest 2022. During the event, it was confirmed that an Aobuta anime sequel project is planned.

Studio CloverWorks will return to make the sequel.

On December 3, 2022, the format of the anime sequel was announced. It’s been confirmed that light novels Volume 8: Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out and Volume 9: Rascal Does Not Dream of a Knapsack Girl will be adapted as two separate movies that will be released in Japanese theaters.

On March 25, 2023, it was announced that the Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out movie release date in Japan will be on June 23, 2023.

Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out movie trailer.

The Rascal Does Not Dream of a Knapsack Girl movie release date hasn’t been announced yet.

Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out Movie
This key visual for the Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out movie was released on December 3, 2022. Pic credit: Studio CloverWorks

Considering that the first movie adapted 2 books this new anime project is essentially Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Senpai movie 2. Still, it’s possible that another future anime sequel project will be a single-cour anime TV season.

As such, Anime Geek is predicting that the Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Senpai Season 2 release date could be in 2024 or 2025 at the earliest. (Please see the predictions section for more details.)

Rascal Does Not Dream of a Knapsack Girl and Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out
The dual key visual for Rascal Does Not Dream of a Knapsack Girl and Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out. Pic credit: Studio CloverWorks

Aobuta fans have been waiting a very long time for Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Senpai Season 2 to bring back Sakuta Azusagawa and Mai Sakurajima. Hopefully, fans won’t have to stew too long.

Here is the main Japanese cast:

  • Kaito Ishikawa as Sakuta Azusagawa
  • Asami Seto as Mai Sakurajima
  • Inori Minase as Shōko Makinohara
  • Nao Tōyama as Tomoe Koga
  • Atsumi Tanezaki as Rio Futaba
  • Maaya Uchida as Nodoka Toyohama
  • Yurika Kubo as Kaede Azusagawa

The studio and main staff making Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Senpai Season 2 hasn’t been announced yet.

For the first season, the anime was produced by Japanese animation Studio CloverWorks, which is known for producing the popular My Dress-Up Darling anime, co-producing Darling in the FranXX, the Fate/Grand Order anime series, the good-yet-abbreviated Horimiya anime, and the original story Wonder Egg Priority, which which was well-reviewed despite suffering from major production issues and delays.

In 2022, CloverWorks also released the Akebi’s Sailor Uniform animeTokyo 24th Ward, In The Heart of Kunoichi Tsubaki, and the Shadows House Season 2 anime. CloverWorks also collaborated with WIT Studio on the 2022 Spy x Family anime, while Spy x Family Part 2 release date for the split cour was released later in the year.

As for the future, the My Dress-Up Darling Season 2 anime TV show has been confirmed to be in production.

Both the CloverWorks staff and the voice actors for the first season of Bunny Girl Senpai reprised their roles for the 2019 movie. The project was helmed by director Soichi Masui (Akiba Maid War) who also worked on the storyboarding. Also returning was scriptwriter Masahiro Yokotani (Re:Zero, Ao Ashi, The Devil is a Part-Timer!) and character designer/chief animation director Satomi Tamura (Darling in the FranXX).

The Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Senpai Season 2 OP (opening) and ED (ending) theme song music hasn’t been announced yet.

For the first season, the Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Senpai OP “Kimi no Sei” was performed by the peggies. The ED “Fukashigi no Carte” was the same song for the entire season, but the voice actors singing it changed for certain episodes.

The first season’s finale, Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Senpai Episode 13, was released on December 27, 2018.

  • Updated December 3, 2022: Sequel confirmed to be a movie.
  • September 24, 2022: Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Senpai anime sequel announced at Aniplex Online Fest 2022.
  • Updated February 7, 2020: Added light novel preview video and related info.
  • Updated May 15, 2019: Added 2nd movie trailer.
  • Updated April 23, 2019: Added movie trailer video at the end of the article’s movie section.
  • Updated March 13, 2019: Added exact release date for the movie.
  • Updated December 29, 2018: Added movie release time frame and staff/cast list.

