The title of the recent series, Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, misdirects the viewer. Far from being a show simply about bunny girls, it is a story about dealing with adolescence. However, the iconic bunny girl outfit featured in the show does call to mind the deeply ingrained public perception of the "bunny girl," which has been used for fanservice far and wide. Let’s explore how and where this trope became so prominent in anime, and perhaps more importantly, how it will continue to evolve.

Bunny Beginnings

The first appearance of the 'bunny girl' in anime is from GAINAX's "Daicon IV Opening Animation." Indeed, the powerhouse studio that created works like Evangelion, FLCL and Gurren Lagann was also the force behind the first bunny girl to appear in anime. In this early work, a girl in a scantily-clad outfit battles monsters, mechas and more in a pop culture barrage. The elements of her costume are almost a carbon copy of the Playboy Bunny outfit, the uniform of female waitresses at American Playboy clubs. As GAINAX was founded by otaku, its early creations channeled the popular images and icons of the time — Playboy being one of them. However, the short by itself can't explain why it became so iconic.

RELATED: Yu Yu Hakusho: The Atavism of the Mazoku, Explained

To explore how bunny girls became a staple of anime, it’s necessary to explain one key element of Japanese pop culture: moe. The world is derived from the verb “moeru,” or “to burn,” and refers to the intense feelings of "pure love" a fan experiences with regard to a fictional character.

This phenomenon is directly related to moe anthropomorphization, or the act of turning non-human subjects into cute, humanized characters. This concept gave birth to all sorts of genres, including catgirls, monster girls and even Hetalia's humanized countries. Another iteration of this concept is “gap moe,” a form of cuteness derived from a gap between a character’s looks and personality.

Fluffy Fanservice

Depictions of bunny girls capitalize on the juxtaposition of innocence and sexuality, creating moe in the form of cute bunny ears paired with a sultry, all-revealing outfit. Similar to catgirls, the use of a domestic animal emphasizes sweetness and approachability. However, unlike cats, the specific image of a rabbit also implies a certain amount of helplessness and fragility. These symbolic traits create a predator-and-prey dynamic between the character and the audience, one which may have been particularly effective as a way to fulfill sexual fantasies. This may explain why bunny girls are so common as a fanservice item.

The cute, innocent nature of many moe characters is an important part of what makes them attractive. However, the depiction of women and often underage girls in moe works can encourage the fetishization of young girls, and the bunny girl trope has often served as a means to that end. Self-proclaimed "lolicons" tread the dangerous territory of sexual attraction to characters that are, or look to be, children. Moe in such a form can be used to indirectly support the sexualization of underage children, and these predatory implications cannot be overlooked.

Nevertheless, moe as a whole persists as a central part of Japanese pop culture, though its public perception may slowly be changing.

RELATED: How Did Shonen Jump Approve Ghost Reaper Girl in a Post-#MeToo World?

Modern Interpretations

Today, the image of the sexualized, yet innocent "bunny girl" has begun to be subverted. In Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, Mai uses her costume to confirm her suspicions of turning invisible to the world; one may also argue that there is symbolic meaning that practically no one can see her in it. She wears it of her own volition for her own purposes, which not only moves the plot forward but also acts as a form of empowerment. In a different vein, BEASTARS features a literal bunny girl, Haru, who is judged based on appearances in a complicated and often dark reality: she is both looked down on and sexually objectified by her classmates because she is a rabbit.

Another, more unusual example of the subversion of both moe and the bunny girl trope is VTuber Tomari Mari, a cute bunny girl character whose strong appeal to fans of gap moe has garnered over 75,000 subscribers on YouTube. Using a voice modifier and motion-controlling a pink, fluffy 3D model of a young girl, she streams games live with other VTubers, but also advertises the fact that she is, in fact, played by a middle-aged man. In the past, discovering that a user with a female avatar was male may have been a point of shame or disgust, but today’s online communities and culture appear to welcoming a surprising variety of self-expression with open arms.

With continued evolutions of and deviations from the traditional bunny girl trope, it’s possible that someday it may evolve to be completely unrecognizable.

KEEP READING: Avatar: Everything Changed When the Fire Nation Attacked... Sexism