Why Mai Sakurajima is called "Best girl"

 

Why Mai Sakurajima is called “Best girl”

(Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai)

Why Mai Sakurajima is called “Best girl”

As the breeze of Autumn leaves us and the cold and unruly winds of winter welcome our stay there’s a topic that has been talked about countless times by community forums annually and that is “Who is the best girl?”. It has been the center of arguments and debacles in most pages and threads and everyone has their own opinions and reasons as to why a specific individual (In this case “Characters”) is rightful to the title of “Best girl” and if you ask anyone that question they’ll mostly home with Mai Sakurajima.

She’s one of the ensemble cast of Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume no Minai (Rascal does not dream of Bunny Girl Senpai) an anime about different cases of “Puberty Syndrome” but unlike most syndromes that affects either physical or mental aspects of a certain individual Puberty Syndrome has a somewhat “Supernatural effect” among its victims that include being literally invincible to almost everyone and being stuck in a 3 day time loop, it’s basically a guise of the things that we hate as we trek through the unruly mountains of puberty and that is going through our lowest points, all this in the guise of Puberty Syndrome.

Now even if the title raises a red flag ( Anime with long titles usually suck) and even if the promotional poster entices you with a sexy woman in a bunny girl outfit it produces the usual assumption of “This is gonna be one of them shitty slice-of-life comedy shows that offers us 0 entertainment, with out treaded jokes and cliches that is as dry as the Sahara desert.”. However let me remind you that first impressions always lie, for this show takes the generic trope of teenagers in high school in a whole new level, daring to go against the norm and offer us something that very few animes even dare to touch and that is reality.

But let’s not delve too deep about the show as this is not a review rather this is about why in my opinion Mai Sakurajima deserves the title of “Best Girl”. Personality I think there are 2 main reasons as to why she became the darling of the community and that is 1.) Physical Beauty and 2.) Inner Beauty.

Physical Beauty
Conventional wisdom has always thought us that more is usually better. We judge a smartphone by the multitude of apps that it can run, the more expensive an ice cream is the more fresh fruits it should have on top, the more expensive a car is the more completely underlying features it should have and the more expensive a game is the more fun you can have with it. But I believe otherwise as I prefer the idiom of “Less is more” and that’s what our girl is all about, she doesn’t need convoluted hairstyles, aristocratic clothes, no over-sized breast (Like most characters in anime do) instead she dresses formally and has a simple physical overall. All in all a very average woman, but the this is simplicity is her charm you see physical beauty in many cases attracts humans subconsciously through the sight of certain physical factors such as curves,youthful appearance, full breast, height, facial symmetry , so on and so forth and yes Mai has those traits and is maintained at a level that doesn’t exceed the normal.

Simplicity is the basis of beauty, anything simple and exquisite is enough to satisfy our standards, we notice that being average is better than being extravagant whether it be to makeup, accessories or things that enhance oneself. It is sometimes better to keep it simple and this is where in my opinion is one of the best things about Mai. But sometimes the opposite happens, a character may become bland, stoic and in the worst case scenario painful to watch if not synergized with a well-balanced personality.

Inner beauty:
Better known as personality, it is what makes most of Mai’s persona as the whole show is about character development and character story arcs rather than world development and narrative storytelling so what exactly is Mai personality? Well before we can answer that we need to know Mai’s background history first, for starters Mai is a woman that was strengthened by challenges and hardened by experience. As a kid, she was delved into fame and glory by being a child star as she gains further support from her mother who owns a photographing company. Her childhood was filled with sunflowers and sunshine but all that changed when one day she was coerced into wearing a swimsuit for a photo shoot during her middle days. Of course, as a kid, she would feel embarrassment and disdain and pictures of her immaculate body were taken in a flash. So as revenge she took a long term hiatus from show business just so that she can have revenge on her mother and the sad part is that she’s not doing it for herself nor for the greater good, she’s only doing it for vengeance, a self-defeating purpose. The early realization of how unforgiving this world really is shaped the Mai Sakurajima that we know today.

Now that we know Mai’s background let’s go back to the first question “What is Mai Sakurajima’s personality”. Well, honestly I think the best thing about Mai’s personality is that as for every positive personality she has contradicts with her negative ones. She’s polite but sometimes painfully straightforward (especially towards sakuta.), she likes to do lewd remarks but get’s easily flustered and might give a bad first impression to someone but once you get to know her you’ll know the subtle side of her. But what I like the most about Mai is that she’s not a Dandere, Dere-Dere, Yandere, Tsundere or whatever Dere there is in existance she’s just…Simple. She doesn’t need to be a psychopathic yandere nor be a hyperactive Dere-Dere, she’s just simply beautiful.