This article provides everything that is known about Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Senpai Season 2 (Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai Season 2 / Aobuta Season 2) and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.

Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Senpai anime artwork
Bunny Girl Senpai Season 2 will focus on family issues. True fans should go back for the movie since the film’s story is a direct sequel to the anime. Pic credit: Studio CloverWorks

Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai Season 2 release date predictions

As of the last update, Aniplex, CloverWorks, or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed the Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Senpai Season 2 release date. Nor has the production of a sequel other than the movie and the unspecified sequel been announced.

Once the news is officially confirmed this article will be updated with the relevant information.

In the meantime, it’s possible to speculate about when, or if, the Seishun Buta Yarou Season 2 premiere date will occur in the future.

The popularity of both the anime and the movie was more than enough to justify greenlighting a sequel. Back when the first season aired it was consistently popular on Crunchyroll, only trailing behind the Goblin Slayer anime.

What’s more, ever since then the light novel series has been consistently in the top 20 on the Oricon rankings whenever new book volumes were released. When the latest book came out in December 2022 the series had reached 2 million copies in circulation.

The problem back in 2019 was there simply wasn’t enough source material for quickly creating an anime sequel since 7 out of the then 9 light novel volumes had already been adapted. Back then Anime Geek successfully predicted that Volumes 10 and 11 would come out in 2020.

The Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Volume 12 release date is in December 2022 so there is more than enough content for creating a TV anime sequel. If the second season is slower-paced and volumes 10 through 12 are adapted into four episodes each, it should be possible to produce another single-cour season as a follow-up to the 2nd movie.

Therefore, since a 2nd movie was announced on September 24, 2022, it’s predicted that the Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Senpai Season 2 release date could be in 2024 or 2025 at the earliest.

Bunny Girl Senpai Mai Manga
Unfortunately, Mai’s appearances in her bunny girl outfit are very rare. Pic credit: Tsugumi Nanamiya

Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Senpai manga and light novel series compared to the anime

The story for the anime is based on the Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai light novel series by author Hajime Kamoshida and illustrator Keeji Mizoguchi. Each book has a title unique to the story, but in general, the series is up to Seishun Buta Yarou Volume 11: Rascal Does Not Dream of a Nightingale as of December 10, 2020.

The Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai Volume 12 release date is on December 9, 2022. The title is Rascal Does Not Dream of My Student.

The release of Bunny Girl Senpai Volume 10 was heralded by a preview video that shows the university arc of the story. It also included voiceovers from the anime voice cast.

Historically, two books have come out each year, although the author took a break in 2017. (It could be argued that 2016’s Volume 7 was so good that it was hard to conceive a follow-up.) But then progress on the light novel series stalled out for 2 years beginning in 2020.

Starting in 2016, Kamoshida teamed up with manga illustrator Tsugumi Nanamiya to begin serializing the story. By the time the anime aired, the Seishun Buta Yarou manga was only up to Volume 3. As of July 2022, manga Volume 6 had adapted light novel Volume 3: Rascal Does Not Dream of Logical Witch.

In 2020, Yen Press finally announced the official English translation for both the light novel series and the Bunny Girl Senpai manga. The English light novels will be up to Volume 10 as of March 21, 2023, while Volumes 1 through 4 of the English manga were released as 2-in-1 omnibus editions in 2020 (each adapted story had its own manga volume). There are also fan-made translation projects for both mediums.

In comparison to many anime adaptations, Bunny Girl Senpai is very fast-paced. Fans of the light novels were dismayed when they realized that five volumes would be adapted with only 13 episodes, but the anime was able to pull it off.

The first story arc involving Mai was given multiple episodes, which makes sense since Bunny Senpai is the best girl titular character of the light novel series. Otherwise, the stories of the respective girls were only given two or three episodes each.

