Schrödinger’s Cat Is An Anime Girl?

If you go and ask anyone that is sort of involved with the anime community what their favorite anime was of 2018, a lot of people will probably stop to say Yuru Camp, others might say Hinamatsuri and A Place Further Than The Universe, since it seems to be a perfect balance of strong characters and charming comedy. One of the biggest hits of 2018 happened to be Zombieland Saga, for a number of compelling reasons, yet something that I was stuck on along with many others, who didn’t seem to rave about it as much as I thought they would is- Bunny Girl Senpai, its full name being Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai.

I thought with the typical approach to a character arc being present in Bunny Girl Senpai, with each character having an arc to themselves to have their problems resolved, that more people would be on board for it, yet while it was one of the seemingly most popular anime of the season, it appeared to be quite the hit or miss for an abundance of anime fans all over despite it having a strong dynamic flow which felt almost surreal in the first three episodes.

Oh! Wait! Did I mention that I’ve only seen the first three episodes of Bunny Girl Senpai? Yeah, it might be kind of odd speaking about a show to the extent that I am having only seen a few episodes of it and all, but that’s somewhat of a normal thing for me. I’m not necessarily going to speak about the show directly, but rather the “concept”, that was introduced in the first character arc and a plethora of others outside of this series. Schrödinger’s Cat.

Schrödinger’s Cat used to be a thought experiment paired with quantum physics, used for many hypothetical questions. The idea of Schrödinger’s Cat isn’t simple, but the explanation itself is relatively simple. A cat is in a box with a poisonous gas of sorts, a small amount, however. In the event that you leave the cat trapped in the box with this poisonous gas for an hour is once it’ll die, then the idea is to open the box before the hour is up entirely. Although, before you open up the box, there are a couple of questions that come to mind, one of which being, “Is the cat dead or alive?” If you think of the unimaginable, the cat is both half dead and half alive before that box is opened until the true result is actually observed. While viewed as a paradox to many out there, with numerous explanations being unimaginably complex or undeniably simple, it stands the test of time in such a remarkable way by allowing us to think outside of the box, rather than stay inside of it- much like the cat. Through thinking outside the box, some creators out there took it upon themselves to turn a thought experiment into a concept- no, theme rather, for all forms of entertainment, but much like when people look at Japan and say “They did it again!”, I often share the same sentiment, because they did do it again, but this time in the form of an anime girl trapped behind a theme written into a character based narrative structure.

I have no qualms with the idea of Schrödinger’s Cat becoming a syndrome in anime, but the real question I’d like to ask is- “How did we get here?” How did we get to the point where it becomes a part of growing up in most slice of life anime series? A good place for me to start would have to be with my first anime I watched that presented the idea in the form of a character arc, which is Clannad, specifically Ibuki Fuko’s arc.

Ibuki Fuko is a somewhat unique character. She’s going around from person to person, giving them hand-carved wooden starfish that serve as both invitations and presents to the people she wishes to attend her sister’s wedding. Her entire character arc is surrounded by mystery, considering everyone can see her, all except for her very own sister.

When I had first seen Clannad, I didn’t think much of her character motivation outside of it being undeniably wholesome, only for me to think a couple of episodes later that her story is a beautifully tragic one. Years later, having revisited the series enough times to be considered an obsessive fan, the one thing that had continued to leave me feeling completely perplexed by this series is Ibuki Fuko’s disappearance throughout the series.

Fuko’s disappearance throughout many instances in her own character arc is apart of the Schrödinger’s Cat Syndrome I keep referring back to. During Fuko’s arc, she captures the attention of a number of students as the girl who’s wandering around giving a starfish to everyone for her sister’s wedding. It was one of those constant school rumors, leaving a ton of people in awe at how odd the story is, yet how sweet as well.

However- there is a sad truth to her story. The more people acknowledge her, the more she’ll begin to fade from their memory, or existence as a whole. It’s a weird point to bring up considering that it has to do with her being acknowledged for them to forget, but a number of events had taken place leading up to that eventual moment where she’s just another lost dream to people.

