The Internet Lied to Me About Bunny Girl Senpai: Video Essay

The Japanese animation industry takes on some very mature topics. So, you’d see an anime titled “Bunny Girl Senpai” and immediately think…”fanservice trash”. But conceptually, the anime handles very complex themes such as depression, loneliness and struggling to find a healthy sense of self during puberty, and all in all had the promise of being a pretty wholesome and complex show.

Culturally, we’re taught to largely ignore emotional pain and scars. Many teens learn that in adolescence, you must simply endure emotional pain and not necessarily heal from it. Seeing the depth of these emotional issues manifested physically with scars and invisibility gives us perspective into the severity of emotional pain. I appreciate anime as a visual medium that can take those abstract feelings of loneliness and “feeling invisible” and personify them by physically effecting the characters bodies. 

Though Bunny girl Senpai left a lot to be desired, I appreciate it. A lot of the time, in many different art mediums, we are used to seeing characters be blindly infatuated with one another with characters lacking chemistry and basically falling in love for no reason. However between Mai and Sakuta their connection and intimacy hinges on something as innocent and mundane as simply spending time together, and studying for a test. These simple and seeminngly mundane moments can leave us with something beautiful, intimate, and real. Though cliche, at the end of the day, appreciating simple moments of togetherness is such a special part about being human, and it’s these small shared intimate moments that makes us—-us.

Transcript

Bunny Girl Senpai Intro
0:00 The Japanese animation industry takes on some very mature topics. And you’d see something like Bunny Girl Senpai and immediately think…”fanservice trash”. But conceptually, the anime is pretty good, and deals with concepts and themes like depression, loneliness and struggling to find a healthy sense of self during puberty. Subjectively the anime is a little slow and boring, but you’re taking this from someone who enjoys the expendables franchise so you can value my opinion as you will. 

0:28 In my last video I analyzed how meta sexualization in anime, namely evangelion perpetuates harmful objectifications of the female body. And how they choose to showcase very young women (aka literal children). And although Bunny Girl Senpai is arguably equally as weird as the characters are just as young, its absolutely not as explicit. And I really wanted to have a fair comparison when critiquing  meta sexualization in anime and I wanted to showcase a different show than evangelion that dealt with minors, puberty, and exploring your sexuality in a more healthy way. So Bunny Girl Senpai is not perfect. But what is?

1:06 So,  Welcome Back~ I’m Reese and this is Reese Grey Analyzes, Thanks for waiting for 6 months (???) muah muah muah!!! and I am so excited that you guys decided to adventure with me today.  On Reese Grey Analyzes, we look at creations and experiences in art, media, music, & even videogames to explore exactly WHY we think the way we think, question what we believe, and learn something new. :)

So in case you haven’t seen Bunny Girl Senpai, it revolves around our bunny girl Mai Sakurajima who is a child star mega celebrity star who happens to go to the same highschool as our main schoolboy Sakuta, they’ve known each other since childhood. Mai currently goes to school full time as a high school student as she is on hiatus from acting.

Sexual Expression
1:49 So our bunny girl Mai Sakurajima, so whats the bunny suit for? What is the reason? Well, the reasoning is that she’s going as far as wearing a bunny suit in a public library to test if anyone can see her. Because she realizes that she is slowly disappearing, because of something called“puberty syndrome” .“Puberty Syndrome” is basically just a phrase to explain the real life  crazy hormone experiences that you go through during adolescence and those weird emotional changes that come as a result of sensitivity and instability because of your hormones. So what this anime does is make emotional pain manifest physically. Because Mai feels lonely and unseen, she is literally becoming invisible. 

2:36 It’s something I really appreciate about anime is that Anime is able to take those abstract feelings and make them appear physically. Those abstract feelings of loneliness and feeling invisible for Mai they personify it by her physical body disappearing. With Kaede her online bullying physically manifesting with brutal scars all over her body. Culturally we’re taught to largely ignore emotional pain. This is something a lot of teenagers learn in adolescence, how to endure emotional pain and not necessarily heal from it. And so seeing the depth of these emotional issues manifested physically with scars and invisibility gives it gives us perspective into the true severity of emotional pain.

3:18 So a celebrity wearing a bunny suit in a library would be a surefire way to get attention and test the hypothesis that you are indeed, invisible. And on its own… that’s pretty funny. And interestingly too, can also work as a commentary on how when women feel unseen, unnoticed or ignored, one of the easiest ways to gain attention is through performative sexuality. She questions her own personhood so much, that the very foolproof method of being seen as a person, as a woman rather-- is to display herself in a sexual manner so someone will finally notice her. 

Mai has been in the entertainment business since she was 6 years old, and Mai’s own mother forced Mai to do bikini shoots when she was only in her early teens. This is no doubt a commentary on the Japanese Pop stars who from as young as 13, are put into lingerie singing suggestive lyrics (such as akb48), And I love heavy rotation and I learned the dance when it came out when I was around their age too without having a full grasp on this issue, and it was just a bop to me. And looking back on it, its truly sad, childhood is an important time to explore and curate a complex sense of self and understand your personal likes and dislikes, and when your image is curated such as in Mai’s case of being a star. Though she has notoriety and people want to see Mai Sakurajima the celebrity, nobody is interested in Mai the person.

