Sakuta continues to delve deeper into Mai’s situation in order to help her out with her disappearance problem. Why is he being so helpful? Is it really as simple as he thinks it is?
What They Say:
Episode 2: “Commotions are Inevitable for First Dates”
While looking for the cause of Mai’s Adolescence Syndrome, Sakuta ends up scheduling a date with Mai. On the day they promised, Sakuta tries to help out a lost little girl on his way towards Fujisawa Station. But, he is misunderstood to be a perverted maniac by another girl, and because of that, he ends up arriving late to his appointed time to meet Mai. He somehow gains Mai’s forgiveness and they proceed with their date, but Mai changes their destination, and takes Sakuta to Shichirigahama Beach…
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Do you really need to start off the show with a full animated explanation of Schrödinger’s Cat? I don’t think it’s entirely necessary, but at least this was not a completely gratuitous invocation of something referenced, it seems, far too often in light novel works. For Futaba, the scientific friend of Sakuta, is quite serious in using Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle to explain what is happening with Mai: her existence is not being confirmed by those people she comes across. That’s why she’s “invisible.” As science…yeah, it’s questionable but let’s roll with it for fun.
That aside, this was a very interesting episode. I think what I like the most about Rascal is that we have a very playful relationship between Sakuta and Mai. While there is quite a bit of exposition rolled out throughout this installment, it all unwinds quite naturally in the course of their verbal jousting. We learn the reason for Mai’s withdrawal from show business and the break with her mother/manager (another “wonderful” stage mother, a type we seem to come across almost always with showbiz prodigies in anime). We see the positive steps that both Sakuta and Mai take to address her disappearance problem. But we also see a major step backward, so it would seem, for Mai.
As this is only the second episode, we also have further cast introductions, including a rather peculiar one. In the course of Mai trying to find out why Sakuta is doing so much to help her, we finally get a glimpse of a character who has only been mentioned (by Sakuta and his friends Kunimi and Futaba in the first episode)by name: Shoko Makinohara. It appears that she is the girl who helped out Sakuta when he was in the depths of dealing with Kaede’s Adolescence Syndrome (their parents appear to have abandoned them, especially as their mother was unable to deal with Kaede’s situation). Shoko was a second-year student at Minegahara when Sakuta was still just a third-year middle schooler. This is what led him to apply for Minegahara. The odd part is that when he got there…there was no Shoko. Not that she had transferred or died…she never appeared to have existed in the first place. There was no record of such a student at the school, though Sakuta knows that he met her. This does much to explain the references that Kunimi makes in the opening episode, the slightly odd tone of voice he had when mentioning her name.
The other introduction, with no name as yet, is a girl who happens across Sakuta as he is trying to help a lost little girl, but thinks that Sakuta is a pedophile intending to steal her away. While we have not been given a name, her appearance and the time spent with her was far more than would be wasted on a mere incidental character. Where she fits into things will hopefully be explained in due course.
As Mai’s disappearance problem seems to grow (it is apparently spreading further away from their home town), Sakuta and his friends (who still remember Mai) might have found a lead to follow. We’ll see how it all comes together next episode.
With shows set in a high school being numerous to the point of numbness, for any one of them to stand out requires some kind of hook. Having a lively couple engaging in verbal jousting is nothing new, but it is the main hook for me with this show at the moment. Mai and Sakuta are an interesting pair with his phlegmatic counterpart to Mai’s snappy and snarky attitude working quite well. This won’t last forever as there appear to be multiple arcs centered on different girls in this franchise, but I hope that Mai will not completely disappear once her turn as the person needing assistance ends.
In Summary:
Sakuta digs deeper into Mai’s Adolescence Syndrome affliction, her disappearing act. Finding out the reasons behind her decision to leave show business, he finds a way to convince her to go back to it. But his theory that this would solve the problem does not pan out. What could be causing Mai’s slow erasure from the world? Could the fault lie somewhere else? We’ll find out next episode.
Grade: A-
Streamed By: Crunchyroll (also at Hulu and FunimationNow)
Review Equipment:
Apple iMac with 12GB RAM, Mac OS 10.13 High Sierra