First, the people who pass her by wouldn’t be aware of her existence, then as shown here, even people who had known of her before upon receiving a gift had started to forget. Eventually, her situation gets to the point where even Sunohara, the man who questioned everything for her well being the most out of everyone, had forgotten her as well. I don’t have all the answers, so I couldn’t possibly tell you whether or not people being in question of who she is also had any effect on her disappearance from their memories altogether, but with the leading roles of the series such as Nagisa & Tomoya forgetting at some point as well, it says a lot about her supposed “syndrome”, even if its just a matter of her existing spiritually for the sake of her sister’s happiness.

“If you stare at something long enough, sometimes it will disappear.” That statement is rather true for a lot of this, considering some of the characters which would be deemed some of the closest friends she’s had in a long time eventually start to view her as nothing more than a fleeting memory, one that got progressively worse if their known perception of her was to change- which it did, seeing as how both Sunohara and Nagisa’s mother paid a visit, to the real form that is Fuko in the hospital.

Once everyone had become detached from the phenomena at hand, the only thing that would lead them to remember everything that’s happened up to this point is to take a look more at the effect if anything. Both the cause and effect of the wedding had all been carried out by Fuko, so she became visible to everyone once more, since their perception of her changed once more. I think Fuko’s case of the Schrödinger’s Cat Syndrome is an emotional one, I never actually had any issues with it, but she was used as a constant gag throughout the series afterward since people had still forgotten about Fuko’s presence regardless, but at least know of her state in the hospital. The characters remember her, but not as the way she was when they first met her. That doesn’t matter though, since they met her once again, at the end of the dream. Despite all the strange happenings in Clannad, unexplained or not, Fuko’s story still manages to tug at my heartstrings as the first anime girl among many for me, to have been plagued by the curse of the Schrödinger’s Cat Syndrome.

Enter Tsukimiya Ayu, the next one among the girls to have been afflicted with Schrödinger’s Cat Syndrome. I think the best way to start off the story of Ayu is to quote her lines from the beginning of nearly every episode, one that is a description of the dream which she cannot hope to escape anytime soon.

“A dream… I’m seeing a dream. The dream I see every day… The endless dream. The red snow. The world stained in red. The small, crying child was blocking the red sky. I wanted to wipe away his tears, at least. But the hands wouldn’t move, and the tears trailing down the cheeks soaked into the snow, and… all I could do was watch. It was so painful… and so sad… It’s alright. So, don’t cry. “It’s a promise.” I wonder whose words those were. The dream starts to fade away to a different color. Yep… it’s a promise. Dream… I’m inside the dream… Like always… The same scenery again and again… Slowly rocked by the slumber, I make a wish. That the next time, I open my eyes… I will see a different view. Dream… I wonder when it was that I realized this is a dream. A long, long time ago? Or only a few minutes ago? Even the answer fades away into the dream… In this world that I’m not sure if time is flowing or not… as I dream about waking up… Dream… I’m seeing a dream… A dream of waiting for someone… Sitting on a small bench all alone… Listening to the crowd far away… Waiting for the person who wouldn’t show up for hours… for days… and then for years. Dream… When the dream doesn’t end anymore… like always, at the same place… I’m only able to wait… That’s all I can do. So… I’m still waiting.”

I’m sure you can tell from the wording of her lines that her situation isn’t that much different from Fuko’s, if at all really. Kanon may have come before Clannad and while the two girls share a fair bit of similarities between each other in their own character arcs, one of them becomes the conflict of the entire series, whereas Fuko was trapped within a character arc only to be pushed to the side for a long time after until she was reintroduced. Anyways, this isn’t about Fuko right now, this specific section is about Tsukimiya Ayu. Ayu is quite the charming character. Her ditziness is one of the most unique things about her since people tend to forget their worries once they begin to bask in her energy, something that is so infectious it almost removes the feelings of conflict that comes from numerous character arcs that happen long before hers- which in turn are important since they all share the same theme. A dream born from a wish, much like Ayu’s constant dreaming at the beginning of the episodes, everyone had the same feelings that would allow them to resonate with each other in a more spiritual way. Everyone understood something about Ayu, all except for Yuichi.

