The film will adapt the two final volumes of the novel series.
The upcoming anime movie “Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dear Friend” has released a trailer ahead of its 16 October Japanese premiere. The film will adapt the two final volumes of Hajime Kamoshida’s Rascal Does Not Dream novel series, bringing the long-standing anime saga to its end.
Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dear Friend
Premiere date: 16 October, 2026 (Japan)
Animation studio: CloverWorks
Streaming service: Crunchyroll (for the previous anime series and movies)
What do we know about Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dear Friend movie so far?
The anime movie’s theme song is ‘Turn the World Upside Down’ performed by Toko Kirishima, which is previewed in the new trailer.
Soichi Masui continues to direct the movie at CloverWorks, Masahiro Yokotani handles series composition and screenplay. Satomi Tamura designs the characters and the band fox capture plan is composing the music.
The returning cast of the movie includes:
- Kaito Ishikawa as Sakuta Azusagawa
- Asami Seto as Mai Sakurajima
- Sora Amamiya as Uzuki Hirokawa
- Aya Yamane as Ikumi Akagi
- Konomi Kohara as Sara Himeji
- Manaka Iwami as Miori Mitō
- Reina Ueda as Nene Iwamizawa
- Nao Tōyama as Tomoe Koga
- Atsumi Tanezaki as Rio Futaba
- Maaya Uchida as Nodoka Toyohama
- Yurika Kubo as Kaede Azusagawa
- Inori Minase as Shōko Makinohara
What is the Rascal Does Not Dream franchise about?
The Rascal Does Not Dream is a novel series written by Hajime Kamoshida and illustrated by Kēji Mizoguchi. ASCII Media Works published 16 volumes of the novel from 2014 to 2025 under their Dengeki Bunko imprint.
The original anime series, titled Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, came out back in 2018, and adapted the first five novels of the series. The Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl film followed next in 2019, adapting the sixth and seventh volumes of the novels. The next movie, adapting volume 8, was “Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out”. It came out in 2023. The third film released in the same year titled “Rascal Does Not Dream of a Knapsack Kid” adapted volume 9. A follow up anime series titled “Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Claus” came out in 2025.
Yen Press publishes the novels in English and describes the series as:
Bunny girls do not live in libraries. This is simply common sense. And yet, that’s exactly where Sakuta finds one in the wild. More bewildering is who the bunny girl is: Mai Sakurajima, a girl one year older than Sakuta, famous at their school for her acting career even though she’s currently on break. To top it all off, it seems like no one else in the library can see Mai at all, no matter what she does or...wears. Wanting to find out more about this mystery and maybe get a little closer to this beautiful upperclassman in the process, Sakuta launches an investigation to discover why an unforgettable bunny girl keeps becoming totally invisible.