Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out

image for Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out

Short takes

Not suitable under 10; parental guidance to 12 (themes, sexual references, subtitles)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out
  • a review of Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 13 May 2024.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 10 Not suitable due to subtitles, themes and sexual references.
Children aged 10–12 Parental guidance recommended due to themes and sexual references.
Children aged 13 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild themes
Length: 74 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Sakuta Azusagawa (voice of Kaito Ishikawa) can hardly believe that he is with Mai (voice of Asami Seto), an actress and the most beautiful girl in school. She is about to graduate, and he still has one year left so all he wants to do is be with her as much as possible. She wants him to focus on his studies so that he can get accepted into the same university she is applying for but Sakuta has other demands on his time. He lives in an apartment with his younger sister Kaede (voice of Yurika Kubo) and must work to help provide for their means. Kaede was the victim of extreme bullying, which caused her to have a nervous breakdown and she developed amnesia. She now lives with a two-year memory gap and crippling anxiety, which makes it difficult for her to leave the house. She is worried that everyone prefers the earlier version of herself and wants, very much, to just be a normal girl. Despite being two years behind and despite the school councillor recommending that she enrol in on-line school, Kaede is determined to go to the same high school that Sakuta attends. Sakuta promises to help her all that he can and Mai pitches in to assist. Is what Kaede wants really in her best interests? Does it stem from something else and what if she does not get in? Will that make her condition worse? These and other questions plague Sakuta as he tries to live up to the demands on his time and to all the expectations he has placed upon himself.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Anxiety; Mental Health; Depression; Bullying; On-line Schooling; Personality disorders; Family breakdown.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

  • Kaede has strange bruises on her body that she can’t explain.
  • Mai steps hard on Sakuta’s toes when he does something she doesn’t like and really crushes his feet to cause him pain.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

  • None noted.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

  • None noted.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Poky snacks are displayed.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • Repeated references are made to a “puberty syndrome” which is often blamed for Sakuta’s strange or unusual behaviour, like when he sees things that no one else does, such as a younger version of Mai.
  • When Sakuta is seen at a restaurant with his school councillor, someone comments that Sakuta ‘sure loves older women’.
  • Sakuta tells a co-worker that her skirt is too tight. He asks if she gained weight and then advises her to ask for a bigger uniform.
  • A character makes the comment: “An idol that doesn’t wear panties attends this school”.
  • Mai was saying that she was thinking Sakuta shouldn’t lay a finger on her until he gets to university, but then she realised that she couldn’t touch him either.
  • A character is asked if he is sexually frustrated.
  • A young girl explains how her mom got pregnant and had her when she was 18 and how she was raised by a single mother.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • Most of the schoolgirls wear very short miniskirts as part of their uniform.
  • Sakuta is in the process of changing and is standing in nothing but his underwear when Mai walks into his room. She touches his chest, saying that she is glad that the scar on his chest is gone and then tells him, “to put some clothes on even though I haven’t done anything with you”. She is still touching his chest when Kaede enters the room and quickly backs out while Mai tells her it is, “not what she thinks”.
  • There are teenage girl pop idols who sing on stage in miniskirts with bare midriffs.
  • A character is told that everyone can see her panties.
  • A mother mentions that she could see her daughter’s panties while she was on-stage too and then she advises her daughter, “not to spread her legs like that”.

Use of substances

  • None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Sakuta announces that he needs to go to the toilet during class. On his way out the door he informs his teacher, “It is both pee and poo so it may take a while”.
  • Sakuta explains how he once got so nervous in the middle of an exam that he had to poo.

In a nutshell

Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out is a Japanese anime with English subtitles that breaks away from the previous pattern of the supernatural occurrences that took place in the film Rascal Does Not Dream. The film deals with some very serious issues that are all too real for many kids and it promotes on-line or alternative schooling. The film is best suited for teens and older audiences, with parental guidance for ages 10 to 12.

The main messages from this movie are to try your best; to believe in yourself and in your dreams; and to be grateful for everything in your life, including the challenges that come your way for they are, in part, responsible for crafting you into the person that you become.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Helpfulness
  • Compassion
  • Industriousness
  • Courage
  • Studiousness.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children the importance of mental health and looking after their own well-being, as well as the importance of opening up if bullying or other traumatic experiences are taking place.