If I wasn’t sticking to something specific, I could probably talk about Kanon 2006 for hours given it had loads of interconnected character arcs that had all been tied to the same person, which is Yuichi, once again. Yuichi is almost like the catalyst of the series, yet at the same time, he isn’t if we take Ayu’s situation into consideration, since her entire existence as a character creates the main conflict, on top of which resolving the others along with it. The first real conflict is a promise Yuichi had made in his youth, one that could have easily been kept had he not been overtaken by a constant misunderstood case of “amnesia”, which plagues him the whole series, yet not the others, who are much more aware of his wrongdoings than he is.

The reason why Yuichi is unaware of his wrongdoings is because of childhood trauma, this is what brought about the existence of the conflict, that and his constant promises to not just Ayu, but others. All of the characters harbor some bit of resentment towards Yuichi in their own way, but simply because he had kept them all waiting for years, just like that of the dream that Ayu is having almost every other episode. “Patience is a virtue, but persistence to the point of success is a blessing.” If we were to replace a word in that quote, it would be success- changing it to happiness, since that is the end goal here. In this series, Yuichi encounters people like Sawatari Makoto, Kawasumi Mai, and Minase Nayuki, all of whom, alongside Ayu, have been left waiting for years with an unresolved pain in their hearts longing for the day Yuichi would make his inevitable return.

Getting back to the point at hand, Yuichi’s wrongdoings have to do with the promise he had made, that much is apparent to the viewer constantly throughout the show, but I feel as though it poses the biggest problem as well. It is apparent, but Yuichi shouldn’t be put on the spot being subject to so much heartbreak simply for a promise, especially since he holds the livelihood of others in his heart, without knowing until much later. This idea of fulfilling a promise to obtain happiness is kind of farfetched, even for me, since it has all these hardships up to a certain point when the show reaches its eventual climax- it should be just as such for all character arcs, but the basis of the show itself is centered around Ayu and Yuichi’s relationship, not so much everyone else’s since they only play a part to tell the story of these two specifically. There are multiple ideas present within the show, only one of which actually effects the overarching theme of “A dream being born from a wish”, which just so happens to be “searching for that which was once lost, but is right before me.”

Although it might not seem like it in the earlier screenshots I had shared alongside this text, the thing that is lost to Ayu isn’t really anything trivial, it’s just the angel doll Yuichi had gotten for them years ago, one that he had placed all his promises into without knowing. One thing I’d like to make clear here is that Ayu’s backpack is seen with angel wings, something which she was unaware of until Yuichi had pointed them out.

The reason for that is because Ayu is the angel doll, but given a physical form. It isn’t odd, in all actuality, it’s just heartbreaking. Numerous times throughout the series, some people are left baffled by Ayu’s presence being there, either because she bears resemblance to a patient or simply due to the fact she shouldn’t be there, to begin with. The Ayu that Yuichi knows, the Ayu that Yuichi had fallen in love with in the moment of their reunion all those years later is a doll that was given a form for the sake of a wishful promise from their adolescence. When I had first seen Kanon 2006, I was taken aback by all of this information. It was sad to think that nearly every instance of Yuichi’s love had been somewhat used as a growing experience for him to make everyone else happy, all except for himself. Even now, it’s still heartwrenching in the sense that the real Tsukimiya Ayu didn’t get to experience his love for her until much later, but she isn’t who I’m talking about. I’m talking about this beautiful, yet cursed doll.

Ayu’s first wish was for Yuichi not to forget her, which is a promise he couldn’t keep since when he first returned to this snow-covered city, the place where the abnormal is the most certain in the world, he had no recollection of anything other than his relative's names. A promise broken; a wish that was to remain unspoken.

Ayu’s second wish was to go to school, a school with no tardies, no attendance, you go whenever you feel like it, so long as you bring along a friend or two, it won’t matter, you’ll learn whatever you dream of! That’s why Ayu, the real Ayu, remains locked within a dream, a dream that isn’t a reality for her, but for the doll her wishes allowed to take on the form of her, in the ideal body to live out the wishes that were unfulfilled all those years ago.

When Ayu talked about losing someone to Yuichi, she was speaking of herself. She lost herself all those years ago, it’s not as though she’s dead or anything, but she simply cannot bring herself to do the things others might be able to in this life. She’s unable to. Ayu, just like the case of Ibuki Fuko, is trapped in a coma, a neverending dream where she is left waiting. To the doll, the wishes remain unfulfilled; yet to Ayu herself, the one who is in the cold-deep slumber, the wishes have been granted. Yuichi is granting two sets of separated wishes without knowing until the very end. The doll only exists in this form to make him remember, but it’s born of the promises he made that had long since been forgotten by him. It’ll only vanish when the job is done.

