I was kind of intrigued by the idea that Bunny Girl Senpai was going to move onto a story using Laplace’s Demon. It seemed like the thought experiment could yield a fairly interesting premise. Which mean that it was kind of a disappointment to see them turn what should be an incredibly interesting look at the idea of predestination or at least pre-determinism into an essential ground-hog day type scenario. That isn’t to say what episode 4 delivers isn’t good in its own way, it just seems like they were reaching for that Laplace’s Demon reference (though I guess we could still get back to it later in the arc).
Outside of poking holes at their reference, this episode continues to be a fairly solid showing from an anime that has so far been pretty great (okay, its my favourite this season). However, it did suffer a little in the second half of this episode, primarily because the Sakuta and Mai dynamic that has been one of the big draws for this anime was largely split up and Tomoe is no substitute on screen as her chemistry with Sakuta is questionable at best.
Fortunately, they do seem to be pursuing an ongoing relationship between Sakuta and Mai, it is just a shame that in order to introduce a new girl with problems (I mean we already met her but only kind of superficially) that they need to side-line Mai. And doing so by having her walk in on Sakuta and Tomoe in a compromising situation to walk out without any kind of comment (where did their sassy dialogue go) was just kind of depressing because it is exactly the standard trope we’re all used to and I’m just kind of glad they didn’t also throw a face slap in there for good measure. The Mai and Sakuta moments in the first half of the episode are fantastic as the two share lunch and quippy dialogue. It is just fun listening to them and watching them interact. It was always going to be a near impossible task to make me as interested in anything else in this show and Mai showing up at the end seemingly aware of what actually happened just makes me wonder why she stormed off in the first place.
It doesn’t help that Tomoe’s issues stem from a desire to fit in with her group of friends and not rock the boat. I find this kind of character a little cringey and the lengths she seems willing to go to in order to maintain a farce seems all the more absurd. While I can certainly see this fitting in with the idea of adolescent syndrome, it isn’t exactly a compelling drama to solve and part of me kind of wishes Sakuta had continued to decline her ‘solution’.
As this new arc begins, I’m still really enjoying this anime, however the shine has come off it a little for me which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Hopefully they have an interesting outcome to this particular story.
- Episode 1 – Ignoring the Title This One Seems Actually Interesting
- Episode 2 – When Life Makes you Disappear
- Episode 3 – Snuggle Bunnies
- Episode 4 – Time Loops and Laplace’s Demon
- Episode 5 – The Real Fake
- Episodes 6 + 7 – How To Build a Fascinating Harem Starting With A Bunny Girl
- Episode 8 – Bunny Girl Isn’t About Getting What You Want
- Episode 9 – The Grass Might Look Greener From Your Side of the Fence
- Episode 10 – It’s Simple, It’s Complicated, It’s Like Life
- Episode 11 – The Panda Girl Removes Her Armour
- Episode 12 – A Journey Forward = The You Now Being Abandoned
- Episode 13 – Awakening From A Dream and Life Goes On
At least the Mai/Sakuta dynamic isn’t over. I quite like Tomoe too but I hope this doesn’t become a harem.
My initial thought above the time loop was actually Haruhi’s Endless Eight arc! 😉 I was actually looking forward to seeing how Sakuta was going to subvert each recurring day but they killed it after three turns.
Still enjoying the show though. 🙂
I’m kind of glad they killed the loop but I suspect we’ll jump back again at some point because something else will go wrong with this possibility.
So we’ve gone from a Japanese take on Garden State, to now some Japanese take on The Twilight Zone. Ok..i’m in.
I’ll admit, the first half the episode wasn’t doing it for me, but solving the time loop so quickly and having it fuck up for our male lead quickly brought things back around. Really interested in seeing how they can tie this one to high school drama, as that is what this show feels like is trying to do.
It does feel like they are trying to link these phenomenon back to high school drama and I think that’s where it kind of works even if it is a bit of a stretch. We’ll see how this arc goes.
Indeed, this series is bringing back those Franxx feels of just wanting to see next week’s installment. I’m keeping my expectations in check, but this show feels very much like last seasons’ Demon Lord, in that it is surprising people with just how good it actually is.
Gotta love overused tropes! Ha ha!! The face slap would have been the icing on the…. I’d say cake.. But, it would have been bad so, what would you not want icing on?.. The shoe? 🤔🤔
Somehow I don’t think ‘icing on the shoe’ is going to catch on as a saying. Though yeah, here it works because it would have just pushed things way too far.
Dammit!… I’ll coin a phrase one day… ONE DAY!!! *shakes fist*
Yeah, it was a bit of a strange turn of events in this episode. Groundhog Day was the first thing that sprang to mind for me as well. But then again that was over rather quickly when the days progressed 😉( And honestly that was rather funny🤣🤣). But yeah it wasn’t as good as the previous three episodes (which granted set the bar fairly high). Still I am enjoying this series quite a lot and I hope it will stay like that 😊
Yes as much as this wasn’t as good as the first three episodes, it certainly wasn’t bad. It was still quite enjoyable for what it was. I just kind of hope Mai and Sakuta end up working together rather than the story sending Mai away all the time because things are better when the two of them are bouncing off each other.
I have this feeling that Mai will be turning up again in the next few episodes. I would be surprised if she didn’t. The ending for this one, at least for me, already gave a hint that she would (because I think as you said, that she probably already knows more about what’s going on).