Title: Rascal Does Not Dream of Petite Devil Kouhai
Author: Hajime Kamoshida (Original Story), Tsukomo Asakusa (Artwork), Ken Mizoguchi (Characters)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 320
Genre: Sci-Fi, Slice of Life
Publication Date: December 15, 2020
The Story
Despite this having a different name, this manga is a sequel to Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai. Yen Press wrapped up all 12 chapters into one convenient omnibus, much as they did with the prequel series.
Here, life continues on as Sakuta goes out to lunch with Mai and asks her to be his girlfriend. Apparently, he has been doing this every day for a month straight; however, this time around, Mai finally says yes! Sakuta is on top of the world until he wakes up and it is, once again, June 27. He tries to stay up all night but time resets once again and it remains June 27. With help from Futaba, he realizes that there is a “Laplace’s Demon” somewhere that is orchestrating the Groundhog Day effect. After some deduction, he figured out that the demon is Koga Tomoe… the girl who accused him of being a pedo when he was trying to help a lost girl find her mother.
Koga is being pursued by someone on the basketball team but her friend Rena is the one interested in him. In order to avoid things, she asks Sakuta to be her pretend boyfriend for the rest of the semester. She figures that he would leave her alone should he see that she has a boyfriend. As they are talking, Maesawa enters the vicinity and the two of them hide; however, Maesawa discovers them and gets the wrong idea… as does Mai.
Whoops.
No big deal, though as June 27 will just repeat and Sakuta can simply fix it next time around… except time advances and he can’t redo it. Now, he’s forced to live out the lie with Koga all while trying to explain things to Mai. Of course, things simply aren’t that easy as a fake relationship begins to turn into real feelings for Koga!
I really enjoyed the first part of this series and, I have to say, Petite Devil Kouhai was just as good! While a little sci-fi isn’t such a bad thing, I would have to say that the events of the manga were a little too predictable. They tried to throw a bit of a curveball at the end but as Futaba clearly pointed out, even a child could see through what was happening. I don’t know if that was the mangaka’s way of poking fun of the obvious plot device or not but I still got a chuckle out of the dual meaning behind that line.
Even though it was pretty obvious what direction the story was taking, it was still a pleasantly fun ride from beginning to end. Some of the moments between Sakuta and Koga we really cute and part of me actually wanted the two of them to end up together. Characters like Mai aren’t really my personal cup of tea. I don’t appreciate a girl who strings a guy along like that… you’re either true to yourself and your feelings or not. I, personally, wouldn’t waste my time with someone like Mai but I would with someone like Koga. I guess that’s why I was rooting for the two of them, even though it was already established that Sakuta x Mai was the true end goal here for the series.
Characters
Compared to the first series, there weren’t any real “new” characters outside of Maesawa. He is just a lowly prick of a character who was actually dating another third year from a different school when he tried to go out with Koga. Pretty disgusting stuff there but I guess “hoes in different area codes” and all that, right? I actually cheered for Sakuta when he stood up for himself and put Maesawa in his place! That was a pretty feel-good moment that showed a bit of a different side of Sakuta.
Koga herself had a pretty good journey throughout this volume. We learned about the way she was back in middle school and how she worked so hard to change her appearance and how others viewed her. I felt that Koga was used as a pretty stark message to young women everywhere. The series blatantly talks about how women, in general, are obsessed over the way they look all because it is expected of them to be some sort of sex symbol in society. If they’re not dolled up and looking as beautiful as could be, then they’re not really desirable and, sometimes, just considered weird or different from the rest of the pack.
Koga felt that all of the time which is why she made the choice to change her appearance. She was accepted among a group of pretty popular girls and she was doing whatever she could to hold onto that image and not destroy it. How she was beheld within the eyes of others became a crutch of life for her to lean on and Sakuta broke through all of that and taught her otherwise. In fact, his “whatever” attitude is what really made Koga start to think if self-image was as important as she truly believed it to be. This also became the catalyst for her to develop actual feelings for Sakuta and it was quite heart-wrenching when she came to the realization that is just simply wasn’t meant to be.
This is why you don’t pretend, folks. It never ends up well for anyone involved (well, unless you’re Sakuta).
Final Thoughts
I didn’t see a sequel to this series so I guess that this is it? Four total volumes compiled across two omnibus volumes is the end result and I’m kind of sad that it is because I enjoyed both of them immensely! I guess this just means that I’ll have to go watch the anime and the movie that came out! I thought the whole point of anime was to get me to read the manga and/or light novel? Just goes to show you that the opposite effect can and will happen. The only problem is that now I’ll be holding the anime under a microscope in order to see if they left out anything from the original story or how close of an adaptation it really is!
If you haven’t interacted with this series in any of its available mediums (light novel, manga, or anime), then this is one you’ll probably want to check out! The story is good and engaging with a fun cast of diverse characters! Plus, it takes your typical slice-of-life romance and spices it up with a little bit of occult-style science fiction. It meshes the two genres really well and creates an overall story that’s just enjoyable from beginning to end!
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This item was provided for review by Yen Press