It… it really hurt collecting my thoughts on all this. KEY stories have always been one to make me cry, but I feel as though I’ve cried harder this second time around. I know the doll is born of forgotten promises that Yuichi has to bring himself to fulfill after all this time, but it hurts considering he fell in love with Ayu, but… the doll. The doll only exists for the promises that weren’t kept. If Yuichi didn’t remember them at all, this doll would be in a state of existing, yet not existing all the same. It existed for the promises of many, but also the happiness of the girl who it was gifted to, Ayu. Yet, if it referred to itself as Ayu the whole time and experienced things that Ayu would have if she was standing there in this moment, then do both of them exist or only one? It might as well have been Ayu the whole time at this rate, but it wasn’t.

The real Ayu, the one in a slumber, all her wishes had been fulfilled a long time ago. There were no more wishes for her, hence why the doll and hers were separated. If I was talking about the dream, the dream that Ayu wasn’t waking up from, this would have been a different story since there is a happy ending for every sleeping beauty, but… alas… the happiness of the one on the outside in a snowed-over reality ended with nothing more than a single wish.

Now onto the third case of heartbreak central for me, we take a look at Michiru… her full name I’ll just reveal ahead of time, which is Michiru Tohno. Michiru’s story isn’t a long one, rather, it isn’t long since she can’t stay for long. She isn’t like these other girls, she exists in a dream that hasn’t been brought to reality yet.

Air TV is the show Michiru is from and while it wasn’t the best show or anything, it had drawn a lot of tears from me from start to finish. It’s just that it had gone by so fast I don’t really feel as though I had much time to care about every single character, especially since it was limited to a 12 episode run-time. Anyways- as shown here… that woman, which is that girl’s mother obviously, had called out to her by the name of Michiru. Her name isn’t that, that is Minagi Tohno, the older sister to Michiru, yet at the same time, not. The mother doesn’t want to accept the reality of a certain situation at all whatsoever, so her perception is getting progressively worse due to her disbelief of what’s actually real.

Shortly after that night had passed, even Minagi Tohno had been forgotten as it’s been made clear. With Michiru and Minagi ceasing to exist in both the heart and mind of the mother, they have nowhere to return to, or rather, Minagi does, but Michiru doesn’t. While the situation may have been explained as such, Michiru did actually pass away a long time ago due to her mother having a miscarriage, preventing her from being born into this world. The Michiru that wanders around, standing beside Minagi through thick and thin is the daughter who wasn’t allowed into this world… but as a spirit to bring about temporary happiness until the desired outcome is reached.

The story progresses, the moments become fewer, the episodes dwindle down in numbers, and while Minagi is given the spotlight as the forgotten griever herself; Michiru comes to have less screentime. I think the fault of Air is that it didn’t know when to develop the characters. As much as it had developed the story, everything is resolved within a matter of days at best- not really allowing this scene to sink in for the viewer since, within the next few minutes, she’s seen resolving this issue with her mother.

I’m not saying it isn’t depressing though since deep down it is. Miscarriages… honestly, aren’t something people want to think about. The series isn’t wrong for presenting that, but to have this character, Michiru, a child who was rejected a chance at having a life in this world because that wasn’t in God’s plan, it feels a bit skewed. Michiru only exists now to make Minagi happy until her mother is able to accept her as Minagi Tohno again rather than Michiru, the one who had passed away. With the mother and Minagi resolving this issue and her facing reality for the first time in forever, this only means one thing — Michiru has to vanish.

The dream Minagi’s mother had is coming to an end. She dreamed a Michiru into existence, which was what she had seen Minagi as, while Minagi too had dreamed a Michiru into existence as well, one that had been born from a spirit. With the two dreams being brought into reality, the fragments will start to fade away, Michiru will be gone soon without leaving anything behind, only those who had this chance encounter like Minagi and Yukito will remember her from here on out.

