Review: RASCAL DOES NOT DREAM OF BUNNY GIRL SENPAI Is an Okay Light Novel

A couple of weeks ago, Yen Press released the light novel version of Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, and they were kind enough to send me a copy. This is a prose (read text) version of the hit manga and anime. I had not read the manga nor watched the anime beforehand, but since reading this book, I have started watching the anime (although can we please get a dub with Cristina Vee as Mai?). This book is really good, and I was not expecting what I got.

So, based on the images I had seen and the synopsis I read, I imagined that Bunny Girl Senpai was going to be more of a romantic comedy. Boy was I wrong. This thing starts out a little more rom-com, but it is very much a romantic drama. I don’t want to dive too much into it and give out spoilers, but I was not expecting for it to become so dramatic. Be warned!

I may have misunderstood what genre Bunny Girl Senpai was, but I genuinely enjoyed it a lot. It was very well written and based on what little of the anime I’ve seen so far, very accurate. Of course, it is a work of fiction and so there are some things that require a suspension of disbelief, but it plays out so well I don’t think it’s hard to do that.

Honestly, I kept going back and forth on how much I liked Sakuta, the main protagonist. He would be fine one moment, but then at times is trying too hard to be that cool edgy bad boy. I also was a little weirded out by the relationship between Sakuta and his sister Kaede. There were a few times where it made me really worried that they were maybe a little too close. The other characters were pretty cool, and I did like Mai (the main female character), though I do wish we got to see more of Rio although I don’t know how I’d bring her in more.

I really want to recommend the light novel of Bunny Girl Senpai, but I do think it misses something by being prose. Don’t get me wrong, I do recommend the light novel if you’re really into prose novels, but I think I’d recommend watching the anime or reading the manga instead. This would allow you to see facial expressions which I think would be a big player in the series. There are lots of “…..” in the dialogue, but that just tells me that there’s a visual thing going on that I can’t see. There are also moments where I kept getting lost in the dialogue as they didn’t keep stating who says what. This normally wouldn’t be a big problem, but a fair amount of dialogue is half a page of about two to five word statements.

Overall, if you refuse to read the manga or watch the anime, the light novel of Bunny Girl Senpai tells a great story that I recommend. It’s a great romantic drama that gets you invested in the characters.