Bokura no Sonzai wo Kike (2022)

Since the two leads are both rounin now, it's implied that Satoru failed the general examination - this is the examination that most students want to take to get into university, and Sousuke failed to get in with the recommendation of his high school (if he even attempted to go through with it).

The different types of entrance examination to get into university are quite complicated in Japan and highly depend on whether the university is private or public and on the university/school itself. There were also several changes that happened in 2021 that changed up the terms, but I'll briefly explain some different types using the older terms. These are by no means official translations (I'm not aware if any official translations even exist for something like this).

There are three main ways students get admitted into university - general entrance examination based on test scores (一般入試 - ippan nyuushi), recommendation-based examination with its two main types depending on circumstances (推薦入試 - suisen nyuushi), and a comprehensive (all-encompassing) selection (総合型選抜 - sougou gata senbatsu, formerly known as AO nyuushi / AO入試) which focuses on evaluation in different ways, but I don't want to go into details for that one because it can be quite complex.

Now let's get into the two types of recommendations. In Japanese, it's designated school recommendation (指定校推薦 - shiteikou suisen) and open/public recommendation (公募推薦 - koubo suisen). The designated school recommendation is usually done by private universities and only students from select high schools can apply for it, so the competition is smaller. They are restricted, but have a high acceptance rate, while the open recommendation is less restricted and open to all who meet the conditions, but the competition can be high and students need to promote themselves, with a focus on not just the grades. In any case, the student still needs to go through the process to get accepted despite the recommendation from the principal, so the interview itself determines whether the applicant gets accepted or not. It's often accompanied by an essay as well.

In this movie, Sousuke can no longer be recommended by his senior high school since he graduated, so he's doing self-recommendation (in Japanese: 自己推薦 - jiko suisen). So what's the difference? Not much, it just means he doesn't need the recommendation from his high school. This admission focuses a lot on the individuality of the applicant, not just their grades like the general examination would. The benefit would be less competition as with general examination, and having extracurricular activities would be a bonus. Usually, you'd write a self-recommendation document, an essay on a certain topic and do the interview for this type of admission/examination.