4:46 Early in the season as well we have Sakuta’s little sister Kaede walk in on Mai and Sakuta in his room alone together and Kaede being only a young girl says “Well..Sakuta if you were going to invite a working girl in your room you have to tell me so I don’t walk in” debasing Mai’s personhood to that of a sex object by virtue of her just being a girl. These things in tandem amke it hard for Mai to take her experiences and exploitation seriously and truly cope with them. So she is left with the desire to be invisible. The feelings of “being invisible” is something that every person is familiar with on an abstract level, even if you have fame and notoriety like our bunny girl Mai, because her fame is based on her image that is curated as a celebrity and not her as a person, it’s easy to feel lonely. Like your life isn’t your own. Like you don’t know who you are. 

5:38 And we get more examples on how people’s Mai’s age take her sexual exploitation when Sakuta makes super weird comments about hearing her in the shower and how that’s just so erotic for him and then Mai is like “please don’t be weird about it”, and considering Sakuta KNOWS Mai has been through so much sexual trauma in her life as her years as a child star, and still sexualizes non overtly sexual situations. It’s a pretty insensitive move. 

And we also get scenes where Sakuta pokes fun at Mai’s discomfort about being alone in a room with him, and makes random moaning noises upon being poked to make her and just make her the butt of the joke. So she is left with the desire to be invisible to finally explore the type of person she wants to be, not the type of person everyone expects her to be. And if youre wondering, no Mai’s mother cannot even see her, because Mai’s mom doesn’t value Mai as a person but as a product. A young girl to sell and make money off of, from her sexuality.

6:38 Then we’re left with the question of ok… then why does this dude sakuta…why is he so special? And why can he see our bunny girl although she’s suffering from this puberty syndrome that makes her disappear? Sakuta can see Mai in the library and no one else can. This is because we eventually find out he genuinely cares for her. We are hinted at this in little moments in the show at a train station when sakuta stands up for mai when a couple is being creepy and taking pictures of Mai without her consent because she’s a celebrity. So sakuta steps in a swipes the phone away. So Sakuta cares for her genuinely as a person and not as just a celebrity, so he can literally see her as her and to him, she never disappears.

7:22 So what is a cure? And is there a cure? Because Kaede was cured, and so was Sakuta, how does Mai get cured? The cure for puberty syndrome is to go against the status quo. Most people decide to do things based on what other people around them do, or "go with the flow or go with the status quo" with whatevers expected. Out of fear that sticking out will lead to rejection by everyone else. In Japan especially, we have a concept called ‘Kuuki Yomenai’ its abbreviated as ‘KY’ directly translated ---you can’t read the atmosphere, or in colloquial English, you can’t read the room.

Japanese culture is an extremely non-confrontational, where straight up rejecting people is a no no, and so when someone can't tell that they are being awkward, and they’re kinda not wanted, it puts others in an uncomfortable situation because they can’t say anything to your face. So if you can’t “read the room” and act accordingly, you will be labeled as KY (Kuuki Yomenai) or “awkward”. But to cure your puberty syndrome you have to be sincere and willing to be awkward, genuine and stand out.

But the anxiety of being labeled as KY, makes you feel either like you’d that you’d just rather be invisible or that you are already invisible to everyone else so they don’t have to deal with you. 

8:37 So Mai, despite her prestige, wished to blend in so that she could try and figure out who she was and who she wanted to be, but in turn it made her simply disappear. One of the core reasons Sakuta was able to see Mai is because they had a genuine connection, because he had memories of studying for tests together. Sakuta is the only character to form a genuine relationship with her, his honesty is what drew her to him, which is why this event was able to trigger his memory in the library and he could see her. Everyone else only had superficial interest in her celebrity status.

Mai is cured by Sakuta going “against the atmosphere” or “against the status quo” by standing out as much as physically possible and screaming at her and asking her out in front of the entire school. Very loudly. During an exam. 

In this cute way, we see that to be noticed you don’t play the status quo game, because that’s how you disappear. You put yourself out there to make friends, you face potential rejection, and although it’s impossible to know others intentions or reactions to your weirdness, seeking genuine relationships are always more important than being to afraid to do so.

I think it’s beautiful and intimate too, because a lot of the time we are used to seeing characters blindly infatuated with one another just cuz their hot or something or for the plot. And two people don’t really have chemistry and they’re in love for no reason, however between Mai and Sakuta something as innocent and mundane as studying for a test together, just spending time with someone can be the start of something beautiful, intimate, and real. And at the end of the day, appreciating simple moments of togetherness is such a special part about being human, and it’s these small shared intimate moments that make you into the person you are, and that other people remember. 

Conclusion

So please do let me know what you guys think, I'm sure because of the subjectivity of love and intimacy you guys all experienced this show in so many different ways. So which scene meant the most to you? Maybe you felt the same as me, maybe different, so do let me know in the comments. And I appreciate you guys, and love you all so much. If you made it this far please be sure to like and subscribe and follow me on IG and TikTok. Links in Description. Okay love you byeee.