  • Volume 1 Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai: Episodes 1-3
  • Volume 2 Rascal Does Not Dream of Little Devil Kohai: Episodes 4-6
  • Volume 3 Rascal Does Not Dream of a Logical Witch: Episodes 7-8
  • Volume 4 Rascal Does Not Dream of an Idol With a Sister Complex:  Episodes 9-10
  • Volume 5 Rascal Does Not Dream of a House-sitting Little Sister: Episodes 11-13
  • Volume 6 Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl: Movie
  • Volume 7 Rascal Does Not Dream of His First Love: Movie

The author has a tendency to finish a volume by trolling the reader for a bit and then ending with a cliffhanger. Thankfully, both the anime and the movie ended on a solid note that leaves openings for more stories.

The bad news is that Seishun Buta Yarou Season 2 needed to wait for more source material before it could be produced.

The bad news is that anime fans who want to read the manga instead of the light novels are also out of luck since the manga still hasn’t even caught up with the ending of Episode 8, which corresponds to light novel Volume 3.

To put the manga in perspective, Chapter 21 featured the scene where Sakuta shouted his love for Mai in front of the school. At the rate the manga is progressing, the second season will probably be out before the manga catches up with the first season.

Rascal Does Not Dream Of A Dreaming Girl movie trailer.

Rascal Does Not Dream Of A Dreaming Girl movie story summary

Aobuta fans have been waiting for Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai Season 2 ever since the Bunny Girl Senpai movie came out in 2019. Surprisingly, the announcement of the Bunny Girl Senpai movie was made before the first episode of the anime adaptation aired in Japan.

Called Rascal Does Not Dream Of A Dreaming Girl (Seishun Buta Yarou wa Yumemiru Shoujo no Yume wo Minai), the movie was not an original story. The film was based on a story arc that many fans consider to be the best in the series.

The official summary for the Rascal Does Not Dream Of A Dreaming Girl movie says the story is about a mystery where each wisher is intersecting and where each wish can draw near. While that’s fairly vague, the movie poster shows both Mai and the older version of Shoko Makinohara.

The exact premiere date for the Aobuta movie in Japan was June 15, 2019. The United States premiere of the movie occurred at Anime Expo 2019 back in July 2019.

Rascal Does Not Dream Of A Dreaming Girl Movie Poster Bunny Girl Senpai Film
While the movie’s story is largely about Shoko, Mai also plays a major role, as well. Pic credit: CloverWorks

Take one glance at the movie trailer video and it’s easy to guess the film’s story will be about Shoko. The name of the Aobuta movie is also a hint since it’s the same as the title of Volume 6 of the light novel series.

Additionally, the film adapts Volume 7: Rascal Does Not Dream of a Girl Experiencing Her First Love. That’s not surprising since to do otherwise would have meant ending on a horrible cliffhanger that would outrage anime fans.

Introduced in Episode 6 of the anime, audiences were told that Shoko was Sakuta’s first crush until she suddenly disappeared. Sakuta was surprised to find a little girl with the same appearance and name as Shoko, but her full story was left untold in the first season of the anime adaptation.

Warning: Plot summary for the movie contains spoilers.

The mystery is compounded by the appearance of grownup Shoko. Not only does she make Mai jealous by cooking and flirting with Sakuta while living together, they even concoct a fake wedding ceremony! Needless to say, Mai is outraged and science friend Futaba Rio is once again summoned to help with the ensuing catfight.

Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Senpai Volume 6 Mai And Shoko
Shoko and Mai will be fighting over Sakuta’s heart. Pic credit: Keeji Mizoguchi

The movie’s story is not only about love and war; there’s some literal heartbreak. It turns out that little Shoko has a serious heart condition and will die if no donor is found for a heart transplant.

Big Shoko already has a solution for saving her little self, but it’s based on Puberty Syndrome and the nature of her own existence. Let’s just say the plot starts to resemble Stein’s Gate in some ways…

Based on the story from the books, the middle of the movie will feature quite the shocking turn of events. This article won’t ruin that surprise but it’s quite devastating for Sakuta and he shuts himself off from the world.

