Rascal Does Not Dream Of Dreaming Girl is an anime that has a lot more near-death experiences than one might expect from a show focused on the trials and tribulations of teens.
With a successful 12 episode series that made waves in the anime community, Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunny Girl Senpai tackles the teens’ problems in a bizarre yet understandable way.
The anime deals with various issues such as insecurity, cyber-bullying, etc., and addresses them with the help of supernatural elements.
Due to its exploding popularity, a movie called “Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl” was aired in 2019, which took the franchise to a whole new level.
Issues that had never been addressed in the anime took form here, and with not so accurate quantum mechanical elements, we even saw the characters tango with death.
1. Does Anyone Die in Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl?
Mai Sakurajima dies in “Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl” after being hit by a car. She returns to life later in the movie as Sakuta goes back in time and saves her from the accident.
In the movie “Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl,” Shoko informed Sakuta that he would die in a car accident on 12/24 at 6 PM via brain damage on his way to see Mai, after which his heart would be donated to save Shoko.
After learning about this, Mai convinced Sakuta to have a future with her, and they decided that by not going to the place where the latter was destined to die, they could change fate.
On the day he was to die, Sakuta tried to stand in the middle of the road, to see whether what Shoko said was really true; however, all the cars passed by him and the supposed accident did not occur.
At this point, Sakuta realized that Shoko tricked him into changing the location for his date with Mai to the Aquarium to keep him safe.
Against Mai’s wishes, Sakuta decided to sacrifice himself so that Shoko could live and ran to the location of the accident.
As he was nearly run over, Mai pushed him aside at the last second and got hit by the car instead. As a result, the entire sequence changed— Sakuta survived, but Mai was killed.
After Mai was killed in the car crash, her heart was donated to Shoko, who survived thanks to the timely transplant. With the latter’s help, Sakuta traveled back in time to the school on 12/24 and asked Mai not to go to the accident site.
Sakuta then saved his past self from being hit, which resulted in both him and Mai surviving.
2. How Does Shoko Survive in Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl?
Shoko survives in “Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl” by successfully getting a heart transplant.
After turning back time, Mai’s movie creates awareness about organ donation in Japan, leading to Shoko getting an organ donor in the nick of time, thus saving her life.
While Sakuta saved his past self and Mai, Shoko was in danger of dying due to the lack of a heart donor.
To save Shoko, Sakuta and Mai agreed to find a way to help her, knowing that it meant risking the loss of everything that occurred between them.
With their agreement, Shoko went back in time to her fourth grade and overcame her anxiety for the future by filling out her “goals in life” sheet, which caused her Puberty Syndrome to never develop.
Due to this, she and Sakuta never met, and the scar on his chest did not appear. The time went on as usual, except for the parts that were related to Shoko. Sakuta and Mai met once again, dated, and lived a happy life.
In this new timeline, Mai starred in a movie that was eerily similar to Shoko’s life. The movie’s popularity created awareness about organ donation in Japan, resulting in Shoko successfully getting a heart transplant, thus saving her life.
In the end, this third timeline saw all three, Sakuta, Mai, and Shoko, living a happy life.
3. About Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl
In Fujiwara, where the skies are bright and the seas glisten, Sakuta Azusagawa is in his second year of high school.
His blissful days with his girlfriend and upperclassman, Mai Sakurajima, are interrupted with the appearance of his first crush, Shoko Makinohara.
For reasons unknown, he encounters two Shokos: one in middle school and another who has become an adult.
As Sakuta finds himself helplessly living with Shoko, the adult Shoko leads him around by the nose, causing a huge rift in his relationship with Mai.
In the midst of all this, he discovers that the middle school Shoko is suffering from a grave illness and his scar begins to throb…
