Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out

Kaede has been unable to leave the house or attend school for a long time. In this film she starts going out, and sets herself a large goal: to get into her brother Sakuta's high school. The series' usual business of adolescence syndrome has not gone away, but it is not the centre. The subject is a person attempting to rejoin the world. Sōichi Masui directs for CloverWorks. It runs seventy three minutes and opened in Japan on 23 June 2023. The source is the eighth volume of Hajime Kamoshida's light novel series, and the film is positioned as a sequel to Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl from 2019. What the series does well is use its supernatural element as the equivalent of a psychological state. That holds here: the fear of going back to school is told through a supernatural mechanism, and the film never overworks the metaphor. Seventy three minutes is short, and deliberately so. The story covers one threshold and stops when it is crossed. Who it is for: viewers following the series, and anyone who likes quiet anime drama about siblings. Who it is not for: do not start here. The film assumes you know the earlier parts, and Kaede's history in particular.