Rascal Does Not Dream of a Knapsack Kid - movie

  Rascal Does Not Dream of a Knapsack Kid (青春ブタ野郎はランドセルガールの夢を見ない) is a slice of life super natural drama based on the light novel of the same name by Kamoshide Hajime and MIzoguchii Keeji.  The film had its original theatrical release in Japan in December of 2023.

 

    Life is moving forward for Sakuta and those around him.  His younger sister Kaede has seen success in joining the ranks of her peers by completing middle school and enrolling in a virtual high school.  She will be attending the same high school as the lead singer of the idol group Sweet Bullet, the same group Mai's younger sister is a member of.  On top of that their mother, who has been hospitalized since Kaede's 'adolescent syndrome' induced amnesia, is progressing well enough to return to their parents apartment.  The Azusagawa siblings jump at the invitation to join their parents for dinner following Kaede's graduation.   With the whole family together for the first time in more than two years, joy overflows.  As evening approaches their parents suggest for them to spend the night.  Kaede jumps as the opportunity to spend more time reconnecting with her mother.  Sakuta declines, citing the need to feed their cat and go to school.  He heads back on his own, going over the progress in his mind.

    The following day he goes to school but quickly understands that something if wrong.  None is acknowledging his existence.  His place in the world has been erased, much like Mai's own bout of 'adolescent syndrome'.  Panicked, he attempts various things to get someone to pay attention to him.  When that doesn't work he tries to call Mai but finds he is unable to interact with ta payphone.  After failing to attract attention while dressed in a costume he finds himself wallowing in misery at the beach.  A young girl approaches him, wondering what is wrong.  The girl is a younger version of Mai, whom he has seen before in dreams and visions.  The girl offers to return him to his home and extends her hand to the desperate boy.

    Home isn't exactly what he was looking for as he finds himself waking up in his bed at the apartment he had shared with his parents prior to moving.  It seems that his sister had never lost her memory and they did not need to move, Sakuta had resolved her bullying issues through his own actions.  He was still enrolled in Minegahara high school, requiring him to endure a much longer commute.  He was still dating the famous child actor Sakurajima Mai and has his same friend group and part time job.  Sakuta knows deep down this is not his world, something has caused him to swap into an alternate, closely identical reality that was not his own.  While this version of his life is ideal and comforting, he knows he didn't make it that way and understands he needs to return to his own reality to continue the work he has struggles with this whole time.  What will it take for him to return to version of his life he is familiar with, even if it is a more painful version than the one he finds himself in?

    My initial reaction to this story when reading the light novels was a little bit of boredom at first when it appeared to rehash the original novels plot line with Sakuta disappearing from the world.  When it shifted to the alternate reality and started to introduce another key player in the later novels, things become more enjoyable.  This story does a lot of work to wrap up what is seen as the high school arc of the franchise.  Kaede is well on her way to progressing, Sakuta has been the hero to a growing group of teenage girls with social anxiety issues and his parents are becoming a more viable part of their lives.  Yet, this story is not as dramatic and impactful as prior arcs in the series.  We spend a good portion setting up the event then rush through two different scenarios both of which get resolved through hand waving more than development of character and plot.  Instead, as with the second movie, this feels like more set up for the college arc of the story.  The most important things that take place between both the second and third movies are the introduction of Kirishima Toko and Akagi Ikumi.

    Aside from these two arcs being the least interesting of the entire franchise, they are vital to the progression of the story and required viewing/reading for fans of the story.  As with the other movies, the artwork is higher quality than the TV series but still lacks a lot of depth and detail that one would want to see in such a well crafted story.  I could imagine how beautiful and more impactful this series could have been if handled by KyoAni.  But, that's irrelevant.  This move in particular highlights how much of a melodrama this story is with its subdued tone, back ground music and general reliance on internal dialogues.  Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love this franchise and will eagerly buy the Blu-rays for both of the newer movies when they become available, but it could have been so much better in a lot of ways.

There is no word as of yet about an English language disk release of this movie, and it was only given a 2 day screening across America.  At the time of the writing, its not even out on disk in Japan.  Fingers crossed we won't have to wait too long and even more so for the next arc in the story to be animated.