Joseph Luster
December 13, 2023 
The Rascal Does Not Dream of a Knapsack Kid anime film opened in Japan on December 1, ranking #4 in its opening weekend. New bonuses are planned for the film’s third weekend in theaters, and Aniplex has taken a moment to share one final trailer to further promote the latest entry in the series.
The movie was made at CloverWorks, with Sōichi Masui helming the project as director. The person who both supervised and wrote the script is Masahiro Yokotani. The tasks of character design and chief animation direction were done by Satomi Tamura. All of them have previously worked on the series, which adapts the eighth and ninth volumes of Hajime Kamoshida’s Seishun Buta Yarou light novel series.
The previous Rascal anime movie, Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out, was released in Japan last June. During its opening weekend, it came in fourth place at the box office. Before that was the movie Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl, and there is also a TV anime series that adapted some of the light novels.
Yen Press publishes the original light novels, as well as their manga adaptations. It gave this description for The Rascal Does Not Dream of a Knapsack Kid light novel:
March has arrived, meaning there’s only one month left in the third term. Mai’s graduation has come and gone. This might be a time for change, but that isn’t nearly enough to explain why Sakuta meets a little girl who looks just like Mai did when she was a child actress. Before he can even begin to unravel this fresh mystery, his father calls. Their family hasn’t lived together since Kaede was bullied. Two long years later, their mother says she wants to see her daughter. What’s changed, and what’s stayed the same? There’s only one way to find out…