At the end of a dream… happiness may exist, but it's only for those who wanted it enough. At the end of a dream… is the death of a dream itself. At the end of a dream… is a farewell to what you once knew, as it’ll be time to live in reality itself anew.

I’m not one to like happy endings a lot of the time anymore, rather, I detest them, but… this whole time, Minagi had a father who she had not really bothered to mention since he left her and her mother behind for years on end after the accident. The end of not Minagi’s story, but Michiru’s story is quite the happy one in all honesty. Minagi’s father had a child with his new wife and her name just so happens to be Michiru, not just that, her looks too! If happiness is granted to those who wanted it enough, then I’d say Michiru’s wish did come true, she isn’t the fragment of a dream like she once made herself out to be, she’s the living-breathing happiness of dreams a few less than fortunate individuals once had.

She may not be a cat, but Nishizono Mio is far from these animal labelings since she is none other than…! A bird. Nishizono Mio is from Little Busters and while her problem is more of an isolated conflict, it still manages to draw the well being of others through the mud. I’d argue that the conflict behind her feels more antagonizing than the rest of these girls, which is quite odd, but I didn’t really find myself feeling sad from her journey until it met its eventual end.

To explain how this all begins, Naoe Riki bumps into Mio and after some small talk with her, he thinks of how lonely she might be, considering she’s always by herself. From this thought moving forward, Riki also addresses to himself that she’s always underneath that umbrella, always hiding to herself in the shade away from the onlookers, the masses, the people who she should be trying to befriend and because of this, she has no one to notice her, that is- except for Riki obviously. Although, in tune with the formula behind Little Busters, this is only commonplace for Riki since he has to go through these ordeals to discover the “secret of this world.” The secret, however, in this case, is how Mio had chosen to live on in this world.

This is what people know of Mio, or rather, what Riki and the select few characters who are in touch with what goes on within the school walls know of her. Mio goes on unnoticed and most people scoff at her presence being there since she doesn’t exactly do anything. She doesn’t stand out in class, she’s just a name at a desk that has a face every so often. It’s a shame, but it is entirely her fault for this, which is where the conflict is born from. Her being alone; yet being surrounded by everyone.

Mio has a strong fascination with books, so much to the point that she believes her life is written within one, yet as a member of the supporting cast rather than the main character itself. She is without the essence of the main character because much like a book, there are many lives to live. She lives in a place that is far from here, but nearer than one would think. She is living only once in this sense, whereas someone else is living for her differently, but twice as much. That’s why Riki brought up to her that he had seen someone who looked just like her. He doesn’t understand her metaphors, neither did I until all the literary references crafted a new entity that was unknown to both Riki and I, as the observers.

As usual in KEY fashion, it happened. People were forgetting the person that is Nishizono Mio and Riki would be the only one to remain aware of her presence as an individual trying to keep whatever memory of her that still exists alive. It’s such a common issue in just about every KEY series, but the way Little Busters had approached this had an evil feeling paired with it. It felt like an attack, not at one’s emotions, but just at the characters involved in general. It could be an attack since Mio was unknown to all; but all the same, it was to make others feel bad for not realizing she was there from the start.

Riki met with Mio once more after this, but everything he would come to know after this is like a piece of fabric being put over the top of a blemished surface to hide whatever is underneath away from the gaze of visitors, friends, you name it. Only for the fabric to be pulled off somewhat later to reveal what you, the person who put the fabric over it, to begin with, had been hiding the entire time. That is the life of Mio, and that is how Riki is to view his memory of her from this point onward.

Mio has no shadow, thus being without a shadow, she is without what makes her whole, which is the girl who looks exactly like her- her sister Midori. That shadow separates Mio from everyone else since she is afraid what people will make of her if they see her without one. While more of an unusual case, Mio ends up being cast away after Riki disconnects from the world, his usual case of narcolepsy.

Riki wasn’t present when the world had undergone its change, with the subtraction of the real Nishizono Mio from everyone’s lives taking place, but he makes it a point to confront the issue head-on since none of it is justified. Midori antagonizes Riki and constantly pokes at him for forgetting Mio and even states his memory of her is just an illusion, that he didn’t know anything about her at all from the moment this world was conceptualized.

