Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out can be considered an OVA epilogue to the last three episodes of Season 1 of Bunny Girl Senpai instead of a standalone movie. Aside from its pacing and format which dont fit a conventional featurelength film it acts as a minisequel to Sakutas sister Kaedes arc after recovering from her dissociative amnesia where triggered by the trauma of her being bullied she lost all her prior episodic memory and turned into a blank slatereferred to as kaede due to a lack of a nuanced English equivalent to kanji and hiragana Japanese texts they will respectively be referred to as such from here onwards. 220https://i.ur.com/OzXxGYU.jpg 220https://i.ur.com/jO5avb9.jpg In contrast to the focus on kaedes remarkable twoyear recovery from being a shutin truant at the end of Season 1 the OVA shows us Kaede suddenly dealing with the fact that a lot of things have happened to her and her loved ones during her absence. Among other things she now has to adjust to the fact that her brother now has a girlfriend their mother became mentally unstable while she was having her dissociative period and they now live apart from their parents all because of that. Furthermore she is now expected to be able to head outside and attend school which must all feel so overwhelming to Kaede. Its like waking from a fugue state and finding yourself piloting an airplane. Many of the themes explored in the OVA revolve around Kaede gaining back her identity and autonomy while feeling the immense pressure of having to meet the expectations established by kaede. All of these seem like things that have been imposed on her without her consent and active participation. While not entirely all bad and unwelcome even her progress and achievements feel alienating because she wasnt there to experience them firsthand and they were kaedes efforts not hers. She then feels guilty and extremely indebted to kaede the crux of which was when she reads kaedes diary and finds out about her dreams checklist. She saw that Kaede had one unfulfilled dreamto go to the same high school as her brother in Minegahara. 220https://i.ur.com/G4i6hL4.jpg As Kaede sets out to fulfill her other selfs dream she has to face the fact that she cannot just simply apply to any public high school because she blew off almost two years of middle school and her grades werent all that great. But she was determined to get in even at the expense of her health. While she was eventually able to take the entrance exams her health turned so bad that she wasnt able to finish it. During Kaedes struggles and frustrations Sakuta was always there to support her. Its very heartwarming to see how much hes grown over the series especially in how hes accepted and loved both kaede and Kaede. Its also satisfying how Sakuta has finally had the chance to make up for all the guilt he has felt for being unable to help out Kaede before. Of course he wouldnt be able to do this much for Kaede without the help of the rest of the lovely cast. Eventually Kaede realized that she did not need to fulfill kaedes dream and that she should follow her own dreams and live her own life. 220https://i.ur.com/HniUqDt.png Finally while Mai and Sakuta arent the main focus of this OVA its still nice to see how much this adaptation included all their moments together and how much theyve matured to handle being apart. Part of this especially the opening and postcredit scenes is a clever setup towards the sequel Knapsack Kid which Im looking forward to watching next While this doesnt reach the level of greatness that is Dreaming Girl I would still rate this OVA quite high because of how well it portrays my favorite character Kaede. I think Sister Venturing Out is a great example of an anticomingofage comingofage story and if youre into that kind of thing then I highly suggest watching this.