1st Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Clause trailer out – Konomi Kohara and Manaka Iwami join cast
Michelle Topham 
First trailer gives us a hint of Sakuta and Mai’s university life, while intro-ing Miniskirt Santa
The long-ongoing Rascal Does Not Dream anime franchise apparently shows no sign of stopping, as its latest offering — Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Claus TV anime — heads our way soon.
And yes, we are now sure when that will be, as the premiere date for Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Clause was confirmed at the currently running AnimeJapan 2025 — July, 2025.
On top of that, we got a first Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Clause trailer, via both Aniplex’s YouTube channel and the anime’s official X account, which gives us a taste of Sakuta and Mai’s new university life.
And, of course, a quick glimpse at mystery girl – Miniskirt Santa.
The trailer includes the announcement of two new cast members and their characters — Konomi Kohara (Chika in Kaguya-sama) who is voicing cram school student Sara Himeji, and Manaka Iwami (Tohru in Fruits Basket) who plays university student Miori Mito.
Conton Candy‘s ‘Snowdrop‘ OP is also featured heavily.
And, yep, you can tell the latest offering in the franchise will be just as popular as the others as, just a few hours in, and its first trailer already has over 210,000 views on YouTube alone.
Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Clause details
The latest TV anime is based on the novel series’ University Student Arc in Hajime Kamoshida‘s Rascal Does Not Dream novel series.
That series has 15 volumes out in Japanese (it is now complete), with Yen Press publishing the series in English and with Volume 13 (the Miniskirt Santa volume) hitting stores last August.
The continuation of that story in Volume 14 will arrive in English this June. Just in time for the anime.
The original Japanese version of the Santa Clause plot describes it like this:
A slightly mysterious youth story—the 13th installment uncovering the truth about “Kirishima Touko”!”
“I’ll protect Mai-san.”
“Then I’ll protect Sakuta.”
Who exactly is this miniskirt Santa that only Sakuta can see? The 13th installment of the series that gets closer to the truth!
Yen Press is also publishing the manga adaptation.
Meanwhile, the latest installment, Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Clause follows on from the events of the Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai TV series, as well as of the three movies — Rascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl, Rascal Does Not Dream of a Sister Venturing Out and Rascal Does Not Dream of a Knapsack Kid.
Soichi Masui, who also directed the previous four projects, directs the TV anime, with Masahiro Yokotani back in charge of series composition, and with Satomi Tamura again in charge of designing those very cool characters.
CloverWorks (My Dress-up Darling) is in charge of anime production.
Update: A second trailer is now out for the upcoming Rascal Does Not Dream of Santa Clause, along with a cute visual featuring Miniskirt Santa and Mai Sakurajima passing each other but not noticing, and a premiere date.
About the Author