Riki pondered a thought to himself for quite a bit, he had begun to wonder why Mio and Midori couldn’t exist at the same time. It was an oddity to him that remained uncertain, at least for a time, until Midori finally answered his desire for answers in regards to this situation.

Midori isn’t Mio’s sister- Midori is Mio’s reflection. Midori is a reflection of the vivid imagination that Mio has and had taken on her looks. Mio brought this reflection of herself to life and had given to her, all the adventures that she had gone on from reading all those books. Midori is the main character of Mio’s life but is the main character Mio wanted to be the entire time. It’s a bit weird and not as sad as these other cases- except for the grave crime of Mio robbing her own youth from herself.

Mio would constantly hang out with Midori and the problem with this to observers is that they couldn’t see her. This had become so problematic that routine checkups at the doctor would be a common practice for her family to force her into doing, up until her life had become an easier one upon forgetting about Midori altogether. Through both the creation and loss of Midori, Mio had lost something in her life- her dreams, her ambitions, her adolescence. She would no longer have a shadow because she separated from herself what makes her an individual being. That’s why Mio wants to fly away from this world and let Midori live in it. Mio wants to wipe the slate clean by becoming a pure white bird bathing in a sky that isn’t full of impurities like her life.

Riki chased after Mio and had the willingness to give up his life for her to ensure a lifetime of happiness if she was to follow him back to the place they call home. Midori met his resolve with her own and had become one with Mio after all these years of being apart. Happy end right? It is, but… it just amazes me how all these KEY stories have a common thing throughout them. Memories taking the form of a person, being around until happiness is finally taken hold of tightly. Midori only existed because Mio created her, but she was born from Mio’s imagination of being everything she could be in life since Mio felt powerless as a child to become all that she had read about in books. When Mio ceased to exist, Midori came into existence once again. They both couldn’t exist at the same time properly because they are each other's dreams, their ideas, their reality.

Midori might not have her own physical form, but she exists in the mind of Riki and Mio, that much can be said without a doubt. Mio can live out the adventures she had read about in those books, it just takes a little bit of imagination, a slither of creativity, and a whole bunch of friends to make an unheard of fantasy into a reality.

She’s not from a KEY work, but she is from yet another emotional anime. It’s Honma Meiko from Anohana…! Haha… yeah… I’m starting to hurt a bit on the inside from all this. Before I talk about Meiko, well, as the show refers to her as, Menma. I’d like to talk about everything up to this point since so far, everything has been from a KEY series.

All these girls have been the manifestation of a dream to bring about happiness, but have left a lot of sadness in their wake. Some of them have been rushed, while others have been fairly complex. I think the most complicated out of all the stories have been Mio’s by far, which is why it feels so hard for me to talk about them. I know I’m not reaching, yet I feel like I’ve stretched their stories out for far too long even though the series themselves have done that without failure. All the girls have existed in their own way, yet at the same time are perceived by the masses as something surreal in their respective worlds. From Fuko to Mio, the stories have been weird… and some of them have a lack of explanation for how things had truly come to be. The most commonly shared thing among them all is how everyone or everything exists at a time; yet doesn’t exist. The essence of Schrödinger’s Cat plagues them all, although it would be unreasonable for me to say that all of them have had bad writing since they didn’t. I wanted to give a trope that most people know of, but yet aren’t truly aware of- a new kind of spin. This is my take on it and that’s why I’ll deliver this final character story to you, the most emotional one to me… Finding Menma.

The story of Menma is a simple one- probably the simplest of them all as far as ghost stories go, yet even her story is one that couldn’t escape me when talking about this. Menma is dead, she died in the Summer of 10 years ago, but for some reason, our main character Jinta is the only one who can truly see her form. She isn’t one of those spiritual existences like the others who have a body to return to in the end, she’s just a ghost. This makes Jinta look like a basket case for a majority of the series, though, it’s apart of the charm the series has and what makes the characters so endearing, yet frustratingly hard to support.

In the summer of 10 years ago, Jinta and the gang- the gang being the Super Peace Busters, were supposed to do one major thing together as a group. That was to set off a gigantic firework that was of their combined efforts. They brought peace to each other, smiles to their faces, and had what would seem to be a neverending Summer, one that is still ongoing for Menma to this day, long after her passing. Menma never forgot what made everyone so special to her back then and in her story of uniting them once more through speaking with Jinta, she comes to see that her wish is what divides them all as well.

