[This article contains spoilers for both Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai<\/i> and Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl<\/i>.]<\/strong><\/p>\n Continuing on immediately after the end of the TV anime, <\/span>Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl<\/span><\/i> focuses on the mystery surrounding Shoko Makinohara–or rather, the two girls that share that name. The older of the Shokos has been a vital part of Sakuta\u2019s life. Whenever he\u2019s at his lowest point emotionally, she seems to appear from nowhere to support him. And then, the moment she is no longer needed, she just disappears without a trace. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The younger of the Shokos is a middle schooler who randomly comes over to play with Sakuta\u2019s cat. She seems to know nothing of the older Shoko but nonetheless appears and disappears much like her older counterpart–though, as it turns out, not for the same reasons.<\/span><\/p>\n The younger Shoko is suffering from a congenital heart defect. This means she has been in and out of the hospital her whole life–and is not supposed to live past middle school. Her only hope is a heart transplant. However, she\u2019s not likely to get one before her time is up.<\/span><\/p>\n Even in elementary school, Shoko was aware that she was going to die in a few, short years. The hopelessness of the situation became clear when she was told in class to write a dream timeline for her life in the future. While other kids dreamed of the future, she was unable to–knowing she would never go to high school, get a job, fall in love, and get married. This event is deeply connected with her Adolescence Syndrome. Even now she still has this worksheet with her. While Shoko was never able to write anything on it detailing her hopes past her expected death, she now has things she dreams of doing–things that correspond with what the older Shoko has been doing.<\/span><\/p>\n This is, of course, because the younger and older Shokos are the same person. And while Sakuta and his girlfriend Mai at first believe that the older Shoko is just a projection of the younger one, the truth is far more complex. She is not some delusion made flesh, she is the actual Shoko from the future. <\/span><\/p>\n The older Shoko is a being defined by guilt. While the younger Shoko feels guilty for being alive–believing her life and early death is causing nothing but suffering to her parents–the older one feels guilt for surviving. After all, she did, in fact, survive past middle school. She got a transplant at the last moment and continued to live on. And it doesn\u2019t take much for Sakuta to guess how she got one: It\u2019s his heart within Shoko\u2019s chest. <\/span><\/p>\n And here\u2019s where we get the main dilemma of the film. The older Shoko knows when and how Sakuta is set to die: however, she is dead set against letting it happen. Sakuta knows that his death can save Shoko–both the person who always helped him in his darkest hours and the innocent girl with a hopeless existence–but isn\u2019t sure of the right path. Meanwhile, Mai is very much against Sakuta\u2019s death and would rather die in his place than live on alone. <\/span><\/p>\n So when it comes down to it, it\u2019s a simple no-win situation with a ticking clock. One of the three, Shoko, Sakuta, or Mai is going to die. The only question is who.<\/span><\/p>\n The film spends the back half of its runtime exploring this dilemma to its fullest. The older Shoko is the result of a world without Sakuta. Thus everything we learn about and her goals expands the reality of that timeline. But, as this is a film with time travel at its core, we also get an extended look into a world without Mai. This makes the stakes both emotional and concrete. It\u2019s not something hypothetical. It\u2019s something both we and Sakuta have seen with our own eyes.<\/span><\/p>\n Throughout his trials and tribulations, Sakuta is aided at some point or another by each of the girls he helped save in the TV series. Each has had a permanent impact on his life and so they are able to guide him–keeping him going when all seems lost. Without his previous adventures and relationships, he built over the course of them, Sakuta would succumb to despair. But with them all there to catch him when he stumbles, he has a real hope of finding something better. <\/span><\/p>\n Seeing these continued relationships in action gives emotional power to the story, making this film feel like the climax to the whole story–while at the same time giving even more importance to what came before. <\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/D87Ih32UcAECY4R.jpg?w=700&ssl=1\")
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