Resigned to mentally rot, Sakuta eventually throws off his lethargy long enough to get help from big Shoko. She teaches him a method to save the day but it has unexpected repercussions.

Dressed in a male bunny costume (not kidding), Sakuta must figure out a way to save everyone while preserving his connection to his girlfriend Mai. Will he be able to forge a happy future for the both of them?

Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out movie spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)

Warning: This plot summary describes events that take place in Volume 8 and 9, which were adapted by the 2nd movie. This article will be updated with Seishun Buta Yarou Season 2 spoilers at a later date.

The last time audiences saw Mai and Sakuta, they had managed to save their friends and their relationship via oddball quantum mechanics, but they only retained partial vague memories of what happened. Similar to how Koga Tomoe canceled the desired simulation of future events, it’s as if the crisis with little Shoko never happened.

On the other hand, big Shoko remembers everything, including several possible future outcomes. But the important point is that both Mai and Sakuta recall who they had to save and why it was so important for them to attend Minegahara High School.

There were some odd repercussions to Sakuta saving his friends by using his new powers. When Mai was a child actor, she starred in a role where the movie was similar to what happened to Shoko. The film’s success influenced public opinion on organ donors and it’s part of the reason little Shoko received a donated heart in the current timeline. The odd part is that the movie originally did not exist in Sakuta’s original timeline and it’s unknown what or who caused the lifesaving movie to be created.

Some things will never change. Sakuta continues to anger Kamisato Saki with his mere existence. In-between dating Mai, he plays with fire by flirting with Tomoe and teasing idols… including their mothers.

Besides all the happy events, the next story arc is focused on the drama surrounding little sisters, overbearing mothers, and even… little girlfriends? Yet again, the story introduces a younger lookalike of a major character, but this time it’s a grade school copy of Mai.

Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Senpai Mai Light Novel Volume 9 Art
Little Mai from the art of Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Senpai Volume 9 (Rascal Does Not Dream of a Girl with a Leather Backpack). Note that she is wearing a randoseru, which Japanese children traditionally use all the way through grade school. – Pic credit: Keeji Mizoguchi

It’s unknown who this suspicious little Mai really is. Sakuta suspects she is the personification of his ability to travel between parallel worlds. Or maybe little Mai is Sakuta’s daughter from the future?

Speaking of traveling between worlds, for one day Sakuta visits a parallel timeline where a different Sakuta managed to prevent Kaede from being bullied, the siblings were not separated from their parents, and yet this other Sakuta still commuted to the faraway Minegahara High School where he met his girlfriend Mai.

Needless to say, this other Sakuta had 100-percented the game of life so his message to the main Sakuta was, “You need to get your s**t together, other me.”

Overall, the new story arc is largely about family. Mai’s mother plays a large role in the new story and she even gives Sakuta a blessing on their relationship. They both desire Sakuta’s mother’s approval and Mai encourages him to go see his mother.

It’s not unusual for anime parents to be missing in action, but in Sakuta’s case, he and his sister Kaede are living separately from them because Kaede’s Puberty Syndrome caused their mother to become mentally ill. The root of all their problems is Kaede’s psychological problems and the Puberty Syndrome causes scars to appear on her body when she’s stressing over her traumatic experiences.

It turns out Kaede has a split personality, where one is named Kaede (花楓 or “Angel”) and KAEDE (かえで or “Maple”). The two personalities do not share memories and it’s KAEDE who was shown for most of the first season. This version of Sakuta’s sister feared going outside the house, talking to new people, and going to school.

Eventually, the other personality Kaede returns and she does not remember what happened while KAEDE was active. This Kaede is capable of going to school and talking to friends.

Seishun Buta Yarou Season 2 will start with Sakuta trying to fix Kaede’s problems but it won’t be long before another new girl is introduced. Unfortunately, anime fans will have to wait until the Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Senpai Season 2 release date to find out what happens next. Stay tuned!

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x