In his dreams, in his thoughts, in his day to day life, Jinta is haunted by the wish that he has to grant Menma. This is her selfish act as a character, not an unspeakable one, but it still burdens Jinta since he feels as though Menma is nothing more than a delusion tasked with giving him nothing but regret for the days to come in his life. At first, it's honestly hard to say what is keeping Menma around- there is constant bickering over the state of her memory, that it should be preserved as such and not disturbed by Jinta who constantly voices that he can see her in this light.

Menma is seen as a ghost of burden, a ghost of the past from 10 years ago who has come to eat away at everyone’s happiness, their “Summer” trauma so to say. But- to those who do see her as such, she is also known as the girl who lost her life due to the unwanted actions of those in her short life. Everyone is to blame, yet no one is at fault for the accident, they’re just filled with regret for that day, allowing it to conquer them when it shouldn’t. Menma doesn’t exist for the purpose of burdening them, as a matter of fact, she isn’t a spirit of regret, she’s a spirit of wishes for a better time.

Menma’s wish is what everyone wants to fulfill. They want to see Menma go peacefully instead of hearing about her abrupt end once again, yet it’s hard since they cling onto these resurfacing feelings of the past and just how much they resent their childhood selves for what they had done that day. They were never held accountable for their actions and they all seem to have some belief that they had brought about Menma’s uninvited end. It wasn’t inevitable, it probably could have been stopped, but they ran forward like children, running away from a problem until it escaped them all together in their youth.

The truth of it all is, Menma never really wished for anything other than the happiness of the Super Peace Busters, which is a wish of hers obviously, but the reason why nobody else was to see Menma throughout the show, which makes it increasingly difficult for Jinta to maintain his relationships with everyone is simply due to the fact that Menma was there to make him feel an array of emotions he hasn’t been in touch with for a long time- a wish that his mother had before her passing as well. Jinta is the only one allowed to see Menma in this time since fate itself can often be a cruel mistress. Once Jinta fulfills the goal that Menma was there for, she begins to fade, everyone including Jinta, unable to see her for real this time.

Menma’s wish is for the unification of the friends, but she existed for a promise she had not been able to keep all those years ago. She existed for two entirely separate reasons, one in Jinta’s eyes for a promise she made with his mother, but the other is for the rectification of the group and the rekindling of their bonds from a time once lost.

Menma leaves them with a final parting and its her feelings within these letters, a unique one for every member of the Super Peace Busters that she had come to know and love, which upon doing so, allowed all their feelings to be in the same moment, the same wave that had been unknown to them this whole time. They found Menma, they found happiness, they found her wish — they found her smile. The beautiful sight that they had seen that day was none other than her and in her passing, Menma had granted two wishes.

What she exists for in this form, while it may be no more, she still exists in the hearts of many, those who have grown but not yet forgotten of her at all. What matters here is a remembrance of her being. Her situation was the Schrödinger’s Cat trope, but her memory is one of friendship and love. She isn’t bound to a trope for the sake of telling a story, she had told her story through these friends of hers and beaten us all down to make us remember something important, our feelings, which is the motivation of almost every girl I’ve talked about in this piece, they all wanted themselves or others to feel a specific feeling that can only be found in the form of a smile… happiness.

It’s finally come full circle, we’re finally reaching the closing of this. The final girl I feel that needs to be talked about, the last conquest. I might not be Sakuragi Keima, but I’m going to make sure to conquer this beast that has been haunting me for as long as I’ve written about this. Mai Sakurajima from the show that had spawned this idea within me, to begin with, Bunny Girl Senpai.

I’m going to say it ahead of time, I don’t think Mai Sakurajima is that interesting of a character. She isn’t a new character in the slightest, she shares a lot of traits with girls from other series, such as Yukino from My Teen Romantic Comedy Snafu, which is why people often enough make the comparison, not just due to their looks alone. I think that Sakuta, being the main character and all, had a more interesting approach to her situation and a respectable one at that, which left me wanting more.

The conflict in Bunny Girl Senpai, while it may be character arc specific, all of them share the same problem of having a potential case of Adolescence Syndrome, which usually differs from person to person. In Mai’s case, she manages to go invisible to everyone who she doesn’t want to be aware of her existence. While in concept, it does sound as though she has control over that, she really doesn’t. The issue eventually becomes her being unseen by everyone, classmates, family members, you name it- everyone.

In Mai’s short 3 episode character arc, she is known to be an actress, an actress whom of which has gone on hiatus. She didn’t want to be seen by the eyes of the public anymore due to her mother’s treatment of her since her mother had no consideration of her feelings in the acting business, she just wanted the benefits. Having this constant desire to remain unseen, unheard of, just gone altogether, this is where the problem- or as one would put it, Adolescence Syndrome had taken root for Mai. As Mai would fade to those surrounding her, so would other things as well, such as the memories of people closest to her, with Sakuta reminding himself constantly to not forget- for if he forgets, there will be trouble.

This is where I have a problem with Bunny Girl Senpai’s take on the whole Schrödinger’s Cat trope. It's because of Mai Sakurajima herself. I’m not too fond of having to follow a character, but learn more about the leading role himself in the process rather than the supposed damsel in distress in this case. Mai is supposed to be the character of her own arc, but it might as well have been Sakuta’s character arc since it is an introduction to the mishaps he chooses to get involved with. Mai’s arc is so uninspiring for her, yet stands out due to clever retorts, witty writing, and consistent character interactions that keep it from being bland. This supposedly emotional narrative isn’t actually one, it feels like an over glorified usage of a trope to form a proper budding romance between the two characters without the interruptions of bystanders. I like proper character romances, and the way it was portrayed here isn’t necessarily shallow so to say, it just felt uninspired as far as a singular character goes, given that the gravity of the situation for everyone else introduced feels far more important, especially Kaede, who is Sakuta’s sister.

For someone who was made to have a character specific arc, Mai really felt so unimportant in her own character storyline. I’m sure she’s probably outstanding after her character arc is over, but I’ve always hated the structure of character arcs when the problems themselves exceed a certain limit and are done among not one, two or three, but many characters. That’s what I hate about the character arc structure in short anime such as this one. I didn’t get enough time to like Sakurajima Mai, nor did I come to understand her struggles as much either. I came to understand Sakuta, why he puts himself out there for people, where he stands as an individual, and the extent he’s willing to go to depending on the situation. I could, right now, if I wanted to, write love letters to Sakuta for being this stellar character who chipped away at some unnecessary character tropes- but I’m not, since this isn’t about him. This is supposed to be about Mai, the one who isn’t being observed, yet is being observed; the one trapped in the unopened box that is life’s hardships.

Sakuta had come across many hurdles through his interactions with Mai, one of which is him actually forgetting about her existence entirely. He fell victim to the very thing he had been trying to escape from, but alas, he had a solution to the problem, almost immediately at that. He had to make her known by giving her a chance to be observed through some questionable means, but with good intentions obviously. He unraveled the paradoxical question that Schrödinger’s Cat is typically paired with and opened the box to find a bunny girl instead of a cat.

I don’t hate Bunny Girl Senpai if that’s what you’re all thinking at this point, I just tend to feel very disgruntled by writing such as this since the introductory conflict isn’t even taken as seriously by the character experiencing it, to begin with. It feels very disheartening to me and made me question who I should be giving the most support to, Sakuta or Mai? Who fought the harder battle out of the two? Clearly Sakuta, he lost sleep, he took energy pills, all sorts of things, just to keep himself awake so he wouldn’t lose sight of a bunny girl he had fallen in love with. For her sake, he challenged her personal conflict, but for his sake — well… she wasn’t written into her own arc enough to say what she had done for him other than free him from the pain residing in his heart.

This is why I had to write about all this, every motivation for the trope has had a strong-willed girl doing her best for the sake of others happiness, whereas the difference here is that a man had tried to overcome the conflict not just for a singular person’s happiness, but for all those who had been affected. Sakuta is a strong protagonist, I’m just not fond of the execution of this concept/trope, whatever it may be in this scenario since it left me baffled and honestly, feeling quite bad for a character from a perspective of which she wasn’t done justice by the people who thought her up from the get-go.

After all this, I have to ask the readers, is Schrödinger’s Cat an anime girl?